“Thorax! Where have you been?” Chrysalis demanded.
“In the Crystal Empire! I figured out—”
“How to infiltrate them?”
“No. Well—yes. But—that’s not why I’m here! I’ve seen the hive—how hungry you all are. We’ve all been starving since the Canterlot invasion.” Thorax broke into a smile. “But I’ve figured out how to survive! We don’t have to starve anymore!”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.
“We don’t even have to hunt anymore! I’ve figured out how to generate our own love!”
“Ha! How do you suggest we do that?”
“We just have to be friends!” Laughter erupted in the hive and Thorax’s ears fell. “No, really!” As the laughter picked up again, Thorax put his tail between his legs.
Chrysalis put up her hoof and the laughter ceased. “You know that love has to be hunted. It’s not just something you can create on a whim. Love is like a breeze: you just catch it when it comes. That’s why we disguise ourselves to hunt: we have to be in the right shoes at the right time.”
“But Spike knows I’m a changeling and still cares about me!”
“Spike? Twilight’s servant?” The queen barked out a laugh. “You can’t really be friends. You’re a changeling! He’ll never know the real you. He’s only seen one side of you, and that’s what he’s basing your ‘friendship’ off of. You’ll keep changing your entire life. One day that side of you he chose to be friends with will be completely different. Then your friendship will be over.”
Thorax hesitated, mouth hanging open. “But my friendship with Spike fed me! If we all just started to be friends—”
“Friendship is nothing compared to love,” the queen snarled. “It will never sustain you.”
Chrysalis turned and addressed the rest of the hive. “This drone has been lying. The Crystal Empire discovered him and chased him out. That’s what brought him back. His talk of friendship is only a ruse to steal from our love reserves.” The hive let out a collective hiss.
The queen returned her focus to Thorax. “You only want us to love you so that you can get fed—you’re obviously starving. I see now how the Crystal Empire caught you: you’re lazy, clumsy, and your shapeshifting couldn’t convince a rock.”
The hive burst into laughter again. Thorax opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. As tears started to well up, he turned on his hooves and ran from the hive’s laughter.
Though he had run deep in the forest, Thorax could still sense the hive’s laughter. He pushed further into the forest. No one will ever listen to me, he thought to himself. Not even the queen believes me. Maybe it is impossible to make a friendship out of nothing.
Thorax pushed into the woods even faster. The hive certainly didn’t choose to love me. Spike must have been an exception—we only became friends because he fell. Is it even possible to choose friends? Thorax let out another sigh, thinking back to his friends in the Crystal Empire. Chrysalis was right. They never really knew me—I only acted the way I did to try and make friends.
Thorax stopped and stared at a nest of birds above him. Are they really even my friends? They like me now, but I’ll keep changing! How could anyone love the real me if they don’t even know me‽ Tears formed around Thorax’s eyes. Are Spike and I really friends?
A branch snapped from behind and his ears stood tall. Listening to his heart, he realized he had been sensing a faint hunger for some time now. The feeling had been in the background, but it had just grown much stronger. Something was close.
Thorax narrowed his eyes.
Leaves rustled on his right.
Thorax dug in his back hoof, turned on a dime, and dashed into the forest on his left. His heart picked up pace as he heard a feral call behind him. He buzzed his wings for a burst of speed, but his hoof burst through a hollow log. He somersaulted forwards into a clearing and hit a massive tree.
When Thorax opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the forest upside-down. His wings were screaming in pain, crumpled between him and the tree. Thorax rolled over onto the dirt and got to his hooves. A bolt of pain ran up his right hoof, and he pulled it into his chest.
Thorax sighed, looking around him. The ground around him was recessed and bare of underbrush besides the oak he’d hit.
Great, he thought. Not only am I humiliated, but now I’m crippled and entirely in the open.
“Thorax!”
The changeling jumped. On the path behind him hovered one of the drones from Chrysalis’s chamber. She flitted into the clearing and landed on the ground in front of him.
Thorax flushed when he realized what he’d been running from. “What are you doing here?”
The changeling glanced between the oak and Thorax’s wings. “Are you okay? That looked like it hurt.”
“Sprained my hoof. What do you care,” Thorax shot back. “You were one of the drones laughing at me. Come to laugh at me more?”
