Meet The Change Gang

Chapters

Nowhere to Go, Nothin’ to Do
Just Give ‘em a Week
“Change” of Plans (Part 1)
“Change” of Plans (Part 2)
“Change” of Plans (Part 3) (Edited 12/29/2020)
The Greatest Abduction That Never Happened (Part 1)
The Greatest Abduction That Never Happened (Part 2)
We Interrupt This Miracle (Edited 2/18/2020)
You’ve Been Stung
I Walk A Lonely Road...
Off The Rails
Venom Sprayer
The Crying Sky
Bedbugs
Everyone Loves Crafttime
Prelude: Mission Failed
...The Only One That I Have Ever Known

Nowhere to Go, Nothin’ to Do

The changelings at Queen Chrysalis’ newly restructured and relocated hive had been focusing keeping themselves and their leader fully thriving on love. However, while Queen Chrysalis managed to retain a strong army and swarm, the hive lost many drones over time. And by that, they left to either live a better life somewhere in Equestria, or to just join Thorax’s kingdom, whether they were aware of his sickness or not. But Chrysalis and her drones were well aware of this event repetitively occurring, even when she wasn’t looking.

Why? Because that’s what a former subject of hers, Thorax, did before he took away most of what she had. No, all of what she had. Her army, her throne, her dignity, her family. The fact that she was just able to gather the drones remaining—the drones who are not even half loyal to Thorax—was just sheer luck, at least in her eyes.

Amid Chrysalis’ subjects, who were either too miserable to consume another once of love from another innocent pony or too busy paying attention on how much they were starving, one certain changeling drone was certainly enjoying himself. Literally.

“Claw ring, horn ring, earring...”

Inside a dark, dark chamber within the queen’s hive, Venom Stinger was counting up the total amount of possessions that he had stolen from ponies and other creatures in a small stash in a corner of the chamber, creating blue light from his sharp, curved horn that illuminated the otherwise pitch black room he was in. The blue-eyed changeling was primarily trying to sort them into certain categories, like jewelry, gems, brooches, and so on. It was not only hard when you were trying to do it in a singsong tone, which was what Venom was attempting and failing to do, but it was also quite difficult when there were most pony objects that you weren’t familiar with. And since most changelings in general weren’t familiar with pony society, nor did they know much about certain pony objects in general, Venom Stinger was no exception.

”Leg ring, another leg ring,” Venom continued muttering after a long pause of silence to search in his stash, pulling out a necklace. “Uhhh... Neck ring?” he guessed, not familiar with the silvery, chain-like trinket that had tiny gems carved in the shapes of roses at the lowest part of it. He shrugged and put it in the pile that was apparently for stuff he had absolutely no clue about.

He then pulled out a large diamond that hogged most of his attention, thanks to it sparkling visibly as the blue light from his horn shined onto it. When Venom eagerly picked it up, however, he noticed a large crack in it right away. He was told that diamonds were, in fact, the hardest, toughest, strongest mineral to exist. So, the changeling was unable to think of what could possibly destroy a tough-skinned gem like this. Whoever had owned this, Venom theorized, wasn’t taking very good care of it.

“Broken diamond...” the changeling grumbled disappointedly, and carelessly tossed the half-transparent, half-translucent object behind his shoulder, before slightly jumping once he heard the audible noise of the mineral crash-landing to the stone cold floor. His azure blue eyes went unusually wide as he looked behind him, searching for any sparkling fragments in the dark. Did he actually break it? Venom was unable to tell, since his only light source wasn’t enough to reach the farther corners on the opposite side of the chamber.

This wasn’t just Venom Stinger being a picky, regal object-obsessed drone. He didn’t favor the ancient objects that have fit for royalty. Whether they were owned by a royal ancestor from long ago or not, the blue-schemed drone judged objects for how cherished they were, how long they stayed in mint condition, and how much they taken care of. In other words, he favored the most loved treasures of the past and present days of Equestria and beyond.

He turned back to look into his stash, seeing what else he had in it, adjusting his slick, sapphire blue, hole-infested mane during his long expedition in the fairly sized pile of trinkets. In it, he salvaged the objects that he stole from one of the Equestrian train stations while his siblings were out:

“Chain clock... Chain clock... Another chain clock... Silver chain clock...” the boredom and dissatisfaction in the drone’s tone and voice grew every time he pulled out what he thought was a more valuable item that turned out to be merely a boring pocket watch.

“Golden chain clock... Broken chain clock.” Venom put the former item aside with the other pocket watches he found, before throwing the latter object behind his shoulder in the exact same manner he did with the cracked diamond.

That’s when he pulled out out a silver crown that was bejeweled in multiple spherical gems in five colors: sapphire blue, emerald green, ruby red, aquamarine, and amethyst purple.

Venom grinned, showing his sharp, gleaming white fangs; he didn’t care whether the five colors clashed or not. He didn’t care that it wasn’t his size. Heck, he didn’t even care that the crown was dusty on the inside and out, as if it hadn’t been polished in a week or two, which was one of the things Venom was most fastidious about when it came to treasures like these.

He didn’t remember where he stole this one from, or if it was real or not. Despite those issues, he decided to keep the crown simply because it reminded him of two things of the very few things he genuinely cared about; himself and his siblings.

After the blue-schemed changeling gazed at and admired his reflection in the “vanity” in front of him—which was actually a large, broken-off piece of reflective glass that was attached to the wall of the empty chamber— the drone looked for a place to put the stolen crown at. Again, that’d be easier for him if the room wasn’t completely pitch black.

Or if one of the changeling generals hadn’t come barging in.

”Venom Stinger!” The explosively loud, booming, deep voice combined with the chamber’s intense level of darkness made the changeling jump much higher than he did the last time, his forelegs fumbling with the crown a bit. Luckily, he caught the object just when it was only inches away from the hard, stony flooring, with a deep indigo aura that radiated around it and allowed it to hover into a random spot in the chamber.

Venom sighed in relief after saving the large, heavy trinket. He turned to the entrance of the room, where a certain changeling from the army stood. It was wearing the usual black and blue armor: the ones that had what resembled mandibles that reached past the possessor’s jaws. The armor-wearing drone held a firm gaze on the narcissistic changeling.

“Oh... General,” the blue-schemed changeling started. “You gave me quite a scare... Scarab.” He forced a fit of chuckles, fully aware at how lame his joke was. He expected General Scarab to lose even more of his patience, or at least for him to call him out for his stupid pun. Scarab, however, as if someone froze him or as if he were a statue, kept his solid glare at Venom. This would’ve lasted a minute or two if Venom hadn’t seated back down in his small area, in front of his reflection with his snout in his forelegs, and asked, “What do ya want?” in a “whiny teenager” sort of tone he sometimes used.

Scarab finally spoke after that. “You scared me more than I scared you. And you know that.”

“Why? I’m not even part of your dinky little army,” the teenage drone replied with a scowl. By “dinky,” he was obviously referring to the swarm slowly shrinking ever since that traitor “Thorax,” along with his band of misfits, saved Equestria’s most well-known heroes and took more than half of Chrysalis’ swarm.

“We all know how much our kind’s population has been decreasing,” Scarab continued, unintentionally lamp-shading Venom’s insult.

“And what do I have to do with it? I’m not part of any of the armies, nor do I get sent to go hunting, and there is NO way I am stepping back into that stinkin’ grub nursery again. It took me two hours to fully clean the gunk out of my holes!” Venom hissed in disgust, shaking his front hooves.

“Venom, that took you five minutes-”

“Two! Dreadful! HOURS!” Venom shouted as he suddenly slumped onto the hive’s floor, his annoyedly complaining tone suddenly whiplashing to melodramatic. He would’ve pretended to wail for good measure, as he recalled seeing a certain white unicorn doing it a few times, whether it was genuine or not. For personal reasons, Venom decided not to. For he always despised the very concept and existence of crying itself.

“Get off the floor,” Scarab groaned flatly, rolling his electric blue eyes at the changeling’s exaggerated misery. “I’m not here to go over your personal hygiene,” the general continued as soon as the blue-schemed drone got up. “Whether you have a job here or not, what’s important here is that we’re here when the queen needs us. And she needs us now. You know why?”

“Because she can’t feed herself?” Venom’s snarky attitude returned as soon as Scarab expected it.

“Because a swarm meeting awaits,” the general answered, once again ignoring the drone’s snippy comment.

“Tell it to wait outside! And that if they need an irrelevant, totally unimportant drone, come and talk to me!”

“We’re going now, Venom...” the general made his way outside the chamber, leaving Venom Stinger no choice but to follow him, but only because he got bored with his stash anyway, grumbling the remaining complaints he had to himself as they made their way into the throne room.

The walk there was unsurprisingly not very far from the chamber where Venom has been hanging out in.

However, if one was to visit the hive in this time around they’d be rather baffled at how little non-reformed drones there were left. The swarm itself, which once consisted over thousands, almost millions of drones, was now reduced to under only a few hundreds of them. And for them, it only got worse from there.

Despite the population rapidly shrinking over periods of time, Venom usually had trouble finding his way around the throne room when the entire pack was inside it. Just like he did now.
The main reason why it usually took him so long to find his place in these meetings, was that he was always looking for a certain group of drones he most definitely knew.

“Venom!”

It had been the second time today that a loud voice was calling for the same blue-schemed drone. This time it came from someone he actually wanted to see.

Venom turned to see his siblings among the many other colored drones, and immediately dashed to greet them.

“Hey, hey, hey, Change Gang!” Venom grinned, seeing that his 4 siblings had returned from their attempted mission, despite the fact that none of them were sent to do so. “What happened out there? Did ya manage to take on those eyesores?”

“Almost. That guy really put up a fight..” Scorch replied to the middle sibling of his. “Guess we know that we’re not getting a role in the army anytime soon?”

“What’d you bring back from late-night robbing then, Venom?” Cricket asked his younger brother.

“Ooh! Ooh! Did you manage to earn a rank of a thief or something?!” Flutterwings asked eagerly, bouncing on the stone floor.

Venom was about to answer his siblings’ many questions, but the sudden outburst from the Queen prevented him from doing so.

“SILENCE, MY SUBJECTS!” Chrysalis’ voice echoed throughout the room. A hush fell over the crowd of subjects as the meeting was seconds away from properly beginning.

“Weevil,” Chrysalis returned to the proper volume she needed to talk to one of her subjects, “go see if there are any stragglers out there and bring them here. This is an important topic to discuss, so we certainly must have everyone gathered for.”

“We are gathered, my Queen,” Weevil responded solemnly, his head bowed low. “There’s no one else to bring here.”

For a brief moment, Chrysalis’ expression slightly mirrored the drone’s, as she remembered how many drones have left her over the past months; and how much she and her former subjects have drifted apart since then. “Er... Right,” she said before continuing like nothing happened. “Anyway, we are all aware of the depopulation issues that we’ve been having, yes? No?”

Her subjects nodded slowly.

“My queen!” another drone suddenly made his way through the crowd. “Our scouts have returned from gathering information about King Thorax’s kingdom, and half of the troop is already missing!”

Several drones gasped at this message, others simply shook their heads; they were mostly used to this by now, due to how much it’s already been happening.

“Here we go again,” Venom Stinger quipped. Neither he or his siblings were surprised.

The queen simply rolled her eyes upon being informed of this... For the second time.

“Yes, Stonefly, I know all about that issue... Now go get the chart for me will you?”

“But my queen-“

“I said NOW!”

“Yes my queen...” Stonefly looked down at his hooves, grumbling to himself before flying off. In almost no time at all, he brought back what appeared to be a bar graph that consisted a ratio involving the two species of changelings: reformed changelings and non-reformed changelings.

“So, this is what the ratio of our changeling types once was.” a random changeling drone started to point at the bar graph: The bar that resembled non-reformed changelings reached to the top of the graph; there was no bar for reformed changelings in sight.

“Soon enough, it began to change over time,” the drone explained as he began flip the pages one by one. Every bar graph per page showed the reformed bar growing in size as the non-reformed bar started to shrink more and more rapidly.

“And this—” the drone got to the final page which showed the reformed changelings’ bar practically a skyscraper compared to the non-reformed changeling’s bar, which was only as tall as a house “—is the ratio of the changeling types Equestria has up to date.”

The crowd’s expressions went wide-eyed at the demonstration, but the drone wasn’t done yet.

“So if we don’t take action about this issue, here’s what we’ll be in the future.”

Out of nowhere, the drone quickly tore off the right side of the bar graph—the side that the non-reformed bar was on.

This was enough to make the entire room gasp in shock, as the drone crumpled the torn up paper into a ball, tossing it out of sight.

“Thank you, Netwing.” Chrysalis clapped her hooves slowly when the changeling was finished. “I’m sure if we worked hard enough, we’ll show those traitors what’s it’s like to be... ripped off a graph!” she began to do her signature cackle after that sentence.

The crowd only stared silently, perplexed about the bizarre metaphor she just used.

Chrysalis stopped upon realizing that. “Just go back to your duties!”

As the crowd then poured out of the throne room, the Change Gang briefly met up with Netwing.

“Heya Netwing, I betcha my science brother Spiny could rip a graph in two like that!” Venom exclaimed. He knew how much Spiny was into science and logic.

Netwing only rolled his amber-colored eyes and flipped his bright orange mane as he uttered annoyedly, “Get a job, Gang.”

After that, the Change Gang returned to their empty chamber in silence.

“Well, the entire swarm’s tending to their duties,” Spiny muttered aloud, “so we’re tending to ours.”

He and his siblings had no choice but to sit in the empty room, since they had no errands to tend to, nowhere to scout, no jobs in the hive.

“If we can’t contribute to the hive, what hope does our kind even have?” Cricket rested his head in his hole-filled forelegs.

“I don’t know, Cricket, but anything’s better than nothing,” Scorch answered, trying to cheer up his shy brother.

“Of course it is!” Venom jumped up. “We formed this group for a reason. For only our hive!”

The other siblings turned their heads at the blue-schemed drones as he continued.

“We’re not gonna just let our kind get torn up into pieces! Are we, Gang?!” Venom encourages the others.

“No!” they all said.

“Because one day we’ll get to contribute to our home’s development! We’ll show those traitors what we’re made of!”

“Yeah!” all 5 siblings suddenly shouted.

“Ahem.” a voice cleared her throat.

The Change Gang turned around to clearly see who it was: A fuchsia-eyed drone whose pink mane was tied into a long braid.

“Ahem.. Ignore that randomness,” Venom chuckled embarrassedly, walking up to the pink-schemed drone. “So um.. Thistle Thorn, right?”

“Yes, and I am looking for... The Change Gang?”

“That’s us.” Venom Stinger wrapped a foreleg around Cricket Cluster, who shied away from the newcomer.

“Good,” Thistle replied, “because Queen Chrysalis needs—“

“—A moment please.” Chrysalis appeared behind Thistle, finishing the pink-schemed drone’s sentence.

Author's Note

When you realize that the first official chapter you post is shorter than the prelude. :derpyderp1:

Still, I couldn’t help but post another chapter not long after I did the prelude. It was especially fun putting together Venom’s “angsty teen meets Rarity” type of attitude during his moments with Scarab.

Anyway, thanks for reading and stay tuned! :raritywink:

Just Give ‘em a Week

Soon enough, the Change Gang stood in front of Chrysalis in the throne room, as each sibling patiently waited with bated breath to hear what their Queen had to say to them. Just what had they done this time? Was she going to send them out to fend for themselves? Or was she going to send them to live with... them? The traitors who took everything away from them?

It was only a few moments of silence between them, and Cricket Cluster was already cowering behind Venom Stinger, shuddering. “I’m scared.”

Scorch only rolled his eyes at his brother’s rather childish reaction. “Oh, knock it off, Cricket. You’re always such a baby when it comes to moments like this. I don’t see what you find scary about... silence,” the red-schemed changeling mocked him playfully.

As if his shyness was nonexistent unlike his own snarky side, Cricket muttered under his breath, “I’d say you’re blind then.”

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” Out of nowhere, Scorch flashed a glare at his Cricket. For a hot-headed changeling, he was perfectly capable of giving off a rather cold expression of threat. If looks could kill, indeed...

Caught off guard by Scorch’s harshly blunt reaction, Cricket was unable to find a comeback to this, so he could only stare back with his emerald green eyes wide in fear. To him, Scorch could be even scarier than Chrysalis.

“Enough, both of you!” Chrysalis banged her hoof on the side of her stone solid throne.

“Then get on with what you were gonna tell us already!” Flutterwings exclaimed in a pouty tone, trotting her own hole-filled forelegs. The fact that she was a changeling did not mean that she had just as low amount of patience as any other young child, pony or not.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Chrysalis calmed down the nymph, before standing up and towering over her five subjects. “So we remember the last time I used any of you in any attacks we have had on those pesky ponies, do we?”

“Er... You sent me and Scorch to impersonate the royal sisters, my Queen,” Spiny Spiracle said, “and you sent the other 3 to impersonate the Royal Family in the Crystal Empire.”

“And the time before that?”

“The Wedding in Canterlot?”

“WRONG!” The changeling queen pounded her hoof again, making the teal-schemed drone jump.

“Okay! Okay, then you only sent us out once!” he replied frantically.

“Correct.”

Spiny struggled to fix his goggles. Sure, he was intelligent enough to recall past events of the changelings no matter how long ago they occurred. He still remained a cowardly changeling like his brother Cricket, only to a lesser extent though.

“So, why are we here?” Venom folded his forelegs, getting just as impatient as his younger sister.

“This is for the sake of our species,” Chrysalis started. “For as long as we can remember, the swarm-“

“We went over that already.” Spiny raised a hoof, as if he had pressed a pause button that suddenly stopped the Queen’s incoming speech dead in its tracks. Scorch only let out an exaggerated yawn in agreement.

Chrysalis slapped a hoof against her forehead in exasperation. “Right,” she mumbled, before clearing her throat and starting to make her way around her young and eager subjects.

“So, you see, here’s what I want you guys to do...”

As she went over her plan to the five changelings, none of them were aware of Thistle Thorn getting all the information she had...

A group of male drones jumped when they heard a scream from the throne room of their Queen.

“Yow! What was that?!” A yellow drone exclaimed, paranoiacally glancing left and right for any shrieking drones in the area.

“That, Termite, is probably the sound of Venom freaking out over his precious leg holes,” Netwing smirked smugly.

“Seriously? Is the Change Gang even close to getting the role they were talking about?” A gray drone groaned.

“I highly doubt that Sawfly,” the orange-schemed changeling bitterly replied. “The Change Gang contributes to so little of our hive’s development, that it’s like they’re nonexistent.”

“That’s only because they lack a role. Now if they did have a role, they’d probably—“

“I know that, Pincer!” Netwing snapped back at the brown drone who said that. “What I’m saying is that they don’t, okay?!”

“Sheesh...” Pincer could only grumble at the orange-schemed changeling’s usual snippy attitude. Like Termite and Sawfly, he was used to Netwing being like this on a 24/7 basis. They too, had a rivalry with the Change Gang.

“Speak of Celestia,” Netwing smirked when the group of drones they were talking about practically walked up to them. “So, did ya get the job you wanted? Or are you gonna spend another ‘two dreadful hours’ cleaning up the nursery?” The orange droned teased smugly again.

It was at that moment when that insult was only met with a grin forming on the Change Gang’s faces, their eyes also widening with excitement. This greatly perplexed Netwing and his clique. What exactly did Chrysalis say to them back in the throne room?

It was Flutterwings’ turn to break the silence; by that, however, shatter the silence into pieces with a loud, energetic exclaim of pure joy:

“WE’RE BEING SENT AS SPIES!”

The Change Gang started cheering, with the exception of Venom Stinger, who smirked towards the now shocked-silent orange drone.

“Yep. We got a job to do.”

“Don’t get too worked up yet, my subjects,” Chrysalis said to the changelings, as their victorious moment died down for her to speak again. “I’m not giving you all the time we got in Equestria to bring back the information about the fate of King Thorax.”

“They get to spy on Thorax?!” Sawfly protested, even more flabbergasted.

Netwing smacked him with a foreleg. “Shut up.”

“I’m giving you lot at least three hundred and twelve hours to bring back important information,” Chrysalis continued.

“That’s... thirteen days, right?” Spiny calculated.

“Psh. We can do that in twelve days. Right, gang?”Venom Stinger bragged, just to get on Netwing’s nerves even more.

“Is that a challenge?” The changeling queen raised an eyebrow. “In that case, let’s turn that into twelve days instead, shall we? Are you happy now?”

“I’d prefer eleven,” the blue-schemed changeling replied.

The Queen’s irritated glare grew as this pointless little debate continued. “Ten.”

“Nine.”

“Eight!”

“Seven—“

It ended right at seven, however, when Spiny irritatedly slapped a hole-infested hoof over Venom’s bragging mouth. “Seven! Seven days. That’s a hundred and sixty eight hours. Perfect!” The goggle-wearing changeling sweated nervously as he withdrew his leg, trying to ignore Venom’s nasty glare afterwards.

“Fine! That gives you a week to gather information about those traitors. Once you’re not back here before that time ends... Things aren’t gonna be pretty,” Chrysalis turned away again.

The Change Gang looked down in a moment of thought... Where would they go if they failed this mission? What would she do with them? Would they be considered traitors just like the rest who have been long gone? They had so many questions.

There was one question they actually asked aloud, though:

“Can we get worked up now?” Flutterwings did her signature bounce.

“Yes.”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!” The Change Gang continued their moment of victory and achievement, before they immediately headed to the hive entrance. Their jovial shouts of happiness echoed as they bounced off the hive walls as they ran. This immediately got Netwing on his last ounce of tranquility.

“Aw, come on, man,” Termite tried to reassure the orange drone. “They’re pretty much bound to fail anyway. Just give them a week.” He was expecting Netwing to punch him until the yellow drone had more holes than he currently did, but the orange-schemed drone only grumbled and stormed off, leaving the rest of his crew behind.

“Er... you wanna go get him?”

“I’m staying out of this one.”

“Change” of Plans (Part 1)

Pharynx browsed through the photos he had been keeping since a few days before that fateful accident; Thorax had somehow come across these and immediately showed these to Pharynx as soon as he got them. Given the focused-on-being-a-warrior-type of changeling he was, Pharynx didn’t feel much emotion, like Thorax did, the first time the two brothers went through these memories together. But that was when his brother was actually with him. And whenever he looked at them now, he couldn’t help but feel at least a tad bit of melancholy.

The first photo showed Thorax with Starlight, Trixie, and Discord, who were smiling at the camera after having earned the “Equestrian Pink Hearts Of Courage.” Pharynx wanted to burst into laughter when he wondered how anyone could take the name of the medals so seriously, but he didn’t have the will to do so at this time. He may not have been there in person, but thinking about how Starlight actually saved his brother’s life by telling him to share his love, plus the many times Thorax told him this story of how he and his friends achieved these “medals,” he deeply wished he was there to at least... Well, be there.

Pharynx only forced a chuckle before moving on.

The next few following photos Pharynx was able to handle with ease; Thorax and Pharynx visiting Ocellus at the School of Friendship, the swarm celebrating Hearth’s Warming, Thorax playing with the nymphs, Pharynx getting attacked by nymphs. The list went on, and as it did, the prince changeling struggled harder and harder from letting his own emotions take control of him.

Pharynx held his breath when he came across the last photo, however.

In that last photo, Thorax was tightly hugging the dark cyan changeling as the two of them sat in a field. Both the beaming smile on his face and his sparkling dark magenta eyes greatly contrasted with his brother’s unamused scowl and rolling lavender eyes.

Pharynx’s throat went dry the longer he stared at this particular memory. He wasn’t even able to notice the tears creeping their way to the surface and pooling up in his now-quivering eyes. It even took a few droplets to fall onto the photo for him to actually notice.

No. He told himself, wiping the warm, wet moisture in his eyes. Don’t do it. Don’t you dare.

“Pharynx?”

The dark cyan changeling jumped as soon as his name was called. He at first assumed it was his younger brother, but he knew better than that. Thorax in question was lying silently in the bed next to Pharynx as the elder changeling waited to see if he showed any signs of responsiveness.

Pharynx turned to the real source of the voice; a unicorn with a pristine white coat and sapphire blue mane. His light blue eyes showed concern for the prince changeling. Shining Armor, he remembered.

“Is Thorax awake yet?” The unicorn asked the changeling.

“No. He’s still been coughing in his sleep and his fever hasn’t gotten any better since we put him in bed.”

Shining walked over and gently put a hoof over Thorax’s forehead. “Poor thing... He’s burning up.”

“He’s been like that ever since we got off the train.” Pharynx mumbled in reply, not taking his eyes off the photo of him and Thorax that he still held.

Shining Armor noticed both his expression as well as said photo. He got a good glimpse of it as he sat next to the changeling, putting a foreleg around him. “I’m so sorry,” He said sympathetically.

Pharynx looked perplexed for a minute due to the unicorn’s apology.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Shining clarified.

Pharynx let out a heavy sigh and admitted, “Yeah... Yeah I do.”

“Princess Celestia contacted my sister about this. She’ll see what she can do. Trust me.” The white unicorn got up and headed for the doorway. “I think some of the changelings wanted to ask you about—“

“My brother?”

“..Yeah,” Shining Armor said as he looked down the hallway. “I can ask them that they can wait if you want to stay with Thorax a little longer,” he offered.

“I’ll think about it,” Pharynx answered. “Thanks.”

Shining only gave a simple smile before he left, leaving a crack in the doorway that allowed a sliver of light to seep its way into the room.

After a few minutes of nuzzling his ailing little brother in the darkness, Pharynx carefully got up and slowly made his way into the hallway, wanting to check on the changelings who were crying about their king’s fate. What stopped him in his tracks was the faint, but heavy coughing of Thorax, as if he heard his older brother attempting to leave. As if he were having a nightmare...

As if that nightmare was about mother.

Still, somehow, successfully fighting back the tears in his eyes, Pharynx made his way back to him.

“You want me to stay a little longer?” He sighed as he caressed his brother’s head. “Alright then.”

“Venom, will you slow down?! Please?!” Spiny tried to catch up with the blue-schemed changeling.

The Change Gang was now making their way through Equestria, steadily fluttering through the close-to-midnight night sky as Venom was trying to boost himself ahead of his siblings.

“Pfft. Relax, man,” Venom sputtered. “You really think I’m gonna leave you hangin’ with the full moon because of your slow speed, huh?”

“Actually, yes—I-I mean no, but-“

“What Spiny is saying,” Cricket butted in, trying to prevent the incoming sibling argument. “Is that he’s trying to keep you from... Crashing!”

Venom only cracked a smirk, trying to hold in his laughter. “Crashing?”

“Yeah, crashing,” Cricket went on, still trying to change the subject. “I can’t even count how many times you attempted to fly as fast as uh, as a certain rainbow-maned pegasus. Or how many times you hit a building when doing so. What do you have to say about that?” That part was met with silence from the blue-schemed changeling. “Venom?”

Venom turned to the green-schemed changeling, another grin taking form on his face. “Cricket, I have to say that you are a genius.”

Scorch turned to his brother with an unamused expression. “Bad move, Cricket,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Venom, don’t start—“ Flutterwings tried to stop her big brother.

“Oh I’m starting. I’m starting to build up speed!”

“Venom, don’t you dare-“ Spiny tried to grab the blue-schemed drone.

“I’m gonna!”

“Venom-“

“I’m gonna do it!”

“Venom-“

“I’m gonna do it!”

“Venom Stinger!”

“I’m doing it!”

“Venom!”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY—” the blue-schemed changeling went darting through the shimmering, purple night sky...

SMACK!

“—AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

“...He did it,” Flutterwings said flatly, before she and the others flew down to Ponyville to see where their brother landed.

The rest of the Change Gang came across what appeared to be a clothes shop. Upon investigating the exterior, they spotted a changeling-sized hole in the roof. This was obviously where Venom crash-landed.

“Venom, I just told you this would happen!” Spiny scolded his brother as he yelled down the hole. He assumed Venom was either unable to hear his shouting, or he half-heard him but just ignored him. Either way, he was unable to actually see him in the pitch black darkness, which was the only thing visibly seen through the hole. “You crashed through a clothes store, man! You could’ve alerted those dang ponies!”

“For your information, Spiny,” Venom’s voice upwardly bounced its way through the hole, “I did not crash. I just simply decided to drop in here and do some more stealing!”

“The only thing we need to be stealing is-“

“Juicy information, I know,” the voice from the building sassed back.

“Well can you at least come outta there?” Cricket called down the hole.

“...”

“Venom?”

“...”

“Venom?!”

“Wha-? Oh! Uh..”

“What is it now?!” Scorch banged a hoof on the roof.

“Nothing! Just a big giant spider on the wall!”

The Change Gang looked at Cricket Cluster, who slowly shrank down, not really willing to deal with this mess, despite being capable of handling both insects and arachnids rather well.

“Venom,” Cricket shouted down the hole again, this time hissing in a threatening tone, “do not make me come down there.”

“No need! This thing’s probably dead anyway!” Before Cricket was able say anything else, Venom’s attempt to keep a settled, relaxed tone failed as he quickly exploded into fits of yelps and screams. ”Ah! AHH! IT’S NOT DEAD! IT’S NOT DEAD! AAAAAUGH!” The Change Gang shared unamused glances, as well as a few facepalms all around. ”Get it away! Get it away!”

“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” With that, Cricket illuminated his curved horn with a deep lime green light, before he dove into the hole, being followed by his siblings.

It eventually didn’t take them long to find the blue-schemed drone, who was cowering before an immensely sized spider that clung to a net of cobwebs.

“Gee, he wasn’t kidding,” Flutterwings said, gazing at the large arachnid in front of her. “This thing’s as big as... as...” The purple-schemed nymph tried to think of a simile before shrugging it off. “Well, it’s just big.”

