Thorax never thought, on his first day after being accepted as a resident of the Crystal Empire, he’d be the target of yet another witch hunt. He thought the ponies gathered in the middle of the town square were there to officially welcome him into their city, or some sort of party nonetheless.

But when one pony at the edge of the crowd turned and saw Thorax, her expression was much less celebratory than scared and concerned. Her face then contorted in anger and concern. “You!”

That word shouted at such a high level of volume and concern caused everypony to turn and look at Thorax, the chattering petering down to intense silence.

Thorax became concerned.

The crowd approached, the one crystal pony leading the pack. She stopped and pointed at Thorax, baring her teeth. “Where is Crystal Hoof?”

Thorax squinted. “Crystal Hoof? Oh.” The pony he’d disguised himself as yesterday. Thorax raised his hooves innocently, backing away from the pony. “Listen, I--”

“Don’t move!” another pony said.

Thorax froze. “Listen everypony, this is just a misunderstand--”

“Where is he? Where are you hiding him?”

“I made up Crystal Hoof!” Thorax yelled, covering himself with his hooves. “I had to fit in as a crystal pony like you guys, so I made up a pony and Spike helped me come up with a name. Crystal Hoof isn’t real. We made him up, I swear!”

The crowd quieted down. 

Thorax uncovered himself, standing up. He searched the crowd, waiting for someone to speak up and come to his defense. That was the only way ponies earned trust, after all—when somepony like Spike or Twilight walked out and defended him. However, everypony in the crowd seemed to be avoiding eye contact with him.

One pony whispered to her friend, perhaps more audibly then she meant to, “Crystal Hoof is Thorax’s OC?”

Her friend nodded. “I guess so.”

“I bet he’s a self-insert.”

“Ooh, cringe,” one purple crystal pony said.

The pony next to him said, “Honey, please keep it down. That was a stupid thing to say.”

The purple pony pouted. “Everyone else was cringing, I was just saying it…”

One pony in the back spoke up. “Saying ‘Ooh, cringe’ like that out loud to say you’re cringing makes [i]me[/i] cringe.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’s any better than having a self-insert OC,” said somepony else. “Saying ‘cringe’ like that. That’s just weird. And now that I was all riled up about Crystal Hoof for nothing, I have to be mad about [i]something[/i].”

The crowd nodded in agreement.

The purple pony’s partner shook her head. “To be honest, I’m a little disappointed in you, Agate.”

One pony raised his hoof. “If I could throw my two cents in here, I think you two should break up.”

“Yeah,” said another pony. “Not that we know either of you very well, or that this is any of our business, or that we’re judging your boyfriend based on one ultimately trivial reaction, but you deserve better, girl.”

The crowd erupted in “Yeah, girl”s and assenting whistles.

The pony raised her hoof. “All in favour of Agate’s girlfriend breaking up with him?”

Agate looked around. “Wait, why is this up for vote?”

Ignoring Agate, everypony raised their hooves except for Agate and Thorax. Thorax wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but didn’t want to risk being seen as an outsider, so he raised his hoof.

Agate’s girlfriend let go of Agate’s hoof. “Sorry, sweetie. It’s unanimous.” She walked away.

“Jasper?” Agate shook his head. “Red Jasper, you’re not seriously doing this, are you? It’s up to you, not them!”

In reply, the crowd dispersed in all directions, sometimes turning back to give Agate dirty glances. Agate sat down, hunched over and pouting.

Thorax walked up to Agate. “Hey, um--”

“No, sorry, I can’t do this,” Agate muttered, walking away. “I have to walk away from me, too. Everyone else is doing it.”

“Wait, Agate, hold on,” Thorax said, sprinting to catch up. “You give in to peer pressure, too?”

Agate looked at Thorax, then looked down and nodded.

“Hey, I’m a changeling. Conforming is what I do best.” Thorax stuck out his hoof. “Want to be my friend?”

Agate brought his head up slowly and stared at Thorax’s hoof. “I can’t. Nobody else is doing it.”

Thorax learned that day that public opinion was all that mattered in life, and also to never make an OC ever again.