The drone stared down and pawed at the earth under her hooves. “My name is Elytra,” she mumbled. “Sorry about that, I just—I only laughed because that’s what everyone else was doing.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
“No. I know.” Her face brightened. “But I think you’re on to something!”
Thorax sighed. “Leave me alone!” He turned to go deeper into the forest, but Elytra galloped into his path and blocked him.
“Where are you going‽ The hive is starving!”
“I’m not going to let you make fun of me! Even from here I can still sense the hive laughing!”
Elytra frowned. “No, listen! I really do believe you!”
Thorax squared himself to Elytra. “Look. I don't even know if I was right. What Chrysalis said—” His voice trailed off. “I'm not sure you can decide to love someone. Spike only happened to become my friend because I saved him.”
“Wait—you saved him? How?”
Thorax smiled. “Well he was actually hunting me at first. Then he fell off a cliff and I grabbed him. That’s when we started to become friends.”
Elytra frowned. “Why did you save him?”
“Because . . . ” Thorax frowned. “Well I couldn’t just let him die!”
“Well you said he was hunting you. He could have killed you.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
Elytra smiled. “You didn’t know that. So why did you save him?”
“Look, I just did. I don’t know what I was thinking!”
Elytra was now beaming. “See? It was a choice! You chose to save him. That’s all your friendship was ever based on: choice!”
Thorax furrowed his brow. “But that was a life or death situation . . . ”
“Listen Thorax. Ever since I was a grub, I’ve only wanted to have someone love me. From the moment I hatched, I started copying everyone around me to fit in. But they never cared about me for who I was. When you were talking to the Queen—it was the first time another changeling actually cared about me! I felt happy when you were speaking, but I didn’t realize it until you left—”
“When you were all laughing at me.”
Elytra’s ears drooped. “I am sorry about that. But that’s why I think you’re right. It wasn’t even what you said—it was how I felt when you said it.” Elytra smiled. “So come on,” she said, pushing Thorax back towards the path. “Save the hive!”
Thorax grimaced, digging his three good hooves into the ground. “I really don’t think I can.”
“But you were right!” Elytra stomped the ground. “Why don’t you believe yourself!”
Thorax snorted. “How am I supposed to believe in myself when I don’t even have a self! We’re changelings. We change. If I keep on changing, then how are my friends supposed to ever really know me? And if they don’t know me, how can they love me?”
Elytra opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came to her. She frowned, frustrated with herself.
Thorax darted his eyes around the clearing as he sensed a new wave of emotions. “Ellie? Did you bring anyone with you?”
“No, why?”
Thorax turned to face the woods, wings cocked. “We’re not alone.”
Glowing eyes shone through the forest as a growling filled the air. Ellie jumped in front of Thorax and pushed him towards the oak. “Stay back!”
Thorax tried to push her aside but was picked up by Elytra’s glowing green magic and draped over a branch like a carcass. “What are you doing‽”
“Saving you.”
Thorax fought against her magic, but it was still pinning him to the branch. “Get away from here!”
Elytra shook her head, eyes darting between the emerging timberwolves. “That’s what they want me to do. Timberwolves have the patience of trees. They know you’re injured and are just waiting for you to come down.”
With the wolves distracting her, Elytra’s hold on Thorax dropped. “They’ll kill you! Run!” Thorax jumped down to a branch just over Ellie’s head. His heart pick up pace as he saw three more timberwolves sticking out their heads. Their growls kept growing louder.
She shook her head again. “Not a chance. I’ve already decided that we’re friends. I can’t abandon you now.”
Thorax leapt down from the branch, but before his hoof touched the ground he was enveloped in a green glow again. Elytra set him back on the branch above her and shot him a quick glare. “Don’t make me fight you too! You’d only get in the way!”
The glare she shot him stopped his squirming. “Fine. But—”
Two timberwolves leapt out from the forest ahead, making Elytra jump. The timberwolves paused, then took a few steps back. “They’re trying to make me run to split us up,” Ellie explained. “They hunt one at a time.” The forest around them rustled violently. “You can’t scare me away!” Elytra stomped her hoof down, taking half a step towards the timberwolves in front of her.
From the corner of his eye, Thorax saw movement. “On your right!”