Unfazed by the size of the spider, Cricket confidently walked over next to his brother. Soon enough, the spider was contained by his lime green aura and levitated away from the cowering Venom Stinger.

“Come on, guys,” Cricket teased, “I’ve handled bigger than this.”

“What do you know?” Venom snapped back fiercely, his blue eyes now shooting daggers at his brother’s smug green ones. “That insect could’ve been—“

“Venom, it’s not an insect and you know it,” Cricket’s aura around the creature vanished as soon as he put it down on a nearby table. The room went dark once the only source of light was nonexistent. “It’s an arachnid.”

In the once again pitch black darkness, only 5 pairs of eyes, each in blue, green, purple, red, and teal, were visible as they gave off a faint glow of their own. Suddenly, there was a flash of transformation as a pair of pink eyes abruptly joined them. “Yeah, what he said, I’m an arachnid,” a snide, feminine voice said with a sarcastic tone. This quickly elicited a scream from the Change Gang as they all lit their horns at the stranger. Or, who they thought was a stranger.

Venom immediately recognized the light pink eyes and deep pink mane, which was done in a braid. This was the changeling that had brought the Change Gang to Queen Chrysalis when she had the task of spying for them. This was Thistle Thorn.

“Wha- Where did you come from?!” Venom astonishingly uttered out.

“The depths of the hive. Ya know, where you came from,” Thistle smirked, flipping her hole-filled braid.

“Nonono, I meant-“ Venom struggled to salvage any words he could find. “Why are you here?! Were you following us?!”

“Heck no. Unless your definition of ‘following’ is ‘disguising as a giant spider, watching you while in the form of a giant spider, and watching your brother having to teach you insect biology...” The pink-schemed changeling droned, until finally answering “Yeah, I was following you.”

“B-But Chrysalis sent us as spies!”
Venom Stinger argued.

“Yeah, and not as shoplifters.”

Silence occurred before Thistle spoke again.
“Okay, okay you wanna know the real reason I followed you guys?”

“Go on, I’m listening,” Venom said with a roll of his eyes.

“Every morning, I get up, in the dark, and ask someone if the Queen has any tasks for me. And you know what those tasks are? Nothing! Not a dang thing! The only task I get once in a while is saying ‘Queen Chrysalis wants to see you,’ and THAT’S IT! How is that supposed to contribute to anything?!” Thistle sighed as her anger finally died down. “How is that supposed to save our kind?”

A moment of silence occurred between all of them, before Scorch slowly formed a smirk on his face. “At least we have something in common.”

Venom only sighed defeatedly. “Fine, you’re coming with us. But just this once.”

Thistle grinned, before whispering a “yes” to herself, quietly celebrating her victory, before kicking a hole in the window before jumping out. “Well, no time to waste in here!”

“At least the front of the store matches the roof. How surprising,” Flutterwings chuckled as she and the others followed the pink-schemed drone.

“What are you trying to say, little sis?” Venom Stinger grumbled.

“Oh it’s nothing.” The purple-schemed drone chuckled along with the other 3 brothers as Venom rolled his eyes.

Pharynx didn’t know how long he kept his brother company. Though, the prince wondered if Thorax could see his sibling’s worried expression. He wondered if he could feel his sibling lightly clenching his front hoof.

Pharynx especially wondered if Thorax could sense the tears he was still trying to hold in.

There was, however, a few questions that he kept tossing around in his mind ever since the swarm arrived at Canterlot...

Would Thorax still be here if those changelings were actually able to save themselves? Did Pharynx blame those changelings, who had to be rescued by their king, for all this?

There was one answer for both of them: yes.

The cyan changeling didn’t want to blame them for what happened to his brother. But Thorax was his only family. The only one Pharynx considered his family, at least. He just didn’t understand what was stopping them from escaping. He didn’t understand the real cause of the incident.

He didn’t understand why anyone would even try to take the life of his brother away.

Pharynx only got up and made his way out of the room, glancing at his brother every few steps he took, and left a crack in the door, allowing the faint light from the hallway to once again seep its way in.

Thorax hates sleeping in the dark, He thought to himself as he walked to the main room of Canterlot.

There, he noticed a few nymphs calling out to Pharynx, their tear-stained faces asking about their king. He even saw both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna trying to provide as much comfort as possible to those who mourned heavily around them. Above all of that, a group of ponies rushed up to him, asking him what happened and apologizing for his “loss.”

What loss? Thorax will be alright... Won’t he?

Some ponies didn’t take it hard when they were being apologized to for their loss, even though they didn’t know whether it was a loss or not. For Pharynx however, having apologies thrown at him by multiple ponies, ones he didn’t even know, was like being pelted by stones that were being hurled from every direction. No matter how much he hated it, he kept his trap shut the entire time. At least, until...

“Uhm.. Mr. Pharynx?” A little white nymph gazed up at the cyan changeling, her pink eyes filled with tears. “I-Is Thorax dead?”

That was when Pharynx finally snapped.

“I DON’T KNOW!”

This was enough for a hush to suddenly fall over the entire room.

“I don’t know!” He bellowed in repeat, before immediately rushing back into his brother’s room, leaving the door open.

Upon calming down, Pharynx went back to nuzzling his younger brother. He didn’t know whether or not Thorax was dead now. He didn’t know why this all had to suddenly unfold onto him. He didn’t even know why was trying to keep his tear ducts from functioning. He didn’t know whether or not someone was watching him through the open door right now.

He didn’t know...

He just wanted his little brother back.

“Change” of Plans (Part 2)

Moving unnoticed in a small town like Ponyville at night was easy pickings, even without being disguised. All six changelings continued walking down the back alleys, looking for someplace to rest for a bit. Thistle, of course, found that traveling on hoof to be a bit unnecessary. “So, is anyone going to explain why we’re walking?”

Before Venom could answer with a snarky remark of his own, Spiny quickly explained it for her. “Because this allows us to familiarize ourselves in Ponyville’s layout,” he stated. “While flying would be faster, it would prohibit us from learning street names and such.”

“Yeah, so shut up and deal with it. Don’t forget we could always tell the Queen you ventured out of the hive on your own like a certain traitor,“ Venom said with a scowl. Thistle let out a low hiss, but didn’t even bother complaining since it was obviously true.

“Let’s just get this over with already,” Scorch complained, letting out a small huff.

Flutterwings bumped the red-schemed changeling with a smirk. “No worries, Scorchy. I bet after this we’ll get more fun missions. Besides, you’re one of the strongest changelings in the hive. And they’ll realize that they need you just as much as we do.”

This seemed to cheer him up somewhat as they continue checking each building. After an hour, they managed to find an older looking house that had a good roof. It took Scorch busting the old lock a bit to get inside, then Spiny fixing it to hide any evidence of trespassers. Dust had already filled the atmosphere inside the building, causing all six to break into coughing fits. They had to open several windows until the air cleared up.

Cricket cleaned off an old table and dragged six crates for chairs. “Let’s… sit down for… a moment,” he said in between coughs. “Who the heck even lived here anyway?”

“Dunno.” Flutterwings hopped onto her crate. “You think they moved or something?”

“Perhaps they did the moment they saw the new species of changelings,” Venom snarked, as he and his siblings shared a moment of laughter as the changeling grinned at his own comment. It was cut short, however, once the Change Gang took notice of Thistle raising an eyebrow at them.

Venom sat back up, eyeing the pink-schemed changeling. “I know what you’re about to say,” he said. “Lemme guess... ‘Now’s not the time’?”

“Actually,” she replied, “I was just gonna tell you guys to grow up. Nothing unusual.” She grinned.

Venom’s eyes widened at the insult, before immediately fixing into a firm glare. “Why, I oughtta—“

“Guys, guys, guys,” Cricket said as he suddenly came between the two. “Keep in mind that if there’s anything we’re supposed to be fighting, it’s traitors, not each other.”

“Speaking of traitors...” Spiny walked up to Thistle. “You know any of them?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, do you know Thorax better than we do?” he clarified. “All we know about is that he’s simply a wimpy, little traitor. As for Pharynx, well...” Spiny briefly glanced at Venom Stinger, raising an eyebrow, before turning back to Thistle to finish his sentence. “Venom here has had a few... ‘past experiences’ with the now-former head of patrol.”

”Hey, knucklehead! Where’s your brother at?”

Venom Stinger watched as Pharynx, who was minding his own business while sitting against a rock, slowly turned his head to glower at him. “Why should I tell you? Tryin’ to track him down so you can beat him into a bloody pulp, huh?” he growled.

The blue-schemed drone only grinned smugly in response. “Maybeee...”

“Venom, I swear, if you DARE lay a HOOF on him, I will—!”

“I don’t actually WANT your brother, you idiot!” Venom immediately cut Pharynx’s threat short with a snarl of his own.

Pharynx merely raised an eyebrow, waiting to hear about what Venom really wanted from him and not Thorax.

The blue-schemed drone smirked. “If you wanted to switch the subject to your imbecilic little brother, I will gladly do so for you,” he said. “To put it simply: if I got ONE bit for every single thing wrong with your brother, I’d be RICH!”

That was when Pharynx jumped up to go face-to-face with the other drone, his violet eyes shooting daggers at the (barely) unfazed sapphire ones. “Take that back right now!”

“And you thought I actually wanted that patsy of a drone!”

“Venom, I will—“

“Do you really think I’d bother to even take in a drone who has absolutely no battle skills, no aggressiveness, and absolutely no interest in the Queen’s orders? Pfft. Get a life!”

Just as he started to strut away with his nose in the air, he was sent plummeting to the stone floor by the jolting impact of a strong hoof that had slammed into his gleaming blue carapace...

...from the general vicinity of the leader of the changeling patrol himself.

Eyes widening, Venom rolled over to gape at Pharynx, who now had a permanent glare plastered onto his face. “Dude, what is wrong with you?!” he rubbed the sore spot on his back where the warrior had struck him, checking for any cracks, dents, or bruises. “I just had my carapace shined 5 minutes ago!”

The blue-schemed drone’s complaint failed to elicit a reply from the changeling warrior, however, since said warrior was now silently storming away from the pouting Venom Stinger.

“Tch. ‘Head of patrol,’ my hoof. He gets his role as protector served to him on a free platter...” Venom Stinger grumbled as he got up and made his departure. The only thing he heard—other than his own muttering—was a certain drone trying to check in on the changeling warrior.

“Pharynx? Are you oka—“

“It’s none of your business, Thorax.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault he didn’t raise his stupid brother right!” Venom hissed.

“But you seriously do that stuff just to be above everyone else in the hive?” Thistle questioned with an unamused expression. “And I thought I was the pettiest drone in the hive.”

“Okay, Miss Tagalong, what do you know about those brothers?!” Venom asked, getting up in the pink-schemed drone’s face.

Thistle averted her gaze, folded her hole-infested forelegs, and let out a huffy breath. “I don’t think I need to.”

“What do you mean, you don’t ’need’ to?”

“I mean, your know-it-all brother just said you had a few ‘past interactions’ with him!” she exclaimed. “So, clearly, you already know him!”

“Okay, okay! So I did know Pharynx,” Venom admitted bitterly. “I mean, who hasn’t heard of Chrysalis’ unbeatable little favorite? Not to mention he’s head of the dang patrol, for crying out loud!”

“Oh, so that’s the reason why you hate Pharynx out of all changelings?!” Thistle yelled. “Because he served as head of the changeling patrol and you didn’t?!”

If that didn’t make the pink-schemed changeling’s blood boil, then Venom’s blunt reply certainly did: “Yeah.”

“What?! That’s just...You—! He—” Thistle fumbled with her words, before pounding her head on the table in front of her, groaning loudly. The five other changelings watched as lifted her head back up, and, just audible enough for them to hear, mutter, “And they say Starlight Glimmer is pathetic.”

“Right.” Flutterwings glanced from Venom to Thistle for a moment, before asking, “So, what experiences have you had with the brothers, Thistle?”

Thistle turned her head to the siblings. “You know what? Fine. I’ll tell you what I do know.”

“Prince Pharynx,” a calm, monotonous voice managed to get the attention of the changeling. “Your subjects have been waiting to see you.”

Pharynx turned to see Princess Celestia standing in the doorway, the latter sympathetically frowning at the former. “You mean, my brother’s subjects?” he asked. After getting a silent nod from the alicorn, he tore his eyes away from her gaze. “I’m not budging,” he said gruffly.

It was clear that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t budging; Celestia slowly trotted to accompany the changeling, her horn casting a soft, golden glow once she sat next to him. After a moment of silently gazing at Thorax’s almost lifeless expression, she said, “He has done so much for us, hasn’t he?”

“He has,” Pharynx mumbled. “It took me so long to realize that, too.”

“It took all of us to realize it, Pharynx,” the princess replied. “It took his ascension to leadership for us to fully accept an entire species.”

“What can I say?” Pharynx gently clenched his little brother’s front hoof, clearly not taking his eyes off him. “Heck, it even took a maulwurf attack of all things to get me to open up to the hive.” He let out a small chuckle, which was accompanied by a forced smile, but neither of those were able to lighten the dreary atmosphere, nor did they make him feel any better.

While looking down at Thorax’s medal from the ceremony, which had been placed on top of the nightstand by one of the drones, Pharynx gently ran the tip of his hoof over the many facets of the pink, heart-shaped gemstone that had been firmly secured by the lustrous golden frame. The medal itself shimmered under Celestia’s magic aura that kept the room illuminated. Exhaling deeply out his nostrils, Pharynx put the medal against the lime green foreleg, which he still clenched onto. He knew Thorax wasn’t able to grab onto it, whether he had appendages or not, because he knew he currently wasn’t able to respond to anything.

Before the moment could play out any further, however, a female voice from the open doorway broke the silence. “Sir,” she said, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to step out for a moment.”

Pharynx looked at the doorway to see a white-coated, blue-eyed mare who had her light pink mane tied into a bun. He quickly formed a scowl on his face as he turned his head away. “I’m not leaving,” the changeling said in the exact same tone he showed to Celestia.

“Pharynx.” The aforementioned princess attempted to reassure the changeling general. “Nurse Redheart is just trying to—“

“I’m not gonna leave Thorax to die in this room,” he said sternly.

“Sir—“

“I SAID NO!” Pharynx threw his forelegs around his unconscious younger brother, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

Both ponies fell silent as they watched the cyan changeling maintain his hold on Thorax, muttering softly to him.

“...How much longer are you going to stay in here, Mister?” Pharynx heard Nurse Redheart ask him.

He shut his eyes tightly as he kept his head low. “I made a promise... that I would look after my little brother forever...”

“You mean he would look after Thorax for like... forever?” Flutterwings asked, her bright purple eyes widening in child-like curiosity.

“Pfft. Of course Thorax is the type to hide behind his brother’s back every chance he gets.” Scorch rolled his eyes.

“Does that mean Pharynx is usually under immense stress with his brother every now and then?” Spiny wondered aloud.

“Well, it’s what all the other changelings say, at least,” Thistle said, in response to all three questions.

“Ya know, it for some reason kinda reminds me of us,” Cricket mumbled, his voice still audible enough for everyone else to hear. “But mostly you, Venom...” As soon as he said that part, Cricket expected the blue-schemed drone to snap back as usual, but as the green-schemed drone looked around the room, there was no sign of his brother anywhere. “Venom?”

The 5 changelings scurried to the window just in time to catch Venom Stinger solely making his way through Ponyville.

“VENOM!” the four siblings shouted as they struggled—and somehow succeeded—to rush through the door all at once, as Thistle Thorn struggled to catch up to all five of them.

Author's Note

This has been another chapter co-written by MKM Alliance, because Writer’s Block is a common thing for me. Somehow, I couldn’t seem to find them anywhere on this site anymore, and I saw that their account has somehow been either deleted or taken down for some reason. They may have created a new account, but I’m not completely sure. Wherever they are, I do hope they’re okay. I’m truly concerned. :fluttershysad:

Anyway, I have been wanting to make it a 2-parter, but it seems like I’ve decided to make it a 3-parter, because I honestly couldn’t keep my lovely fans waiting.

Either way, I apologize for the somewhat long wait. Hopefully I’ll be able to get over writer’s block for good in the future. :twilightsmile:

“Change” of Plans (Part 3) (Edited 12/29/2020)

“Venom, dude, you really gotta stop doing that!” Cricket Cluster scolded his little brother as he and the others finally managed to catch up to the blue-schemed changeling, who merely rolled his eyes at the annoyance he was greeted with. “Just why were you leaving us behind again?”

Venom rolled his eyes bitterly. “You really expected me to stay in that house any longer?” he mumbled as he lowered his head, ears drooping.

The other four siblings all fell silent at that reply. And after a moment of that silence, Cricket walked over to the changeling, his expression growing more somber as he rested a hole-infested foreleg on his brother’s shoulder. “Venom,” he said, “are you still think about your—“ Cricket turned around at Flutterwings, Scorch, and Spiny, who were all rapidly shaking their heads at him, a gesture that clearly read, “don’t bring that thing up, man.”

“No, Cricket, I am not,” Venom responded, regaining the green-schemed changeling’s attention. “I just, uh—“ his azure compound eyes shifted a bit “—I just can’t withstand another second of sitting in that dusty old room!” the blue-schemed changeling exclaimed, sticking his tongue out in disgust. “I just cleaned out my holes last week! And I am not gonna risk getting any dirt in them, okay?!” he said, stamping a foreleg on the ground, before walking away with his nose in the air.

“Is he always like this?” Thistle asked after the group took the time to watch Venom strutting away from them. “And what was that about the house we were just in?”

“You see, Venom has usually been quite... vain. At least as far as I’ve known,” Spiny commented as he watched Venom repulsively shake his hind leg after stepping in a puddle. After a moment, however, he added, “It took us a while to realize it, but the vacant house we were just in was just five houses across from the clock tower. That means the house we were just in was also the same house that—“

The teal-schemed changeling paused his sentence as soon as he caught a glimpse of Venom stopping dead in his tracks and shooting him a cold, hard glare from behind.

Shuddering, Spiny then forced a grin as beads of sweat had begun to trail down his face. “I’ll... stop talking,” he managed to say.

“For the last time, Venom Stinger, you are not to be taking the role of Head of Patrol,” General Scarab said to the protesting teenage changeling.

“Aw, come on Scarab!” Venom complained to him. “We just lost yet another drone after we lost like, three of them no less!”

The general then let out a heavy sigh. “Look, kid. As much as I know how badly you want to contribute to our hive’s development, you’re just not fit for the job. It’s still too dangerous for any changelings your age.”

“You’ve seen me kick ponies’ rumps! I know you did.”

“Well, even if we did need a new Head of Patrol, we wouldn’t want one that would be screaming his fangs out whenever he gets his holes dirty,” Scarab responded dully with a roll of his eyes.

“Well, I’d do it for the hive!” the blue-schemed changeling shot back.

“Isn’t being Head of Patrol Pharynx’s job anyway?” a random drone asked upon entering the room.

Venom glowered at the drone, almost as if he was about to pounce and tackle him. “I don’t care about that punk! For the past two days, he’s been moping about his stupid brother!” he snapped, causing the drone to gulp as he cowardly shrunk away from him.

“Okay, speaking of Pharynx.” Scarab trotted up to the two, trying to change the subject. “How’s he doing?”

“Not well. We can all tell that he has been seriously broken up about Thorax’s disappearance—not that he’d admit it though,” the drone explained to the general.

“As much as I admire Pharynx for his aggressiveness and combat skills,” Scarab said, causing Venom to snarl inaudibly, “I never had faith in that brother of his. Not even for a second.”

“What kind of ‘Head of Patrol’ even worries about his brother?” Venom muttered. “My siblings can fend for themselves at least decently.” Unfortunately for him, no matter how deep his comments were buried under his breath, they did not go completely unheard.

“Admit it, Venom.” Scarab turned to him again. “You’re just jealous.”

“Jealous? Pfft.” Venom only rolled his eyes at the general. “Puh-lease. Is it considered ‘being jealous’ when all I want is—“

“You’re not getting that rank kid,” Scarab cut him off. “Now zip it.”

Venom’s brow furrowed. “Fine!”

And with that, he headed out of the room

“Guys, get down!” Cricket Cluster whisper-shouted, and the Chang Gang immediately crouched down behind a nearby row of shrubs, quickly pulling Thistle Thorn down with them.

They had gotten much closer to the Canterlot castle; well, they still had a long trek ahead of them, but the journey was once again abruptly halted when the Change Gang took notice of the group of Royal Canterlot Guards that were patrolling the area.

The Change Gang then lifted their heads to peer from behind the shrubs they took cover in. From that spot, they got a good view of the crowd; There were white earth ponies and white pegasi, as well as gray unicorns, all wearing the signature golden armor that made the Royal Guard itself recognizable. That wasn’t all they saw, however. Making his way towards that crowd of guards was a rather tall, dark cyan changeling. Despite his darker colors that were more easy on the eyes, like his violet carapace and his persian red antlers, the Change Gang was easily able to tell that he was one of those reformed guys. Bleugh.

But thanks to the encounter that Venom’s siblings had with this feisty fellow, they were also able to tell that this was Pharynx. Double Bleugh. Or at least, in Venom’s case.

“You sure that’s Pharynx? And how did you guys know he was here out of all places?” Thistle scratched her head in disbelief.

“It’s a long story,” Flutterwings answered. “I mean, why else would he be taking the Iron Worm?”

“Iron...Worm?”

“Yeah! Iron Worm,” the purple-schemed nymph repeated. “Or whatever they call that big thing that goes on the track thingies. Either way, me and my brothers—Spiny, Scorch, and Cricket—tracked him down and tried to kick the carapace off him—“

“And you failed, didn’t you?” Thistle rolled her eyes.

“...Yeah, they did,” Venom said, before quickly adding, “but only because I wasn’t there.” He put a hoof to his chest with a sneer. “Because if I was there, I would’ve grabbed him, ripped the antlers off him, uppercut him in the jaw, tore his wings off, punch him in the face, throw him on the ground, and kick him in the—“

Before the blue-schemed changeling could vocally ascend into a full-volume rant, Thistle slapped a hoof over his mouth, instantly cutting him off.

“Hey, did any of you guys hear something?” they heard one of the guards say. At that very moment, none of the changelings uttered a word.

“Hm. Nothing.”

”Huh. Must’ve been hearing things.”

“Man, that was close,” Scorch said quietly.

“Nice work, Venom Stinker!” Thistle hissed in a hushed voice, as soon as she withdrew her hoof. “You almost blew our cover!”

“Almost,” Venom admitted in a whisper, before shooting back. “But you better cool off, Miss Hissy Fit! Or you’ll ‘almost’ blow a gasket!”

As the two spent the past few moments volleying insults, Scorch leaned over to his other siblings, whispering. “I dunno about you guys, but I’m gonna get a better peek at those guards... Somewhere quiet.” He then shape-shifted into a crimson-colored bird started to fly towards a nearby tree branch.

“We’re right behind you, Scorch!” Cricket whispered back. He, Spiny, and Flutterwings also transformed into birds, each of their respective colors—green, teal, and purple—and joined their older brother to perch on that same tree branch. From that spot, the four siblings were indeed able to get a much clearer viewpoint of Pharynx and the group of guards.

“Are any of them changeling guards?” Flutterwings asked her brothers, peeking out from behind them. “You think they’re disguised or something?”

“Come on, Flutterwings, even if there were changeling guards with those ponies, they’d just be the typical rainbow glitter-bugs that are unappealing to the eye,” Spiny stated.

“Right.” Flutterwings stuck out her tongue and gagged.

“Guys! Shh!” Cricket whispered. “They’re talking again!” The four changelings were all-ears as they carefully listened to the conversation that Pharynx was currently having with the guards.

“So, Pharynx... What happened?” A guard had asked.

“...Pardon?”

“To your brother?”

“...” A heavy sigh was heard.

“...That toxic gas.”

“That...What?”

“The doctors have said that it affected his lungs,” the voice of the prince replied. ”Badly.”

“But... Who did this to him?” came a voice of another guard, followed by another pause of silence.

”It-it had to be Queen Chrysalis and her subjects. It had to.”

“...They stank up your hive?” Then came the sounds of a few stifled chuckles.

“This isn’t funny!” Pharynx’s voice raised. “My brother could be dying at this very moment! He probably wouldn’t be if he—! he— AARGH!”

Silence. Save for the heavy panting of the changeling prince, who was trying (and failing) to pull himself together.

“I’ll...” There was one last heavy sigh from Pharynx. “I’ll see you guys inside.” The audibility of hoof-steps descended as Pharynx left the small cluster of guards.

“...Of course!” Spiny slapped a hoof—er, wing—against his forehead, berating himself for being so forgetful. “Queen Chrysalis sent the guards out to handle those guys! With the poisonous gas!”

“How could we forget that?” Cricket whimpered shamefully.

“I dunno, but we should probably get back to Venom now,” Flutterwings suggested.

The other three agreed. Within a few flashes of light, the four siblings shifted back to their changeling forms—

C-R-A-C-K!

The changelings jumped as soon as they heard that noise. Before they could realize what was going on, as well as what was happening to the branch beneath them—

SNAP!

“OOF!”

WHUMP!

...Yeah.

The siblings groaned in pain a few moments after they had collided with the hard, unpleasant ground. Scorch (who was, unfortunately, on top of the pile,) was then able to notice Venom and Thistle rushing towards the group, most likely having seen the breaking of the tree branch.

“Scorch! Did you... did you...?” Venom struggled to find his words.

“Did I what?! I didn’t do anything!” Scorch snapped defensively.

Venom took a gaze at the broken branch on the ground, before glancing at the red-schemed changeling. “...Did you get fatter?”

Thistle looked at Venom, raising an eyebrow in bafflement. “Fatter?” she asked, noticing his word choice.

“What?! No, I—“ Scorch protested, but before he could even make up an excuse as to why the tree branch had crumbled under their weight...

“I heard shouting!” a white pegasus guard exclaimed as he charged into the scene out of nowhere. “What— AAARGH!” he screamed as soon as he made eye contact with the six changelings.

That was when other guards rushed up to his side, glaring coldly at the Change Gang. “Back off, beasts!” one of them demanded, as he and the rest of the guards held up their spears. “We don’t want to hear any threats from any of you guys!”

For about a moment or two, the Change Gang merely stood there in a sea of dead silence, their eyes and mouths agape. At least, up until Scorch broke the silence as he pointed a hoof at Venom; “He started it!”

“Get ‘em!” the guards shouted as they started galloping towards the Change Gang.

“Watch out, guys!” Flutterwings exclaimed. She and the other five immediately scurried away before the guards could pin them against the tree. The guards didn’t give up then and there, however. In fact, most of them had started running right behind the six changelings; save for one guard who ran smack into the tree when the Change Gang swiftly dodged the incoming attack.

As he was being pursued by a white earth pony guard, Venom decided to stop abruptly to buck the stallion in the chest at the correct timing. After getting hit in the forehead with a pegasus guard’s spear, however, he just decided to pounce on his attacker outright.

Cricket, on the other hoof, cowered as a gray unicorn came charging towards him. This, somehow, ended up tripping the unicorn. Then, as Cricket looked up to see him galloping at high speed for a second attempt, Thistle and Spiny worked together to knock the stallion off his hooves before he could pounce on the green-schemed changeling.

Scorch was handling himself pretty well for the most part. He was uppercutting, punching, and even head-butting the guards away, no matter how many times they keep getting back up again. Unfortunately, he didn’t last long enough either; several stallions were able to restrain him as a unicorn guard aimed his horn at him, grinning as he charged his horn.

“Guys, look!” Flutterwings pointed to the guard that was about to blast Scorch. Venom frantically glanced at Spiny, Thistle, and Cricket—who were still trying to handle other stallions—then back to the unicorn who was about to release his attack on the red-schemed changeling...

SPLAT!

The unicorn’s eyes bulged as a purple, slimy substance was now oozing all over his horn, thus halting his incoming assault on Scorch. The other guards gazed to see Flutterwings continuously shooting her purple slime at them. This gave Scorch enough time to knock the guards off him, therefore being able to free himself.

“This way, Gang!” Venom Stinger beckoned the others to hide behind a couple of bushes, right before the guards had gotten the slime out of their coats.

“Nngh... Everyone okay?”

“Yeah, I think so... Ugh, stupid changelings. They probably got away.”

“We must inform the princesses about this matter immediately! Quickly now, to Canterlot!”

The sounds of frantic galloping descended as soon as they started. After a minute or two, the Change Gang peered above the bushes.

“A-Are they gone?” Cricket Cluster stuttered out.

Venom carefully stepped out of the bushes, checking his surroundings. “They’re gone alright. I think,” he called out to the other five changelings. “Now, if you guys excuse me, I need... a moment.” The blue-schemed changeling steadily trotted away with his nose in the air.

“This should be good...” Scorch said with a sneer.

Upon reaching the nearby river, Venom saw a stray green leaf floating in the otherwise crystal clear water. That leaf was steadily floating over his reflection in the water, therefore covering his reflection’s horn.

Venom glared at the leaf, inhaled, and sharply blew it away from his personal mirror. Once that was taken care of, he got a closer look at his horn and then—

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH....”

There it was. And it was still going by the time Venom’s siblings walked up to his side, clearly unsurprised by his little “moment.”

“I’m staying out of this one...” Thistle mumbled with a roll of her bright pink eyes.

“Okay, Venom, what is it this time?” Spiny asked his brother, persuading the blue-schemed changeling to turn his head, revealing a bruise that was just a few inches away from his curved horn.

“...Venom, I don’t think it’s actually that bad—“ Cricket attempted to console his brother to no avail.

“Of course it’s bad!” Venom screamed back, clearly showing no signs of cooling down. “I came this close to getting my horn just-just chopped off!”

