“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 💜