Elytra dug in her forehooves and bucked at the leaping timberwolf. As hoof met wood, the timberwolf fell into a pile of inanimate sticks.
“Thanks!”
The two timberwolves in front of her pounced, but she rolled to the side just before they landed. She aimed a kick at the stack of timberwolves and sent the top timberwolf tumbling across the clearing. After a few tumbles, it caught itself and slid across the dirt.
Just as the other timberwolf was rising, another jumped out from the forest. Thorax called out another warning. Ellie kicked in a wide semicircle, launching sending the jumping timberwolf into the other.
Ellie panted. There were at least four more sets of eyes she could see in the forest. “Thorax,” she called up, “You have to get out of here! Travel on the tree branches so they can’t reach you! I’ll hold them back as long as I can!”
“No way!” Thorax called down. “You’ll die!”
“Go back to the hive,” she said, aiming another kick at the timberwolf behind her. “I’m not the one that matters here!”
A timberwolf leapt from behind Elytra. Before he could think, Thorax leapt headfirst from the tree. “You matter to me!” His forehooves hit the timberwolf hard as he landed on top of it. The pain from impact darkened his vision, and he collapsed into into the pile of sticks and leaves that had once been a timberwolf.
The remaining timberwolves turned towards the motionless changeling and prepared to pounce. “Thorax!” Elytra dove for her friend in a burst of emerald flames, making the timberwolves backpedal. A blazing phoenix erupted from the flames and swooped at the wooden creatures. After a unified yelp, the timberwolves ran whimpering into the surrounding forest.
The phoenix stood guard for a moment before bursting into emerald flames. Elytra returned to her natural form and stumbled towards Thorax. He hadn’t moved from the pile of sticks. “You idiot! Giving me so much of your energy!”
A faint smile crossed Thorax’s face and his eye slid open. “You were a phoenix.”
“You can hardly move, you gave me so much energy! How are you going to heal now!” Ellie clicked her tongue. “Why did you do that‽ You don’t even know me!”
“Yes I do,” Thorax asserted.
“No! You don’t! I don’t even know me!”
Thorax lifted his shaking hoof to Ellie’s heart. “But I can feel your heart, and you’ve got a good one.”
Elytra nuzzled her head into his shoulder and began to weep. “I could have lost you!” As she hugged him, tiny bursts of green flames raced across the scars in Thorax’s chitin. Ellie wiped the tears from her eyes. “Come on,” she said, “let’s get you back to the hive.”
Thorax shook his head. “It’s not going to work.”
Elytra rose her eyebrows. “Are you kidding me? You just gave me enough energy to turn into a phoenix! How can you say it won’t work‽”
“But it only works in life-and-death situations. I don’t care about the hive anywhere near as much as I care about you.”
“But you do care about the hive! It wasn’t a life-and-death situation when you decided to return. The fact that you even bothered to return shows that you care about us! You stood to gain nothing from helping us, but you tried anyway, just like with Spike.”
Thorax hummed to himself. Maybe I really do love them . . .
“It’s all about choices,” she continued. “You chose to care about me as easily as I chose to care about you. You were never forced to become friends. Besides,” she added, “I believe you because of how I felt, not because of what you said. You do care for us, and we can feel it!”
Thorax looked up into Elytra’s eyes.
“You have a good heart—the hive needs a leader like you!” Ellie put her nose under the changeling’s belly and slid him onto her back.
The forest was far from comforting. Thorax kept seeing faces in the trees. He frowned. “But remember what Chrysalis said? How are we supposed to keep a friendship going if we keep changing? What if I change into a monster?”
“You’re already a monster,” Ellie said with a short laugh. “But seriously, when I was a phoenix, did you stop caring about me?”
Thorax shook his head.
“We both changed when we decided to protect each other, but it was a change for good. You’re going to keep on changing, but that’s okay! That’s what it means to be alive!”
Seeing Elytra’s smile, Thorax couldn’t help but smile back.
“It felt good saving each other,” Elytra said.
Thorax nodded. “I think we can do this. Do you think Chrysalis will listen?”
Elytra walked a few steps without speaking. “Well, it worked with us. When we return . . . Chrysalis has never seen friendship between changelings. Once she sees it, maybe we can start to convince her,” she said with a smile.