“Dude, get ahold of yourself! I mean, no one back at the hive would notice—“ Scorch’s attempt wasn’t so successful either.

“I noticed! I just did! Just! Now!”

“Will you guys just shut up so we can keep going?!” Thistle snapped. “You can continue your ‘moment’ once we get back to the hive!”

Not knowing what else to proclaim about his appearance, Venom merely let out a huff as he and the others continued their trek to the castle, internally putting the blame on the guards for ruining his looks.

Stupid, stupid ponies... Venom Stinger thought bitterly.

After what felt like a hundred miles of journeying, plus a long flight to top it all off, the Change Gang gazed up in amazement at the elegant palace in front of them; they have finally reached their destination.

“We made it!” Venom exclaimed before turning to the others. “Okay, guys, let’s sneak in the back of that crowd over there!” He pointed to the cluster of reformed changelings, with a few ponies in the mix, that was just visible enough to spot, mostly thanks to the bright colors they almost always had.

After shapeshifting into spiders, the Change Gang scurried into a tiny corner of the that was furthest away from the chattering mob that had been settled in front of the grand staircase in the middle of the room. They watched as a certain tall, slender white alicorn approached the crowd, alongside a shorter, dark blue one.

The white alicorn cleared her throat before calmly speaking. “Citizens of Equestria, and subjects of King Thorax,” she said solemnly. “We strongly appreciate your concern for the changeling brothers that have worked alongside each other in leading the changelings to a better life.” The reformed drones’ faces started to waver, and many of them started to tear up as she continued. “And I’m sure Thorax would appreciate it as much as we do. Maybe even more. But Thorax’s possible fate currently remains—“

“Princess Celestia!” A pair of guards rushed into the scene, trying to catch their breath once they stopped in front of the alicorn.

“C-Changelings... Attacked... Our guards... Want... Thorax...” One of them, a unicorn, panted heavily and even coughed raspily.

“I’m sorry, what..?” Princess Celestia stepped down to the stallions, hoping to get at least some form of clarification on what had happened.

“What he means,” the other guard, an earth pony, said as he helped his partner up, “is that we have heard about some of the royal guards having a rough encounter with a group of changelings.”

“Y-Yes! They told us!” the unicorn said. “And in case you were wondering, they have not changed like the changelings we have accepted and loved today.” As if that wasn’t enough bad news for any of Thorax’s subjects to handle, he also added, “It’s possible they’ve come for Thorax...”

The crowd gasped at that possibility. Just what were those things going to do to poor Thorax...?

“What...?” Celestia’s eyes widened in shock. “But that’s...” She looked at her sister, who exchanged the same expression of concern. “Thank you for telling us,” she said to the guard. “We’ll make sure to extend our securities and defenses as soon as possible.”

“Yes, your highness.”

That was when Luna spoke up next. “In the meanwhile, we would like all you to do one favor for your leader,” she said to the crowd of changelings. “Never lose hope for him... Thank you.”

The alicorn sisters lead the now-dreary crowd down a hallway, to what the Change Gang assumes to be their temporary living quarters. Because surely, they were not willing to return home without their leader.

It had took a while for the room to be completely free of anyone other than the Change Gang. Once the coast was clear and the lights in the room were out, they returned to their regular forms. (And thank Chrysalis they weren’t on another freaking tree branch.)

“Hey, Spiny?” Flutterwings got her brother’s attention. “How much information do we need to gather?”

“Well, we were given seven days to get the task done...” The teal-schemed changeling tapped his chin.

“Seven days for some gritty information, huh?” Scorch huffed. “If I were given seven days to bring back at least something... I’d bring back something bigger.”

Spiny agreed with that notion. “Yeah... Perhaps something more useful.”

“What do you think, Venom?” Cricket looked at his brother, who was facing away from the other five. “...Venom?”

Venom turned around to display his expression; his deep blue eyes looked like they were trying to burst out of his head. He was also grinning from ear to ear.

“Uh-oh, guys,” Flutterwings commented. “He’s making that face.”

“Come on, dude, spill!” Scorch shook the blue-schemed changeling back and forth.

“...Pfft. Information, information,” he finally said after a while. “Why bring back some information...” he paused abruptly.

“...Yes?” the five changelings beckoned him to continue, the silence clearly eating at them.

“...when we can bring back the King of changelings himself?” Venom’s grin broadened.

“WHAT?!”

Author's Note

Whew! That was a tough one. And it was truly longer than I expected.(Still not as long as the prologue though, I’ll admit that.) But I couldn’t let this part drag on too much, ya know?

Either way, I’m actually glad with how this chapter turned out. It’s probably my best one so far. But hey, we all know that won’t last long when I post the rest of the story, right?

Because by the end of the next chapter, things will get a bit crazy. :pinkiecrazy:

Okay, a bit craziER, actually. :twilightsheepish:

The Greatest Abduction That Never Happened (Part 1)

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Thistle put a hoof against her temple as she tried to rearrange her thoughts. “You’re basically saying that we...”

“Kidnap him?” Venom answered. “Why, of course that’s what I’m saying!” He gave her a hard nudge, making her grunt in annoyance. “I mean, this is Thorax we’re talking about! He’s a traitor for crying out loud!” He then mumbled, “Not to mention that brother of his is a total... he’s a total..” he verbally struggled to think of something that would describe the head of patrol. “Well, he’s a nitwit, okay?!”

“But Venom,” Spiny protested, “did Queen Chrysalis even say anything about having to kidnap the king of changelings?”

“No,” he answered. After a few moments, however, he quickly added, “which is why we should totally do it.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want to do this just to get back at Pharynx?” Thistle asked, skeptically glowering at the blue-schemed drone.

This time, a pause occurred before he answered. “No,” Venom merely repeated. “I want to do this because it’s purely a benefit.”

The other five changelings glanced at each other, before Scorch asked the next question. “How is it a benefit?” He scratched his head with a hoof.

“Seriously? Don’t you guys know what we could gain from this achievement?”

“The traitor that leads all other traitors?” Flutterwings guessed.

“...Okay, but other than that.”

“Uhhhh...” the five changelings struggled to think.

“We could get an actual role in the hive!” Venom clarified. “I mean, the hive has infiltrators! Scouts! Warriors! Guards! You name it! And we were sent as spies!” he emphasized. “But we could contribute by doing more than just retrieving information!” Venom grinned once he saw how intrigued his siblings were at his speech. “We could be...abductors!”

“The Change Gang abductors...” Spiny thought for a moment. “You know... I actually like that idea.”

“Yeah! I want to be an abductor, Venom!” Flutterwings bounced as she grinned.

“Great to hear. Because I haven’t even mentioned the best part yet,” Venom said as he walked closer. “Which is that we’ll do it... as a family.”

“Wait...family? You do know that I’m not related to you guys in any way, shape, or form, right?” Thistle pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah. Family, friends, they’re almost the same. Almost.” Venom shrugged. “Except one of them is actually important... And that, my friend, is family.”

“...Venom, whenever you say it like that, you sound like you’re telling anyone who’s not related to us that they don’t even matter,” Spiny said, discomforted.

“That’s the point, Spiny,” Venom merely responded. “I can’t trust any more ‘friends.’ Especially after—“

Thistle rolled her eyes, grabbed the two, and dragged them. “Let’s just get this whole thing over with. Shall we?”

“Okay, fine,” Venom whined. “But only like, five out of six of us are gonna get the role of abductors!”

After transforming back into spiders in order to lay low, the Change Gang began to lurk down a hallway that lead to the guest rooms. There, they saw a crack that was open in one of the doors, where a faint light was seeping through.

Venom chuckled. “Looks like Pharynx left the door open,” he said as he and the others crawled their way through the crack.

Inside the dimly lit room, Spiny spun his spider body around to glance at his surroundings, making sure no one else was around. “Coast is clear, alright.”

“Heh. Those stupid rainbow glitterbugs are gonna have to try harder to keep their ‘king’ properly secured.” Scorch grinned. “I mean, they can’t even lock a door? Pathetic!”

“Yeah! This will be easy!” Flutterwings agreed. “We’re the best abductors ever!”

“We’re the worst abductors ever,” Flutterwings croaked out as she was squished against the side that was part of the interior of the wooden cabinet the Change Gang was hiding in.

“Of course we’re bad abductors! I’m pretty sure real abductors don’t hide in the same darn cabinet!” Scorch snapped. “Now, we had to hide because some stupid doctors came in, but we’re just gonna get caught anyway since—“

“Scorch, we were doing just fine in the same cabinet; as spiders,” Venom started, “until you nearly crushed us to death with your butt when you changed back into your regular form!”

“It pretty much sums up why the rest of us had to change back as well,” Cricket added.

“Well, in my defense, I don’t think it made any difference,” Scorch proclaimed. “Because your butt is in my face right now, Venom!”

“Dude, I’m literally behind you.”

“Then whose butt is this?!” Scorch grunted as he struggled to twist and writhe into a slightly more comfortable position, straightening his body out a bit more. “Oh... It was mine.”

“Look guys, this isn’t getting us anywhere other than the brink of—“

“Insanity?” Thistle muttered out loud.

“I was gonna say, ‘the brink of both failure and eternal muscle pain,” Venom corrected her, “but the ‘brink of insanity’ seems to fit you better.”

“Are the doctors gone at least?” Cricket whimpered lowly. “I wanna get out of here.”

Pharynx stopped dead in his tracks when he heard noises coming from Thorax’s room. He recognized the voices of one of the doctors who checked on Thorax, but he could also tell that she was heavily scolding someone in the room.

“Please, can’t I at least stay with him for at least a little longer?”

Pharynx’s eyes widened as he realized who that soft, frail voice belonged to; Ocellus.

“He is very unwell, young lady,” the stern voice of a mare berated her. “And you shouldn’t be here.”

While the two were at it, Pharynx quietly creaked the door open to see a gray unicorn mare with her black mane in a ponytail, towering over the icy blue changeling. He watched as Ocellus slowly brushed her hoof against the checkered floor, while she kept her gaze averted. “I-I’m sorry. I-I just figured that Thorax would want me to be here—“ she attempted to say.

“Did I stutter?!” The doctor raised her voice at the innocent changeling, who slowly shrunk down while whimpering. “We may not be at the Ponyville hospital, but we have rules here!”

Alright, that’s it. Pharynx slowly made his way into the room, silently approaching the unicorn, who didn’t bother keeping her guard up to see who was behind her.

“Now, If you excuse me, I need to get back to work, while you stay outside that door until—“ the mare paused abruptly as soon as she saw the changeling prince glowering down at her, not even batting an eye.

“T-That goes for you too, Mister!” she said. “Let me guess, you’re here to take care of—“

“My brother? As a matter of fact I am,” Pharynx answered, “and that ‘young lady’ you were running your dirty mouth at was his personal protege!”

The mare’s eyes widened, and she swallowed heavily. “Sir, I—“

“So tell me, just what did you think she was?!” Pharynx cut her off. “Did you honestly think it was a good idea to try and pull her away from someone she loves?”

“...I—“

”Answer me!”

“...N-No.”

“That’s what I thought,” Pharynx growled, slowly sitting beside his unconscious brother.

“Sir... I-I’m sorry,” the mare gently offered after a moment.

Pharynx darted one last, cold glare at her, before letting out a heavy sigh. “Thorax would want me to forgive you,” he said. The doctor forced a warm smile at the response, which quickly faded away once Pharynx added, “At least I hope I can...”

“Wait,” Cricket quickly sat up—or at least tried to, anyway, given how cramped he and the others were. “Did you guys hear that?”

“My bad...”

“Not that, Scorch, I mean—” the green-schemed drone paused for a moment, taking the time to concentrate on exactly what he was hearing. “Just listen,” he said, not knowing how else to explain his point.

Dead silence. That was it.

“Does that mean they’re gone?” Spiny asked. “Anyone gonna take a look or something?”

“I’ll do it,” Venom grunted, using his bright blue to slowly creak open the wooden cabinet. He peered out the tiny crack, squinting his sapphire blue eyes and—

“...What the?” He blinked. Twice.

“What is it, Venom?” Flutterwings asked, not quite being able to see what her brother was seeing.

Venom didn’t answer. He was silently observing the changeling prince softly muttering something to the unconscious king. He just couldn’t hear what he was saying. Was he even saying anything at all? Actually, no, he isn’t, Venom realized. He was... humming? What song? Did he do this when no one else was around? Why? The questions never seemed to stop coming. They didn’t seem to have any answers to them. And, somehow, they didn’t seem to let Venom say anything about this matter.

“Venom? What do you see out there? Venom?”

Author's Note

I know, what you’re thinking. “Seriously, Bez? Another multipart chapter?” And yeah, I understand how you probably feel about that. Fortunately, this arc won’t be at least 3 parts long. At least I hope it won’t be. :twilightblush:

The Greatest Abduction That Never Happened (Part 2)

“Venom! What the heck has gotten into you, dude?!” Cricket whisper-shouted a few moments after Pharynx had departed from the dark and dreary bedroom, finally snapping the blue-schemed changeling out of his thoughts.

“Huh?!” Venom’s eyes bulged as the questions that were present in his mind finally died down.

“Gee, are you guys sure Pharynx is a changeling and not a siren?” Flutterwings asked curiously. “I mean, when he started humming that tune, you totally spaced out, Venom. What happened?”

“What... Oh.” Venom scratched his head, trying to think of the most realistic excuse he could use. “Sorry guys, I was, um... thinking about something.”

“And that is...?” Thistle leaned in, waiting for a reasonable answer.

“It’s...” Out of nowhere, another question had once again bloomed in Venom’s mind; Shoot... what am I supposed to say? Ironically, it was the only question that he willingly answered, “It’s... It’s nothing.”

Apparently, Venom knew his siblings too well, so of course he knew what they were going to say.

“Well, let me tell you, Venom,” Scorch said as he wrapped a hole-ingested foreleg around his brother. “But knowing you, nothing is always something. So, what are you waiting for? Spill!”

Venom’s ears lowered as droplets of hot sweat began to trail down his coal-colored face; if he possibly could, he’d rather spill his own blood than spill any his own secrets. Well, not that he wanted to do either of those things at this moment.

“Hang on, guys,” Thistle pushed her way into the conversation. “I might have seen this before, so, I know what’s going on here.”

“Do you?” Venom Stinger asked skeptically.

“Well, of course I do! You’re actually feeling sorry for Pharynx right now! At this moment!”

“What?! No, I— I-I am not!” Venom proclaimed, his bright blue eyes shooting daggers at the pink-schemed drone, who merely smirked in response.

Wait... Am I? Venom took the opportunity to glance at the unconscious changeling king lying in bed through the wide-open cabinet.

“Come on, Chrysalis! Just give me a chance!”

“I did. And I said no. Case closed, Venom Stinger.”

“But you didn’t let me get to the part where—“

“I said NO!” Chrysalis quickly spun around to face the blue-schemed changeling, stamping a hoof on the stone floor of her throne room. Venom took a few steps back after that abrupt outburst, but still kept himself close enough to listen as the queen averted her gaze. “We’ve been over this countless times; Pharynx got the role of Head of Patrol because he earned it. But you’re not suitable for the job.”

“How am I not suitable like the rest of the changeling warriors?! If you ask me, I’m perfect for the army!” Venom proclaimed.

“Venom, you’re only fifteen,” the changeling queen declared, once again setting her stern gaze on the still pouting changeling. “Now act like it, because you’re not going to contribute to anything if you keep acting and begging like a whiny, little grub.” Venom hissed threateningly at that demand, but it had already fallen on deaf ears. “Now, if you excuse me, I am preparing for the arrival of our real Head of Patrol... Wherever he is, that is. He’s never usually this late.”

Venom’s mind flickered as soon as he remembered Pharynx’s moments just before he left with the other changeling patrollers, where he was stubbornly interrogating other changelings about his missing brother. He clearly remembered seeing the rest of those changelings returning to the hive without him, so that could only mean one thing...

“Actually, my queen,” Venom started, a smirk appearing on his face. “Pharynx has likely been using up all his ‘daily patrol time’ to search for a certain traitor, hasn’t he?”

“Is that so?” Chrysalis growled lowly.

“Why else would he take hours, or even days, to get back here? Because he’s a slow flier?” Venom mockingly asked with a sneer. “Oh, wait. He’s a warrior, for crying out loud! Of course he’s not slow! He just chose not to come back!”

Soon enough, the Head of Patrol himself had came fluttering his way into the throne room, a stoic, but visibly sullen expression on his face.

“Well, well, well...” Chrysalis tranquilly approached the changeling warrior, before abruptly snapping, “About time you came back from your little patrol, mister! Just where in Equestria have you been?!”

“My queen, let me explain—“ Pharynx tried, only for Chrysalis to sternly cut him off.

“Oh, there’s no need to ‘explain,’ young man! Mr. Stinger here told me everything.”

Pharynx glanced at Venom, eyes and jaw agape, before reverting his gaze back to his queen. “What?! B-But how did he—“

“You’re lucky I’m not stripping your rank, Pharynx, and there will be no more mention of that little, traitorous pest! Do you understand?!”

“...Yes, my queen.” That was all Pharynx could reply.

“Very well,” Chrysalis said, darting both the changelings a glare before departing, leaving only the two of them in the throne room.

“I...” Pharynx started, glaring at Venom harder and colder than ever in his life. “I hope you’re happy, Venom Stinger!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I already lost my brother, okay?! What more do you want from me?!”

“...Dude—“

“Don’t even start.” He growled, before flying off, covering his face with a foreleg as he did so.

Venom tried to describe the feeling he was currently displaying. Satisfaction? No. Pride? Not that. Anything positive? Not even close.

Regret? Maaaaybe...?

But...why?

That feeling was almost the same one he was having at this very moment. Well, almost. Not that Venom would even want to admit it.

“O-Of course I’m not feeling sorry for some traitor and his stupid sick brother!” Venom stuttered, before quickly trying to change the subject. “Now, can we get out of this thing?!”

The rest of the Change Gang merely groaned in reply, as each of them struggled to squeeze out of their hiding place, taking turns pushing each other out during the rather difficult process. Upon emerging from that tiny space, they took the time to gaze upon their unconscious victim, with grimaces on their faces.

“I know I’m a fan of bugs,” Cricket gagged, “but this bug makes me want to barf. I mean, just look at the colors! Just... ugh!”

“What kind of bug did Thorax even turn into?” Spiny asked aloud.

“Maybe this is what a stomach bug looks like,” Flutterwings said with a smirk. “It would clearly explain why everyone vomits whenever they get one.”

“You might be right, sis, because I think I feel it coming on right now,” Scorch slapped a foreleg over his mouth in discomfort.

“Okay, can we just start this kidnapping process already?” Venom walked up to the bedside and turned to the others. “You know, so we won’t have to keep looking at this guy?”

The other five changelings agreed, and so they each carefully grabbed ahold of the large changeling. “Okay, on three,” Venom said. “One, two... three!”

The Change Gang wheezed as they struggle to maneuver the unresponsive Thorax from the bed. After quite a few attempts, however, they immediately gave up.

“Now why’d he have to be so tall anyway?” Flutterwings pouted as she folded her forelegs. “Before he betrayed our hive, he was about the size of the average changeling! I swear!”

“I don’t know, but ‘sharing love’ apparently did something to him,” Spiny muttered as he scratched his head.

“If that’s the case, I don’t think I’d want to share any of my love anytime soon. No way, no how,” Flutterwings hissed.

“I don’t think any of us will,” Thistle responded with a huffy breath. “At least I hope none of us will.”

“Okay, so any other ideas?” Cricket offered.

The Change Gang thought for a moment, before Venom spoke up. “Hey Flutterwings,” he said to the purple-schemed nymph, “you think you could cocoon him in your goop?”

“Well, I think so,” she replied. “I mean, it probably won’t reduce his weight in any way, shape, or form, but I could try.”

And with that, the young nymph made her way to the tall changeling’s side, stubbily climbing up the bed and opening her mandibles as wide as she possibly could.

Then, there was coughing.

Lots of coughing.

Not from Flutterwings, but from Thorax.

“GAH!” the tiny nymph jumped back, scurrying back to the Change Gang.

“What the?!” Spiny stuttered out.

“Why is he coughing? Why now?!” Thistle whisper-shouted.

“I don’t know, but he probably wants something!” Scorch exclaimed. “Quick, gang! We gotta do something before he blows our cover!”

“Do what?” Cricket glanced around frantically.

“Anything!”

And with that, the Change Gang scurried around the room, looking for things to quiet down the changeling king.

“Do you think he could have carbon monoxide poisoning?”

“Possibly. Except carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, and these changelings have been saying it was a more greenish color...”

By that time, Pharynx had already stopped listening to the constant rambling of the doctors and nurses that had stood outside his door, specifically whenever they talked about his brother or if he’ll even survive.

There, in his temporary bed, he silently laid, eyeing the tiny clock on the nightstand next to him, watching the even tinier hands steadily rotate within their usual axis. 4:27 AM, it read, and Pharynx hadn’t gotten any shut eye this evening. Now was the time he tried to, it was decided.

Pharynx reached a hoof towards the lamp that was next to the clock, and simply turned the light off.

Thorax is going to survive, his mind kept soothingly saying to him as he began to finally shut his eyes and drift off to a deep slumber of his own. He’s going to be okay.

That was when he heard the noises coming from his brother’s room.

Pharynx jolted upwards; as faint as the sounds were, the changeling could easily tell that they were fits of heavy coughing.

Thorax... His mind was screaming at him now. I’m coming little bro.

Pharynx didn’t even bother wasting any time; he immediately threw off his covers, jumped out of the bed, and headed out the door, into the hallway.

“Sir, where do you think you’re going?”

Pharynx briefly glanced behind him while running; some of the nurses had already started pursuing the frantic changeling. His only possible response, was to avert his gaze and keep on galloping down the dimly-lit hallway.

Once he had finally got to the door, however...

It stopped.

Pharynx pressed his ear against the door, as he suddenly realized that all that coughing had, somehow, abruptly ceased. “Thorax...” he mumbled somberly, letting his gaze slowly descend to the floor.

“Okay, that had to have done it...” Spiny said, as he and the others breathed a sigh of relief as they gazed at Thorax, who had finally returned to his silent sleeping state.

“Let’s see...” Thistle thought aloud. “Just how much... “comfort” did it take to get him to finally shut his trap?”

“I have no idea,” Venom admitted, thinking about how many times they adjusted his pillow, rearranged the blanket, or just done anything to quiet him down. “Nor do I wish to find out... For now, we should probably—“

THUD!

“Oof!”

There was an audible sound of glass shattering.

The five changelings jumped at the series of abrupt noises. They spun around, jaws agape and all, just in time to see Cricket Cluster sheepishly climbing to his hooves while rubbing his temple, using the nearby nightstand for support. On the floor, merely a few inches away from him, was a shattered picture frame, which was surrounded by bits of broken glass here and there.

Cricket kept his nervous gaze fixed on the object on the floor, a chartreuse blush forming on his face. “...Whoops.”

“...C-Cricket!” Venom stuttered out. “Look at what you’ve done!” The blue-schemed changeling rushed up next to his brother to look down at the cracked photograph.

“I-I’m sorry,” Cricket attempted. “It was an accident, I swear—“

“Do you realize if anyone outside heard that, we’ll be dead within the next minute or so?!” Venom whisper-shouted, “I mean, they’ll know that someone’s been here if they see this... this... broken thing.” He started letting his gaze fall back onto the photo. “What is this thing anyway...?”

Now, all six of them were carefully observing the picture frame. The frame itself wasn’t their target of interest, but photo in question featured Thorax, Pharynx, and a few other changelings, all smiling at the camera... Well, with the exception of Pharynx, obviously, who had a small scowl plastered on his face.

“It’s... It’s...” Venom struggled to push the words out of his throat; his azure eyes were glued to the cracks that had sprawled and straggled along the glass of the frame. It’s nice... he thought in his mind.

“Okay, enough of all this,” he said after a minute, suddenly sweeping up all the fragments of the glass and the frame into a blue aura of levitation. “We gotta hide this thing.”

“Okay, where do we put it?” Scorch asked, as he and the others began glancing around the room.

“...I think I know a good hiding spot for that... whatever that thing is,” Thistle said after a moment.

“Okay, Miss Sixth Ranger,” Venom said with a sneer, “tell us, why don’t you?”

“Okay, we’ll put it...” the pink-schemed changeling peered through the darkness, then, without a word, pointed a hoof at the unconscious changeling king. “...somewhere over there.”

The five other changelings gazed at that spot.

“Over... there?” Venom parroted, eyeing the large bed. The female changeling nodded silently, along with the others, as the male changeling took one last glance at the photo. “Okay...”

The blue-schemed changeling slowly walked up to the lime green changeling, and carefully tucked the picture frame underneath the blanket. To their surprise, Thorax seemed to smile a little bit at the gesture, even in his slumber.

“Hey, Venom?” Cricket shyly whispered to his brother. “Do you think he likes it?”

“I think so, Cricks,” Venom responded, gently rubbing the comatose changeling on the head. He was about to say something else, but his incoming thoughts were halted once he and the other changelings heard the sounds of hoofsteps just outside the door.

“Shoot,” was all Venom could say next as all six changelings frantically scurried for the nearby bathroom, immediately shutting the door behind them.

Pharynx was just about to make his way back to his gloomy temporary bedroom. What stopped him dead in his tracks was yet another series of faint noises coming from the the room that he was trying to depart from.

He turned back to the door. Was Thorax finally starting to stir out of his coma? Pharynx didn’t even stop to think about any of the countless other possibilities; the first and only idea that came to him was to walk in and see.

Shutting his violet eyes and tightly gripping the handle, Pharynx slowly creaked the door open.

He blinked a few times as he slowly walked into the room. “Thorax?”

No answer.

A lump took seed in Pharynx’s throat. He continued walking up to the bedside, gently gripping his brother’s foreleg.

Still no response.

The lump in his throat turned into tears. “Come on,” he mumbled. “Wake up... You little...”

The changeling prince couldn’t even finish his sentence. He had already ended up collapsing into heavy sobs. Squeezing his eyes shut, Pharynx bowed his head as the ripe, salty drops finally began to fall. While it wasn’t the first time since they left for Canterlot that he shed tears, it was one of the very rare times that he willingly let them flow down his cheeks.

All Pharynx could do was watch those tiny droplets drip from his violet eyes and onto his brother’s expressionless face. As his heart crumbled, so did his composure. Please... bro.. he thought as he rested his head against Thorax’s chest, continuing to sob quietly. Won’t you wake up?

After a moment, he felt somepony’s touch, then he heard somepony’s voice. Except that it wasn’t a “somepony...”

“P-Pharynx...?”

The changeling immediately wiped his eyes as soon as he heard that familiar voice. Could it be?

Pharynx lifted his head, staring into his brother’s magenta eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. “...Thorax?”

Thorax slowly sat up to meet Pharynx’s gaze. “...W-What’s going on? Is everyone else alri—?”

Pharynx didn’t let Thorax finish; he had cut him off with the tightest embrace he had ever given anyone, let alone his own little brother. “I thought I lost you, brother...” he mumbled just loud enough for Thorax to hear.

“Hey, hey, am I dreaming or something?” Thorax chuckled, loosening himself from his brother’s hold just a bit and putting a hoof on his shoulder. “I thought you weren’t a hugger,” he said teasingly.

“Go ahead, rub it in all you want,” Pharynx replied with a smirk. “I mean, just long as you’re alive and well...“

“Alive...?” Thorax parroted, raising an eyebrow. “W-Why wouldn’t I be—“

“There he is!”

“Thorax!”

That was when other changelings rushed in; they were either bawling their eyes out, displaying beaming smiles, or doing both of those things.

Thorax gazed around at the sea of emotionally expressive faces, not knowing how to respond or even what to say. “B-But—“ he stuttered.

Pharynx only put a comforting hoof around him, chuckling lightly. “It’s going to take a lot of explaining, I can tell you that.”

Venom pressed his ear against the door; he and his siblings were still inside the bathroom, and all they could hear were the muffled sounds of... cheering?

“What’s going on, Venom?” Spiny asked as they all listened carefully.

“No idea,” Venom answered, not tearing his eardrum away from the door. “What is going on in there?” he kept asking.

“I-I dunno, but... I don’t feel too good,” Cricket clutched his chest.

“Cricket, I know you’re still sick to the stomach after seeing that Thorax, but you really need to grow up and—“

Soon, all of them were experiencing the same sensations; it wasn’t anything close to what they have experienced before, but rather a stinging warmth in their chests that spread throughout as they were suddenly levitated off the bathroom floor.

They all stared wide-eyed at the beams of light that began surrounding them. “What’s happening?!” Flutterwings shouted, frantically squirming in the air.

“I don’t know!” Venom screamed.

The six changelings shouted as they were engulfed in ethereal cocoons of light, which soon unfolded to unveil those changelings at last.

Author's Note

Heh. Classic cliffhanger, amirite?

First things first: deepest apologies for the somewhat not-so-subtle hiatus. But I also want to give a big thanks to my friend damiranc1, because we’ve been talking about pretty good ideas for our stories. Plus, he gave me great ideas for this one.

Anyway, I’ve successfully posted this chapter. (Take that, writer’s block!) And hopefully the next chapter will be entertaining once our characters start to interact with the *ahem* reformed changelings.

Also, I was really struggling to think of a flashback for this one. (I’m worried that I made Venom to much of a jerk in the flashback I wrote though.)

Cya bronies! And have a happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🍗

—Bezier 💜

We Interrupt This Miracle (Edited 2/18/2020)

Once his hooves finally found the solid floor, Venom groaned and stumbled around blindly as he let his eyes fully adjust to the (once again) low lighting of the bathroom—which he was still currently in, much to his surprise. He could’ve swore that his life was flashing before his eyes in a very literal way.

Was it?

