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.

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.