“Guuuys?” Venom glanced around, putting one of his his forelegs out in front of him in attempt to at least feel something. He attempted to do it while walking, but the vertigo ended up sending him on a trip to the floor. Perfect.

He successfully managed to climb back to his hooves, dusting himself off in disgust. Then he ran one foreleg along another to clean the dust out his holes...

...which weren’t there.

What the? Venom tried to raise his hoof in his field of vision to examine it, but like everything else in the bathroom, it was trapped under a thick blanket of darkness. He pressed that hoof against his head, attempting to fix his possibly unkempt mane...

...except it didn’t feel unkempt like it logically would. Heck, for some dang reason, it didn’t even feel like a mane at all. As far as Venom could tell, it had some sort of brittle, unfamiliar texture. Though, he could still tell his mane was still there at least.

“I don’t remember changing into this weird form,” he muttered aloud, continuing to stumble dizzily, until a figure came crashing into him, knocking him off his hooves. “Oof!” he sputtered upon feeling the impact.

“S-Sorry Venom... I-Is that even you?” a voice stuttered to the confused changeling.

Venom’s ears perked and his eyes widened; he immediately recognized that voice. “Cricket?” he called out. “Cricket! Cricket, where are you?!”

“Right here.”

Venom looked straight ahead to see a pair of emerald green eyes staring him down. “Oh, hey,” he chuckled. Even though he knew that this was his brother, there was something... different about his eyes. He just couldn’t put his hoof on it. “So, you might not be able to answer properly, since we’re apparently in the dark, but do you think that my mane looks weird right now?”

“I can’t see what your mane looks like, Venom.”

Venom’s azure eyes lowered in annoyance. “So, that’s actually a ‘yes’ then...”

“Forget about that. Where’s—Aargh!” Cricket suddenly cried out when yet another figure—albeit a much smaller one—came crashing into him.

“Is that you, Flutterwings?” Venom asked once he examined the newcomer: a set of bright purple eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me. Here I am,” the tween nymph’s voice responded. “Where are the others?”

“In the same state as all of us, perhaps,” Venom guessed. His blue eyes visibly glanced around the pitch black room. “Where’s that light thingy?” he asked as he once again began blindly trotting through the dark, dark void. He grunted upon making contact with something that seemed like a solid wall. “I-I...” he stuttered out, “I know it’s you, Pharynx! You’re probably trying to mess with us just so you can keep rubbing in the fact that you’re Head of Patrol! So stop it!”

“Nngh...” Thistle Thorn was the next changeling to stand up, as far as the Change Gang could tell. “Do you absolutely have to blame everything on Pharynx of all creatures?” she asked.

“Who else would it be?” Venom growled lowly.

“Technically someone who would’ve accepted the whole ‘sharing love is a benefit’ theory from the very start of this whole mess?” Spiny said.

“Whatever...” Venom mumbled, reaching for what felt like a light switch. “Now, can we please just get some light in here?“

He then flicked that light switch, finally illuminating the room.

“Whew, that’s better,” he sighed, turning to his siblings—

Wait a SECOND...

Venom examined his siblings... or at least what he thought were his siblings. Instead of the signature coal color, their chitins were more brighter colors; Cricket was now a pale lime green, Flutterwings was a light purple, Scorch had red, Spiny had teal and turquiose, and Thistle... Well, Thistle just straight-up looked like candy floss. To top it off, the holes in their legs have mysteriously vanished.

There was also something going on with their manes, something Venom couldn’t verbally describe it well enough for it to make a lick of sense; they had the same style and structure of their previous forms, like Flutterwings keeping her pigtails and Thistle maintaining her braid, but now they looked like they had the same texture as... dragonfly wings?

Then again, there was also the fact that their eyes remained the same color. Mostly.

“Why is he staring at us like that?” Flutterwings asked cluelessly.

Now sweating heavily, Venom swallowed, then he began chuckling, then he began laughing forcefully.

“What?” the nymph uttered. “What’s so funny?”

“Heheheh. You guys...” he started. “You really thought you could get me. Trying to scare me like that, huh? Well it didn’t work.” One of his eyes began twitching... uneasily. “You can change back now.”

“Change back? Scare you?” Scorch scratched his temple with a hoof. “What are you even—“ he looked down to see his current state, and his eyes widened “—oh...”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Just change back!” Venom insisted.

The other five changelings looked at each other, exchanging concerned glances. Thistle stepped up before attempting to shape-shift into her usual, hole-filled drone form, only for her to somehow maintain the same candy floss-colored changeling form.

Venom’s heart skipped a beat after he watched that brief scene play out. “C-Come on, guys! This isn’t funny!”

“Venom, you know that us changelings can’t change into other changelings,” Spiny explained. “Otherwise, we’d all be in a very different situation right now.”

The changeling didn’t buy it. He just didn’t want to. “Is this a joke? Please, please, please say it’s a joke...”

“D-Dude just...” Cricket stuttered. “Turn around.”

“Okay, now you’re just trying to mess with me—“

“Turn. Around.” Cricket eyed him more sternly.

Venom’s pounding heart drummed against his ribs as he squeezed his eyes shut. Slowly and shakily, he began to turn his body to face the large bathroom mirror behind him. That was when he opened his eyes...

...and screamed.

“Did any of you guys hear something?” a turquoise drone asked, his ears suddenly perking.

The harmony of cheers and joyful cries of changelings and ponies alike suddenly died down; all eyes have laid on the bathroom door.

Princess Luna swallowed. “Sister,” she said, “you didn’t think about letting any guards in there, did you?”

“Of course not,” the sun princess replied.

“Then who—“

The small mob of bugs and equines suddenly jumped when they then heard a faint thud!

...followed by a toilet flushing.

The drones’ expressions ranged from confused to slightly concerned. (And a little bit disgusted.)

Pharynx glared daggers at the source of those noises, before slowly making his way towards it. After taking one last glance at his brother, who was anxiously watching this play out, the changeling general carefully pressed his ear against the white wooden door.

“Hello?” he shouted.

“Hello?”

Venom’s eyes snapped back open once he heard the sudden baritone voice calling from the other side. He looked to the side to see a toilet, particularly gazing at the shiny, metal handle. That was when he realized that he had accidentally flushed it with one of his forelegs after stumbling backwards, due to being horrified by his new appearance. “Shoot,” he mumbled, turning to the others. “You think they heard that?”

The other five simply shrugged.

Still shaking, Venom began to steadily crawl back towards the mirror. Using the counter above him as support, he slowly lifted himself back up to his hooves in order to examine his current state;

He, as well, no longer sported the usual coal color of the Queen’s changelings. Instead, his chitin was now a light sky blue. His holes were gone, and he opened his new carapace to see his wings have... evolved? Seriously, what was up with his wings?

Venom was still freaked out about his mane though. His mane. Just how was he going to apply changeling slime to condition it?

He stared back down at his hooves. “My legs...” he uttered.

“How could this have happened though?” Thistle looked into the mirror, rubbing her face.

“Guys, my legs! Look at my legs!” Venom continued pacing around the bathroom floor before waving his hooves in the air. “I have pony legs! All my preciously polished holes are goooooone!“ he wailed as he curled up onto the floor.

“Venom, maybe we’re just hallucinating or something!” Spiny attempted to reassure his brother to no avail. “Maybe it’s no big deal—“

“It’s a very big deal! I-I mean...” he looked back into the mirror. “Just look at my mane! I have
see-through mane!” Venom poked his bangs. “I just look like a blue raspberry!”

“And I look like I came straight out of a glassblower’s pipe...” Scorch mumbled with a frown, as he gazed at his own color scheme that consisted of light reds and oranges.

“Hey guys, it looks like I have a giant dragonfly for a tail!” Flutterwings spun around.

“More like you have a dragonfly emerging from your butt.” Scorch cringed.

“I know right?!” Flutterwings gently chewed her tail and gave it an experimental tug. “Look, I pull it, and it just stays there.”

Venom had already had enough of this. “Guys, just—“

“Hello?!” the voice repeated, this time sounding more annoyed and impatient, snapping the Change Gang out of their self-conscious states.

“Oh, brother...” Thistle grumbled.

“It’s him!” Scorch whispered.

Cricket let out an audible whimper. “Venom, do something!” he whisper-shouted.

The changeling swallowed heavily before trotting towards the door, listening to the voice go on.

“Okay, stranger, don’t make me have to barge through this door!” it said.

“U-Uhm...! Go away! No one’s in here!” Venom called back in an unsure tone.

“Pfft... You think really think that this general could fall for that one? Though I have to say, even my crazy brother has fallen for it once.”

Scorch gasped. “Dung beetle! It’s Pharynx!” he whisper-shouted. “Now what?!”

“Venom! Just keep stalling!” Thistle added.

“Well excuuuuuse me, general,” Venom replied loud enough for Pharynx to hear.

“Pfft, what’s your excuse? Constipation?”

“What?! No—“ Venom glanced at his some of his siblings; Cricket was now cowering behind Flutterwings, whose eyes were widened as she quickly shook her head.

“I-I mean... Yeah! Yeah, I’m... c-constipated!” he stuttered, chuckling.

“Okay, that’s actually just plain gross...” Pharynx gagged slightly.

“I know, right?!” Venom exclaimed, forcing another laugh. “What else is a flushbowl for?” He immediately noticed the other five staring him down once he said that.

“Flushbowl? It’s called a toilet.”

“Right! Toilet! Heh...”

“Are you sure you’re okay in there? I mean, why were you screaming?”

“Because we were out of toilet paper!” he said before quietly whispering, “Is that what it’s called?”

There was a pause. “Who’s ‘we?’”

Venom’s eyes widened when he realized what he had said. “Uhhh...?“

“Okay, that’s it,” Pharynx firmly stated. “I’m breaking in there.

He took one last glance at his five siblings, who all had fearful looks on their faces, then back at Thistle Thorn. “Run,” she said quietly.

Venom merely nodded in response.

They all waited for the right moment. The door suddenly swung open, revealing the glaring changeling general.

“RUN!” Thistle repeated, this time at a much louder and more audible volume.

Screaming their heads off, the Change Gang immediately sprinted out as fast as possible, eventually knocking Pharynx right off his hooves. None of those six changelings bothered to turn back; they already knew he was on their tail.

“Get back here!”

“Run, my siblings! Run before the Bug Squasher gets you!” Venom shouted as they made their way into what appeared to be the ballroom of Canterlot.

If transforming into “bright and colorful changelings” wasn’t bad enough, the ballroom was filled to the brim with Thorax’s subjects singing, laughing, and dancing. Hundreds of them.

“Guys,” Scorch mumbled at the sight of this, “maybe we should just turn back and—“

“Going somewhere?” Pharynx snarled from behind.

“...Don’t turn back! Don’t turn back!” Scorch screamed, as he and the others continued their frantic sprint around the ballroom, pushing past several passersby.

Eventually, they launched themselves onto a nearby empty table, trying to look as intimidating as possible.

“Alright, rainbow scumbags!” Venom shouted towards the confused crowd of bright and colorful changelings, doing his very best attempt to hiss at them—

“Pbbbbbbt!” Out came a raspberry.

Venom blushed when he heard how he sounded; a couple changelings in the crowd were snickering at his pitiful attempt. He tried it again, and again, and again, and yet again. “Pbbbt! Pbbt! Pbbt! Pbbbbbbt!”

He panted. Now the crowd was laughing at him. “I can’t hiss,” he said as he realized. “I’m officially hissless!” The changeling breathed.

“Okay, cool it!” Spiny said quickly. “Looks like we’ll have to improvise.”

“There they are! You six!” Pharynx bellowed at the Change Gang. Behind him were Thorax, Ocellus, and a few changeling subjects.

The six changelings only eyed him back. All together, they steadily turned around and blew the biggest raspberry while shaking their rumps at the general. “Pbbbbbbbbbbt!”

The small mob gasped at the rather insulting gesture.

“Ooooh, now you’re all gonna get it!” Pharynx growled as he leaped onto the table, knocking the Change Gang off.

“Pharynx, wait!” Thorax cried out, but his plead went unheard as Pharynx continued his pursuit.

“What was that about?!” Thistle shouted at Venom regarding his bizarre idea.

“It was worth it!” the changeling shouted back.

“What do we do now?! He’s still gaining on us!” Cricket shouted.

“Guys! Over there!” Flutterwings pointed to a nearby service cart, which she quickly grabbed onto as soon as she reached it. “Woah!” she immediately climbed onto the top shelf, knocking plates, cups, and silverware onto the floor in the process.

“Jackpot!” Venom shouted and immediately climbed aboard the cart once it came rolling his way.

“WAIT!” Cricket screeched at the top of his lungs as the cart zipped right past the remaining four changelings, causing them to run after it.

“Okay, how do you even steer this thing?!” Venom screamed as the cart took random twists and turns around tables, pillars, and even the occasional passerby.

“Don’t ask me! I’m just a kid!” the nymph shouted.

The changelings in the crowd either screamed, yelped, or gasped to dodge the ongoing service cart.

“Hey! Out of the way!” Flutterwings shouted as she leaned left and right in attempt to steer the cart they were on, eventually whizzing past Pharynx at one point.

“Oh, come on!” the changeling general groaned loudly as he targeted the runaway cart.

“He’s still pursuing us... I guess that means there’s only possible solution for this.” Flutterwings looked at Venom. “The time has come where we temporarily part ways!” she stated.

“Sis, you don’t have to—”

“I do.” That little nymph did the last thing expected and launched herself off the cart, screaming, “FORGIVE MEEEEEEEEEE!”

“Flutters!” Venom shouted out as the cart zoomed away from his sister.

Smack!

The nymph fell straight to the solid floor, rubbing her head and pouting. “Dung beetle,” she mumbled lowly.

“Yeesh.” Venom cringed after he saw that scene play out. “Well, okay. What’s next?” he asked flatly.

What came next was the fact that there was a familiar lime changeling, along with a not-so-familiar icy blue changeling nymph, straight ahead. And he was heading straight for the pair, so that was actually two in one.

He screamed as the cart hit a ripple in the red carpet on the floor. The sudden impact sent him flying straight towards the changeling pair, who meekly braced themselves for impact...

...until a changeling general immediately stood in their path before the impact finally occurred.

“Oof!”

Author's Note

As said by a fellow brony called Deergenerate, this pretty much sums up this chapter perfectly;

(I really need a better updating schedule, don’t I? :twilightsheepish: )

You’ve Been Stung

“Thorax! Are you alright?! How’s Ocellus? Are any of you hurt?!”

As he laid on the ballroom floor, groaning in pain and opening his eyes, Venom heard the baritone voice of the fallen general underneath him call out to the unharmed pair of changelings.

“Pharynx, of course we’re fine.” The lime changeling smiled as he wrapped a foreleg around the small, icy blue changeling. “You saved us.”

Venom felt the weight under him shift around as Pharynx got up and trotted towards his brother.

“Well, what else was I supposed to do?” the general said. “I mean, I know it sounds stupid and silly coming from me, but for a second there... I thought I was gonna lose you again...“ he mumbled just audibly enough for them to hear.

“Lose me again?” Thorax parroted, visibly raising an eyebrow.

Pharynx stepped closer to him. “The first time was when you were sent into that coma,” he said. “Remember?”

“Oh... right,” the changeling leader chuckled sadly, his ears drooping as he lowered his head.

Now what could this possibly lead up to? Venom wondered as he sat up to silently observe and listen to their brotherly conversation. And also, how did that Thorax dude wake up from his coma? he thought.

A moment of silence occurred between the two changeling brothers. The elder changeling let out a heavy sigh before he continued speaking. “I know it sounds silly coming from me, but... I just wish I could’ve saved you...” he mumbled lowly. “But... I’m just glad.”

“...Hm?” Thorax glanced at his brother. “Glad?”

“That you finally came back to us,” Pharynx finally managed to utter as he gave his brother a calm smile.

Thorax gasped as he started beaming. “Awww, Pharynx!” he said, attempting to capture the changeling prince in a tight hug.

“Don’t even think about it...” Pharynx pressed a foreleg against his younger brother’s chest, thus preventing the embrace. “I’ve already done it to you for once and I do not wanna do it again.”

“Oh, you!” Thorax gave him a playful nudge in response, giggling when Pharynx merely rolled his eyes.

Once he heard a heartfelt “Awww!” from a group of nearby changeling subjects, Venom felt his eyes bulge, and he immediately started gagging.

“You two might as well get a room or something!” he said.

If his new “form” hadn’t disgusted him enough, then this sappy scene surely did.

Venom just didn’t care who was staring at him or what he looked like to them; he just wanted this whole nightmare to end...

If only this was all just a nightmare and not stinkin’ reality, he deeply wished.

Venom finally stopped dead in his position once he heard hooves trotting up to him. He looked up to see the general of the reformed changeling army himself, who was staring him down with a deep scowl on his face. “You...” he growled in his most threatening baritone voice.

“Me?” Venom swallowed heavily under the tall changeling’s gaze. “Me what?”

“You...” he repeated, stepping closer.

“Me what?” Venom repeated.

“YOU!!!” he suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Me what?!” Venom shouted back, only to let out a loud “GAH!” as Pharynx suddenly grabbed him with a strong foreleg, pulling him up to fully make direct eye contact.

They heard the gasps of multiple other changelings who were watching this all play out. Pharynx merely let a huffy breath at the fearful bystanders, before regaining his focus on Venom Stinger. “Do you realize,” he spoke, “how much trouble you and your little clique has caused in such little time, kid?”

Venom’s eyes kept repeatedly darting back and forth, either trying to sought out his siblings or come up with an answer.

He swallowed heavily before saying in response, “I-I clearly don’t know what you’re talking about! I haven’t even—“

“Done what?!” Pharynx bellowed in the blue changeling’s face, cutting him off. “Are you even aware of the fact that you almost killed my brother?!”

“Hey, hey, I’m not the one who put him in the coma! I swear!” Venom proclaimed defensively, putting his hooves up as he started sweating. “I totally swear!”

“Mmm...” Pharynx growled, leaning his face towards the teenaged drone to lock eyes with him. Their noses almost touched, which only made Venom cower under the general’s gaze even more. Even in his reformed form, Pharynx was still able to frighten the toughest of his enemies.

“Pharynx, what are you doing now?” Thorax exclaimed as he rushed up to investigate the scene playing out.

“What’s it look like I’m doing, Thorax? I’m taking care of the guy who nearly sent you into a second coma.”

“Yes, but you already saved me. That’s what matters right?” Thorax claimed. “I mean, we escaped a toxic gas, we came to Canterlot, and I’m awake from my coma so everyone was happy... And yet, I see you threatening a sixteen-year-old?” he said as he pointed to Venom Stinger.

“I’m fifteen.” Venom corrected the changeling leader with a roll of his eyes.

“Er... Right then.” Thorax chuckled apologetically before continuing. “What I’m saying is that can’t we talk to him? Sort all of this out at least?”

Pharynx looked at Venom Stinger, then back to his pleading brother. He let out a heavy sigh, wiping his forehead with a hoof. “Fine,” he groaned, dropping the young drone to the solid floor.

Venom landed with a thud, before glaring up at the two taller changeling brothers.

“Alright, kid, state your business or else,” Pharynx stated sternly as he furrowed his eyebrows.

“Thank you.” Venom took a deep breath and exhaled. “Uh... well... you see—“

He briefly looked to his left to see where his fellow gang members where; Flutterwings was still on the floor where she had jumped off the servicing cart. As for the others, Cricket was busy cowering and whimpering behind a large, overturned table. Spiny was trying to search for his goggles, and Thistle was just staring the trio down. Scorch was the only one actually standing, as he was still threatening a group of reformed changeling subjects nearby.

“Well what is it, kid? I’m waiting...” Pharynx raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well...” he spoke again, shuffling a hoof against the smooth Canterlot flooring. “Me and my siblings have actually been part of your little swarm from the start.”

Thorax’s ears perked up. “Wait... you have?” he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“They have?” Pharynx parroted, visibly unconvinced.

Venom swallowed again. “Well, yeah!” he blurted out with a bit of sass in his tone and voice.

“And who are these ‘siblings’ of yours?”

“I have five of them sir!” Venom said cheerfully with a grin.

“Five?” Thorax and Pharynx both uttered in unison.

The blue changeling turned around to take another glance at the rest of the Change Gang, specifically at Thistle Thorn raising her eyebrow and slowly shaking her head.

That was when Venom realized what he just said. “Did I say five?” he chuckled in anxiety. “I-I meant four! Yeah, four!”

Now all of his siblings were staring at him. Heck, even Scorch had stopped in the middle of what he was doing just to watch this whole scene play out.

“So... Can I meet your siblings?” the changeling leader asked.

“But of course!” Venom responded, yet again taking a look at the other changelings. He made a motion with one of his front hooves, trying to beckon them.

Flutterwings and Spiny made their way to the trio, with Scorch somehow managing to convince Thistle to come with them, leaving only one certain changeling behind.

Venom squinted to try and catch any sign of that changeling. He immediately noticed Cricket still cowering behind that same large table. He made the beckoning motion again, only to get the green changeling shaking his head in response. He furrowed his eyebrows with an unamused frown, which was an expression that obviously read, ”Cricket, do not make me come get you.”

After getting another response of refusal from his brother, Venom let out a heavy sigh before making his way to Cricket, grabbing him by the foreleg and trying to pull him out of his hiding spot.

“Just please disregard my brother’s shyness,” Venom said, giving the two changeling brothers a nervous grin as soon as he came back to them. “He’s not so easy when talking to other changelings. Especially when it comes to socializing with royal changelings.”

“Please just don’t let them ram me with their antlers,” Cricket squeaked out in a quiet voice, shaking like an autumn leaf.

“Aw come on, lighten up Cricks!” Scorch playfully nudged his younger brother, chuckling. “These two are like really, really nice guys!” As soon as the red changeling uttered that sentence, however, Venom could immediately tell that he was acting.

Even Flutterwings was doing it. “Uh, yeah! Yeah, they are!” she said, forcing an exaggerated grin.

After a moment, the little nymph gently nudged Spiny and Thistle, trying to get either of them to say something.

“Oh! U-Um...” the teal changeling stuttered, bowing to the brothers. “Pleasure to meet you and your brother, Mister uhm...”

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a minute.” Pharynx immediately cut him off. “If your little clique leader said that you’ve all been in our hive for Celestia-knows-how-long, then why don’t you know either of us?” he asked threateningly. “And by extension, how come we’ve never actually met any of you?”

A moment of silence occurred, so Thistle had to step in. “Well, kinda hard to explain, really,” she stated, “but we’ve all been in our little private areas, away from all the chattering and singing that constantly occurs in your hive...”

As the pink changeling continued, Pharynx’s expression noticeably grew pensive. Thorax seemed to take notice of that. “That actually sounds like something my brother would do,” he remarked with a giggle, eliciting a groan from the older changeling.

“Well, it’s what we did!” Venom said with a smirk. “Just me, Cricket Cluster, Flutterwings, Scorchin’ Heat, Spiny Spectacle, and Thistle Thorn!” He introduced the other five changelings.

“And what about you, Mister...?” Pharynx pointed to the blue changeling as soon as he finished.

“Stinger.”

Pharynx’s eyes snapped wide open when he heard that one answer. “Wait... what?”

“Venom Stinger,” the young changeling clarified.

Pharynx merely stood there in silence, much to the Change Gang’s discomfort. He stepped closer to Venom, leaning in towards his face. “I know that name anywhere,” the changeling prince hissed in a hushed tone, causing the blue changeling to shiver.

“Pharynx?” Thorax reached out to him. “Are you—“

“Can we please just get out of here later?” The prince turned to his younger brother. “For now, I need some time to think about these guys,” he said before quietly adding, “especially a specific one.”

And with that, he departed from the group.

I know Venom Stinger from Chrysalis’ reign. I recognize his name anywhere.

Pharynx sat alone at one of the tables, watching the others struggle to clean up the mess in the ballroom.

What does he even want from us? That question kept repeating in his mind. Why would he

“Pharynx! There you are!” a light pink unicorn with a deep violet mane, which had aquamarine streaks in it, rushed up to Pharynx. She was joined by a deep blue unicorn that had a light blue mane. These two mares were Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, of course, and Starlight immediately noticed Pharynx’s expression. “You alright, there?”

“I’ve been stung,” he muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Oh? What happened?”

“Venom happened.”

Author's Note

I apologize for yet another long wait! And for such a short chapter, too.

I dunno if this will make up for it, but here’s all the MTCG artwork so far.

Eh, it’s not that much. I know :twilightsheepish: But I sure hope you guys will stick around for more either way! I don’t what I’d be without any of ya’ll!

Special thanks to damiranc1 and The Half Brony for offering their tips and ideas for this story!

I Walk A Lonely Road...

Venom grunted in frustration, kicking pebbles and other small rocks from the cobblestone ground beneath him as he hesitantly followed the rest of the changeling swarm.

How long has he been doing this? Why, ever since they left the castle to take a stroll in the Canterlot city—after the Change Gang was verbally chewed for wrecking that celebration of course—but Venom just didn’t care anymore. He just wanted to do anything to distract himself from the saccharine singing of the cheerful drones.

Easier said than done.

“You know, Venom,” he heard Flutterwings talking beside him. Upon glancing at the nymph, he noticed that she was gazing at one of her front hooves. “I’m starting to think that our new forms look less like changelings and more like gummy bears,” she said. “Or in this case, gummy bugs.”

“Well, I, for one, do not want to be a gummy bear or a gummy bug,” he replied. “I would not like to be a gummy anything.”

“Eh. I don’t wanna be a gummy anything either,” Flutterwings admitted, sticking her tongue at the ground. “I mean, none of us do, really.” She then glanced at the ground for a moment, her expression growing pensive, before regaining her attention. “Hey, Venom?” she asked, getting her older brother’s attention. “I don’t remember any of us ‘sharing love’ as Thorax puts it... So, why did we change into gummy—er, ‘reformed changelings’...?”

That question made Venom stop and think for a moment. His sister did make very good points for her young age.

“Well, sis. Just wait until we talk to Mr. ‘Prince of Changelings’ about the matter. I bet he did this to all of us.”

“So, you’re still talking about Pharynx? You really think he was responsible for this?”

“Who else would it be?”

“I mean, Thorax was the one who came up with the whole ‘sharing love’ garbage along with Starlight Glimmer,” Flutterwings stated. “If it weren’t for any of them and their logic, we’d still be at Chrysalis’ hive doing more important stuff.”

“Okay, you got me there, but how is Thorax even awake from his coma?”

“That, I have no idea about.”

“Well, I know Pharynx has at least something to do with it.” Venom squinted at the dark cyan changeling as he began trotting towards him. “I just know it.”

He caught the changeling general next to a bunch of other changelings, though he wasn’t socializing with any of them in any way, shape, or form, being the lone wolf he usually was.

Venom then decided to start flying towards him. He was actually surprised that his wings still functioned the same way as they used do, except he had to open his carapace to do so, which he actually found... freaky, to say the least.

Nonetheless, he landed directly on front of the general just as he had planned. “Hey, Pear Rings.”

Pharynx groaned as he heard the lame nickname he was given. He turned to the teenaged changeling. “Okay, first of all, that wasn’t even clever. Secondly, you already know me. Third, there’s no reason for you to be calling me—“

“Save it, Dish Sinks,” Venom snapped with a sharp tone, followed by a roll of his eyes. “I want you to explain something to me.”

“Fine, what is it?”

“Mind explaining how your brother even woke up from the coma to begin with?”

Venom waited for an answer from the now-pondering general. Pharynx opened his mouth to say something, but another changeling beat him to it. “Why, it was all thanks to the love that was contained in his tears, of course!” He said with a grin.

Pharynx and Venom stared at him. “I’m sorry, what?” Venom uttered.

“What he meant,” Another drone stepped in, “was that Pharynx displayed an act of true love by clinging to his brother and weeping profusely. Therefore, it—“

“Woah, woah, woah. Wait a minute.” Venom cut the drone off while cracking a smile. “You guys actually believe in that sort of fairytale garbage?” It wasn’t long before he started wheezing in laughter. “Okay, okay, you have got to be kidding me.”

“Love in tears?” Spiny caught up with the two. “But that’s not just impossible... T-That’s just... Stupid!” he stuttered in astonishment. “I mean, sure, tear fluids are full of lipids, lysozyme, glucose, sodium, and tons of other toxins, but there is no love in tears,” he firmly stated.

“How do you know for sure?” one of the two drones asked.

“Buddy, if us changelings had love in our tears from the very start, we would be in a very different situation,” Spiny replied.

The drone merely rolled his eyes. He looked like he was about to say something else, at least, until Thorax suddenly came up to the group. “Okay, guys, calm down. Now, we’ve decided to take a short stop at, uh—“ he glanced around the area “—oh look, the donut shop!” he pointed towards a building. “Anyone want donuts?”

As soon as he said that crowd of changeling subjects suddenly started jumping up in down in excitement as if they were pony foals in a candy store. Thorax merely smiled in response to this moment. “Alright, alright, we’re going.”

“John Doe what?” Flutterwings tilted her head.

“You’ll see when we get inside.” Thorax chuckled.

Once they did get inside, they were immediately hit by a whiff of both glaze and sprinkles, a scent that made Venom want to throw up then and there.

“Is that the ‘John Doe’ you were talking about, Thorax?” Cricket pointed at the unicorn stallion running the shop.

“That’s Donut Joe, Cricket,” Thorax tenderly corrected the green changeling. “You guys just go find somewhere to get comfortable. Pharynx and I will just take it from here.”

Venom merely let out a huffy breath as he and the rest of the gang tried to find a table that was isolated as much as possible from the other chattering drones. As soon as he did that, he immediately planted his face into that one table, burying his expression.

“Uh... Venom?” Cricket looked at his younger brother with concern.

“Guys,” Venom groaned as he lifted his head, just enough for him to gaze at the others with saddened—almost desperate—eyes. “Do you think this was all... well... my fault?” he asked lowly.

“Aw come on, bro... what makes you even think that?” Spiny leaned against the table with a slight smile, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

“Yeah, what did you even do wrong?” Scorch asked.

“Other than suggesting the idea that we kidnap Thorax causing us all to agree and so it somehow ended with all of us becoming ‘reformed’?” Thistle whispered low enough so none of the other changeling subjects could eavesdrop. “Well, other than that, nothing.”

Those statements were met with silent blank stares from the other five changelings. Thistle merely shrugged in response.

Venom let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter,” he said as he rested his muzzle against his forelegs. “This mess was all because of my stupid, stupid idea.” He shut his eyes in exasperation, as if he were trying not to cry. “Worse thing is, I dragged you guys into it.”

The blue changeling then went back to burying his face in his hooves, continuing to mumble.

A moment of silence occurred within the group of changelings, at least, until Scorch managed to step in.

“Venom, little bro,” he said, lifting his brother’s chin. “I know, it turned out to be a bad idea, but... the rest of us here had no way of knowing it.”

“W-What’s that even supposed to mean?”

“None of us had any way of knowing that we were going to turn into rainbow candy bugs,” Scorch clarified. “Besides, we all agreed to the whole plan in the first place.”

“I guess so,” Venom looked to the side for a brief moment.

“The point is, even though you messed up, we’re not just gonna get up and leave you just like that. Why? Because we’re family Venom.”

Spiny, Flutterwings, and Cricket nodded. Then they all looked at Thistle.

The pink changeling let out a sigh. “Okay, then. Fine. This guy has a point,” she finally admitted with a roll of her eyes.

Venom lifted his head to display a heartfelt smile. “Thanks, guys.”

Their little familial moment didn’t go uninterrupted, unfortunately. A plate of plump ring-shaped confections was suddenly placed in the middle of their table, much to their confusion.

They looked to see a tall, yet slightly stocky unicorn stallion with a light amber coat and a brown mane. “That should be enough for just the six of you. Dig in.”

Venom could only roll his eyes when the stallion departed. He picked up one of the ring-shaped treats, examining it closely.

“So these are what they call ‘donuts’, Spiny?” Flutterwings asked curiously.

“Heck if I know, but they look more like those ring things in one of those pony games,” he answered.

Cricket looked at him. “Which pony game?”

“I think they call it... ‘Toss Ring’?”

“Ooh! So we’re playing toss ring!” Scorch snatched one of the donuts.

“I wanna play toss ring!” Flutterwings did the same.

The other four changelings watched as they aimed at a passerby unicorn’s horn.

Thistle reached out to them with a foreleg. “Guys, wait—“

“OnetwothreeTHROW!”

In unison, the two of them immediately hurled their donuts as far as they possibly could.

Plink! Plonk! One by one, the donuts each successfully landed snugly around the horn. “I WIN!” Flutterwings shouted as she leapt onto the table to do a little dance.

“Hey, my donut made it on there first!” Scorch complained, pounding the table and making the little nymph stumble.

“The first donut was my donut, Scorch!” she replied back to him.

“M’kay, say what you want then.” Scorch rolled his eyes with a sigh.

Venom cowered under the unicorn’s glare from far away.

This was going to be a long day.

“My queen! Has Venom and his siblings made their return, yet?”

“It’s been only a day, Netwing.”

“A day?” Netwing parroted in disbelief. “But but... I thought—“

“I gave them seven days to complete their task,” Queen Chrysalis said as she gazed upon her subject. “Therefore, they have six left. I thought you already knew this.”

“Why, of course I did!”

“Then why do you keep complaining about it?”

The changeling went silent for a moment. “Me? Complaining? Pfft.” He rolled his amber eyes. “My queen, don’t be ridiculous. I have a rank unlike those crayon-haired bugs. I shouldn’t even be complaining.”

“Well you are, so stop it,” the queen began trotting away from the orange-schemed changeling drone.

Netwing let out a huffy breath before asking, “Can I at least ask about why you even chose them to go in the first place?”

“That’s enough, Netwing...”

“I mean, seriously!” he continued as he started following his queen. “You could’ve chose anyone other than those guys! You could’ve sent actual spies or actual scouts. You could’ve sent—“

“ENOUGH, I said!” Queen Chrysalis suddenly whirled around to stamp a hoof at the rambling drone, finally cutting him off. “And I mean it, too. For once, you’re starting to sound like Venom Stinger. Gosh.”

Swallowing, Netwing watched as the changeling queen turned her back to him and continued walking away from him. He growled once she was out of his sight. “Venom Stinger, Venom Stinger... I’m coming for you, Venom Stinger,” Netwing mumbled under his breath. “Me and my comrades will.”

“Dang it! I missed again!” Flutterwings pouted and folded her front legs.

“That was the sixth time! Why is this unicorn so hard to get?” Scorch scratched his head.

“You sure that’s even a unicorn?” Flutterwings pointed to the pony that they kept aiming for; a dark purple unicorn mare with a bright magenta mane. “I don’t see a horn on that head of hers!”

“Oh her? Well, I’ve heard many, many changelings back in the hive talk about her,” Thistle explained. “They say her name is ‘Tempest Shadow,’ also known as ‘Fizzlepop Berrytwist.’” That second name got a few snickers and chuckles from her fellow changelings.

“So, she’s the broken-horned unicorn, then?” Spiny asked, getting a nod from Thistle.

“No wonder we keep missing the shots!” Scorch remarked.

“So, she’s not an earth pony then?” Flutterwings asked in a similar manner to Spiny.

“No, she’s not an earth pony...” Venom answered calmly, before suddenly adding, “...she’s an airhead.”

“...Venom,” Cricket spoke as he stared at the broken-horned unicorn.

“Yeah?”

“I think ‘Tempest Shadow’ heard what you said about her just now.”

“How can you tell?”

“She’s eyeing you right now.”

Venom took a glance at where Cricket was looking. Once he did, he immediately noticed the unicorn’s cold, firm glare.

“She’s scaring me, Venom.” He heard Cricket whimper from behind him.

“Pfft. Cricket, that’s not scary,” Venom said with a roll of his eyes. As soon as he glanced at another faraway area, however, he let out a shriek when he saw tons of random reformed changelings grinning and waving happily at him. “GAH! That’s scary!”

Spiny immediately glanced at the two cowering brothers. “Uh, hey! Donut Jo!” he called towards the nearby unicorn stallion. “Do you have those list thingies?”

“What? Menus?” Donut Jo specified.

“Yes, yes! Menus!” Spiny said, nodding.

“But... didn’t I already give you guys your food—“

“Please, just give us some menus!”

“Okay, okay! Here!”

Spiny immediately took the menus, putting them up to form a little wall in front of Venom and Cricket, which blocked out the stares of other ponies and changelings. “There! Problem solved!” he said with a proud smile.

“Uh, Spiny? Can I have a few menus as well?” Flutterwings got her brother’s attention. “Because now a few foals are staring at me.”

“Uh, okay. More menus please!” As soon as he got the menus, he repeated the process. “There, happy?”

“Hey, where’s my personal wall! I don’t want their eyes on me!”

With a groan of exhaustion, Spiny said once again, “More! Menus!”

Eventually, it got to the point where the small wall of menus became an entire tower of menus, with a roof and everything.

“That had to have done it!” Spiny folded his forelegs as he and the others were fully secured behind all of the menus. “Right? Please, please, please tell me it did the trick...”

“...Wow,” Thistle uttered. “You guys really have that much of a problem with being watched.”

“Well, so what?” Venom spat back. “You honestly think we’d be okay with having inferior creatures just... stalking us?”

“There is a difference between stalking and watching, dude.”

“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“I’m being ridiculous? I mean, of course we’re supposed to be against these hideous creatures, but this is not the way to handle it!”

“You obviously don’t sound like you’re against these freaks,” Venom deadpanned.

“Well, I am.”

“Well, heck!” Venom pounded a hoof against the table, causing the tower of menus to start wobbling. Within the next few seconds, it collapsed onto them, as if it were a tower of cards, which it basically was, in a way.

Spiny stared at the mess of menus, then at Venom Stinger. “That was literally all of my hard work...”

“...Whatever,” Venom responded.

Off The Rails

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As soon as he heard that familiar banging noise, Pharynx opened his eyes to see a blanket of darkness enveloping the train car he was in. What the…? He looked around the area, trying to make out anything in it. Is the train still moving? Is it night already?

Then it hit him. No… it can’t be.

The moment where Thorax came back, the times where he interacted with Venom and his siblings… he couldn’t have dreamt those things up, could he?

He couldn’t still be in the middle of nowhere inside a train car with his unconscious brother, right?

Pharynx looked to his side. Thorax was not there.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He looked around, trying to see if anything looked familiar at all, but all he could see was darkness.

Pharynx looked out the window. There was supposed to be something out there. Trees, rocks, anything at all! But all he saw was an empty, black, ominously infinite void.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pharynx jumped when he heard that noise for the third time in a row. He got up, and looked around. He wanted to call out. Just where was everyone? He walked over to the door, and slowly opened it…

…only to find the same room he was just in. What in..?

Pharynx looked up to the ceiling. He looked over to a sunroof. He flew up and started to push on the door, but alas, it wouldn’t budge. Alright Pharynx, let’s see if you still got it. He positioned his hooves towards the sunroof, before trying to buck his way out.

CRASH!

The changeling felt himself fall onto the floor beneath him as he felt the entire train car rock back and forth for a mere moment. He got back up, and looked around once more.

Then he turned to the window. He moved towards the now fogged-up window, which looked as if something was breathing on it. He slowly reached his hoof to it…

A black, hole-infested hoof suddenly slammed against the opposite side of the window.

“Aargh!” Pharynx recoiled back, breathing heavily.

His heavy breaths continued as a pair of glowing blue eyes stared back at him from the darkness. He stared into the blue eyes, almost mesmerized.

The blue-eyed face smiled menacingly, showing rows of white, gleaming fangs…

He stared at them. No way… is that… He couldn’t even utter those two words in his mind. No, no, no, no…

The creature drew back its hoof, before punching the window in front of it, hard enough to shatter the glass.

“NO!”

Pharynx woke up in a sweat. He glanced around the interior of the train car, ready to jump and attack at any possible second.

He looked out his window to finally see the passing scenery, where there was afternoon daylight. Okay, that’s a… good sign.

“Guys? Guys?” he asked in an attempt to get an answer from the other changelings that were supposed to be with him. The only answer he got was dead silence.

Pharynx turned his head, expecting to see them lying down in their seats a few meters away from him…

...the only thing he saw were empty seats.

His heart started beating like a drum. He started breathing heavily and faster than he’d ever done before.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

There it was again.

“Hey! Pharynx!”

He looked over to the voice. The voice that came from outside his window…

“What the…” he looked out of his window. There was Venom Stinger. He was flying right alongside the moving train!

He recoiled. Not again! He blinked at the changeling.

“Hey! Do us a favor and get up here!” Venom called.

He tilted his head. “...No way.”

“Yes way! You see that door thingy on the ceiling? All you gotta do is open it up and—”

“Venom!” Pharynx cut him off. “What are you doing out there?”

“I don’t think you’d believe me if you didn’t see it yourself, but Netwing is on top of the train!”

“Netwing?!” Venom was right about one thing; Pharynx didn’t believe it. “Who the buck is that?!”

Venom looked at him. “He—Aah!” he yelped, just barely clinging to the train window. “He’s from Chrysalis’ hive! And he’s trying to pummel Scorch to death right now!”

“He’s trying to what?!”

“Come on, Pharynx, what are you waiting for?!”

Pharynx quickly got up. “Fine! I’m coming! Hang on!” He flew up to the sunroof, pushing it open and climbing up as he felt the fast winds pushing against him.

He’d only been on top of a moving train like this once or twice, probably sometime during Chrysalis’ reign, but maybe not this fast.

“Guys?!” Pharynx called out.

“We’re over here!” Someone called back.

“What the—Oof!” Pharynx felt a strong hoof punching him against his carapace, hard enough to knock him over. He looked up to see an unreformed changeling standing above him.

One with amber eyes and an orange mane. He recoiled back and rolled towards the others. “So that’s Netwing?!”

“You don’t remember?!” Venom shouted, his voice almost being drowned out by the train’s loud whistle.

“Like buck I do! I haven’t seen anyone from Chrysalis’ hive in forever! You can’t expect me to remember everyone!” Pharynx shouted back.

Scorch suddenly knocked Netwing away from the pair of arguing changelings, only to be knocked away by a yellow-eyed changeling. “Good job, Termite,” Netwing said with a sneer.

Pharynx and Venom dropped their argument and faced the two unreformed changelings. Pharynx looked at Venom. “Okay, truce?”

“Just for ten minutes or so!”

“Then what are you boys waiting for!?” Thistle shouted out to them. She was pinning down a changeling with deep gray eyes and a large gray neckfin.

“Okay, okay, we’re comin’!” Venom yelled before charging said changeling. “Take that, Sawfly!”

Sawfly looked up. “Venom!” he snapped before trying to attack.

“Hey, you remember! Missed me?!”

“Get over here!”

Sawfly raised his hoof to strike, only to be flanked and attacked by Pharynx from his left. Venom got in a punch of his own, landing his hoof into Sawfly’s abdomen, sending him flying back.

Pharynx stared as Venom demonstrated his combat skills. “You’re stronger than I remember.”

“Am I now?”

“Yep, now let’s focus on sending these bugs back to the hole they came from.”

Scorch was still trying to deal with both Netwing and Termite. “Hey! I need some help over here!”

“Coming!” Flutterwings shouted.

She charged over and tackled Termite before landing a punch to the side of his face.

Spiny then dealt with Termite as well, throwing him to the ground—or rather, the roof of the train car.

Netwing looked at them, and tried attacking the two, before Scorch landed a kick to his side, launching him off the side of the train.

Netwing clung to the edge.

Scorch walked over to him, in an attempt to stomp his hoof and cause Netwing to fall off the train…

...only for a brown-eyed changeling to charge in.

Scorch just barely dodged the attack, landing next to Spiny and Flutters.

“Little help here, Pincer!” Netwing was fluttering his wings in an attempt to maneuver himself back onto the train’s roof.

Pincer looked at him, then to the three changelings in front of him. “Oh sure, I’ll just turn my back and- I can’t help you moron!”

“What?!”

“I’ll get knocked off the train if I turn around!” Pincer snapped. “Let me just… take out the trash.”

Flutterwings growled. “Why, we ought to—”

“Allow me.” Pincer turned to his left to see a pink changeling punch him in the face.

“Oof!” Pincer stumbled, just barely catching himself in time. “Alright missy, if you wanted a turn, you should’ve just said so!”

He charged forward towards Thistle, only for a green changeling to suddenly appear right in front of him

He laughed. “You?! You think you can stop me?! You wouldn’t even hurt a—”

Before he knew it, he found himself lying on the roof, trying to pick himself up.

Cricket ran to him, preparing to punch him with a free hoof.

Pincer looked up with fear. “Wait! Don’t—”

POW!

He then flew clean off the train, landing into some nearby shrubbery.

“Pincer!” Netwing called out.

Pincer poked his head out of the bushes. “Netwing!” his voice became more and more distant as the train chugged away.

Netwing threw himself back onto the train’s roof. “You’ll pay for that…” he growled, looking at Cricket.

“Meeep!” Cricket recoiled.

The others stood beside Cricket. “You’ll have to get through us first!” Scorch called out, readying a fighting stance.

“Sawfly! Termite! Get over here!” Netwing bellowed.

“But what about Pincer?!” Termite cried.

“Silence! We need to do what he’d want us to do.”

Termite stiffened. “You’re right,” he said…

...before jumping off the side of the train car, screaming, “I’M COMING, PINCER!”

Sawfly looked out in awe, with his eyes and jaw agape, before looking back at Netwing, who had the same expression.

“TERMITE! YOU IDIOT!” Netwing screamed.

“No bug left behind!” Termite screamed back.

Together, Venom and Thistle struggled to push him off the train car. He moved out of the way, causing them to stumble to the very back of the train.

Venom found himself clinging to the edge, with Thistle holding onto him. He looked at her. “Thistle?!”

“What?!”

“You… You alright?!”

“What do you think, dude?! We’re this close to being blown off the motherbugging train!” she yelled.

“Fair bugging point!”

They looked up to see Netwing staring down at them. He growled. “You two...”

The pair tried fluttering their wings to lift themselves back up, but the wind was far too strong. Venom looked at Thistle, before looking back at Netwing. “What do you want now?!” he yelled.

Netwing opened his mouth to answer when—

“Hey guys!” Spiny’s voice called out. “There’s a pretty big hill up ahead!”

Venom and Thistle looked up ahead. It was a big hill to say the least.

“Hold onto something! Cause gravity’s about to get crazy!” Spiny shouted.

Venom looked up. He and Thistle continued to grip onto the edge as the train started going up the hill.

Netwing, on the other hoof, started sliding right into them. He then fell off the train, and grabbed onto Thistle’s carapace.

“Hey!” she shrieked. She tried kicking him, to no avail.

Venom’s hoof started sliding as the train continued to travel the hill. Then he noticed a gap between the train cars. “Thistle! Do you trust me?!”

“Why do you ask?!”

“Well, you better hold on!” Venom let go of the edge. If he got this right, they’d be safe. If not… Please let this work! He then grabbed the edge of the other train car, the force causing Netwing to let go of Thistle and fly down the hill.

“Venooooom!”

Venom continued clinging as they stared at Netwing as he rolled down the hill. “Geez.”

“I can’t believe that even worked!” Thistle cried. “You could’ve taken us with him!”

“Heheh… Yeah. I could’ve,” Venom chuckled. They looked up…

...then there was Sawfly.

He looked at them with a shocked expression, before glaring down at them and slowly raising a hoof…

Venom and Thistle panicked. “Sawfly wait, wait, wait!” Venom pleaded.

Pharynx suddenly charged in and grabbed Sawfly. “Ahh! Pharynx!” Sawfly cried out in surprise.

Without hesitating, Pharynx hurled him off as the train finally reached the peak of the hill. “That’s a long way down!” Venom commented, watching him tumble down to a lake. “Yeesh.”

“Hey! You might wanna take advantage of this somewhat flat ground and get back on this train!” Pharynx called out, before reaching out a hoof to Venom.

Venom stared in disbelief before reaching his hoof out while he had this small chance. “Er… thanks.”

Pharynx pulled Venom and Thistle up—just as the train started going down the hill.

“We’re going down!” Pharynx shouted out.

They all started sliding forward, each of them hitting the train’s funnel. “Grab onto something!” Scorch yelled.

“We’re trying!” Flutters yelled back.

The train then started speeding down the hill, faster than when it moved up the hill. They all held onto whatever they could for dear life.

“I think we’re almost down!” Flutterwings exclaimed.

“Just keep holding on, dang it!” Pharynx yelled out, shutting his eyes.

Venom looked at Thistle. “You need any help?!”

“What?! Why do you ask?!”

“I dunno! I just… I don’t know! I’m just asking!” Venom spat, trying to seem… what was the word? Nis? No… kindle? No not that. Uh… nice?

Why am I even trying to be nice again? He wondered. Did he even have a reason to be nice to her of all changelings.

Before he could even find the answer, they felt the train finally reach flat ground. “Oh thank Chrysalis that’s over!” Pharynx said, breathing heavily.

They looked at him.

“What? I was just thanking our mother, or… whatever she’s supposed to be. I sure as heck ain’t praying to them alicorns.”

They all got up as the train moved at a much steadier pace. They looked around. “Should we go back in?” Cricket asked, his legs quivering.

Everyone agreed. The seven changelings made their way to the sunroof and entered the train car.

Venom sat down in his seat, still breathing heavily. He still couldn’t believe what they’d just done. Him, his siblings, Pharynx, Thistle…

...Thistle. Venom looked over to the pink changeling. He still couldn’t believe he saved her and tried being nice to her.

“Hey…” he said to her.

She looked over. “Hey Venom…” she breathed deeply, before adding. “I just wanted to say… uh…”

Venom looked at her. He waited for her response. “What?” he asked anxiously.

She sighed and spoke up. “Well, what you did back there, I have to admit…”

“Yeah?” He asked, perking up a bit.

She looked off to the side. “Well… I… thank you…”

Venom’s eyes widened to the size of bowling balls. “Really?”

She nodded. “I...I thought we were goners… but… you saved us.”

“Heheh…” Venom chuckled quietly. “Y’know, I only did that thanks to some of Spiny rubbing off on me with the whole ‘measuring trajectory’ thing.”

“The what?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he said while scratching the back of his head.

They both chuckled.

“Well, I’m glad whatever you did worked.” Thistle smiled.

Venom then looked to Pharynx. He wanted to walk over and talk, but at the same time, not.

Well, Pharynx did prevent Sawfly from pummeling him and Thistle off the train…

He sighed and reluctantly walked over to his rival. “...Hey,” he grumbled just loudly enough for the changeling prince to hear.

Pharynx looked up to him. “What?”

“...Nice job handling Sawfly back there,” he admitted quietly.

Pharynx looked up in surprise. “Huh… thanks, Venom.”

“Whatever… Like I said, that ‘truce’ of ours was only for ten minutes—” Then it hit him. “Wait… just how long was that train battle back there?”

“Sure as hay wasn’t ten minutes. I’d have to guess at least fifteen to twenty minutes—Oh...”

Venom’s throat ran drier than a well in a drought. “Well… uhh… truce over?”

“We’ll see about that.” Pharynx smirked as the changeling pouted for the rest of the trip home.

Author's Note

Huge thanks to Mlphero for writing this with me in Google Docs. This was fun!

Venom Sprayer

“Venom, I know you clearly stated that the truce was over, but... can I at least ask you something?” Pharynx spoke to the reformed changeling in front of him.

“Eh, fine what is it?”

It had been a while since the group of changelings hopped off the train. Now, they were sticking together and making their way towards their destination; home.

Or at least that’s what Thorax and the others called it.

Pharynx cleared his throat before asking, “Where did you even learn those combat skills you pulled off... you know, when we were on top of the train earlier?”

Venom froze in place for a moment, before turning around to face Pharynx. “Well,” he said, “you remember that one guy in the hive named Spiderbite?”

Pharynx cocked his head at the somewhat familiar name. “Spiderbite?” he parroted.

“Mhm.” Venom nodded, with a smile.

“You mean, the Spiderbite?”

“Mhm.” Venom was grinning a little now.

“Let’s see...” Pharynx scratched his chin for a few moments. “Spiderbite... he was one of Scarab’s good soldiers, wasn’t he?”

“Yes! Yes, he was!” Venom nodded eagerly while beaming. “But he wasn’t just ‘one of Scarab’s soldiers,’ he was also a very, very, very, very, very close friend of mine,” he explained. “He taught me everything there is about fending for yourself.”

“Did he?” Pharynx stared at the teenage changeling. “Since when?”

After a moment of silence, Venom answered, “Since the day we ran into a couple of pony outlaws!”

“...You what?”

“Yeah! It was back during Chrysalis’ reign, obviously.” Venom gave the general a nudge. “We all went out for a stroll somewhere in Ponyville, just to rob a few stores, you know, the usual. It was just me, Spiderbite, Hatchet, Spearshot, Grimtooth, and Clawstrike...” Venom explained as he walked ahead of Pharynx. “And then, suddenly,” Venom abruptly whirled around in front of Pharynx to add emphasis to his story, “this group of ponies came up to us before we can even walk into our first shop of the night!”

Pharynx blinked. “Go on...” he said, showing some slight interest in the young changeling’s story.

“Sooo, yeah, these ponies just randomly walk in on our little ‘shoplifting’ night...”

“Er ...you basically just said that.” Pharynx rolled his eyes. “I mean like, what did you guys do about it?” he asked.

Venom waved a hoof. “Simple. We started beating the buck out of them!” He then started punching to demonstrate. “Spiderbite started by uppercutting one of them right in the jaw!” He jumped up and socked out his front hoof upwards. “Then Spearshot sucker punched another one straight in the flank!”

Some of the other changelings seemed intrigued by the action-packed tale, while others seem to cower from the heavy violence that was involved in it.

“Grimtooth and Hatchet had to hold the leader down so Clawstrike could pummel the living daylights out of him!” Venom then started punching at a nearby shrub, thus demonstrating the action even further.

The fascinated changelings grinned eagerly, while the frightened ones only seemed to flinch as they kept watching and listening.

“There were still a couple more of them ponies to knock out though. So guess who had to take matters into his own hooves?” The blue changeling wiggled his eyebrows.

Pharynx displayed an unamused frown towards him. “Let me guess... you?”

“Me!” Venom proudly put a hoof to his chest as he climbed onto a large rock nearby. “Venom Stinger! It actually took quite a couple of beatings, but with my friends by my side, I managed to beat them all and make it out in one piece!”

The many changelings chittered to each other, each of then commenting on the action and the violence involved.

But of course, Pharynx kept a firm frown on his face.

“Let me guess... you want proof that it actually happened, don’t ya Pharynx?” Venom asked with a smirk. “Well I’ll give you proof, Mister!”

Before Pharynx could say anything, Venom lifted his foreleg...

...to show a dark, bluish purple bruise that was located directly beneath his elbow.

Quiet gasps of shock were heard among the changeling subjects.

Venom just kept his smirk plastered onto his face. “Yep,” he breathed, gently rubbing the bruise with his other hoof. “Pretty nasty, ain’t it?”

He tried to keep walking, only to forget that he was on top of a rock. “Oof!” he suddenly stumbled forward and crashed onto the ground below.

Pharynx trotted up to the fallen changeling, a smirk slowly forming on his face.

Venom merely glared daggers back at him. “Don’t. Say. Anything.”

“Well, we’re here!” Thorax proudly announced to his fellow changelings.

The Change Gang gazed upon the destination they’ve finally reached. It was a hive, yes. Was it in good shape? Eh, not really.

The lush green vegetation had wilted and crinkled until they were a deep brown. The bushes and shrubbery that were scattered among the hive’s outside had lost their leaves, leaving behind their prickly branches.

The most notable thing was the rotten stench that arose from whatever was left behind.

“Oh, sweet Chrysalis...” Scorch held his forehooves over his muzzle. “You guys smell that, right?”

Cricket mimicked his brother’s gesture. “What is that smell?”

“Heh. I bet it’s Pharynx’s ego,” Venom said with a slight smirk. “It really overstayed its welcome, don’t you think?”

Pharynx growled quietly at the blue changeling, who merely shrugged with a cowardly grin.

Thorax chuckled sheepishly, looking around the hive. “Er... I know what you’re all thinking. Our hive has took some... uh... a little damage,” he said, “but it’s only affected the plants around here, not anything else.” His subjects nodded lowly. “Tell you what, why don’t we start all of this off with a Feelings Forum Meeting? Does that sound good?”

The changelings immediately perked up upon hearing that suggestion.

“Wait, wait, wait, what is he talking about?” Thistle asked.

“Why, he’s talking about the Feelings Forum of course!” a yellow changeling answered gleefully.

“Feelings... Forum?”

“It’s arguably the most warm, comforting, sugary, sweet activity of the hive!” a turquoise changeling added.

Thistle looked like she wanted to puke. “Y-You’re kidding, right?”

“Nnnnope!” they said in unison, smiling more than ever.

The pink changeling groaned heavily, looking at her comrades. As expected, they didn’t look too pleased either, especially not Venom Stinger.

“Okay, if you guys are going do that. I’ll uh... catch up with you. I guess,” he said.

“What are you gonna—”

“See ya guys later!” he said quickly, before speeding off in a random direction.

“...He’s gonna ditch us with these guys, ain’t he?” Thistle muttered.

“I wouldn’t assume that actually...” Scorch said with a sheepish giggle.

“On second thought... I might have to go somewhere to,” Cricket said before shyly trotting off.

“Where to, Cricket?” Flutterwings asked.

“Somewhere nearby!” he called out. “I’ll catch you guys later!” he added before disappearing completely from their sight.

“Okaaay, so that leaves about four sixths of us then,” Spiny said before turning to the changeling leader. “So, shall we take a closer look at this ‘Feelings Forum’ then?”

“And that’s why craftime solves all my problems!”

“...Remember when I suggested taking a closer look at this place?” Spiny mumbled.

“I’m pretty sure we get it, Spines...” Scorch mumbled in an equally low tone.

“Seriously, where’s Venom at? And what did Cricket go do again?” Flutterwings turned her head at the entrance of the Feelings Forum, looking for any sight of either a green or blue reformed changeling.

“Oh, Cricket?” Thorax turned to the siblings. “Well, I saw him running towards the—”

“Guys!” a voice called out. “Guys, I’m here! I made it!”

Everyone turned to see a green reformed changelings running and breathing frantically towards the Feelings Forum.

Spiny squinted at the sight. “Wait... Is he covered in—”

“Oh, shoot! Everyone back up! Back up now!” Flutterwings called out as she, Spiny, and Scorch all scurried frantically out of Cricket’s path, pulling Thistle along with them.

The pink changeling looked at them with a confused expression. “Guys, w—”

As soon as she opened her mouth to ask them something, Cricket tripped and stumbled forward once he ran inside, falling on his front.

Thistle and the siblings watched as tiny white specks suddenly flew from Cricket and onto a few unfortunate changelings, who shrieked and groaned in disgust.

She squinted to inspect the tiny white specks that appeared to be squirming and slithering on the stone floor. Tadpoles? Worms?

Nope. Maggots. Little chubby white maggots.

Pharynx stared at the crime scene with his jaw agape. “C-Cricket!” he uttered after a few moments of dead silence. “Wh-Wha... what... what the-?! Wha...” his mouth stuttered continuously in an urge to find any proper words to describe... whatever this was.

“Uh... oops?” Cricket attempted as he flinched weakly.

“W-What is wrong with you?!” Pharynx finally said. “Why are you covered in maggots?! You look like you’ve been making out with a corpse!”

“Eheheh... well, it’s... complicated,” Cricket said, getting up and carefully dusting the remaining maggots off of his light green chitin. “I mean, I wanted to um... take in my surroundings... then I saw this maggot farm, and...”

“Wait, you guys have a maggot farm around here?” Spiny cut in.

“Er... yeah, heheh...” Thorax chuckled, rubbing a hoof on the back of his head. “Ocellus sometimes uses them in her personal projects.”

“Well, it was bad enough that I had to be dragged here yet again!” Pharynx growled in a low voice. “Now we have maggots... everywhere. Maggots everywhere.” He shook his head in disapproval at the wiggling larva.

“Thank the queen that Venom Stinger wasn’t here to see it,” Flutterwings said as she and the other three moved back to their original spots.

“Speaking of which...” Scorch pointed a hoof at the entrance. “Here he comes now.”

Everyone stopped chattering once they heard the sound of spraying from the entrance. They turned their heads towards the sounds to see...

Venom Stinger.

With a bottle of spray in hoof.

Disinfectant spray.

Upon walking in the Feeling’s Forum, Venom began spraying around the area. In the air, on the ground, in the corners, even on random changelings, who stared in blank confusion.

“Where did he get that spray bottle?” one of them asked.

“Where has he been keeping it?” another one wondered aloud.

Venom rolled his eyes—obviously not bothering to answer any of these questions—and kept spraying.

All the changelings kept staring at him. Heck, even the Feelings Forum Leader looked befuddled. “Ahem, Mister...” she attempted.

“Not now,” the blue changeling growled in annoyance. “Hold, on,” he said as he sprayed another few times. “Wait—“ Another spray.

“...Are you done yet?” she asked.

“Yes,” Venom said.

The Feelings Forum Leader opened her mouth to speak—

“No, wait!” Venom cut back in.

More spraying.

A few changelings groaned in impatience and exasperation.

“Seriously, Venom, what are you doing?” Spiny asked as soon as his brother finally sat down next to him.

Venom sighed. “I don’t know what these ‘new changelings’ are contaminated with,” he whispered, “but I do not like it!” He then took a whiff of the air around him. “Not to mention the room actually smelled like maggots as soon as I walked in.”
The Feelings Forum Leader sighed. “Very well, then...” She cleared her throat. “Now, who would like to step up and speak first?”

“I guess I will,” a random changeling raised his hoof before starting. “Well... lately I’ve been having inner thoughts... about what we used to be...”

The female changeling blinked. “Another one of those cases? That’s the third time this week.”

The other changeling nodded.

As the two of them began discussing the situation, Venom felt Spiny whispering in his ear. “While they’re going on about that,” he said, “you got any idea why we’re here?”

“You got any idea why we changed?”

“Nope, but something tells me she has something to do with it.” Spiny pointed a hoof at the Feelings Forum leader.

“Pfft. What did she do? Magically turn us into pastels with her ‘peace and harmony’?” Venom laughed a bit.

“This is no laughing matter, Venom!” Spiny glanced around the area. “Do you... do you think she’s a witch or something?!”

“Uhh—”

“That’s that! I’m calling it now!” Spiny leapt out of his seat, wagging a hoof at the Feelings Forum leader. “She’s a witch! A witch!”

Before they knew it, all eyes in the area suddenly fell on the teal changeling.

“You’re a witch, missy!”

“I-I’m a what?” the female changeling uttered.

“Way to spell it out, Captain Subtlety,” Venom muttered, rolling his eyes at his brother.

Thorax sighed heavily, walking towards the center and looking down at the teal changeling. “Look, Tiny—”

“Spiny.”

“Makes no difference,” Thorax coughed. “Just save your crazy creative conspiracies until after the Feelings Forum, okay?”

“Why? I mean, I am talking about my unresolved issues, aren’t I?”

“But you—”

“Now back off while I deal with this hag!”

“Spiny...”

“Venom, can I borrow that spray bottle? Is there any liquid left?”

“Just sit down.” Thorax forcefully pushed the blabbering changeling back to his seat.

Spiny grunted as he landed on his rump, folding his forelegs and letting out a huffy breath as the forum finally resumed without any more interruptions.

The Feelings Forum Leader smiled and turned back to her client. “Now then, dear, what were you saying?”

Venom turned back to Spiny. “Sheesh, this guy takes his ‘Feelsy Circle’ dang seriously. It’s like we’re being forced to take part in a love cult or something. And I thought Pharynx was this pushy... well, he still is, of course, but that’s besides the point. Because apparently his brother Thorax is no different.”

Thorax turned around to face the blabbering blue changeling, furrowing his brow in annoyance. “Venom...” he spoke. “We already explained the purpose of the Feelings Forum, haven’t we?”

“What? I was talking about my problems!”

The changeling leader blinked. “You were talking about me and Pharynx...”

“Exactly!” Venom answered with a proud grin.

Thorax could only stare in silence. His lips fiddled wordlessly, before giving up and sealing shut after moments of attempting to find something to say in defense.

The blue changeling snickered at Thorax’s state, kicking back and laying down on his sapphire carapace with a tiny grin plastered onto his face.

He laid there for a few minutes of the meeting, listening to the many words being exchanged between the other changelings in their discussion, not that he even bothered to count them, really. Too much hassle. Especially with heavy eyelids and absolutely no interest in this whole “Feelings Forum” crap…

“So, Tibia… have you and Cobalt finally sorted out your little situation?”

“We have. Thank Celestia… I thought Cobalt would never believe me… or even talk to me, for that matter.”

Great… Venom thought, struggling to force his eyes and ears open as he realized the forum was still in session. What is it now? A divorce? That would actually be much more pleasurable than whatever Tartarus I’m suffering right now.

“I’m just happy that everything between us is back to normal, and I’m even happier to have forgiven Cobalt…”

Within moments, Venom’s eyes suddenly took up ninety percent of his face. Oh nonono, he’s gone to that level?! I really am in Tartarus!

He jumped to his hooves, glaring at the back of a light yellow drone, who visibly flinched upon turning to meet Venom’s firm gaze. “...What?”

“...You okay, man?”

Tibia blinked. “Uh, yeah… are you?”

“Me? Of course I’m fine! But I’m asking you!”

“Asking… me?”

Venom furrowed his brow. “I’m gonna ask again, buddy.” He took a step closer. “Are you oh-kay?” He asked, giving the changeling a firm tap on the head with every syllable he uttered.

Tibia gritted his teeth, pushing the sky blue foreleg away. “I told you, I’m fine. What’s the matter with you?”

“Me? What’s the matter with you? Did you hit your head or something?”

“What? No!”

“I mean, if you were fine, you’d do the more reasonable thing and leave this ‘Colbalt’ jerk in the dumps!”

Tibia’s eyes widened, and his frown went agape. “W-Why would you—”

“Dude, I know it sounds crazy, but I’m actually doing you a favor, by telling you to do the right thing and—”

“I made it clear, I forgive him!”

Venom’s brow loosened from its furrowed position, and he let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, you definitely hit your head…”

“I did NOT hit my head!”

“What’s going on in here?”

Everyone in the room turned as a new voice made its debut in the already-arrogant conversation. At the entrance was a deep blue reformed changeling with golden orange eyes and a scarlet carapace.

Tibia gasped. “Cobalt! You finally came!” he said with a grin on his face.

“Of course I came! I wouldn’t miss any Feelings Forum for the world. What’s up?”

Tibia opened his mouth to speak, but Venom merely beat him to it.

“He hit his head badly,” he said with a rather toothy grin. “Now, if you could just maybe… I dunno, take him to a nurse, or at least get him out of here, that would be great, honestly.”

Venom could’ve swore he heard the audible smack of a random changeling facehoofing behind him. More than one, perhaps.

Tibia rolled his eyes and, without making any other movements, gave him a hard shove in the side; hard enough to send him stumbling to the nearest wall.

Venom grunted upon feeling the unpleasant impact, sitting up and rubbing his aching temple. As he recovered, he took the time to listen to the sentences being exchanged from the pair of changelings.

“I still can’t believe you’re not mad at me after what I did…”

“No sweat, Cobalt! It’s all in the past now.”

“Aww, I love you Tibia.”

“Right back at ya, buddy.”

And then they hugged.

Of course they hugged.

Venom’s brow furrowed. The longer his mind tried to process this information, the deeper his scowl got, and the more audible his growling became. He turned to his siblings as his cheeks took on a bright red color.

“Venom…” Spiny uttered in concern. “I think now’s the time to—”

“Give. Me. That. Spray bottle.”

Spiny gulped, before taking out the requested object and handing it to his brother.

As soon as Cobalt and Tibia drew out of their embrace, Venom strutted up to them, and his hoof began to unscrew at the top of the bottle…

Tibia turned to face him. “What are you—”

SPLOOSH!

Gasps of shock were heard as Venom splashed the liquid out of the bottle all over the changeling pair, watching them sputter while shaking their heads and buzzing their wings frantically. Thankfully, the liquid didn’t get in their eyes.

After a moment of staring at him with their eyes and mouths agape, Cobalt was the first to try and say something.

“W-Wha?! W-What is wrong with you?!”

Venom didn’t flinch. “You bugs disgust me,” he said, before throwing the now-empty bottle onto the floor, which let out a plastic thunk! as it bounced against the stony surface.

And with that, he began walking away.

Author's Note

I’m such a horrible person for not updating this story sooner. :pinkiecrazy:

The Crying Sky

“Chrysalis dang it, Thorax…” Venom grumbled as he stormed around the area, shooting nasty glares at the other innocent changelings—who were either casually minding their own business or participating in even more sappy group activities—every few moments.

“They say betraying the queen and leaving the hive was an audacious move, but this?” He waved a foreleg, gesturing his surroundings. “This is outright unacceptable!” he yelled out, ignoring the surprised and confused glances of a few of the other changelings, who stopped what they were doing as Venom continued ranting.

“I mean, seriously!” he said as he started pacing back and forth. “Just what kind of sane ‘ruler’ does this to his subjects?! Out of all the things he could’ve made changes to, other than our appearances, he decided to change our lifestyle!” he stamped a foreleg on the ground. “And you know what everyone has to say about it? ‘Oh, what a fine idea, your highness! Go ahead and start getting rid of literally everything that made us superior to ponykind; just leave me in charge of tearing down each and every one of our defense systems in favor of forming a THERAPEUTIC CULT!’”

“Ahem.”

“Gah!” Venom yelped, turning around to see Pharynx towering over him with an unamused expression. “...How long have you been standing there?!”

“Since you started ranting to literally no one… or at least, no one who asked for your opinion,” Pharynx said flatly.

“Oh, so you’re saying you support these guys then?” Venom jabbed a hoof against the diamonds on Pharynx’s chest. “What happened, Mr. ‘Head-of-Patrol’? Gave up your job and what, now you’re probably working in a nursery?”

“What?! No! I—” Pharynx growled, before pressing a hoof to the changeling’s mouth in an attempt to keep him from saying anything else. “Look, I can’t believe I’m saying this to you out of all living beings, but…” he sighed heavily. “I… I get where you’re coming from.”

Venom blinked a few times. “Get where what now?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled by Pharynx’s hoof.

“What I’m saying is that I’ve been in your hoofshoes before.”

“How?”

“Long story short; you remember Chrysalis’ failed plan to take over Equestria, right?”

“...Which one?” Venom deadpanned.

“You were there during the wedding invasion, right?”

Venom opened his mouth to explain, but lowered his head and responded with a flat “...No.”

“Good, so then—” Pharynx froze before he could start rambling. “Wait… hold on. Did… did you just say ‘no’?”

“...Yes.”

“Why?”

“You don’t know? Us rankless bugs we hardly ever allowed to participate in such events. The only time me and my siblings were allowed to do that was when we were sent to infiltrate the royal ponies of both Canterlot and the Crystal Empire.”

“Wait… those five changelings who were sent to impersonate the alicorn sisters and the royal family of the Crystal Empire…” Pharynx’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Out of all the possible changeling candidates she could’ve sent… she chose you guys?”

“Well, yeah… you got a problem with that?”

“Problem? Problem?” Pharynx leaned down to stare Venom dead in the eye. “As far as I know, you guys probably have little to no experience with impersonating royalty! Of course I have a problem with it!”

“Sheesh. The way you’re saying it makes it sound like you’re saying that you’d do a better job at impersonating the Princess of Love.” Venom folded his forelegs.

Pharynx started snickering upon hearing that part. “You were disguising as the Princess of Love?!”

Venom’s eyes bulged. “Uhh… we… drew… straws?” he uttered, desperately trying to think of an excuse.

Pharynx was laughing now. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Pharynx, I swear if you start telling everyone—”

“Hey, guys!” Pharynx turned to the small crowd of changelings that were currently taking the time to inspect the situation. “Did you hear that? Venom— mph!”

“Dude, are you crazy?!” Venom said as he slapped a hoof over Pharynx’s mouth, struggling as Pharynx fought to push him away.

“Get off me!” the taller changeling spat.

“Promise to keep your dang mouth shut!”

“Never!”

“Then I’m not budging!”

“Let go!” Pharynx’s body suddenly jolted to the side, sending the blue changeling tumbling onto the stone ground.

“Oof!” Venom grunted and rubbed his temple, before looking back up at the changeling and flinching at his angry glare.

Pharynx breathed heavily as he slowly trotted up to the younger changeling, growling through his gritted teeth in a threateningly low tone as he bent down to his eye level. “You… little…”

His sentence was suddenly cut short when the two heard a deep rumbling noise from above. When they looked up, they saw that the clouds had darkened to a very deep gray.

“...Oh.” Pharynx said flatly as a water droplet hit the very tip of nose.

“Ohhhh…” Venom uttered with both wide eyes and a gaping jaw as a few more drops fell around them both.

Pharynx lowered his head to stare at Venom’s surprisingly astounded expression. “...What?”

“Nothing.” Venom looked back at him.

“Why are you—”

“Everyone! Over here!”

The two turned their heads to see Thorax standing at a large, cave-like entrance. He was calling out for each and every one of his subjects, who had abandoned their outdoor activities completely and were now running to whatever indoor environment they could find.

“Hurry inside, before the storm gets worse!”

“What’s he bellowing about?” Venom furrowed his brow.

Pharynx sighed as the rainfall intensified. “He’ll explain when you get inside.”

“What?! But what if I—”

“I said when! Not if! Now come on!” Pharynx grabbed the younger changeling and dragged him away. “And we’re gonna actually finish our conversation once we get out of this rainstorm!”

Venom blinked. Is that what they call it?

Venom folded his forelegs and let out a huffy breath as he sat on the floor. Stupid Thorax, stupid Pharynx… it’s just all so STUPID!

He, along with practically the entire swarm of colorful changelings, was currently sitting in a large and spacious room filled with pillows and blankets while the storm continued its rapid downpour outside. “I barely even got to see the falling droplets!” he complained aloud. “Why are we even supposed to fear the falling drops of water? What are we, aquaphobes?”

Thorax trotted over to him. “Venom, heavy rainfall does more damage to us changelings than you think,” he explained. “Sure, we can handle a little shower, but severe downpours can damage our wings and make it more difficult for us to fly.”

Venom raised a brow at the changeling king. “Soooo?”

“Soooo.” An unexpected grin spread across Thorax’s face as he put a hoof around the blue changeling. “I made a decision that every time a severe storm breaks out, we all gather around in this room just to take the time to socialize and get to know each other! Ooh, and we’ve managed to collect the hive’s stash of pillows and blankets for us to use!”

Venom shuddered. “...Pillows?”

“Yeah! Sounds fun, right?” Thorax beamed.

Fun? Venom’s scowl deepened as he stood up. “Look at this!” he said, his hoof hastily gesturing towards the tightly-packed clusters of changelings that were laying about nearly every inch of the floor. “We’re all jam-packed in here to the point where there’s literally no room to walk or even breathe!”

Thorax frowned for a brief second, before chuckling sheepishly. “It may seem that way, but—”

An audible clap of thunder cut him off, followed by a series of high-pitched shrieks from a few of the nymphs, who huddled close to their nearby guardians for protection.

Venom put his hooves over his ears in a pitiful attempt to block out the ear-piercing commotion in the room. “Ugh! Even my ears have to suffer in this mess!”

Thorax sighed, before turning to face the crowd of changelings. “Okay, everyone, settle down!” he spoke in the loudest volume possible for his subjects to hear. “I know not everyone has gotten used to our ways of dealing with heavy thunderstorms, but all we could do is make the best of it while we’re all together. So…” He raised a foreleg in the air with a bright smile. “Who’s with me for another one of the hive’s annual slumber fests?”

The majority of his subjects cheered. Some of them even started prancing around the room and hugging their pillows and blankets, chittering and buzzing with pure joy and excitement.

One of Venom’s eyelids twitched. His mouth curved in a forced, almost frightening toothy grin, and his blood began boiling. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his dry throat, bending forward before throwing his head up with a loud scream;

“NO!”

Once again, everyone stopped and turned towards the young changeling. Within mere seconds, the entire room was taken over by a long moment of dead silence, save for the audible drumming of the heavy rainfall outside, as well as the sounds of Venom breathing heavily through his gritted teeth.

Thorax’s lips moved wordlessly for a few seconds. “Venom… this is just—”

“Don’t even try to change my mind about this, mister!” Venom yelled as he stormed over to the now-cowering changeling king. “Cause guess what; No one cares about your stupid leadership, your stupid therapy groups, and I especiallydon’t give a flying firefly about your stupid slumber fests!” he spat, closing in more and more on Thorax with every emphasized word. “And you know what else? You could throw a colorful paint job and maybe a flower crown on a changeling, but they’re still a changeling! So why bother trying to change what we are?!”

Thorax bit back a whimper as his back was met with the stone wall of the room. “Venom, please, just listen—”

“No! No! No!” Venom shook his head furiously, swatting his foreleg in the air. “You listen here, because I am done listening! I am done with this nonsense! I’m done with this way of life!” he sharply turned his back to the taller changeling, before galloping away from the shocked-silent crowd of changelings.

Thorax’s ears lowered as he watched the changeling depart. Nonetheless, he reached a hoof out. “Venom, wait! Where are you go-”

“I don’t know and I don’t care!”

Venom continued galloping, going up a narrow hallway that seemed to ascend to an upper floor. Once he reached that floor, he took a sharp turn and entered a smaller, darker, and much emptier room, before eventually collapsing right in the very center of it.

He laid silently on his front, catching his breath and biting his quivering lip.

What the heck is wrong with me? Why did this even happen?

As the questions began flooding his mind, Venom’s foreleg reached out in front of him blindly, before eventually grasping an unfamiliar object and pulling it towards himself to gaze upon it.

It was a small, hoof-held mirror with a few visible cracks in the glass, and in that mirror, of course, was his reflection.

Venom felt his eyes starting to moisten as he continued to stare at it. At the light blue chitin. At the shiny sapphire carapace. At the unnaturally sparkling gossamer mane.

His reflection could only stare back at him. Except it didn’t feel his reflection at all.

Not anymore.

He watched as a single tear ran down his face and splashed against the cracked surface of the mirror, before tightening his grip on the handle and hurling the object towards the wall with a feisty snarl.

Venom didn’t even flinch upon hearing the audible shattering of the glass. He merely buried his face in his forelegs and continued to cry silently to himself.

He hated his appearance. He hated himself.

But he would probably be fine, just as long as they didn’t follow him here.

“Venom?”

...Frick.

“Go away…” was his only answer. “Leave me alone to die…”

“Venom, it’s us. No one else has followed you.”

Sniffling, Venom wiped his eyes and face with a hoof, before lifting his head off the floor and turning to see his four siblings standing at the entrance of the room. Of course, Thistle was there too, staring at the blue changeling with a genuinely concerned expression.

“Guys?” Venom croaked out. “Where have you been?”

“Long story,” Spiny said. “We were planning to go after you once you ran off from that… Feelings Circle thingy, and… and then the sky started crying and Thorax freaked out and told everyone to get inside.” He exhaled and added, “It was certainly hard to navigate through that massive crowd of changelings.”

“No kidding,” Venom muttered with a roll of his eyes. “I don’t see how anyone even approves of these changes. Nor do I see why we’re supposed to socialize with other changelings.” Another clap of thunder rang through the room, making the blue changeling groan audibly as he turned towards the open window nearby. “Ugh… if there was a way to turn the sky off.”

“Perhaps,” Scorch said with a shrug.

“Maybe there is…” Flutterwings trotted towards the open window, listening to another loud roar of thunder. “Hey, SHUT UP!” she yelled while sticking her head out the window as the noise lingered away. However, she kept her head out to continue looking at what was going on in the outside world. “...Wooaahh.”

“What is it, Flutters?” Cricket asked.

“You guys gotta come see this! Holy roly poly, it’s actually amazing!”

The other five changelings all looked out the window, all of them gasping in a mix of both shock and amazement. They watched as the rain continued to fall, gazing at the large puddles being formed down below.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never seen anything like this back at the queen’s kingdom!” Flutterwings exclaimed, waving her forelegs around in excitement.

“Probably because we were always indoors whenever it happened… but still… wow,” Thistle uttered. “I’ve never seen anything like it either.”

“Same here! You guys wanna get a closer look?” Venom asked.

They thought for a moment. “Eh, it’ll definitely beat having to deal with them, so… sure, why not?” Thistle shrugged.

Everyone immediately agreed. “So,” Spiny said, “who’s going out the window first?”

Cricket’s eyes bulged. “Wait, why are we using the window?”

“Because, Cricket,” the teal changeling explained, “if we take the main entrance of the hive, we’ll easily get caught. Besides, we can’t be that high up, are we?”

The changelings stuck their heads back out the window and looked down at the ground, which was a pretty good distance beneath them, about fifteen feet down.

“Eh, doesn’t look too bad,” Flutterwings said.

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Venom grinned, buzzing his wings and leaping out the window to start his flight…

“AAAAAAHHHHH!”

The other five changelings jumped upon hearing the blue changeling screaming as he fell to the ground. They stared out the window with wide eyes as Venom groaned in pain, climbing out of a large pile of leaves and vines and shakily trying to get back up on his hooves. “Agh… that could’ve been worse,” he admitted, brushing the leaves off his body before eyeing the open window.

“Did… did you just forget you could fly?” Thistle uttered.

“I tried doing that! But this ‘rain’ just seemed to weigh down my wings!” Venom exclaimed.

Spiny put a hoof to his chin. “Huh. Maybe these changelings were right about the rain damaging these new wings,” he said, buzzing his own gossamer wings.

Venom rolled his eyes; he didn’t have time for any of that crap. “Come on, guys, come down already!”

Flutterwings was next; she used the largest ridges found on the hive’s exterior to climb down to the lowest level possible, before jumping down and landing on her side. “Oof!”

Cricket and Thistle followed suit, though Cricket eventually misstepped and slid down the stony exterior of the hive, crashing into Thistle and sending them both to the sopping wet ground.

After that, it was Spiny and Scorch’s turn. Spiny decided to make his move and grab onto one of the thin vines that were strung across the stone. “This thing probably won’t hold more than one, so we’re gonna have to—”

“Hang on, Spiny, I’m coming with you,” the red changeling said, letting his hooves get a tight grip on the vine, before using said vine to swing forward.

“Scorch, wait—”

SNAP!

“Oof!” they grunted in unison as they hit the solid ground.

“Dude!” Spiny glared at his older brother in annoyance. “What did I just say?!”

“Chill out, at least we landed safely… ish.” Scorch looked around.

“Yeah… ‘safelyish’.”

“Come on, you two! No time for any more banter!” Venom suddenly popped up between the two. “We have to enjoy this natural phenomenon while it lasts!”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Flutterwings cheered.

And so, they all began running together as a team while the heavy rain poured on.

“FREEDOOOOOOOM!”

Pharynx looked over to his brother, who had been sitting on his haunches in one of the far corners of the room with his head hung low for the past five minutes. Maybe even more than that. Who even knew?

Nonetheless, he walked over and bent down to his Thorax’s eye level. “...Hey.”

“Hey…”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Sure…”

Pharynx obliged, carefully sitting down next to Thorax, whose head only sunk down lower while his lip began quivering. That being said, Pharynx decided to cut to the chase; “Let me guess,” he began, “this is about Venom, isn’t it?”

Thorax lifted his head a little. “How’d you know?”

“Thorax, I’ve dealt with him more often than you think. He may be six years younger than me, but he’s a huge pain in the carapace.”

“So what?” Thorax looked off to the side. “Isn’t he right about… you know.”

“What? That you’re a bad leader that no one cares about? Heck no!” Pharynx said firmly as he scooted closer. “Venom doesn’t know what he’s ranting about! He never does, Thorax!”

“But…” Thorax bit his lower lip, wiping his eyes a little. “Out of everyone else here… wouldn’t you understand him?”

Pharynx furrowed his brow, displaying an “are you out of your mind?” expression. “Me? Understand him? Hmph. As if.”

“Okay, okay, have it your way.” The younger brother sighed heavily.

Pharynx did the same, before putting a hoof on Thorax’s shoulder. “Look, what I’m trying to say here is that Venom was wrong about you; sure, you made some stupid and idiotic decisions nowadays, but that’s part of being a leader, Thorax. Now do yourself and your subjects a favor and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Okay?” He smiled a bit.

After a moment, Thorax smiled too. “Thanks, Phar.”

“Anytime. Now if you excuse me…” Pharynx got up to his hooves and began trotting away. “I have some… errands to run.”

“Er… Pharynx…” Thorax’s smile faded. “You’re not going to—”

“Relax, I’m only going to have a serious talk with the kid,” the prince explained. “I’ll see you in a few minutes, okay?”

Thorax opened his mouth to speak, before sighing and nodding. “Okay…”

Pharynx grinned, before continuing to walk up the hallway to the second floor. As he made his way up, however, he began thinking to himself, wondering if his brother was right about Venom.

Now that he mentions it, he thought, I do recall that one time I blew up at the Feelings Forum… and also that time where I kept destroying all the plant life, and all those times I poured black paint on—

Pharynx shook his head. No, no, no. So what if you’ve been in his hoof shoes before? Venom has no excuse for what he said to your brother. That feisty, little…

The changeling stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the open entrance to an empty room. “Hm?” Pharynx tilted his head, before trotting inside. Wait… isn’t this where Venom could’ve possibly went? There’s literally no other rooms up here!

He began frantically galloping around the room, looking left and right, up and down, and in every corner of the room for any sign of the blue reformed changeling. “Come on, come on, come on… where are you?!”

A rumble of thunder quickly snapped him out of the searching process. Pharynx turned around at the open window, feeling his eyes widen and his throat run dry. No, no, nonononono…

He started sweating heavily as he stared at the horizon, through the heavy rainfall and into the distance; Venom couldn’t be stupid enough to go out there? On his own? What about his siblings? Could they…?

No… NO!

Pharynx rushed to the window, before sticking his head out and letting out a loud scream that could even be heard over the ear-deafening crackling of the thunder;

“VENOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

“Hey, guys, look, look! I can do a super-move!” Venom exclaimed as he galloped through the rainshower.

“What’s your super-move?” Cricket looked over.

“I can do this!” the blue changeling said as he slid through a large puddle of water, splashing the other five changelings. “Yeah!”

The others laughed at his excitement. Flutterwings then walked up. “Well, watch me do a splash! Look!” She rushed up to the deepest puddle she could find and leapt right into it, before trotting her little hooves in it. “Wooo! It’s fun having some tasty freedom!” she said as she hopped up and down, sloshing more water all over her already sopping-wet brothers.

“Pfft, them dinky candybugs, scared of a little something called ‘rain’.” Scorch kicked his back leg through another shallow puddle. “So what if it gets our wings wet? It’s just water!”

“A whole lot of water!” Flutterwings agreed, scooping up some water and tossing it in the air with her forehooves. “This is awesome!”

“So guys,” Thistle spoke. “What do you think the queen would have to say about all this?”

“What? All this rain?” Venom gestured to the falling droplets. “No clue. She probably wouldn’t be very pleased about it getting in her leg holes… you know, since she still has ‘em.”

“So do you think she’d know the reason why we lost ‘em, Venom?”

“What do you mean, Spiny?”

“I mean, if anyone knows the way back there, and if we calmly explain our situation, maybe we—”

“Spiny, Spiny, Spiny,” Venom cut his brother off, “that is a terrible idea.”

“Why’s it terrible?”

“Well, first of all, have you seen our queen whenever she physically deals with traitors of her hive?!”

“Uh… no, I guess not…” Spiny answered before adding, “...have you?”

Venom blinked, before waving a foreleg dismissively. “Okay, whatever, but we’re not going back there!”

“Why? You already made it clear that you hate the ‘new ways’, didn’t you?”

“Well, of course I hate the new ways!” Venom snapped as he stamped a hoof into a puddle. By now, the rest of the changelings present had stopped what they were doing to listen to him. “Upon arrival, I’ve been fully aware of how destructive these ‘new ways’ are to our species, unlike King Hit-Me-With-An-Ax apparently, but I’m also fully aware of how insanely irrational it is for any ‘ling to just go up and present their pastel-painted flanks to their queen like they won’t get smacked on their glitterbug behind for it.”

Spiny swallowed heavily. “Venom, it’s—”

“It’s as bad as it sounds and I’m standing by it!” Venom yelled loudly over the next clap of thunder that shortly ensued…

…as well as a loud roar that echoed in the distance.

The six changelings froze in place, in the midst of the dead silence save for the dripping of the rain and the faint thunder rumbling. “...What was that?!” Venom uttered with both his eyes and mouth as wide as dinner plates.

“...Do we really need an answer?” Cricket asked, already looking like he wanted to flee for his life.

“Well if you want an answer, why not ask that giant mole-bear thing?” Flutterwings said as she pointed a hoof.

Venom swallowed. “Mole-bear thing?”

He turned to look behind him, and his throat became a desert when he saw what was standing there.

A big, fat, blue mole-like creature towered above the group, its yellow eyes glaring down at its future prey and its dirty claws grasping at the moist, muddy ground.

The Change Gang screamed then and there, before running as fast as their legs can take them, even more so when they heard the creature chasing after them.

“Maulwurf!” Scorch shouted.

“It’s gonna eat us all!” Flutterwings yelled.

“Take cover! AAAH!” Spiny screamed.

“Why’s it even chasing us out of all things? Don’t these things eat plants like General Scarab keeps saying?!”

“The plants at this hive are all wilted, Venom!” Spiny called out. “No living floral entities means no food! Apparently we’re a last resort for this big chump!”

“Hey guys, look!” Thistle pointed her hoof at what appeared to be a large forest nearby. Without any further hesitation, the six changelings immediately dashed for the woods, running through the clusters and clusters of tall trees.

“Hide in here!” Flutterwings exclaimed as they darted into the hollow gaping hole of what appeared to be a huge fallen tree, struggling to catch their breaths upon finally stopping.

And so, they waited, listening to the patter of the rain and the rumbling and crackling of the thunder.

“...You guys think it’s still chasing after us?” Cricket asked after a few minutes of stillness.

“I… don’t think so,” Thistle answered, poking her head out of the hole before slowly trotting out and gazing at her surroundings. “...woah,” she uttered in a shaky breath, and her five fellow changelings did the same thing.

They took the moment to watch as the rain trickled down the thick tree trunks, dripped off the dangling vines, leaves, and canopies, and pooled around the roots that poked their ways out of the soaking wet ground. They especially admired how the bigger leaves seemed to catch the falling raindrops and continue collecting them until they couldn’t hold anymore and gave in. Other leaves were simply speckled with shining and sparkling water droplets that dripped off the tips and undersides, and tube-like plants and branches alike simply guided the flowing water to the ground.

“What is this place?” Flutterwings asked aloud as she admired the lush environment.

“I have no idea, but it’s amazing,” Cricket said with a gentle smile. “No way have we ever seen anything like this at the queen’s hive.”

Scorch ran a hoof through the droplet-decorated plants. “Who even knew that the environment of the new hive even came with this?”

“Say, are we even at the new hive anymore?” Thistle pondered.

“Who cares if we’re even at the new hive anymore?” Venom scoffed as he began trotting while turning his head to gaze at the world around him. “Just as long as we’re away from those freaky cuddlebugs, and that dang maulwurf…”

Upon saying that, he suddenly felt himself collide with a taller but firm and stiff figure, and he looked up to see two very familiar lavender eyes glaring daggers back down at him.

Oh crap…

“Well, technically, he’s not a cuddlebug, or a maulwurf,” Spiny casually pointed out as Venom began cowering under Pharynx’s stone cold glare.

“I… I… I—”

“What do you guys think you’re doing out here?!” Pharynx finally bellowed loudly, causing the six changelings to jump and flinch. “Do you guys have any idea how dangerous it is to be all the way out here on your own?!”

“Well, uh… I… we…” Venom desperately tried to search for an explanation as his eyes darted side-to-side.

“Don’t even bother explaining yourself, you little pest! It won’t do you any good!”

The blue changeling bit his lip, his ears starting to lower. He then heard Pharynx sigh heavily.

“You guys are in so much trouble once we get back to the hive. Now let’s go.” Pharynx firmly turned around and began walking towards the forest’s opening.

The Change Gang looked at each other with worried and unsure expressions. Spiny reached a hoof out towards the departing changeling. “But Pharynx…”

“No buts, Spiny, now come on.”

“Pharynx…” Spiny began slowly trotting after him

“We can talk later,” Pharynx spat, ignoring the slight trembling of the ground.

“Pharynx!”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake, what is it?!” the taller changeling yelled in a loud voice, only to be followed by an even louder roar. He stood in place for a good minute, before turning around to see the mole-bear thing itself roaring over the crackling of the thunder as the lightning flashed in the sky.

“Maulwurf! RUN!” the changelings screamed as they fled back into the woods, dragging the changeling prince with them.

“Guys, wait, what are you all doing?!” Pharynx shouted as he tried to pull away from all six of their surprisingly strong grasps. “Let me take care of this thing!”

“Not now! He’s gaining on us!” Cricket yelled behind him. “We have to outrun him first!”

“I don’t have time for this!” Pharynx grunted as he pushed his way through the group and began charging towards the rampaging beast.

Venom’s jaw dropped as he watched this happen. “What are you doing?!”

Pharynx didn’t answer; he shapeshifted into what appeared to be a huge winged-spider, big enough to start ramming into the maulwurf in a desperate attempt to take it down.

“Pharynx, that’s not going to work!” Thistle yelled. “We need an actual plan!”

The maulwurf let out a deafening roar, knocking away the spider-like monster, which immediately turned back into the changeling prince upon hitting a large tree trunk. “Augh!” Pharynx grunted loudly as his carapace met the unpleasant surface of the wood, then slowly looked up to see the monster closing in on him while letting out a low growl…

THUNK!

The beast grunted as a large stone was hurled against its back. Pharynx’s eyes widened as he saw Scorch, Spiny, and Flutterwings tossing as many rocks as they could. How much damage they did didn’t matter, it was the best distraction they could think of for the moment.

Fortunately, it was enough time for Pharynx to get back up on his hooves and start darting away from the creature. “This way, guys!” he yelled.

The wind continued to pick up as they got closer to the opening. Harder and harder it blew through the trees, until a loud cracking noise was audible.

“Guys! I think that tree’s gonna pull a timber on us! We might not make it!” Scorch yelled.

“We have to try! Keep running!” Pharynx yelled back as they began going faster and faster.

By the time they all made it out of the forest…

CRASH!

The seven changelings turned around to see the large fallen tree… which had crashed right on top of the snarling maulwurf’s back, pinning it to the ground. They watched and cringed as the creature attempted to take a few swings at them with its free claws, before eventually giving up and burrowing its way into the ground.

“...I think we’ve had enough excitement for today,” Pharynx said.

“Pharynx! There you are!” Thorax galloped over to his brother, who was shaking himself dry along with the rest of the Change Gang. “Where have you been? I was worried sick!” he said, grabbing Pharynx’s shoulders.

“Thorax, I…” Pharynx sighed heavily upon seeing the Change Gang’s sullen expressions; they knew what trouble they would be in. Venom was especially ready for the verbal smackdown of his life, squeezing his eyes shut and biting his lower lip. Though, Pharynx couldn’t help but recall what had happened back in the forest. He was about to become sliced up like a fish, but the Change Gang…

“Well?” Thorax asked impatiently.

Pharynx shook his head before finally answering, “I wanted to see if any changelings had gotten lost outside, and… and…” He swallowed before continuing. “I decided to take these guys with me,” he said, gesturing towards the six changelings next to him. “Just so they would be… you know…”

Thorax sighed, facehoofing. “Pharynx, why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve let you out for only twenty minutes or so!”

“I know, I know,” Pharynx mumbled. He looked to the side, noticing the Change Gang’s stunned silent faces. Thistle and Cricket were staring with eyes bulging out of their sockets, Flutterwings looked like she wanted to say something, while Scorch and Spiny were staring at each other as if to say “is he really gonna do this?”

Of course, the one expression that stuck out to him the most was Venom’s; his jaw had dropped to the floor and his lips moved wordlessly as he continuously uttered, “But… but… but…”

“You guys go ahead and settle down somewhere, I’ll… take it from here. I really need to have a word with Pharynx here.” Thorax waved a hoof towards the six shocked changelings with a forced grin.

The Change Gang nodded, and they began trudging past the thousands of sleeping changelings… or at least five of them did, anyway.

Venom simply waited in the corner until the brothers were done with their conversation. He didn’t exactly listen to what was being said and exchanged.

For once in his life, he didn’t care about that.

For once in his life, he actually wanted to talk to Pharynx after this.

Author's Note

...Well, surprise. Another chapter. A loooong chapter.

Also, if you guys couldn’t tell already, the rain idea was inspired by NavelColt’s works, such as this one and this one,

It was also slightly inspired this song by CG5.

So... yeah. That’s that.

Bedbugs

“Why did you do that?”

Pharynx’s eyes widened once he saw the blue changeling sitting and gazing up at him. “Do what?” he asked as he sat down on his haunches right next to him.

“That… that-that…” Venom struggled with his words for a few moments. “That thing you pulled off back there with Thorax. You had your chance to tell him that we ran off from the hive on our own, so… why’d you blow it?”

The changeling prince merely chuckled. “Well, for one, your siblings did hold off that beast from slicing me up like a fish back there… I mean, sure you guys aren’t that capable of actually taking down a maulwurf all by yourselves,” Pharynx admitted, smirking at Venom’s annoyed expression, “but… you still have a chance. A very small one, but still a chance.”

“Hmph. Barely,” the blue changeling remarked, folding his forelegs. After a moment, however, he looked up at Pharynx again. “So… you still got chewed out by that Thorax dude, right?”

“Indeed I did. I’d describe how intense the verbal smackdown was, but it actually needed to be seen to be believed. I’m so proud of my little bro.”

Venom’s eyes widened. “Proud?” he uttered.

“Well, yeah. For a long time, I never thought he could do it.”

“Do what? Toughen up and put his hoof down for once?”

“Exactly.”

“Big whoop. Usually changelings are taught how to suck everything up at age five. Then again, maybe your brother is five.”

“Very funny, kid.” Pharynx rolled his eyes before leaning in and muttering, “though, I won’t actually doubt that theory.”

The two laughed a bit.

“Heheh…” Venom looked off to the side. “So… he’s a ruler of this whole changeling kingdom now.”

“He has been for a while.”

“Time flies, doesn’t it?”

“It certainly does. Never knew my brother had such a long road ahead of him until recently…”

The blue changeling glanced back at Pharynx again. “What do you mean?”

“Well kid, you know that old story about the changeling who was considered an outcast by the other changelings running away from the hive to seek love and acceptance from others?”

Venom furrowed his brow. “Which one?”

Pharynx opened his mouth to answer, only to dismissively wave a foreleg. “Okay, fair point. What I’m trying to say is that my brother was actually that one type of changeling ever since he came out of his egg. No one could really answer why, but he just was… apparently.”

“Yeah, yeah, pretty sure everyone is aware of that… by now,” Venom said dryly.

Nonetheless, Pharynx continued. “He told me the entire story; how he ended up in the Crystal Empire, how he met Spike, how he was nearly thrown in prison by that Shining Armor guy for being a changeling, yadda yadda yadda… Believe it or not, I was still filled with holes when everyone else in this hive had already transformed. Did you know that?”

Now, the younger changeling was interested. “Actually, no I didn’t…”

“...You didn’t?” Pharynx parroted. “How?”

Venom stared like a deer in headlights for a moment. “Uhhh… I’ll um… tell you in the morning.”

“Morning? How do you know it’s night right no—”

“Goodnight!” Venom shouted as he dashed off as quickly as possible.

Pharynx sighed heavily as he watched the blue changeling disappear from his sight. Hmph. Hopefully that will at least get him thinking about what he said to my brother. It better. He turned around to face the limp horde of snoozing changelings, right in the middle of which laid Thorax.

The older changeling slowly walked past the pile and went up the stone staircase that led to the second floor. He walked inside one of the bedrooms and began climbing into the slightly shabby bed before laying his head into the pillow.

With that, shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep…

Or, at least, he tried to.

“So uh… where are we sleeping again?”

Pharynx opened his eyes, blinking back the haze of sleep. He looked up to see the blue raspberry bug himself gazing down at him. “...You’re all sleeping in the other room, Venom. It’s either that or you’ll be sleeping down there with everyone else.”

“But it’s so dirty in there and there’s only one stinkin’ bed!” Venom complained. “A literal! Stinkin’! Bed! Actually, I wouldn’t even call it a bed. It’s… it’s a brick with a bedsheet!”

“Tell me, which one you’d rather then,” Pharynx spoke, getting up to directly match the changeling’s eye level. “Sleeping on a brick, or slumbering with my brother?”

Venom suddenly looked at Pharynx as if he had committed mass genocide. “What?! Are you crazy?!”

“That’s what I thought, kid. Now come on. Let’s just get your five siblings and—”

“Dude, I have four siblings.”

“Right, right. What, is the fifth one your girlfriend or something?”

“No!”

“Jeez… I see they haven’t really cleaned up this place in a while,” Pharynx admitted, turning on a nearby lantern as he and the six changelings looked around the bedroom.

It, indeed, had only one bed with two flimsy mattresses stacked on top of each other. The bedsheet was also quite a mess; it had become completely detached from the mattresses and was now dangling lopsidedly off the edge of the bed, not to mention the pillows were completely stripped from their cases.

“I don’t like this, Pharynx,” Cricket muttered dejectedly, accompanied by the agreeing nods of his peers.

“Come on, guys, it’s not that terrible,” the changeling said as he dusted the bed off. “Just needs a bit of rearranging, really. Clean sheets, better pillows, not to mention—”

“Since when did the queen ever give you the role of ‘interior decorator’?” Venom cut the changeling prince off. “I mean, they could’ve given you that instead of—”

“Save it, kid,” Pharynx snapped. He then climbed up onto the bed’s mattress, testing its flexibility and texture. “See guys? It’s absolutely nothing like a brick.”

“I’m pretty sure we’d all still rather sleep on two bricks than one, Pharynx,” Thistle quipped.

“...Noted,” he murmured flatly, getting back up to his hooves, before grabbing hold of the bedsheet that enveloped the two mattresses. “Just give me a second, guys.”

After a long series of tugs and pulls, Pharynx pulled the sheet off the mattresses and tossed it off to the side; he wasn’t gonna need it. He then lifted the top mattress off of the bottom one and maneuvered it onto the bedroom floor. He proceeded to do the exact same with the second mattress, laying it down right next to the first one. To finish the process off, Pharynx laid out the pillows and spread out the blankets as evenly as possible across the mattresses.

“And that should do it,” he finally said, turning to the Change Gang. “So, what do you guys think?”

The six changelings walked up to the makeshift beds, gazing down upon them. “Hmmm…” Spiny hummed monotonously, carefully stepping onto the mattresses and walking around on them for a bit. He then laid down onto one of them. “Seems good enough,” he said. The others nodded in agreement as they sat onto the makeshift beds.

Pharynx breathed a sigh of relief at that notion. “That’s all I needed to hear,” he said, making his way out the doorway. “Do whatever. Just don’t do anything stupid, now. You hear me?”

“Uh… okay,” Thistle answered.

“Good.”

Upon finally reaching the other bedroom, Pharynx climbed back into bed and pulled the covers over him, albeit in a much more tight manner than usual. He let out a heavy sigh as he turned to the opposite side of the bed, curling in a fetal position. When did it get so cold in here? he thought bitterly as he gritted his teeth and wrapped his legs around himself. I can practically see my own breath!

CRASH!

The changeling nearly jumped out of his chitin as soon as he heard that deafening sound. What the?! he thought as he jolted upwards and began galloping towards the next door room…

…He was lucky enough to swiftly dodge a flying pillow upon entering.

Pharynx glared at the sight in front of him; there were at least a million of those downy white feathers floating and lingering around in the room, and the undefined number of them just kept increasing with every smack of the pillow that was courtesy of Scorch, Venom, or Flutterwings as the three of them continued to engage in their pillow fight.

Unsurprisingly or not, the other three weren’t behaving any better; Thistle and Cricket were squashed and sandwiched between the two mattresses as Spiny kept climbing on top of them, squishing them even more.

“Hey, HEY!” Pharynx screamed at the top of his lungs, prying Spiny off, allowing Cricket and Thistle to climb out and sigh in relief. “What do you numbskulls think you’re doing?!”

Everyone immediately froze upon hearing his bellowing voice, and for a good moment there wasn’t any movement in the room save for the drifting pillow feathers.

Venom took the time to appraise his messy surroundings. “Eheheh… the results seemed a lot better in my head.”

“Why aren’t any of you attempting to sleep?!”

“We couldn’t!” Flutterwings responded.

Pharynx rolled his eyes, picking up the nymph and firmly laying her down on the mattress, before turning to the others. “I don’t have time for any of this, now get to bed.”

Everyone sighed and grumbled in defeat, lying down on the mattresses and pulling the covers up.

“Thank you,” the general said firmly, turning to trot back to the other bedroom. He was just about halfway into bed upon hearing yet another loud crash, making him jump out of his chitin yet again. Seriously?! he thought as he galloped back inside the room to see them all pillow-fighting to the very death.

“Guys, quit it!” Pharynx bellowed as he tried to separate them, Thistle and Scorch seemed to obey upon hearing his annoyance, but Venom and Flutterwings kept on going as if they didn’t hear. “Come on, stop it! Stop it right now, get to bed!” he shoved the brother-and-sister opponents, making them both fall backwards onto the mattress. He turned, noticing Cricket and Spiny curled up to one another. At least these guys are cooperating… he thought as he grabbed hold of the nearest bedsheet and laid it over the two of them.

Pharynx shot a firm glare of annoyance at the others as soon as he walked back out.

He made it back into the other room and cocooned himself in the thin bedsheet, shivering and gritting his teeth with a heavy sigh. He couldn’t help but feel a bit… lonely up here, and he didn’t feel like counting those six rambunctious colorbugs as proper company.

He turned on his side, mumbling to himself; the heavy downpour outside the gaping window didn’t really keep him company either, especially as it only added onto the chilling room temperatures.

“Laaaaaamp…”

“VENOM, GET TO BED!” Pharynx screamed, before burying his head in his pillow and groaning loudly in annoyance as he heard even more noise coming from the other bedroom.

He couldn't do it anymore; he stormed down the hall and back down the stairs to the first floor, stopping upon seeing the mass of dozing changeling subjects.

He began silently questioning as to how they were still asleep with all the racket going on upstairs. Though, Pharynx also began to notice how warm they all looked. And given how freezing cold it was in that vague and empty room upstairs…

Mm… buck it. Pharynx thought as he carefully crept over to where his younger brother was safely snoozing, curling up to his side and closing his eyes in silent content as he felt Thorax put a comforting foreleg around him. Usually Pharynx wouldn’t be found in these snuggly positions with the other reformed changelings, but hey, at least they were quiet.

He cringed in his incoming slumber as he heard a loud THUD! coming from the upstairs room. Those dang gremlins…

In a way, it was almost like they were sent to torment him.

The changeling twitched as he felt tiny droplets constantly hitting his body. He groaned as he finally regained control of his eyelids, slowly forcing them halfway open to gaze at his blurry surroundings.

“Netwing? Netwing?” a familiar voice said to him. “Dude, can you hear me?”

“Nnngh… don’t wanna get up,” he mumbled as he felt his body threatening to shut back down into unconsciousness again.

“...Get up.”

Netwing gritted his teeth as he rolled onto his carapace, before opening his eyes back up again to stare up at a very familiar face. “Sawfly…” he uttered groggily as he slowly and shakily got up to his hooves. “Where are we?”

“How should I know? Those rainbow bug brats pushed us all off the train! We just found you lyin’ down here like roadkill!”

Netwing carefully studied the environment they were in; he and his comrades were next to what appeared to be a deep trench at the very bottom of a towering hill.

The same hill that he was thrown off…

That… little…

He sighed and turned to face Sawfly again. “Where’s Termite and Pincer?”

“They’re trying to set up camp nearby.”

“Camp? Camp?!” Netwing uttered. “We can’t rest now! What about—”

“Calm down. We’re obviously not going to make any progress in catching that lot. Not in weather like this,” he said, reaching a hoof out to gesture the rainfall.

“But… but…” Netwing groaned loudly. “Fine, we’ll just lay down for the night… even if it’s probably bucking daytime behind all these dang rainclouds.” He trotted threateningly towards Termite and Pincer, who had finished setting up a small shelter made of various wood and stones. “You two better not even think about snuggling up to me while I’m sleeping, got it?”

“Er… yeah, of course! We promise, right Termite?”

“Yeah! Promise!” Termite piped, before suddenly doing an alien motion with his left forehoof.

Netwing stared awkwardly. “Wait, what are you—”

“Cross my heart, hope to cry, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

...Oh, brother. Netwing thought sourly. He was just about to tell his comrade off for using such a dopey little rhyme, when Pincer suddenly butted in. “It’s ‘hope to fly,’ Termite.”

Termite blinked. “...I said ‘fly’.”

“No, you said ‘cry’.”

“I said ‘fly’.”

“You said ‘cry’.”

“I said ‘fly’.”

“You said ‘cry’.”

“I said ‘fly’!”

“...You said ‘cry’.”

“I SAID ‘FLY’!”

Netwing growled through teeth as the two continued their childish argument. The shelter that they had just built caught his attention, however, and he slowly trotted towards it. Hm… seems big enough for only one changeling, he thought as he squeezed himself inside. Eh, who cares? Every bug for himself.

He could just about hear Sawfly’s voice over the heavy drumming of the rain outside. “Netwing, what are you—”

“G’night,” was his only response before he slammed the makeshift door shut.

“NETWING!”

Everyone Loves Crafttime

Venom Stinger felt his slumber being rudely interrupted by a light tickling sensation on the bridge of his nose. Upon opening his eyes, he noticed a fuzzy blob of pink just sitting right in the middle of his field of view. He lifted his head up and glared at it, before blowing it off and watching it slowly float its way towards the ground.

His brow furrowed even more when he saw that the object was a bright pink flower with lush petals.

…Ew.

Venom looked around the room. This thing must’ve flown through the open window, he realized. “Guys?” he called out. “You awake?”

The only response he got was a series of various yawns and groans. “We are now,” Flutterwings answered as she lazily sat up. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as soon as she saw what was going on outside, however. “What the—?” she uttered flatly as she saw the many groups of changelings carrying baskets. Flower baskets.

...Ew.

“What do they think they’re doing with those?” Scorch said with a disgusted snarl.

“Where did they get all of it?” Thistle asked cluelessly, scratching the side of her head with a hoof.

“I don’t really think I wanna know,” Spiny sighed heavily. “Though it actually looks like they’re… decorating?”

Everyone groaned loudly.

“Okay, then…” Venom sighed heavily. “Anyone have any ideas?”

The other five changelings stared blankly. “...For what?” Thistle raised an eyebrow.

“I-I don’t know! Anything other than what they’re currently doing!” Venom exclaimed. “I mean, sure it’s just a dozen changelings throwing flowers everywhere, but what if they try to talk us into doing the same thing?! Plus, we certainly can’t focus on anything with these things floating around the area.”

“Venom, I’m sure they won’t—”

“We need to find some privacy. Now.”

“Thoraaaaaax…”

The quiet, whispery voice rasped right up against the changeling’s eardrum, causing him to groan and stir in his interrupted slumber. Upon slowly sitting up and rubbing his droopy eyelids, Thorax gazed at a group of nymphs, each of which had an explicitly annoyed expression on his or her face.

“...What?” he uttered cluelessly, still trying to blink himself into rousal. “Ugh… did I miss crafttime again?”

“There is no crafttime,” one of the nymphs answered with a huff.

“What?” Thorax said for the second time, though in an even more confused manner. “What do you mean?”

“Those big dumb changelings raided the crafttime table and won’t share any tape!” another nymph whined.

“What big dumb changelings?”

Before he got an answer, a peculiar noise quickly grabbed Thorax’s attention; the faint sound of plastic scraping against stone. His attention turned to the gaping opening of the room he was in, seeing a small object being dragged against the rough ground.

It was a small tape dispenser. One that was being pulled by an incredibly long piece of scotch tape—that was hanging from the tape roll—as if it were a dog on a leash.

Thorax got up and dashed towards it; as soon as he did, the tape seemed to pick up a bit speed, even more so when he began chasing after it.

He already knew how ridiculous he probably looked to the other changelings, pursuing a seemingly sentient piece of tape, but that wasn’t his main concern.

He kept on galloping for a while, before slowing to a stop in front of a rather unusual sight to behold.

The changeling king was staring at a large hollow cavity, one just large enough to house almost ten changelings at once. However, the entrance to it was blocked off by a very large, thick web of scotch tape. The tape itself seemed to go in a multitude of directions; horizontal, vertical, diagonal, even circular.

Thorax gawked at the unusual sight for a few moments, shortly being joined by a few other changelings who came to investigate.

He looked straight ahead to see his brother walking up to it, and he was somehow able to tell that he had been there before all of them.

Pharynx experimentally touched the makeshift web, his hoof already sticking to a few strings of the tape. He pulled it down and squinted into the blackness behind it. Eventually, a pair of sapphire eyes came into view, staring straight back at him.

“Of course…” the prince muttered faintly.

“Who is it?” the familiar voice asked.

“I think you already know the answer, Venom.”

“Er… what makes you say that?”

Pharynx gestured to the many strips of tape with a hoof, glaring.

“…eheheheh.”

Thorax walked over next to his brother, also squinting into the faint blackness. “What are you guys even doing in there?” he asked, trying to remove the huge mass of tape from the entrance.

“…sitting.”

“…Can you come out so we can see you?”

No response.

Thorax sighed heavily. “This isn’t funny, guys,” he said with a frown. “You realize how long it’ll take us to resupply all this? I already had to cut the Feelings Forum short again, and I don’t want to have to cancel craft time, too…”

More silence. The blue eyes appeared again, a bit closer. “… ‘craft time’?”

“…Yes, craft time!”

“…is that some sort of stealth training?”

“What? No, of course not!” Thorax answered. “You guys seriously never had craft time?”

“No… have you?”

“I haven’t either, at first…” the taller changeling explained. “I used to craft my own dolls when I was little, but I had little-to-no familiarity with drawing, or painting, or anything like that. That was until I visited an artistic exhibit back when I lived in the Crystal Empire.”

“A what now?”

“Over the days I spent there, I learned so much about it, and I was able to take it up as a hobby of my own. I never would’ve done such a thing if Sunburst wasn’t there to guide me, so, maybe… I might be able to teach you guys?”

He heard a couple of faint whispers. It took a few moments, but a small fly came buzzing out from the small gaps in the web of scotch tape, followed by many others. Several flashes later, six colorful changelings stood before him.

“Guess we might give it a go.”

Thorax beamed brightly. “Splendid! You definitely won’t regret it, Venom. I promise!”

If there was one thing Venom agreed with Pharynx about, it was that Thorax was a terrible liar.

I’m already regretting this, he thought as he stared blankly at the thick, gooey, colorful substance sputtering out the bottle and onto a nearby changeling’s wooden slab.

He looked down at the flat white parchment in front of him, which was accompanied by a few stick-like objects scattered on the table. Venom picked up one of them, specifically the one with the cluster of soft bristles sticking at the very top. He picked up another one, which had a pointed tip. What the hay even are these things?

The blue changeling glanced at his siblings, who were all just as clueless as he was. He looked everywhere else, seeing many changelings each decorating either a parchment or a canvas with their chosen implements.

Venom shook his head, then reached over and picked up a large plastic bottle, one that was colored a bright orange. He squinted at it, then shook it rapidly above the round wooden slab. Come on, come on… he urged, banging it on the table several times and giving it a hard squeeze…

Squelchh!

“AAAAHHH!”

Venom bit his lip hard as he looked around the area, noticing several changelings staring at him. He looked down, large orange splatters littering his working space.

He blushed heavily as he heard a few of those changelings snickering. Grabbing a nearby rag, he desperately tried to clean himself of the orange goop, wiping his forelegs and face.

This stuff clashes with my chitin.

Venom got up from his seat, continuing to clean the table. Once he was finally done, he looked straight ahead, at one of the tables slightly further from his. Only two changelings sat over there, and they seemed to be using a pile of twigs, with some small rocks and shiny pebbles. One of them was crafting what appeared to be a small house, and the other was crafting a makeshift wagon.

“…Hey guys?” he asked his siblings with a small grin.

They all looked over at him.

“I think I finally know what this ‘craftime’ is all about.”

“Wow, Xenica, that looks so cool!”

“Thanks, Cercus,” the ruby changeling replied, admiring her creation. “How’s yours coming along?”

“Great!” the yellow changeling replied, before reaching over to the box sitting in the middle of the table. “I just need a few more… u-uh…”

Cercus’ hoof searched the box, trying to search for a cluster of twigs. What he got was nothing but empty space. He looked inside, seeing only a few stick pieces lying at the very bottom. Cercus then looked straight at the blue reformed changeling sitting on the opposite side, who was crafting a long pole-like structure and still had a large mound of twigs sitting right next to him.

The yellow changeling huffed and glared. “Hey, Smurfbug, you’re using all the sticks.”

The changeling looked up from his work. “All changeling weaponry must be durable,” he said. “My spear would be flimsy without a strong enough shaft!”

Cercus winced back. “D-Don’t shout!”

“I’ll shout, I’ll shout if I want to, and do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I hate crafttime!” Venom quickly stood up on his chair and raised his makeshift spear up. “I want to fiiiiight!” he yelled out, joined by his five changeling peers.

Author's Note

Apologies for not updating this for so long… and for the half-assed chapter. ADHD and procrastination has been getting the best of me for the past few months or so.

There’s a reference to The Odd One somewhere in here, by the way.

Prelude: Mission Failed

Author's Note

May 15th, 2021
Hey guys. If you’re reading this story for the very, very first time ever, and you’re starting at the first chapter here, please keep in mind that the earlier chapters (especially the one you’re about to read right now) are not as good in quality (in terms of grammar, phrasing, dialogue, story-telling, etc.) as my more recent chapters. This was my very first story upon joining Fimfiction, and I find that I’ve improved a lot since then, so that pretty much explains it.

If you’re perfectly okay with that and you’re still willing to read this from the ground up, that’s great.

That being said, enjoy the story.

Prelude: Mission Failed

On the silent, dreary train ride to Canterlot, Pharynx speechlessly watched through the window beside him as the nighttime scenery of Equestria’s locations moderately passed by. The train’s speed was fortunately not enough to jostle any of its passengers awake. As for noise, only the soft, quiet snoring that came from changeling drones accompanied the rattling of the train wheels swiftly pivoting against the steel rails. Some of them had simply fallen asleep during the train ride, but others had pretty much cried themselves to sleep, given the situation their leader was in.

While the changelings were silently riding, the carefree inhabitants of Ponyville had already started to disappear into their homes, preparing for both a good night’s rest and for dawn to bloom the very next morning. Either way, Pharynx could tell that none of them were aware of the fact that the changelings planned an emergency trip to Canterlot.

But it had been a while since he and the other changelings, nymphs, drones, and all, squeezed into their assigned passenger cars. It was rather surprising that there were enough seats for all of them, given the high population of changelings that the now reformed changeling kingdom, ruled over by newly crowned King Thorax, consisted of.

Speaking of which....

The dark cyan changeling turned to look at his younger brother, who had been lying next to him in a deep slumber since even before they climbed aboard the train. Pharynx wanted to focus on how cute he looked when he was sleeping silently, but he remembered the devastation of the swarm when he descended into this grave condition. He remembered the drones crowding around his little brother, wailing, begging him to wake up, pleading him not to leave them without a leader.

As Pharynx somberly listened to his brother coughing every few minutes while laying a hoof on his forehead now and then, he repetitively let his mind wander back to earlier. To what caused his brother to suffer like this. To that fateful accident back at the changeling hive.

To what was supposed to be a heartfelt celebration of the day the changelings were offered a fresh start...

The two changeling brothers jumped as they were abruptly greeted by the sounds of screaming that could practically be heard from miles away. However, it didn’t take long for them to realize that it was the sounds of innocent changeling drones’ lives in jeopardy. This was enough to send them frantically flying to their safe haven to see what was happening.

They managed to get close enough to the stony exterior of the hive, trying to catch their breath as they approached their home, but lost it once they finally gazed at the sight in front of them, their eyes widening.

In large groups, changelings of all ages were scurrying out of the hive in all directions. A sickly green, gaseous substance was rising through and from every hole in the hive’s exterior, destroying the plant life that accompanied the stone structure. The drones were doing anything to prevent themselves and their young from breathing in the poison, trying to get as much fresh air as possible upon emerging from the toxic gas.

Thorax immediately rushed to the very first group of changelings that caught his eye and interrogated a yellow drone. “Tibia! Are you okay? What happened? Where’s everyone else?!”

“They’re still trapped in there!” the yellow drone exclaimed, pointing directly to the gas-filled entrance. “And the nymphs are still in the nursery!”

“W-We tried to get them out,” a light blue drone stuttered, “but we—“

Thorax didn’t let him finish. He was already darting to the entrance of the hive. He would’ve made it more than half the distance, had Pharynx not stopped him.

“Thorax, no! Let me handle this!” the cyan changeling demanded sternly, trying to stall the taller brother.

“Pharynx, there’s no time for this! There are drones in there!” the younger changeling tried to pull away.

“You know what’ll happen if you just run in like that!”

“So I’m supposed to just stay out here and just let them get poisoned?!”

“Well, no, I—“ Pharynx didn’t want to get into another argument with his brother. Especially not at a time like this. “Just let me handle this, okay?!”

“Pharynx, please,” Thorax started again, still trying to pull out of his brother’s grasp. “I’ll be alright. You calm everyone down while I—“

“Thorax!” Pharynx shouted again suddenly, his expression turning solemn.

Both brothers looked silently into each other’s eyes as the cyan changeling continued. “You’re the only family I have left.” Pharynx’s lavender eyes went from shooting daggers to pleading for his brother to not risk his life. “I can’t lose you... Not again.. Please.”

Their expressions softened after that. Thorax broke the silence before Pharynx could argue again.

“There are drones in there,” Thorax said, repeating his sentence from earlier. “Someone has to help.”

And with that, Thorax finally hugged Pharynx tightly, but the former withdrew the embrace before the latter could return it. “If I don’t come back, take care of everyone for me...” he added, before finally continuing to run towards the hive’s entrance.

Pharynx and the drones fell silent. Seconds sprouted and grew into minutes as they gazed into the opening where Thorax disappeared into. For a while, there was no sign of him returning, nor were there any drones or nymphs.

The prince drone shut his eyes tightly. “Please, please, please, please, please...” He whispered repetitively.

As his pleas descended and were swallowed by yet another sea of silence, he looked up to see Thorax miraculously emerging from the hive, a nymph or two on his back, followed by another group of changelings.

The swarm suddenly cheered as the rescued drones celebrated their survival, and the nymphs ran to their families, and were wrapped in full-on embraces.

Pharynx finally smiled, not at the sappy sweetness of this kind of scenario, but at the fact that his brother was alright.

“King Thorax,” a female drone said, with tears in her eyes as her husband held her offspring, “how can we ever thank you?”

They all watched as Thorax opened his mouth to respond...

...Only to break out in fits of coughing as he clutched at his chest, before slowly descending to the ground.

His subjects gasped as this scene played out, and they swiftly rushed over and surrounded their savior, their expressions once again filled with fear, except this time they were mixed with sadness.

Pharynx’s heart stopped when he saw his brother’s now ailing state once he managed to push past the drones. Thorax had barely been able to keep his eyes open as Pharynx sat down next to him, carefully picked him up, and cradled him in his forelegs.

“Thorax...?”

No response.

“Thorax?!”

Silence.

“Thorax! Bro, can you hear me?! W-Wake up!!!”

Thorax remained unresponsive to his brother’s shouting. Pharynx overheard the sounds of changelings starting to weep behind him as they watched this scene play out. The cyan changeling tried shaking him lightly, but still got no response.

“No... Thorax...” Pharynx caressed his brother’s head... Before pulling away quickly. Thorax had already gotten a fever; and it was burning up fast. “He’s really sick,” the prince murmured.

Still hugging Thorax, Pharynx turned to the now sobbing drones, trying to retain his tough, demanding demeanor. “D-Don’t just stand there and cry! Do you want him to live or not?! Do something! Call a doctor! ANYTHING!” He screamed at the top of his lungs.

This only elicited what sounded like a choir of wails and sobs. Nymphs were burying their faces in their parents’ chests, while said parents cried along with them.

Pharynx, still somehow not in the same state as all the other drones, could only continue to embrace his little brother tightly as he shut his eyes, wishing he had actually returned the hug that Thorax gave him before he risked his life.

He never knew what would come after this. All he knew was that even though Thorax managed to save those drones, the elder sibling would still have to take care of everyone.

“So... Pharynx, right?”

Pharynx was snapped out of his current thoughts by the voice of a stallion. He turned to see the train conductor: a golden-eyed earth pony with a pale yellow coat and a light brown mane. He also sported a blue and white striped hat and a red bandanna. His cutie mark was a silvery gray train whistle.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Pharynx grumbled under his breath.

“And this is Thorax, right?”

“Who else would he be?”

The stallion chuckled nervously at the slightly bitter reply, before stepping closer to the unconscious changeling King. “How is he?”

“Not good,” Pharynx replied. “He’s gotten a high fever and he’s been—“ he was cut off by another groggy cough from his younger brother “—coughing ever since he fell into a coma. And they’ve been sounding like he’s not able to breathe.”

“Must’ve been from that toxic gas released in the hive, right?” the conductor asked.

“What do you think?”

The stallion winced again.

Pharynx sighed heavily. “Sorry, I just wish I was able to save him...”

“I understand that,” the earth pony responded. “It shouldn’t be long before we arrive to your destination, however.”

“Good. I’m probably gonna regret it, but I need to see if Princess Celestia could do something about this.” Pharynx softly rubbed Thorax’s head as he spoke.

“Well, why wouldn’t she?” The conductor tilted his head. He knew that the princess of Equestria would do anything for those who were in need. Even if those in need used to be love-draining creatures who put others’ lives in peril.

Pharynx was about to respond to his question, but the train suddenly came to a screeching halt before he could utter a word. The two looked out the window to see where they stopped at. They were just in front of a dark tunnel they went through, but the train had stopped a few inches away from it.

The conductor only shook his head. “This can’t be good...”

Pharynx tilted his head at him, not wanting to show any fear that could threaten his manner. “What happened?”

“Not sure. But I’ll try and take a look. It could be-“

“Steamer!” another male voice called out to the yellow earth pony from outside the train.

“All Aboard?! All Aboard?! Where are you?!” Steamer called back.

“What?! Who-“ Pharynx was baffled. He had forgotten how weird most pony names could be, even when they were being compared to most changeling names.

He looked to see another earth pony stallion rushing towards the train. One with glasses and a beard that was a very dark gray that matched his mane and tail, and a light bluish gray coat that was partly covered with a suit of red, white, and blue, as well as a matching cap. And on his flank was a cutie mark that was a golden pocket watch. His light yellow eyes showed panic and dread as Steamer let him onto the train. He was panting heavily, as if he had run a marathon. Or as if someone or something had been chasing him.

“What are you doing way out here?! A-Aren’t you supposed to be collecting tickets on your night shift?” Steamer was just as baffled as Pharynx was when the two earth ponies were calling out to each other.

“You have no idea! There’s something out there!”

“What was out there?”

The stallion pushed up his glasses, shuddering to his friend. “My best guess would be another changeling, b-but—“

Again? Pharynx couldn’t decide what he wanted more: to call this pony a liar or to slap him in the face to snap him out of whatever he had.

Steamer was almost as skeptical as the cyan changeling was. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I was. I truly do!”

“Can someone explain what’s going on here?!” Pharynx snapped. He was quickly running low on patience, and these two ponies knew it. “I mean, how could there still be hole-filled, love-sucking bug creatures out there?”

“Sorry, Pharynx. I wish we could explain it, but we have to see if we can get this train going again.” Steamer turned to All Aboard. “Tell me outside, while we see if we can fix her up.”

As the two stallions leaped out of the train, Steamer took one last look at the changeling prince. “Just get some sleep okay?” He advised him. ”We don’t know how long this’ll take...”

Pharynx only grumbled under his breath and nodded, curling up next to the unconscious Thorax as the two stallions investigated the situation outside. It was the only thing he could do other than silently pray that all would be well again, including his dear brother.

He put a foreleg around Thorax, feeling his forehead one last time before he drifted off into slumber; His fever still hadn’t gone down. His hot temperature hadn’t even dropped a single degree.

The two brothers slept in silence, and for a while, they paid no attention to the things that had begun to stir about outside.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pharynx cracked an eyelid open when he heard a faint hammering coming from outside the vehicle he was dozing in.

He quietly assumed that Steamer and All Aboard were finally getting some work done on this broken-down train. He sat up and looked through the windows, searching for anything that could be he source of the noise. But soon, the prince realized that while his assumption was correct, the stallions had no tools on them, or at least no tools that could make a banging sound that loud.

In that case, Pharynx just shrugged it off, deciding to resume his peaceful sleep...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pharynx snapped his eyes open again, his shrunken pupils darting around room he was in, searching for any silhouettes that could’ve somehow snuck into the room. He sat up, his head pivoting around to view his surroundings every couple of seconds, but still saw no sign of anypony, any creature, or anything hitting against the train car.

The changeling yawned, berating himself for uncharacteristically getting caught off guard by minor issues, like the nighttime sounds and the shadows on the wall, before letting his eyelids drape over his lavender eyes...

BANG! BANG! BANG!

That was it. Pharynx was wide awake now. He jumped out of his seat in the middle of the aisle that stretched from the back of the room to the front of it, between the arrangements of seats. “What do you want?! Show yourself!”

His only response was an ear piercing cry that only a certain drone could utter. Ocellus.

That scream alone was enough for Pharynx to realize that the drumming noises he had been hearing had been coming from outside the part that contained the compartments and not from the outside of the train car he was seated in. Upon breaking in, he took the time to observe what was going down.

A large changeling, obviously a male, was towering over Ocellus. His stature wasn’t even as tall as Pharynx, who was shorter than his own younger brother, but to Ocellus, he seemed massive, possibly due to his slightly muscular body structure. He had a scarlet, hole-filled mane while he still had the usual non-reformed changeling tail. He had to have somehow gotten through at least one of the doors. The changeling also seemed to have gotten a hold of Ocellus’ younger brother and sister, who were both crying in fright, with the icy blue drone trying to pull them out of his strong grasp.

“HEY!” Pharynx screamed, causing the changeling to turn his head, revealing his crimson, insect-like eyes.

The dark cyan changeling charged into the red one, punching him in the chest, which caused him to lose his hold on the tiny nymphs, who scurried to their older sister.

The red-schemed changeling hissed fiercely trying to ram back at Pharynx, mostly succeeding, only for Pharynx to dodge as he ended up hitting the wall. This gave Pharynx a chance to throw him out the back door that was next to the wall he hit, slamming the door and holding it shut.
The changeling continued to hiss repetitively, battering the door with his forelegs, trying to get it open like he did the first time. After a few moments, the blows died down once he realized his attempts were ineffective, grouchily flying off.

Pharynx exhaled at last. He watched Ocellus’ siblings curling up against the icy blue drone, while their older sister looked at him with a grateful smile, silently thanking him for saving them.

The mood was cut short when Pharynx heard more noises coming from outside the train: more hissing and more screaming. He turned to the other 3 changelings. “Stay inside,” the prince demanded. “Find your parents, and don’t make a sound.” The nymphs did as they were told as Pharynx rushed out the train.

Outside, he frantically looked around, searching for anything happening, or at least any other aggressive changelings that could be attacking.

It wasn’t long until he saw two more changelings: One had an emerald green mane that was draped over one of his bright green eyes. The other had a turquoise mane and aquamarine eyes, also sporting a pair of black-rimmed goggles on his head, ones that had light teal lenses. Like the red-schemed changeling Pharynx fought not long ago, these two each had holes in their mane.

The changelings were on the roof of the train cars, with Steamer and All Aboard trying to fight back at them. Pharynx was about to join the earth ponies to help, but he quickly noticed the green-schemed changeling clumsily stumbling off the roof and onto the ground, while the teal-schemed changeling had managed to pin down Steamer, punching him.

Pharynx kept looking back and forth from the green-schemed drone, who shyly cowered away from him while trying to shield himself, to the teal-schemed drone attacking Steamer. The green-schemed drone obviously reminded him of someone, so Pharynx spared him, but he eventually chose to help the light yellow earth pony, knocking the feisty changeling off him. The green-schemed stumbled as he scurried away, while the teal-schemed drone was now tackling Pharynx.

Pharynx eventually grunted heavily, ”Get OFF!” as he finally kicked off his perpetrator and sent him tumbling on the ground beneath them. The teal-schemed drone rubbed his head and checked his goggles, and eventually followed the green-schemed drone. Pharynx climbed to his hooves and helped Steamer to his own. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” The earth pony replied. He was about to say something else, until...

“Guys, look out!” All Aboard suddenly tackled the two to the ground. Pharynx was about to berate him, or at least ask him what his deal was, but he quickly scrapped that once he saw a fourth changeling drop down where he and Steamer were originally standing before they were pushed out of the way.

The fourth changeling jumped up as soon as she landed; this one was only a nymph. A nymph with bright purple eyes and violet, hole-filled mane, which was kept up in pigtails.

And she did NOT look happy.

The purple-schemed nymph charged at Pharynx, trying to continue her assault on him. Only for Pharynx to knock her back with ease every attempt she did. This then prompted her to gag and spit multiple blobs of some sort of purple, goopy substance at Pharynx. The male changeling was able to dodge all of these, due to their surprisingly slow speed.

Well, except for one that trapped his left back hoof in place, which he didn’t notice until he tried to fly at her.

The changeling warrior struggled to get his hoof free, bracing himself as the purple-schemed nymph prepared to leap and finish him off...

Only for said nymph to be sent flying off the train’s roof, screaming as she landed inside the pitch black darkness of tunnel that had been behind the train.

It turned out that Steamer had finished off the nymph, and that he and All Aboard had finally repaired the train completely.

“Hurry! Get in!” Steamer rushes to help Pharynx get his hoof free.

Soon, they quickly piled back into the train and started it as soon as they got in. As the cyan changeling looked behind him, he only saw the glowing eyes of all 4 of the defeated changelings, but the echoes of their hisses of anger bounced off the walls of the tunnel. After that, they all disappeared into the darkness as the train got farther away.

Pharynx, at last, settled down next to Thorax, who was luckily not harmed during his older brother’s absence. With a calm and warm smile on his face as he embraced the comatose changeling, he prince reassured the king, not caring about whether he got an appropriate response or not:

“I gotcha little bro.. We’re almost there.”

His smile faded as soon as it formed, however, when he remembered his little brother was likely unable to hear his voice, to see his smile, or to return it.

On their long trip back to Chrysalis’ hive, the changeling siblings vented their frustrations about their failure to successfully take on one of the most skilled warriors of the reformed changeling kingdom. Some of them scolded each other for their decisions that cause themselves to fail, others bragged about how long they lasted before going down. The thing they went over most of all, however, was their leader’s absence.

“I can’t believe we had to do it without Venom Stinger!” Scorchin’ Heat, the oldest of the bunch, groaned out loud, squinting his crimson eyes in frustration as he and his siblings navigated through the shimmering midnight sky. “He’d rather go shopping than take on those meek rainbow bugs?!”

The siblings knew how much Venom was about his looks: he kept his mane slick and moist with the same goopy substance that changelings usually used to trap their victims. He kept the empty spaces inside the holes in his hooves free of dirt, pebbles, or anything that could get caught inside them. And when he was out and about, he’d either go on about how sharp his fangs are, how tempting his azure blue eyes were, or both.

“Stealing. Not shopping,” Spiny Spectacle corrected his older brother as he adjusted his goggles, seeing if they got damaged during his fight with Prince Pharynx. Spiny was only the second youngest, and he was still blind to most sarcastic statements, even when the tone is obvious.

“It’s this new thing, it’s called ‘sarcasm,’” Scorch snapped back.

“Hmph. Well we still could’ve beaten that guy if someone actually did something affective.” Spiny looked at Cricket Cluster, who adjusted the mane covering his eye while looking down at the ground guiltily, even if said ground was more than twenty feet beneath them.

“Aw, leave Cricket out of this. We wouldn’t have gotten a role even if we did beat that guy,” the youngest of the bunch, Flutterwings, said in a raspy, but still recognizably child-like voice. “If anything, they’re gonna chew us out for making them think we joined those eyesore color-bugs.”

“Is that what they really think of us?” asked Cricket, his tone usually deep, but not enough to be completely inaudible.

“Let’s just hope Venom could do better than we did,” said Scorch. “Whatever he’s doing.”

“Final stop, Canterlot,” Steamer called out to the changelings.

One by one, the changeling drones woke up from their deep slumber that lasted most of the trip, as they climbed out in front of Canterlot. It had taken quite a while for the entire swarm to hop off the train, and the fact that the majority of them were still half asleep only made it difficult. But eventually, they managed to crowd outside, waiting for any others.

Pharynx was the last to exit the train; he had been wide awake ever since the encounter with the non-reformed changelings. That being said, he decided to let Steamer and All Aboard carefully put Thorax onto his back.

“Take care of him, okay?” All Aboard advised the prince changeling.

Pharynx thanked both of them for all their help, and finally met up with the changelings as the train descended from the city of Canterlot.

What came after that was a long walk through the slumbering city of Canterlot. They eventually reached the Castle of Canterlot, where Princess Celestia was just about to do her usual duties of raising the sun.

“Princess!” The white alicorn heard a deep voice call out to her. She expected it to be a Royal Guard, but once she turned around to see who needed her, she was greeted with the sight of the entire reformed changeling swarm pleading for her to save their leader. If possible, Celestia would’ve gotten pale, not from the sight of a million changelings in front of her, but the sight of their leader’s ailing condition.

“Please,” Pharynx looked up at her. “We need your help.”

...The Only One That I Have Ever Known

“So, during all that time we spent in the dinky little donut shop, you guys kept playing with your food and stacking towers of menus?” Pharynx groaned as he slapped one of his hooves against his own face, while holding a bag of donuts in his other hoof.

“Hey, at least we got Flutterwings to eat some, but she seems to only prefer all of the chocolate ones,” Venom answered.

“What else is new, then?”

“Pharynx, I think my donut is broken,” Flutterwings said to the changeling prince while holding a rather long pastry that was covered in chocolate. “It doesn’t have any holes in it.”

Pharynx looked at the “donut” she had. “Flutterwings, that’s an eclair.”

“An... eclair?”

“Uh, yeah. There’s a cream filling in it.”

“Really?” She bit into it. Hard.

Well, a little too hard, actually. The white, creamy filling came gushing out of the pastry, squirting right into Pharynx’s face.

She looked at him. “Pharynx,” she said, “now my eclair’s broken.”

The dark cyan changeling sputtered and gagged as he tried wiping the cream off his face, specifically out of his eyes. He groaned. “You got a napkin, kid?”

“I don’t think so,” the nymph replied, quickly shaking her head, before sticking her tongue out at the changeling, obviously trying to get a taste of the white cream.

Pharynx’s brow furrowed as he pushed the nymph away by the head. “Don’t even think about it, kid,” he grumbled in subtle disgust at her.

“Come on, let me get it!” She said, still sticking her little tongue out at him.

“I said no, Flutterwings,” he snapped sternly.

“Come on, please?” She begged.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pleeeease?”

“Did someone ask for a napkin?” The two of them turned to the random changeling, who had appeared out of nowhere offering a couple of white napkins to the messy changeling prince.

“Uh... thanks,” Pharynx said in a reluctant tone, before handing Flutterwings a small white paper bag. “Here kid, hold the donuts, will ya?” he said to her as he took a napkin to wipe his face clean.

Flutterwings nodded, before using her mouth to grab the top of the bag and carefully holding it between her jaws.

With the bag in her jaws’ grip, she watched the changeling prince clean himself up and asked, “Ah dese donnats shoc-wit?”

Pharynx looked at her. “It shouldn’t really matter. They’re just donuts.”

“Dey shay shoc-wit tists like luff!” the nymph claimed, still struggling to talk with the bag in her mouth.

“Now who made up that crazy theory?”

“I dunno!”

“Okay, just let me finish up so I can take that bag away from you,” Pharynx stated with a roll of his eyes. It was clear that he was starting to get annoyed by Flutterwings’ constantly muffled sentences.

Flutterwings waited for him completely finish. She decided to take a glance around the area from where she was currently standing. She saw a few fillies and colts playing, stallions and mares talking, and even a few royal guards in the area.

None of those seem to catch her attention like the random changeling in the area, however.

And it wasn’t even a reformed changeling.

That changeling was sitting far away from everything that was happening with the ponies that lived in this area. Heck, he didn’t seem to be caring about the many stares (or glares, rather) that he was getting from the ponies, many which kept a far distance from him.

Flutterwings spaced out the longer she stared at this strange changeling. Actually, strange wouldn’t be a good way to describe him.

He wore the same armor as any other changeling guard would, but it seemed to have a much more purplish tone than the usual blue. The same went for his eyes, which were a deep blue violet.

“Alright kid.” Pharynx’s baritone voice broke her out of her trance, making her jump a teeny bit. “Now, who were you talking about again?”

“Uhhhh...”

“Flutterwings? You dropped the bag on the ground!” Pharynx frantically picked up the bag of donuts back up.

“Sorry Pharynx! Just got distracted for a moment.”

She went back to gazing at the changeling. Upon squinting, she saw what appeared to be... bandaids? On his legs? Covering his holes? The changeling guard appeared to be struggling to pry those bandaids off with his teeth.

She turned around to see her brothers, telling them that she was going to see the guard. They were reluctant to let her at first, but they came to an agreement that the brothers would stand nearby so that they could watch their sister.

Flutterwings thanked them, before making her way to the changeling guard.

The guard suddenly whirled his head around to glance at the nymph next to him, a mix of both confusion and annoyance in his expression.

Flutterwings could only manage one word at this point: “...Hi.”

The guard only rolled his eyes and went back to trying to peel the many bandaids off his legs with his fangs.

At least he didn’t rip me to pieces then and there. She thought with a quiet sigh of relief.

“So um... I see you’re still one of those pre-reformed changelings.”

“The more you know,” he grumbled in one of those matter-of-fact tones.

“Er... yeah, heheh...” she chuckled sheepishly, before holding out a front hoof. “Name’s Flutterwings, Mister uh...”

He gave an aside glance to her before mumbling in a low voice, which was just loud enough for her to hear; “Cornalis.”

“...Cornalis, huh?” she looked up at him. “Never heard that sort of name before. It’s a good name.”

“Mhm...” Cornalis mumbled monotonously as he continued picking at his bandaids, while also muttering, “Ow... ow.. ow.”

“Gee, what happened to you?” she asked as she watched him go through this somewhat painful-looking procedure.

“Those dang Canterlot foals...” he grunted as he quickly tore off a bandaid off his front leg, wincing a bit. “A bunch of them came up to me and they kept plastering them all over my legs. Ugh, these old fangs of mine keep getting in the way. Heck, I keep biting myself in this dang process.”

“...You sure you don’t want me to do it for you?” Flutterwings offered as she moved closer to him.

“Kid, I’m fine,” Cornalis insisted with a low growl. “I can do this myself.” Thus, he continued to tug at his bandaid-covered legs.

“Hate to break it to ya, but by the time you finally finish that process, I will die of old age,” Flutterwings said with a snicker.

“Nice try, kid, but I’m the older guy here. Therefore, I’d be dead by the time I finally get these things offa me.” Cornalis rolled his eyes. “Or rather, if I ever get these things offa me,” he added.

“Oh for crying out loud,” the nymph uttered quietly, before leaning towards the male changeling, using her teeth to latch onto a bandaid, and carefully peeling it off his dark chitin. For her, it was rather easy.

Cornalis looked at her, his deep violet eyes widening. “How’d you—”

“Dunno,” she responded, spitting the bandaid onto the stone ground. “I guess it’s easier when you don’t have fangs.”

She went for another bandaid, peeling it off. “Eugh,” she groaned in disgust as soon as she saw a couple of red patches on the “pad” of the bandaid. “What were those kids thinking? This one’s got bloodstains on it. Man, pony foals are crazy!”

Cornalis chuckled a bit. “Indeed, they are...”

It still took quite some time for Flutterwings to remove all the bandaids off the changeling’s legs, but hey, it didn’t take her forever, thankfully.

As soon as she pulled off the last one, she flopped down onto her stomach with a heavy sigh. “Thank gosh that’s over,” she uttered softly, staring at the stone ground. After a moment, she felt a hoof gently rub her head.

“...Thanks, kid,” Flutterwings heard Cornalis say. She looked up to see him calmly smiling with a genuinely thankful expression. She silently smiled back at him, trying to resist the urge to blush.

“Uh... Flutterwings?”

The nymph turned to see Spiny standing behind her.

“Thorax says we’re making our way for the train, now,” he said to his younger sister.

Flutterwings picked herself off the ground, dusting herself off. “Right, right,” she chuckled before turning back to Cornalis. “I, uh... I guess I’ll be going, then,” she said to him, shyly brushing a hoof against the ground.

He lifted her chin with a hole-infested hoof—and not a bandaid-infested one, obviously—still keeping that warm smile on his face.

Ohhhh man, oh man, oh man, ohmanohmanohmanohmanOHMAN. Her mind raced the more she stared at him. Keep it together, Flutters! Don’t you dare make yourself look like a freaking idiot!

She immediately nuzzled the changeling guard in response, burying her face in his armor in attempt to hide the blush on her face.

“Er... Thanks,” Cornalis chuckled in a sheepish tone, gently rubbing the nymph’s head.

Flutterwings, you freaking idiot.

She immediately stepped back after a moment of embracing him. “Well... bye, then.”

“See ya, kid.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t very hard for all of the changelings to pile their way into the train cars. Sure, it did take them a while, due to how many of them there were, but hey, everyone found had already a seat, and everyone was happy...

Oh... wait.

“You’re kidding, right?!” Venom uttered at Thorax.

“No, Venom. I’m not.”

“Well, I’m not doing it.”

“Come on, Venom. I’m not saying you have to sit directly next to Pharynx,” Thorax stated.

“But to sit next to him on the same train car is enough for me,” Venom firmly claimed while pointing at his chest with a hoof.

“Come on, Venom, please?”

“I’m not crazy enough to be sitting next to that guy!”

“Yes, you are!”

Venom sat and grumbled in his seat, constantly turning and glaring at Pharynx from afar. “Hmph...”

“Well, Venom, just be glad that we’re the only seven in here,” Scorch said to his younger brother from his seat. “This is actually like, the very last train car. You know, the one in the back. Neat, huh?”

Venom only rolled his eyes at Scorch’s desperate attempt to change the subject.

Pharynx, on the other hoof, was at least getting a kick out of the fact that he wasn’t in one of those train cars; the ones with either hundreds or thousands or even millions of drones and nymphs in them. Mostly the ones with tons of nymphs, though.

“Keep complaining about my existence all you want, Venom,” Pharynx quietly curled up in his seat, “because I’m not gonna deal with it. I am just going to sleep peacefully, and there’s nothing you guys can do about it. Plain and simple.”

“Hey, guys, didn’t we just pass the village of—”

“Spiny, please don’t turn this into another history lesson!”

Pharynx grumbled and forcefully shut his eyes. This was going to be a long train ride.

Author's Note

You can tell I had at least some fun with this one. :twilightsheepish: