The Bug in The Cave

Chapters

The Weakling
The Pony in The Cave
Left Behind
Loneliness
Stomach Rot
Delivery Bug
Sharing Stories
Fire in The Sky
Missing Supplies
Homesickness
Hunger Pains
Red Hooved
The Queen's Justice
All Alone
Looming Storm
Return to Patrol
Fit For a Thief
Confession
Lost in The Rain
A Parting Under Sunrise
Homecoming
The Bug in The Cave...
...And The Pony he Saved
Epilogue
Soggy Expedition
A Moment of Concern

The Weakling

The badlands was many different things. It was treacherous, it was lethal to the unprepared, it was wild, it was difficult to navigate from the ground, and the local wildlife was almost all exceedingly alien in nature when compared to the regions that surrounded it. It was a blazing, desolate place, hostile and borderline uninhabitable for many creatures.

It was made even worse by the torrential downpour that now soaked the land, and the occasional rumble or blast of thunder that rocked the heavens was a most uncommon sight in this nearly rainless corner of the world. Many of the smaller creatures that dwelled among the crags had long ago skittered into crevices and cracks to hide themselves away, not eager to be caught in the storm. Truly, it was a lonely place...

But for Thorax, who was looking down on it all from his place high in the sky, it was home. A very bleak, very depressing home, but nevertheless… home.

Thorax was a changeling, a vaguely pony-shaped creature. However, instead of colorful fur, there was a hard shell of black chitin. In place of a mane, there was merely a fin that ran down the back of the neck. Perfectly round, smooth holes were formed in his forelegs, giving him a broken, almost hollow appearance. Insect wings buzzed from an ocean-blue shell on his back, while a sharp-pointed horn poked up of his forehead. Glowing blue eyes that one might be forgiven for thinking were compound, looked down on the barren wilderness below, a solemn frown decorating his fanged muzzle.

Three more changelings accompanied this one, all of them flying ahead of him in a roughly arrow-shaped formation. The leader had a different coloration to his companions: Purple eyes instead of blue, a crimson shell instead of blue, and his chitin was a shade or so darker than the others.

The other two were identical to the runt in the back, save for their sturdier physique, larger bodies, and severe expressions as their eyes scoured the land below. They had a job to do out here, and they were going to do it.

The one on the left slowly began to drift back, drawing Thorax’s attention. A pit of unease formed in his gut, and he was already beginning to instinctively shrink away from the larger drone. After a few seconds, they were flying side by side, the larger drone glaring down at Thorax from the corner of his eye with contempt.

“Hey, Pharynx!” he suddenly shouted out to the leader. Pharynx’s ear twitched in response, but he otherwise made no indication that he had heard the call. Taking this as permission to continue, the drone turned his eyes fully to Thorax and scowled. “Wanna tell me again why we brought along this pathetic runt?”

Thorax, despite his best efforts, was not able to contain his whimpers. He cowered under the larger drone’s spite-filled eyes, unable to meet his gaze. “I… I didn’t ask to come, Scorpion,” he was eventually able to mumble out under his breath.

Scorpion scoffed and jabbed a hoof at Thorax as if his point had been proven. “For crying out loud, look at him! This whelp isn’t even able to stand up for himself against a drone with the same rank as him! He’s a sniveling coward, and he’s just holding us back-”

“Another word, Scorpion, and I’ll bite out your tongue and gift it to the queen as a tribute,” Pharynx suddenly barked, a sharp edge in his raspy voice that immediately made Scorpion shut up. Pharynx didn’t turn to look at them, his eyes focused on the badlands below. “Thorax is pathetic, yes. But he is my brother, and I plan to see him pull his weight. Now shut up and do your job.”

Scorpion winced, his ears folding back. He mumbled out a wordless apology before drifting forward to join his fellow drone a ways ahead of Thorax. He shot the runt a sneer as he went, making Thorax quiver and look away.

“Speaking of our job,” Mandible, the other drone, suddenly piped up. “Remind me: why are we out here in a rain and lightning storm? Strikes me this would be the perfect time to settle down and take a nap in the Hive.”

“Oh? And how do you figure that?” Pharynx asked in a flat tone, his eyes briefly darting back to Mandible impatiently.

Mandible shrugged. “Well, with all them Tatzlwurms breaking out from the ground, they practically handle everything we need to do for patrol for us, don’t they? When it rains, they come up and attack anything that moves. No intruders, that way.”

“No intruders,” Pharynx agreed with a slow nod before scowling. “And no food.”

“Eh?”

“Tatzlwurms are predators, Mandible,” Pharynx explained as if to a freshly-hatched grub. “And when it rains, they leave their burrows and are sent into a wild frenzy. They will kill anything they can get their tongues on, regardless of whether or not it’s their natural prey. And that means that a lot of the animals we prey on for love out here are being hunted en masse. So, until the rain clears and the Tatzlwurms return to their underground homes, we are out here to cull their numbers and protect our food. Make sense yet?”

Mandible opened his mouth to offer up some form of counter or rebuttal, but a short, quiet hiss from Pharynx was all it took to make it clear that he wasn’t expecting an answer. Mandible sighed and fell back a short distance with a nod. “Yes, sir.”

Thorax didn’t let it show on his face, but he couldn’t help but feel a small amount of satisfaction at seeing these two getting shot down like that. This kind of treatment was nothing new, of course, and it filled him with shame to know that, in a way, they were right. As far as changelings went, he was small, scrawny, weak, and above all, cowardly. Most drones were eager to do their jobs to help the Hive grow and flourish, but Thorax’s knees went weak at the mere thought of engaging in combat, or of lying to other types of creatures so he could harvest love for food.

And yet despite this, Pharynx dragged him along, forcing him to partake in these regular patrols. No matter how much he slowed them down, Pharynx insisted that he be a part of the process.

Thorax’s eyes tilted back down to the ground, his thoughts consuming him. He traced the crags and stones with a solemn frown, hoping that their patrol would get lucky and that they wouldn’t have to deal with any Tatzlwurms. Those things were big, nasty, and they made him feel more than a little uncomfortable. Tentacles in the mouth, there was just something wrong about that.

“Alright, we’re getting close to our next turn,” Pharynx suddenly called back to be heard over the downpour. He spun in the air so he was flying backward, allowing his piercing purple eyes to survey his team. “We turn west at that spike up ahead, then keep moving for another five miles. After that, we cut back hard to the south and return to the Hive. Any questions?”

Mandible and Scorpion gave quick statements of “No, Sir!” Thorax, on the other hoof, merely shook his head.

Pharynx’s eyes narrowed at the puny drone. “What was that, Thorax? I can’t hear you over this rain, and that fact that you didn’t say a word!”

Thorax let out a small, high-pitched yelp of alarm and quickly straightened his posture. “S-sorry, sir! No questions!” he replied, raising his voice to be heard.

“Pay attention next time,” Pharynx snarled before rotating back around and picking up the speed. “Let’s move in.”

Thorax sighed heavily, his morale plummeting from the treatment, but he was quick to shrug it off and carry on. This was nothing new for him. In fact, all things considered, this was a pretty tame day compared to what he often dealt with back within the ever-churning walls of the Hive.

“Tough love… that’s just how things work in my family, I guess,” he thought to himself, his eyes drifting down again. He was silent for a moment, his mind beginning to lose itself in thought when movement caught his attention. Curious, he turned to look, and his eyes widened when he spotted a Tatzlwurm slithering angrily over a collection of low-walled trenches, having just emerged from a practical forest of stone spikes.

Thorax lifted several feet in the air to put some distance between him and the enraged worm before he shouted over to Pharynx. “T-T-Tatzlwurm spotted!” He pointed to it when the rest of the team stopped and looked back at him. “Down there, in the trenches! It looks like it’s looking for something!”

All eyes followed his hoof, and a serious frown marred Pharynx’s face. “Alright. Good spot, brother,” he called before his horn ignited with acid-green flames. “Let’s go do our jobs! Put that worm back in the dirt!”

Mandible and Scorpion called out their agreement with the order, their own horns flaring with magic. With a collective war cry, the trio of changelings dive-bombed for the Tatzlwurm, eager to go into battle.

It was then that Thorax realized he had to join them, and any excitement he felt at having contributed was summarily executed. He stared down, slack-jawed, at the Tatzlwurm, unable to make himself move. “Oh, boy…”

The first blasts of magic exploded across the back of the Tatzlwurm’s head, eliciting a furious roar from its mouth. It reared up, its face splitting open and its tongues lashing out erratically amid a combined splash of saliva and rainwater. Thorax felt a small churn of disgust in his stomach when he saw that a small part of the Tatzlwurm’s inner mouth was missing as if blown away by a small, controlled explosion. “Has another group already fought this one?”

Thorax didn’t get a chance to get a better look before the hole fell out of sight. The Tatzlwurm reached out with its tentacles as Pharynx was making an arcing pass to fire at it from the side. With an otherworldly shriek, it lunged and coiled its tongues around Pharynx in a tight grip, drawing an alarmed gasp out of him.

Thorax’s eyes widened, adrenaline pumping through his veins. “Brother!” he shouted, all previous reservations about going into battle overwhelmed by a surge of protective instincts. Igniting his own horn with magic, he flew down as fast as he could, trying to decide on a course of action. He had the weakest magic out of all of the drones on this team, so rescuing Pharynx by blasting the tongues wasn’t very likely to work. He was physically weak, so prying him away by hoof was sure to end in both of them getting chomped.

But there was one thing Thorax could do with at least a degree of competence, one skill he had managed to get some experience with.

Grunting with effort, Thorax’s entire body was consumed in a rush of green flames. They expanded out rapidly before parting like a curtain, revealing a praying mantis easily ten feet tall free falling through the air. It lifted one of its blades and brought it down on the tongues with all of its might, biting into the slippery, pliant flesh with a sickening squelch.

He didn’t cut through the tongues, but he was at least able to cause enough damage to make the Tatzlwurm release Pharynx and flail back with a howl of pain. It was soon distracted by the continued bombardment from Mandible and Scorpion, giving Thorax the window he needed to fly to his brother.

Switching back to his base form, Thorax reached out and grabbed his elder brother by the shoulders to keep him steady in the air. “Pharynx!” he said, his eyes wandering over the other drone’s body and searching for any signs of damage. “You’re not hurt, are you?!”

“I’m fine,” Pharynx dismissed while shrugging off his hooves. “Focus on the- LOOK OUT!”

Thorax shouted in surprise when Pharynx suddenly shoved him away. The reason why became clear when the maw of the Tatzlwurm snapped shut where they had both been mere seconds earlier. Thorax barely had time to shiver at the realization of how close he had been to getting eaten when the worm’s head lurched to one side and slammed into him hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs.

“THORAX!” Pharynx’s voice was just audible through the rain and the wind as Thorax was sent spiraling to the ground below, having lost all control of his flight. Dazed and confused by the world spinning wildly around him, he was only just able to spread his wings and slow down his fall enough to not be seriously damaging.

It still hurt like crazy, though.

He hit the ground hard, tumbling into a series of painful rolls before falling around ten feet down to land at the bottom of the trench. Groaning, he rolled slowly onto his belly and pushed himself back into a standing position.

A sudden crash right over his head made Thorax scream and bolt into a mad sprint down the length of the trench, his eyes screwing shut. He could still feel the tremors in the earth from the struggle and hear the roars of the Tatzlwurm as it withstood the continued assault of the rest of the team.

Around fifteen minutes later, Thorax staggered out of the trench. He collapsed to the ground in a gasping, shaking heap. Slowly, very slowly, his breath began to calm down, and he was able to wrestle his breathing under control. “That,” he thought as he took in a deep breath. “Was terrifying.”

After a minute or so of catching his breath, he opened his eyes and looked around. The rain had let up a couple of minutes ago, and the first red glows of the sunset were peaking through the clouds and lending an eerily-crimson glow to the world. He was on the side of a slope that gradually ascended to hug the base of a large, red mesa. A small cave was in the side of it, drawing his attention.

Grunting with strain, Thorax figured he could take shelter in there until his squad came to find him. He was already in enough trouble as it was for running away like that, he realized with some dread, he didn’t want to add to it by being out in the open.

Dragging his hooves, Thorax pulled himself to the mouth of the cave when his eyes noticed something odd in the sand. Looking down, he realized that prints were leading up from another side of the slope, and disappearing into the cave he was now walking into. Hoofprints. Fresh ones, at that.

Moving more carefully, Thorax slipped into the cave and opened his mouth to call out to whatever changeling was already in here. However, his words died in his throat when he rounded the corner at the back and came face-to-face with something he had never seen before.

It was a changeling - or, well, it had the general shape of one. A female, to be precise. But instead of chitin, there was mud-caked lavender fur. There were no holes in her legs, there was a distinct lack of wings buzzing at her sides, and her eyes were not glowing like Thorax’s were. Instead, they simply stared back at him in confused shock.

“...Uh,” Thorax began uselessly.

The mystery creature in front of him screamed.

The Pony in The Cave

The strange, chitin-clad creature in front of Twilight let out a low, two-toned drone, its voice distorted in a way that sent shivers crawling up and down her spine like an army of millipedes. Its unnaturally glowing blue eyes pierced her soul, making her recoil in fear. Its shredded body, its sharp teeth, the tattered wings flicking this way and that on its back… all of these things and more proved to be the last straw.

Twilight opened her mouth, primal terror swallowing her whole, and she screamed.

The moment she did, the creature immediately began to back away from her, screaming right back at her.

With the aid of adrenaline, Twilight cast aside any concerns about the water clinging to her coat or the wound in her side. She sprung back up to her hooves, her horn flaring up with magic before she let loose a wild, unfocused beam of raw offensive energy. Sadly, in her frightened and confused state, her shot went flying way off the mark, knocking a few pebbles loose from the ceiling and nothing else.

“Ew, ew, ew! Get away from me!” Twilight shouted as she backpedaled deeper into the cave, firing off bolt after wild bolt of magic at the monster that had somehow snuck up on her. She could already imagine it pouncing on her, snarling and snapping violently as it bit for her throat. The idea of being eaten alive by some pony-looking monster drove her fear to greater heights, and tears began to leak out of the corner of her eyes.

But just as she was absolutely terrified, the bug before her had seemingly been sent into a state of fear itself. It let out a few alarmed yelps before ducking back around the corner to hide from her blasts.

Twilight, emboldened by the beasts retreat, drew up more power and made ready to press the attack. She took a step forward, ready to fire off another blast at a moment’s-

“W-wait!” the two tones voice from before cried out, shaking in fear. “Wait, don’t hurt me! I don’t wanna fight you!”

That gave Twilight pause. She drew back her hoof and took a slow, deep breath, not entirely convinced of what she was hearing. After a moment, she held her head high, though she kept her horn lit up with energy, just in case. “W-who are you? Actually, no, w-what are you?!” she asked shakily.

She could hear movement around the corner before the creature poked its head slowly back around, its ears folded back and its body low to the ground. Now that Twilight was really looking at it, and knew it could talk, it… almost looked kind of pitiful, cowering like that. Her eyes slowly widened, and the spark on her horn began to diminish.

“My name is Thorax,” he said after a few more seconds of silence, bravely poking his head further out. “I, uh… y-you shouldn’t be here.”

Twilight took a step back, still feeling a little unnerved by his appearance. She squinted at him as he slowly but surely revealed himself entirely, taking careful mental note of every layer of his appearance. “Uh… again, what are you?” she repeated after a second, her brain playing catch-up. “Are you a pony? I mean, I’ve never seen a pony like you before…”

Thorax glanced down at himself for a moment before shaking his head. “No, I’m not a pony. Er… I’m a changeling. And, uh...” he scuffed the floor awkwardly before looking back up at her with an indecisive frown. “L-look, you’re really not supposed to be here. You’re trespassing in changeling territory, and you need to leave. If any of the others find you, they’ll-”

“Changelings?” Twilight asked, her fear starting to dwindle at the unfamiliar name. Slowly but surely, a gigantic grin began to appear on her face, and she took a few excited steps forward. “Wow! I’ve never heard of changelings before! Why are you called that? Can you shapeshift? Why do you look so much like a pony? Can you do magic? What’s with the holes? Why are you- GHUH!”

Twilight’s words died in her throat when her side suddenly flared with pain, her injury rudely reminding her that it was there and still untreated. With a gasp, she crumpled to the dirty ground and curled into a ball, her breath heavy and shaky.

Thorax took a step back, clearly surprised. “What the? Hey, are you alright?” he asked, any and all of the intensity from his warning gone just like that. He came up to Twilight’s side and looked her over, his eyes soon landing on her injury. “Oh… oh, that doesn’t look good.”

“It hurts,” Twilight hissed through clenched teeth, her eyes screwing shut. “It didn’t hurt this bad earlier… ow, ow, ow! Make it stop…”

Thorax leaned back, his ears drooping. “Uh, uh, um… I, uh…” he mumbled uselessly, his hoof reaching up to rub at the side of his head. After a few seconds, though, he seemed to get an idea. He leaned down and placed his hooves on Twilight’s shoulder and near her hip. “Could you flatten out a bit?”

Twilight tensed involuntarily under his touch. The cold, hard surface of his chitin pressing on her body was a foreign and deeply unsettling feeling for her. For a moment, primal instinct kicked in again, and she curled up more to protect herself.

“Please, I’m trying to help,” Thorax pleaded carefully, gently pulling to coax her to open up.

After a few seconds, Twilight managed to calm her fear down enough to think properly. “If he really wanted to hurt me, chances are he would have done it by now,” she reasoned to herself. “And besides, it’s not like I have any other options. If he can help me, I just have to trust him…”

Still nervous, Twilight swallowed heavily before slowly uncurling her body and laying flat on her side, presenting her open injury for the world to see.

Thorax looked it over for a few seconds, working his jaw as if he were chewing on something, or thinking really heavily. Then, without any warning, he opened his mouth and leaned down. Twilight lost sight of his face, and for a moment, she locked up with fear at the idea that he was about to chomp down on her.

Her fear was replaced with disgust when something warm, sticky, and moist spread over her injury. The torn flesh burned from the contact, making her hiss through tightly clenched teeth, her ears pinning back against her skull and her legs twitching against her will. However, just as quickly as the pain started, it began to fade, as did all feeling in flesh around it.

“There, that should keep it sealed for a while,” Thorax said with a self-satisfied voice, pulling back and leaving Twilight to her own devices.

Blinking open her eyes, Twilight looked down to see a thick patch of sticky, slimy, green… er, stuff covering her injury. It was somewhat transparent and adhered to her fur remarkably well, covering her wound and allowing her to look at it without losing much detail.

“...What… is this stuff?” she asked, moving a hoof down to poke at the substance.

Thorax smiled innocently. “Changeling mucus.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight shrieked, springing back up to stand on the very tips of her hooves, her back hunched up while her ears folded back in revulsion. “Eeeeueue, ew, ew, ew! I’m covered in it!”

Thorax blinked, tilting his head to one side. “Er, no, just your injury- Don’t pull it off!” he suddenly protested when Twilight began to pull at the edge with one of her hooves. “It’s super adherent! If you pull that off, you’re gonna be ripping out a lot of fur.”

Twilight shuddered in disgust, walking to one side as if that would somehow get the disgusting resin off of her. “Guh. It’s disgusting!”

Thorax’s ears lowered, and he looked away as if in shame. “I’m sorry… I couldn’t think of anything else,” he mumbled, his voice low and pathetic.

Twilight poked at the resin for a few more seconds before looking away and taking several deep breaths. Slowly but surely, as the initial shock and disgust at realizing she was covered in mucus wore off, she was able to see the merit in the unorthodox application. The flesh around her injury had gone numb, so she wasn’t feeling any pain right now aside from the general ache all through her body. But more than that, it was covering the wound and keeping it from bleeding.

“Uh… will this stuff keep infections out?” she eventually asked with an uneasy cringe.

Thorax lifted his head and nodded, his wings buzzing on his back for a second. “Uh-huh. It’s usually used to cocoon our prey and preserve them for a long time so that we can keep it fresh. It’s also really good for keeping any prisoners and subduing them, and- why are you looking at me like that?”

Twilight’s eyes had locked onto Thorax the moment he had said the word ‘prey.’ Swallowing a lump in her throat, she took an uneasy step back. “Prey… what kind of prey?” she asked after a moment of tense silence.

Thorax’s eyes widened as he realized what he had just implied. “Oh. OH! Oh, no, no, not you! I’m not going to eat you! Changelings don’t eat meat. Well, not unless we really, really need to! We eat love from our prey.”

Twilight was quiet for a moment, trying to wrap her head around that. Then she let out a little snort of amusement, her hoof flying up to cover her muzzle to kill her oncoming snickers.

Thorax’s cheeks puffed up. “Hey! What’s so funny?” he asked indignantly, his wings twitching in agitation on his back.

Twilight giggled at the face, before shaking her head. “S-sorry, just - heh, - I just wasn’t expecting you to say that,” she said between her chortles.

Thorax huffed. “Oh, come on! You don’t see me laughing at you for your diet!”

Twilight was quick to get her laughs under control after that. Once she calmed down, she took a deep breath and gave Thorax an understanding look. “Right, sorry. I don’t really have much reason to laugh at you for that anyway. I mean, I saved my home with the magic of friendship. Twice.”

Thorax blinked. “...Whuh?”

“Anyways, enough about me,” Twilight was quick to press on, the scholarly part of her mind kicking into gear. “Tell me more about you! You eat love? How does that work? And what’s with all of the holes in your legs? And again, can you shapeshift? What kind of magic do you have? Are you...”

Twilight’s barrage of questions died in her throat when she noticed Thorax slowly lowering himself down to the ground and leaning back, overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. She chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. “S-sorry, I’ve just never met a changeling before. I don’t think anypony has. I’ve never heard of you, and I’m just so curious!”

Thorax gave her a stiff nod, slowly starting to lift himself back up. “No, no, it’s alright… uh… for what it’s worth, I’ve never actually met a, ah… what did you call me earlier? A pony?” he asked timidly.

“You’ve never heard of ponies?”

“Well, I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen them before… they’re supposed to live really far away from here, in Equestria,” Thorax replied before seemingly remembering something. He straightened himself out and looked at her with a degree of caution. “Actually… what are you doing here?”

Twilight’s excitement and good mood were swiftly shattered by the reminder of her situation. Her ears drooped, and a tired sigh slid past her lips. “I was part of an expedition into the badlands to explore and map things out. Right now, Equestria only has the first few miles and the rough outline charted. I wanted to be a part of that kind of research, and so I signed up when I heard about the expedition. But we were attacked by some kind of giant angry worm, and I got separated from the others.”

Thorax glanced back towards the mouth of the cave. “Ah, that would probably be a Tatzlwurm. They get pretty feisty when rain falls, and can be very dangerous. I had to deal with one earlier myself… I’m actually probably in a lot of trouble for running away.”

Twilight took a few steps forward, a small spark of hope in her chest. “So, you’re a native? I mean, changelings live in the badlands? You mentioned I was trespassing earlier. Are you organized into some kind of kingdom?”

Before Thorax could answer, his ears suddenly stood bolt upright. Twilight, confused, perked her own ears up to listen for whatever had caught the odd creature’s attention.

It was a voice, low, gruff, and similarly distorted like Thorax’s.

“Thorax, where are you?!”

If it were possible for an exoskeleton to turn pale, Thorax managed it expertly. He suddenly went totally stiff, his eyes going wide and his jaw clamping shut. “...Pharynx,” he choked out.

Twilight tilted her head. “Pharynx? As in the membrane-lined cavity behind the nose and mouth-”

“He’s my brother,” Thorax suddenly hissed at her in a whisper, his wings snapping into life and carrying him forward. He pressed a hole-riddled hoof against Twilight’s lips, pushing her back and totally out of sight of the cave mouth. “Look, I’m already in trouble with him, but if he sees you, who knows what will happen!”

Twilight tried to speak and pry Thorax’s hoof away, but he held firm.

“Look, just stay down and out of sight until we’re gone, okay? It…” he pulled his hoof away, and a small smile formed on his face. “It was nice meeting you. Goodbye.”

Twilight watched as Thorax then turned and galloped out of the cave, his hoof-falls becoming muffled before the sound of buzzing wings reached her ears. Slowly, she snuck up to the corner and peered around to observe what was happening. She saw three more changelings, one of which with a different color scheme, flying down to meet Thorax.

“That one in the front is colored differently… and they all have an insect-like appearance. Do they have a social structure based on castes like an ant hill or beehive?” she wondered curiously while listening in.

“Thorax, where have you been, you idiot?!” The purple-eyed changeling, Pharynx, if Twilight had to guess, snapped upon getting close to Thorax.

Twilight strained her ears to make out the response, but Thorax’s voice was too low and quiet to be discerned.

“I told you he was a coward,” one of the others jeered once he was finished with an almost predatory look on his face. “Couldn’t even stand to do his job for more than a minute!”

Pharynx turned back to that one with an angry scowl. “Shut up, Scorpion. In case you forgot, he saved my life and pointed out the worm long before either of you did!”

Scorpion cowered back from the shout, his ears drooping and an inaudible apology tumbling out of his lips.

Pharynx sighed and turned back to Thorax, carefully checking him over for any injuries. After a few seconds, he seemed satisfied and nodded back towards the south. “The rain’s cleared up, and the Tatzlwurms are returning to the dirt. We need to report in.”

“And Thorax needs some disciplinary action for running off in the middle of a fight,” the last changeling remarked with a more respectful tone. “Saved your life or not, boss, he still ran away, and that’s not acceptable.”

“I know that, Mandible,” Pharynx growled, disappointment evident in his voice. He then shared a few hushed sentences with Thorax. After a few seconds of back and forth, Pharynx smacked Thorax on the shoulder and turned to the group at large. “Well? What are you buffoons loitering around for?! We’re moving out!”

And with that, the four changelings began to fly away into the distance, the rapidly-fading light of the sunset allowing Twilight to watch them for a time. She extracted herself from her hiding place and trotted up to the mouth of the cave to watch them go, her eyes glued onto Thorax until he disappeared into the distance.

A dusty breeze blew by, and the sun finally settled beneath the horizon, and dusk settled over the land.

After a few minutes of silence, Twilight nodded to herself before withdrawing back into the cave. “It’s too dangerous to travel at night, especially in this place,” she told herself as she made her way back around the bend. “Besides, I need the rest. I’ll look for the expedition team in the morning.”

With that sentiment ringing in her mind, Twilight settled down on the cool, hard floor of the cave, closed her eyes, and tried to get some much-needed sleep.

Left Behind

Twilight Sparkle winced when she peered out of her cave the following morning, the stark contrast between the badlands in the rain and the badlands in the sun was shocking, to say the least. What had once been a dreary and largely-depressing landscape, had become hostile and threatening. The muted greys and dusty browns had become deep crimsons and fiery oranges, all of which rippled under the heat of the sun’s light.

Even from the shelter of her cave, she could feel the heatwaves rolling over her stiff, sore body, and she knew that stepping out into the light would be exceedingly unpleasant… but what choice did she have? “The expedition team hasn’t come back to find me, yet. Or if they have, they haven’t been looking in the right places…”

All through the night, Twilight’s sleep had been routinely disturbed by distant sounds. Every time, she had perked up her ears and hoped with all of her heart that it was the team sending out search parties to find her. Every time, she had been met with disappointment when the sounds came into focus and proved to be nocturnal animals calling to one another.

As she watched the sun slowly rising, Twilight’s mind was struggling with the options presented to her. “This cave is safe, or at least a lot more safe than anywhere outside. But it’s pretty out of the way from where the team was, and it’s not easy to spot. If I want to link up with the others and get out of here, I might have to leave the safety of the cave… but then I’ll be out in the open, and who knows what kinds of creatures I could bump into?”

Her mind wandered back to that odd creature she had encountered the previous night, and her eyes turned to stare at the resin that still clung to her injury. Thorax had been kind to her, even tended to her injuries, but he made it sound like the rest of his kind were not so hospitable. At least not the ones that had been traveling with him. “I’d want to avoid them if I bumped into any, then.”

She returned her attention to the desert and took a deep breath. Eventually, she made up her mind on her course of action and gingerly set off from the cave. The moment she was out of the shade, the hot air began to nip at the fur on her back, and the ground beneath her hooves burned with every step. She let out a few quiet hisses and squeaks, before eventually getting used to the pain.

She made her way back into the trenches that had sheltered her from the giant worm the previous afternoon — a Tatzlwurm, if she was remembering Thorax’s name for it right — and began to navigate them. Every so often, she would leap up to poke her head out and get an idea of her surroundings. The effort was proving tiring, especially under the searing sun. She was already sweating profusely and panting after only ten minutes of this.

All the while, she kept her ears perked up and attentive while her eyes focused on the path ahead of her, trying to retrace her steps. Every so often, a small desert lizard would skitter in her path before disappearing into some crack or cranny in the trench’s walls, or the sound of some unfamiliar scavenger bird shrieking in the distance would reach her and make her squat down out of primal instinct. A dusty breeze washed over her every so often, howling and whistling ominously between the stones and long-dead trees.

Eventually, she came out of the trenches and found herself back where she had landed when she had fallen. The impact marks left behind had blended back into the ground from the rainfall before solidifying under the scorching heat of the day, making it look almost like an ancient battleground. In a way, it kind of was. Except instead of a battle, it was a frantic chase of a predator after its prey.

“But this is good,” Twilight reminded herself shortly after a shiver ran over her at the memory. “I know where this is. I just need to get to high ground, and I can find where the first Tatzlwurm attacked the team! Then I can go after them!”

She turned her eyes up, searching the cliffside for a suitably sturdy place to pop up to. She found one soon enough and disappeared in a flash of lavender light. When she emerged, now tendering a slight headache, she was at the top of the cliff, a few dozen yards away from where she had first taken the leap. She could even see the tree that had stopped her initial rolling, and the rock that had given her the gash.

She cringed when she saw that the tip of the rock was still painted a deep, almost black, shade of red. “Oh… ugh,” she mumbled uncomfortably at the sight. Tearing her eyes away from the spot of her own dried blood, she focused her eyes to look into the distance. She squinted hard against the glare and ambient light. After a moment, she spotted her target.

“Alright… there we go,” she said with a small smile before looking down from her cliffside and grimacing. “I need to save power…”

With a sigh, she realized that she was going to have to get there on hoof. If she wanted to keep her magic reserves intact enough for self-defense, then the only teleport she could afford now was to the bottom of the cliff. Swallowing hard and worrying about letting the trail get cold, she closed her eyes and teleported back to the bottom of the cliff.

Stifling a pained groan, she set off back into the crags. Her breath came in increasingly labored pants as she went, and soon she became acutely aware of just how dry her throat was becoming. In the back of her head, she prayed that the wreckage of that one wagon was still where it had fallen and that it had been carrying some water bottles. She had to keep herself hydrated. She was in no mood to become a dried, shriveled-up corpse, after all.

She briefly thought back on that pool she had spotted in the back of the cave, but soon dismissed it from her mind. Without any means of boiling it, she had no way of being sure that the water there was safe to drink.

It must have been at least half an hour of stumbling blindly through spikes of rocks, coming up to dead ends and yawning chasms before, at long last, she leaped down a small ledge and came upon the scene of the attack. Much like the damage left behind before, the copious hoofprints had softened under the rain, and much of them had already been filled in by dust and sand that had blown in after the fact.

No ponies, though, and no sign that they had come back.

“...Oh, no…” Twilight whispered, her ears drooping as she studied the tracks in more detail. To her horror, the prints that were running away were the most recent ones. The expedition team hadn’t come back. Not this way, at least.

Another wave of heat and burning wind washed over her, and Twilight suddenly broke down into a series of coughs, her hoof flying up to cover her muzzle. The coughs were dry and raspy, stinging her throat and reinforcing her growing need for water. Shaking her head and wiping a hoof over her brow to dispel her sweat, Twilight looked around and caught sight of the wagon’s wreckage.

“Please let there be water, please let there be water, please let there be water…”

Heading to the back, she looked inside to examine the wagon’s contents. To her dismay, it did not seem to be a water wagon. The vast majority of the cargo inside was comprised of camping supplies. Lengths of rope, thick sheets of canvas for tents, rods, and spikes made out of wood for holding said tents together, and not much else.

Twilight’s ears fell flat against her head, a horrible feeling building up in the pits of her stomach. “No, no, no!” she thought desperately before hopping up and lighting up her horn. Growing frantic, the dryness in her throat feeling as if it were starting to choke the life out of her, she began to throw anything and everything that wasn’t water out of the wagon. A sizable cloud of dust was kicked up outside with every new item she added to the pile, the heavy thumps and cracks echoing all around her in the desolate landscape.

Soon, her search had rendered the wagon was all but empty. She was about to give up hope of finding some drinking water when, finally, she spotted a single, lone waterskin pressed up to the back wall, near the driver’s seat.

Praising the stallion who had left it behind, Twilight quickly snatched it up, tore off the lid, and greedily guzzled down the contents. Boundless relief flooded her system as, finally, finally, the drought in her throat began to fade, and the relatively-cool water brought down her temperature enough to be at least acceptable.

Unfortunately, the water was gone much too soon. Twilight shook the cannister a few times to get the last few drops out before slumping to the floor and letting off a quiet sigh. “...They left me, didn’t they?” she wondered to herself in a whisper.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. They had no reason to suspect she had survived, given the nature of the enemy they had faced, and the fact that she had never come back. If Thorax’s assessment had been correct, then it was likely that the team had been harassed by even more of those Tatzlwurms as they attempted to flee. If enough ponies were hurt or enough supplies destroyed, it would only make sense to call the whole operation off and head home.

With her ears drooping, Twilight screwed her eyes shut and took several deep breaths in a bid to calm down her swelling emotions. “I’m all alone out here…”

She briefly toyed with the idea of trying to follow the team, but soon discarded it as unwise. The team had a big enough head start that she had no chance of catching up, and the edge of the Badlands was too far away for her to get there without running the risk of severe dehydration.

Her only hope of getting back home, then, was to survive long enough for the team to make it back and report her as missing. Princess Celestia and her friends would come running as soon as they found out what had happened, and they would find her, and she’d be fine. Heck, maybe Spike could send her a letter, and they could establish a line of communication to make finding her easier.

But there was no telling for sure how long that would take. For now, Twilight had to focus on just staying alive.

Taking one last breath, she forced herself to her hooves and sluggishly leaped down from the back of the wagon. “Well, I just hope they all made it out alright,” she thought to herself before scanning the debris left in her wake for anything of use. If she was going to be stuck here for the time being, she needed to prepare herself accordingly.

In short order, she had picked up the empty waterskin, enough wood and stone for a campfire for the night, and a bedroll to ease her muscles when next she slept. Resting, uncovered on the hard rock in the strikingly cold night of the desert, was a recipe for incredibly sore muscles.

Satisfied with her haul, Twilight turned to stare up the hill to where the expedition team had fled. “...Good luck,” she whispered before looking back in the direction of the cave that she had decided would serve as her home in this blasted desert. A lump formed in her throat. “...We’ll both need it.”

With those words ringing in her ears, Twilight set off at a brisk trot, the blazing sun bearing down on her.

Loneliness

Twilight Sparkle was annoyed. Not at her dire situation, or the perpetual soreness in her muscles, or the agitating dryness in her throat that left her constantly coughing and scratching at it. She was not annoyed at the rocky floor of the cave that had been her home for the last few days, nor was she annoyed by the unflinchingly hostile heat that beat down on the desert every time she had the audacity to peak outside.

All of that was bad, yes. But no, the source of her ire was something far more personal.

“Why do all of the survival books make it look so easy?!” she groaned from the back of her cave before devolving into a series of coughs.

Twilight had always been a studious sort, delving into whatever tomes she could get her literarily greedy hooves on. A fair few of them had been about ponies surviving in dangerous environments for prolonged periods of time. As such, with her main bulk of survival experience coming from family camping trips in the woods, she had called on what she remembered of those to act as her guiding compass.

There were a few problems, though. First off, the ponies in those books were physically much stronger than she was. Secondly, the authors had often seen fit to cover their mistakes in greater detail than their triumphs, to up the drama on every page. Narratively, it was a sound move to keep a reader hooked, but utterly useless for a pony actually trying to get some life-saving information from them, especially when pulled up from the dregs of one’s memory and not the page itself.

Third, most of the survival stories she had read had taken place on islands, or in forests, or frozen tundras. The general principles still applied, of course. Find food, safe drinking water, and shelter. The minutia of those principles was radically different in the blazing desert of the badlands.

For example, Twilight had put it together exceedingly quickly after her first foray to bring supplies back from the shattered wagon that going out while the sun was out was a terrible, terrible idea. She had only done so one other time since then before it occurred to her that it would be far safer to move at night. The heat of the daytime sun sapped her strength like a leech on the jugular, and left her dehydrated and sweating profusely.

Another mistake she had made was leaving the cave door completely uncovered. Sunlight still seeped through, especially in the evenings, and the way it reflected around inside heated up the rocks to the point that Twilight had been forced to retreat into the very back of the cave and huddle up in the corner by the pool.

If nothing else, she had water, and a lot of it. She had sent a few small orbs of magic light into the pool to check its depth, and had discovered that it was at least six feet deep. But more than that, she had discovered a hole in the back wall of the pool that she could only assume led into some kind of large, underground pond or lake. So as far as water was concerned, she was set in terms of quantity. Enough to last for weeks, if not months.

The question then became whether or not it was safe to drink from.

The pool was far from clear, a surefire sign that less-than-desirable things dwelled within. But without something to boil it in to purify it, she was left with few other options. The water flask she had salvaged from the wreckage had proven less than workable in this situation, being a flimsy and, more importantly, flammable container. Putting it over an open flame to try and boil the water would simply leave her without a container.

So, she had resorted to drinking from the pool. She did so sparingly and only took as much water as she felt she needed, hoping to minimize her risk of contracting anything dangerous. A flimsy hope, she acknowledged, but it gave her some small comfort all the same.

She let out a snort of breath and went over her situation in her head, conjuring up a makeshift checklist in her mind’s eye to help her visualize what she had to do.

“Shelter, check. Water… eeh, let’s put an asterisk next to it. Food… not checked.”

Her stomach audibly grumbled at the reminder that she had failed to put anything substantial inside of it for several days. Her hoof lifted up to rub at her tummy while an uncomfortable groan slid past her dry lips.

“I need food.”

Stifling another groan and trying to ignore the riot of her stomach, she turned her eyes up to look at the cave mouth, gauging the time. The sun was starting to set, painting the world in shades of deep, deep crimson. A small amount of relief came over Twilight, and she slowly rose to her hooves. “Finally!”

With traveling during the day no longer being the preferred option, she had to scrounge for food at night. She hadn’t ventured out of her cave yet, though, if only out of fear of the unknown. But, over the days since she raided the busted wagon, she had observed the Badlands from the relative safety of her cave, trying to get an idea of what kinds of wildlife called the desert their home at night.

Birds and small rodents had been all that stood out to her. Owls, night buzzards, and a family of mice whose ghostly squeaks staked claim to the sands for miles around.

For such small lungs, their voices flew remarkably far.

Twilight took a deep breath as the last light of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, plunging the world into her namesake. “Okay… no more stalling…”

She briefly stalled to take one more sip of water from her pool, praying to Luna that it was safe, and then set out from the cave to search the badlands for any sign of food.

“The ponies in the survival novels always seemed to find what they needed,” Twilight thought irritably to herself almost an hour later, her eyes searching the open expanse of cold dirt ahead of her for any sign of edible plant matter. She would go for moss at this point! “Maybe I’m just not desperate enough yet?”

A nice thought, but no. She knew this wasn’t some survival novel where she would, at the last minute of desperate need, find exactly the thing she needed. This was real life. Either she found what she needed and lived, or she didn’t, and she died. There was no hoof guiding her to keep her alive. She was alone…

Alone. Truly alone. Not even Spike was with her.

Twilight’s eyes fell at that thought. She had never truly been totally and completely alone before, she now realized. Her heart fell heavy with the realization, and her hoof wandered up to her heart while her mind drifted back to her friends.

What were they thinking right now? Did they even know what had happened, yet? Had the expedition team made good on their return? It was hard to tell, but she figured the answer was no. If her friends knew her fate, Spike would have sent her a letter by now, a frantically scribbled note demanding that she let him know she was fine and how he could find her.

But what about the others? What would Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie, or Fluttershy think? What of Rarity, or Applejack?

Twilight’s eyes began to mist over as she predicted their responses to the news that she was missing and possibly dead in her head, one at a time. “Heh… Rainbow would p-probably be the most eager to come after me, right along with Pinkie and Applejack. Although, she wouldn’t have their patience about it. Fluttershy and Rarity would be worried sick…”

She closed her eyes and wiped a hoof over her face, sniffling and fighting to regain a hold of herself.

“The survival novels never really talked about the emotional part of this, either…”

Sighing wearily, Twilight slowly dragged herself down the slope and into the pit below, her eyes wandering over the terrain.

Dead dirt. There was no plant life to be had anywhere in sight.

A single tear that fell from Twilight’s cheek was the first moisture this soil had soaked up in days.

Twilight spent several hours scrounging around for food, and all she was able to find was a scraping of thin moss under a loose stone in one of those trenches. She brought it back to the cave when she found nothing else, stopping on the way to pick up a large sheet of fabric from the wreckage of the wagon. It had a few holes in it, but it would serve her purposes for now.

Upon her return, she started up a small flame with a few of the pieces of wood she harvested from the wagon, and held the stone over the fire in her magic. The moss she wound up peeling off and eating was dry, crunchy, and beyond disgusting on her tongue. It flaked and powdered in her mouth like crystal sprinkles on an old cupcake, reminding her almost of sandpaper, while the taste was that of poorly cooked seaweed dipped in a jar of pickle juice. Edible, but unenjoyable.

Feeling defeated, Twilight dragged herself over to the mouth of the cave again, her eyes staring up at the moon. The pristine white surface, marred by only a few small craters, still felt alien to her, even with how long it had been since the pattern of the Mare in The Moon ceased to exist.

In a way, some small part of her wished those craters would return, that the haunting, exaggerated silhouette of Nightmare Moon herself was there to look back down at her in contempt and resentment.

“At least then, I would have somepony to look at…”

With a heavy sigh, Twilight began the final part of her chores for the night before she would head inside to sleep through the first half of the day. She knew that the search parties wouldn’t be coming for her yet, but she still had to do it. To feel like she was doing something if nothing else.

With the world as still and as quiet as it was, and with the sky shrouded in the darkness of the night, the spell stood out incredibly. With her eyes closed, Twilight gathered power on her horn, then pointed it up to the sky. With a grimace and a quiet grunt of strain, she fired off a lone, flickering sphere of magic high into the air.

She opened her eyes and watched as it arced up and up, flickering and fading just slightly as if it were about to wink out. Then, with a muffled and barely audible pop and boom, the sphere exploded out like a firework, sending several smaller sparks of lavender light flying in all directions. They hovered there for a moment and then began to drift back down to earth, leaving thin trails of quickly dissipating smoke in their wake.

The light soon faded, and Twilight’s heart plummeted. The empty moon stared back at her as the smoke blew away, and Twilight’s rapidly-mounting loneliness began to swallow her whole. Shuddering, she screwed her eyes shut and fired off the spell a second time.

“Please, somepony see me,” she thought to herself when the pop reached her ears. “Somepony… anypony… Help me.”

She fired off the spell one more time before she was spent. And despite her efforts, her silent plea went unanswered…

It did not, however, go unseen.

Several miles away, Thorax trotted sluggishly through the halls of the Hive with his eyes downturned, and his lips pulled tightly into an exhausted grimace. As punishment for fleeing from combat without the orders of his commander, Thorax had been sentenced with three days without food, and a whole week of night patrol added on top of his regular duties in the Hive. Had he not saved Pharynx, odds are his punishment would have been infinitely worse.

The Hive shifted and warped around him, permitting him to pass between chamber without having to look up from his hooves. He knew exactly where he was going at all times. He had his destination, and the walls and the floors twisted to guide him there effortlessly.

“Interior clear,” he thought to himself in a monotone. “Better check the outside. Don’t wanna come off as lazy.”

Turning on his hooves, he marched for the nearest wall. A perfectly circular hole opened before him, spreading out with the sound of stone grinding on stone. He stepped through and into a tall, vertical chamber. To his left was a circular wall, while to his right was open air, with numerous open tunnels burrowed into the distant wall, each one glowing a soft green from the organic lights his kind made extensive use of. Directly in front of him was a sheer drop that would take him down dozens, if not hundreds, of meters.

He stepped forward.

More stone emerged from the wall to his left, pushing forth like a hoof through a thin sheen of mucus, providing him a walkway. He kept moving without slowing down, and soon enough, his path brought him to the far wall of the chamber. Again, the wall in front of him opened, and the comparatively chilly air of the Badlands at night washed over him.

Stepping out onto a jagged, natural balcony, Thorax swept his eyes from left to right, taking in the terrain and scanning for intruders. Nothing stood out to him. Just the emptiness of the badlands. The constant, yawning emptiness… and the loneliness that came with it.

He briefly mused over the paradoxical nature of that notion but was quick to dismiss it. He wasn’t like the other changelings. Or rather, they weren’t like him. And so he did not belong with them. He was always going to be the cowardly, sniveling wimp that the rest of the drones would relentlessly mock and torture and bully. Even his own brother, who protected him from others, treated him like garbage.

He didn’t belong here… but where else could he go? Out there into the world?

He snorted at himself. What a hilariously stupid idea. Leaving the Hive was certain death. As much of an outcast as he was here, he would be shunned as a freakish monster out there. Not to mention what the queen would do to him if she ever caught him after running away…

Thorax sighed, setting his chin on the rail that conveniently rose up from the edge of the balcony.

And then something caught his eye. Curious, Thorax shifted to his left.

His eyes widened. There, far in the distance, he could see a sphere of tiny lavender stars shimmering in the sky. They were tiny, and so far away that he was honestly amazed he had seen them at all. They hung there for a moment, then drifted back down and faded from view. Then, another burst came, and another.

The color of that light looked familiar, and slowly, his mind wandered back to a strange creature he had stumbled on in a cave a few days ago… that ‘pony.’

“...Is she still out there?” he thought to himself. “Am I… really alone?”

As if hoping for an answer, he continued to watch the horizon, desperate for one more repeat of the magical light.

It did not come again.

Author's Note

Fun fact: This chapter was originally going to be called 'Survival is Harder Than it Sounds,' and was going to be a bit more light-hearted with the narration and overall tone. Then I got to writing and that entire notion very quickly fell apart.

Stomach Rot

Over the remaining nights of his punishment, Thorax made it a point to travel to the balcony during the night and watch out for the flares of magic in the distance. It was a strange compulsion, one that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around. He didn’t understand why, but for some reason, seeing those bursts of light out there in the distance, barely visible unless you were actively searching for them, gave him some small comfort.

Maybe it was because of who he believed was casting the spell. That purple pony he had met in that cave. The fact that she was, as far as he could recall, the only one to treat him with an ounce of kindness — barring his brother, of course — in all his life had really made an impression. He had been expecting her to disappear and vanish after he left her behind, but now that he knew she was still around…

It was something of a relief, in an admittedly selfish way. It meant that he wasn’t alone, not really. Somewhere out there was another creature, one that had been nice to him, if a bit skittish, and who was probably feeling just as lost and confused as him.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, as the old saying went. On the final night of his punishment, he had wrapped up his patrol and took his place on the balcony, his eyes probing the horizon where he knew the spell would go off. Any minute now… any minute. But it never came. Thorax strained his eyes and dared to look around, hoping in vain that maybe he was just looking in the wrong spot.

No such luck. The sky remained dark.

An anxious chittering noise came from the bottom of Thorax’s voice, and he shuffled uneasily on his haunches. “She’s probably fine,” he thought to himself, lifting up one hoof to rub at his shoulder. “She probably went home. She did say she had come here with others, so she must have found them and left…”

But somehow, he just knew that wasn’t true. Or at the very least, he dearly feared that it wasn’t.

Was she in some kind of trouble? Was she hurt? Did she get lost out there? There were so many possible threats out in the Badlands that could leap on and destroy the unprepared, and that pony had seemed about as unprepared as one could get. Each one he thought of made his heart drop lower and lower in his chitin-clad chest.

“I need to go to her,” he finally determined to himself, his wings wavering on his back. The question then became, how would he go about it? He didn’t want to get in trouble again, after all…

The following morning, Thorax stepped out of a hole in the wall and into a large chamber tunneled into the shape of a towering cylinder. Hundreds of small caves and rooms were burrowed into the walls at even intervals that served as the bunks for the Hive’s many warriors. A single one could house up to twelve drones at once with room for personal space, and almost twenty if they clustered tightly together.

Most of those drones were out of their rooms, now, many of them gathered on the spacious floors below to perform training exercises. Others were performing aerial routines to wake themselves up or improve their agility. The rest had probably received orders and fluttered off to carry them out without question long before Thorax arrived.

His eyes swept over the room, hunting for one changeling in particular. Luckily, the unusual colors of his brother stood out like a sore thumb amidst his peers. Pharynx was down at the bottom level, barking out instructions to an assembled team of twelve drones who were all in the process of doing copious amounts of push-ups.

Taking a deep breath, Thorax snapped out his wings and descended. He passed by a few other drones on the way, but none of them even gave him the time of day to harass him. A small blessing, albeit a hurtful one.

As soon as Thorax’s hooves touched down on the cold stone floor, Pharynx turned to glance at him with a puzzled frown. “Thorax? What are you doing here?” he asked before glaring back at the drones before him. “I’m watching you lot! If I spot any slackers, I’ll crack all of your shells!”

As the thoroughly-motivated drones continued their workout, Pharynx gave his undivided attention to his little brother. “You look like garbage,” he noted callously.

“I slept like garbage,” Thorax replied quietly, lowering his eyes to look at his brother’s hooves.

“And? Are you here to whine that the floor’s too cold or something?” Pharynx asked impatiently. “I’m trying to do my job here, Thorax. So unless this is important, buzz off and leave me be.”

Thorax winced under Pharynx’s harsh tone. A moment later, though, he pulled himself together and spoke up. “I… I was wondering if I could…” he tried, but the words caught in his throat.

“You’re off punishment now, you know,” Pharynx pointed out, starting to tap his hoof. “So just spit it out! And remember your rank! Address me properly!”

Thorax snapped to attention without a moment’s hesitation. “S-sorry, sir! I want to request to go on lone wolf patrols, sir!” he finally explained, his fear of reprimand driving him to blurt the words without even thinking about it.

A few of the drones doing push-ups glanced up at him in surprise.

Pharynx, as if sensing this, glared back at them. “What did I say about slackers?!” he snapped, his horn sparking to life with green magic.

The listening drones were quick to get back to work.

Satisfied that they would not be interrupted again, Pharynx returned his attention to Thorax, a puzzled frown on his face. “Lone wolf patrol?”

Thorax nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Why?”

Thorax hesitated, his eyes lowering again. “...I let you all down with that Tatzelwurm when the rain was coming down,” he began, his ears drooping. “I ran off… Scorpion and Mandible are right. I’m weak, and I’m a coward.”

“Which is why this request makes absolutely no sense,” Pharynx pointed out, his brow furrowing. “You do know what you’re signing up for, right?”

Thorax met his brother’s eyes, his heart beating just a little faster as he really thought about it. “Y-yes, sir,” he eventually confirmed.

“Explain it to me, then. Prove that you understand.”

“Lone wolf patrol is when a single drone patrols the wastes around the Hive on their own with the intention of locating intruders and detaining them,” Thorax recited without memory. “They are on their own for the duration of their rounds to minimize visibility. They are the silent eyes of the Hive all over the badlands.”

“Correct. It’s a tough job, and it can get exceedingly dangerous,” Pharynx started slowly, taking a few steps closer. He lowered his voice, dropping his professionalism for a moment to let something far gentler seep through. “And you are weak. Incredibly so. You are not strong enough to perform such a task on your own, and given your habit of running away from anything that scares you-”

“This will make me stronger,” Thorax argued back, his brow furrowing. “Please, Pharynx. I… I don’t like letting you down like that. I want to pull my own weight and do my part, for your sake, if nothing else, but I can’t do that if you don’t let me improve.”

“So run the training exercises,” Pharynx argued back. “Do your rounds, come to practice, train for Hive’s sake. Don’t go running out into the wilds on your own.”

“But Pharynx…” Thorax pleaded, lowering his head slightly to make himself look small and pitiful. “You know that the other drones won’t let me.”

“They follow my orders,” Pharynx snarled quietly, his eyes darting back to oversee the soldiers around them. “Any hoof they lay on you, I will personally break.”

Thorax winced at that unpleasant mental image. This sort of overprotectiveness was nothing new, but it never became any less unsettling. As averse as he was to actual violence, Thorax always found it deeply disquieting when his only brother, his own flesh and blood, threatened to harm others of their own kind on his behalf. As much as he appreciated the protection, the aggression that it came with was less pleasing.

“Then what if I go out as a scout instead?” Thorax suggested meekly. “Not to engage or detain enemies, but to spot problems and report them to the drones that can do something?”

Pharynx hesitated at that before turning back to his younger brother, one eyebrow quirked.

“Think about it,” Thorax went on, trying to build up some confidence. “We already know I’m good at running away, so why don’t we give me a job where running away is useful? If I find a threat, I run right back to the Hive and tell you about it. And all that time on my own should help me learn to pull my own weight.”

Pharynx was quiet for several seconds, considering Thorax with a thoughtful frown. He lifted a hoof to stroke at his chin for a few seconds before giving a slow nod. “Alright… okay, fine, I’ll tell you what. I will let you go out on lone wolf scouting runs for the next month. But I expect you to be back on time, and I expect you to be extremely detailed in your reports. And I had best see a pretty massive improvement in your physique and confidence at the end of it. And if I suspect that it’s not a good fit or too much for you to handle, I will cut you off from that job without a second thought. Do I make myself clear, soldier?”

Thorax snapped back to attention. “Sir, yes sir!” he confirmed, relief flooding his heart.

Pharynx jerked his head up. “Then hop to it. I’m expecting you back when the sun touches the horizon. Any later than that and you’re in trouble.”

Thorax nodded his head before turning and flying back up for the wall. As the stone parted before him, he couldn’t help but grin with joy, and he was barely able to contain an overly ecstatic laugh. He had done it! He had his way out! Now he just had to wait for the time to depart, and he could make his way for the pony!

“Thank you, brother,” he thought to himself as he disappeared amid the ever-shifting crags of the Hive.

Thorax’s patrol began not long after, and he soon found himself soaring through the air over the badlands. He had assumed the shape of a rust-red hawk for this leg of the journey, to not draw any undue attention. If there were any other ponies out here with that purple one, he couldn’t risk drawing their attention to him. Every so often, he swept his eyes across the terrain below him to check for any noteworthy issues he would need to report back. As true as it was that he was exploiting these solo patrols to check on that pony, he had to keep up appearances if he wanted to keep doing this.

Nothing caught his attention, though, and soon enough, the cave came into view. Thorax looked down at the slope of sand in front of the entrance, taking note of the several sets of partially-faded hoofprints that came and went. If he had to guess, the oldest set was no more than twenty-four hours old.

Thorax folded his fake wings up at his side and aimed himself for the ground in a nosedive. The sands rose to meet him quickly, filling his field of view. At the last second, he snapped out his wings as wide as he could to slow his fall. With a few quick flaps, a small cloud of dust was kicked up around him before his talons touched down lightly on the sand.

Thorax took a quick look around to ensure he wasn’t being followed, and then made his way for the cave entrance. He strained his ears as he approached, trying to pick out any discernable noises that might clue him in about what awaited him inside.

Several seconds passed before he heard something. A low, queasy groan from a decidedly feminine voice reverberated from around the bend, followed by the shifting of fabric. Thorax frowned and took a step back. That was the pony’s voice, alright. She didn’t sound too good, though, was she sick?

Backing out of the cave and putting some distance between it and himself, Thorax allowed himself to revert back to his true form in a swirl of fire. He took a deep breath to steady his quaking nerves, then stepped into the cave again. His hoof scraped against the stone floor the moment he stepped inside, the sound echoing loudly in the quiet cave.

Up ahead, he heard the pony inhale sharply before falling completely silent. Thorax paused, listening in. The mare had obviously heard him. “...H-hello?” he called out after a moment, not wanting her to freak out and attack him the way she had the first time they had met. “It’s me, Thorax. Are you still in here?”

A shuddering exhale was the response. It sounded like she was relieved to hear the familiar voice, but… there was something else. Something wrong. Growing more concerned by the second, Thorax strode slowly forward into the cave. “Why isn’t she saying anything?”

He got his answer when he rounded the corner. His eyes fell on the mare lying down in a cobbled-together bedroll. Her coat was drenched in a cold sweat that had soaked into her blankets, staining them. She was visibly a few shades paler than Thorax remembered, shaking and shivering uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide and darted around frantically, and the muscles in her jaw worked themselves repeatedly as if she were trying to open her mouth, but couldn’t.

Horrified, Thorax stepped closer and lt up his horn to get a better look. “Woah… oh my goodness, are you alright?!” he asked, reaching down with his hoof to feel at her forehead.

“She’s burning up,” he realized the second his cold chitin made contact with her blazing flesh. He withdrew with wide eyes, racking his brain for any idea of what was happening.

“C-c-c-c…” The mare choked out, trying to form words. She opened her mouth barely even an inch, groaning with strain as her muscles rebelled. “C-c-can’t… t-t-t-talk… s-s-sick.”

Bit by bit, she forced herself to form the broken sounds into words that Thorax could understand.

“W-w-water… th-th-thir-irsty.”

Thorax looked past her, his eyes settling on the pool of water in the back of the cave. All at once, it clicked into place, and his heart dropped into the pits of his stomach. “Oh, no… I think you have stomach rot,” he realized, taking a step back.

If the mare could get any paler, she surely did at that moment. The air began to reek of her fear and confusion, while her body locked up. “R-r-rot?” she rasped out.

Thorax nodded slowly. “Y-yeah, it’s uh… d-do you have this disease where you’re from?”

A shake of the head.

“Oh, dear… kay, uh…” Thorax stood awkwardly in place for several seconds, trying to think of what he could do. Stomach Rot was a nasty disease, to put it mildly. He was no expert on its finer points, but he did know the symptoms. Waterborne, Stomach Rot would cause the victim’s body to enter into a state of partial paralysis after it took effect, causing a ridiculously high fever, along with upsetting the bowels. The worst part was the queasiness, where the disease had gotten its name. For victims, it felt as if their entire gut was decomposing at a rapid rate, leading to frequent bouts of vomiting and other, far less pleasant forms of waste disposal.

Most alarming of all, however, was the fact that, if it went untreated for too long, Stomach Rot could be fatal.

Struggling to keep himself from flying into a panic of his own, Thorax knelt down and stared imploringly into the mare’s eyes. “How long have you been like this?” he asked urgently, leaving no room for debate.

The pony blinked, swallowed heavily, and managed a crooked response. “L-last… n-night.”

Thorax relaxed, albeit only slightly. She had yet to hit the worst of it. If he moved fast, there was a chance he could help her. “Alright, uh… just stay there, try not to move!” he instructed before turning and flying out of the cave as fast as his buzzing wings could carry him.

Fear, confusion, and curiosity. Those were the three emotions that had filled Twilight’s entire being ever since she had started shaking in the back of her cave the previous night. Her strength had left her very rapidly, leaving her in her bed and incapable of getting up to hunt for food or supplies. As the night dragged on, her symptoms had only gotten worse and worse, leaving her incapable of even a moment of sleep. Her muscles had gradually begun to grow stiff inside her body, making it difficult to move or act in any meaningful way, and her stomach had never felt so revolting in all the years she had owned it.

In her fever-induced delirium, she had honestly considered buying a replacement when she got back to Ponyville, completely discounting the fact that, typically speaking, ponies didn’t sell stomachs.

“I’ll just write a letter to the Princess,” she had thought when she had a brief moment of clarity to remember that detail. “Get her to legalize the sale of stomachs. Just need to talk to Spike. Where is he?”

And then she had remembered she was all alone out here.

“Crud.”

Hours had passed like this; before, finally, the light of the dawn began to seep in through the cave mouth, just out of sight. She had tried to pull herself over there, but her worsening symptoms had made that basically impossible. She was stranded on her bedroll, feeling almost suffocated by her own blankets, frequently devolving into dry heaving fits and feeling incredibly thankful that she had eaten very little over the last few days. She was not in the mood for that sort of mess.

It was pretty obvious what had happened. She had gotten too greedy in her consumption of the cave’s water without having any means of cleaning it. No reliable or long-term means, at least. She must have gotten some kind of disease. Dysentery, perhaps, or some far-off cousin to the infamous disease that had ruined the journeys of so many in the past.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of sweat, fever, and unbearable feelings of decay inside her own body, Thorax came. Twilight now watched the changeling flying in and out of her cave, bringing supplies in, exploding in fire to chisel at a block of rock he found somewhere, changing back, and then flying outside again. All the while, he was rambling to himself. Or maybe he was talking to her. It was hard to tell through the sound of her own heart beating wildly in her ears like the drums of war for some ancient, isolated tribe of warriors.

That was an interesting mental image. She was going to think about that for a while.

She was just getting to the part where she was watching them perform the ritual sacrifice of an already-dead chicken when she felt herself being lifted up off the ground by the head. “Wait, no, put me back! I need to take notes! This is too culturally significant!”

All that came out of her lips was a quiet murmur, followed shortly after by the gurgling of her stomach.

“Okay, drink this,” Thorax’s voice echoed in her ears as something hard and hot was pressed against her lips. She felt liquid lapping at her mouth, and instinct kicked in. With what little strength she had, she opened her mouth and allowed the fluid to swim down her throat. It was hot, and it burned, and the taste was far from what she would call pleasant, but at this point, she wasn’t going to complain.

Thorax pulled it away every few seconds to avoid accidentally drowning her, then brought it back so she could sip some more. With every sip she took, her mind gradually began to clear up, her eyes refocusing on the real world as the delusional fever dream began to subside. She still felt absolutely horrible, but at least now she could see and think with a moderate degree of clarity.

And so came the curiosity. “What did he just feed me?”

Thorax set aside the bowl made out of chiseled stone that he had held up to her lips, before smiling down at her. “How are you feeling, now?” he asked, his two-toned voice making her ears hurt and her heart sing. Oh, how good it felt to have another creature talking at her again!

Groaning, Twilight slowly sat up. She immediately regretted that decision, her hooves clutching themselves to her stomach as she experiences another wave of nausea. She slowly lay back down and glanced sideways at Thorax in confusion. “W-what… I… I f-f-feel a li-little better,” she stumbled over her words, realizing that she was still shivering horribly.

Thorax grimaced with sympathy. “Yeah, I bet. You contracted stomach rot. It’s pretty rough… Honestly, you’re lucky I decided to come back and find you. Any longer, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to help.”

Twilight swallowed heavily, deeply unsettled by the implication. “R-right… w-well, uh, th-thank y-you,” she stammered, forcing herself to smile. Her eyes then fell on the bowl, and she frowned. “W-where did y-you g-get that?”

Thorax looked down at the bowl. “Oh, this? I made it,” he explained, lifting it up and showing it to her.

Twilight blinked. “How?”

Thorax exploded again, swallowed in a sudden rush of green flames. Twilight shrieked, her eyes screwing shut in anticipation of a wave of scorching heat and charred body parts pummeling her.

“I turned into this,” Thorax’s voice spoke, causing Twilight to open up her eyes again.

Where once there had been a creature that vaguely resembled an insect-like pony, there was now an enormous woodpecker bird with a particularly rugged beak. It was tall enough that its head would come up to Twilight’s chin, were she standing. The bird then turned and jabbed its beak into the wall of the cave, chipping away a few sizable pieces with ear-splitting cracks.

The bird exploded, and when the flames faded, there was Thorax yet again, grinning ear to ear. “Stonedrillers aren’t all that common this far into the badlands, but I’ve run into a few on patrol. I needed some way of making something that could safely hold water, and some of the rocks around the outside are more than perfect for the bill.”

Twilight blinked a few times, trying to wrap her head around what she had just witnessed. She lifted a hoof up to the side of her head, frowning. “Uh… Okay, y-you’re throwing a lot at m-me here. And what did you feed me?”

Thorax chuckled before lifting up the bowl in his magic. “I used some local mosses and small flowers to make a tea. It won’t cure stomach rot, but it’ll help soothe your symptoms a little, and it should help your body fight back against it.”

Twilight shuddered, pulling her blankets closer in a vain attempt to stifle her uncontrollable shivering. “How? I l-looked all over the place, a-and I couldn’t find any p-plants. Just d-dry moss…”

“Well, you just need to know where to look,” Thorax replied with a shrug. “We use a lot of the local plant life back in the Hive for medicinal purposes, and all of us who go on patrol are given training in how to find the best herbs for treating illness and injury. That was, ah…” he drifted the bowl over to the pool as he spoke, his expression turning sheepish. “That was probably the only training course I did any good in…”

Twilight watched as best as she could as Thorax dipped the bowl into the pool, gathering up a decent amount of water, before bringing it back over to her fireplace. She only now noticed that it was lit, albeit with only a small flame, and more stones had been assembled to create a makeshift stove over the open flame. Thorax set the bowl on top, and the air briefly sizzled as the moisture that had clung to the outside met the freakishly-hot surface of the stove.

Twilight swallowed heavily. She had contemplated using the local rocks to try and make something like that, but the drain on her magic had made her extraordinarily hesitant to try it. Besides, she had no idea whether or not these rocks were safe to place near a fire or eat out of, anyway. Poisonous minerals were a very real risk, and she had enough to worry about.

And now here came Thorax, doing all of that in as many minutes as she had spent days in this sun-scorched wasteland.

Twilight felt almost annoyed. She certainly felt one-upped. But Thorax was a native, and he was helping her, so who was she to complain?

The two were silent for a second, with Thorax idly observing the bowl and waiting for the contents within to heat up to a satisfactory point, and Twilight watching him with wrapt attention. It wasn’t like there was much else she could do right now.

“Hey, uh,” Thorax suddenly spoke up, making Twilight jump as she came out of her thoughts. She looked to see him staring back at her with confusion. He tilted his head at her, a curious chittering noise coming out of him. “I don’t think I ever caught your name.”

Twilight was quiet for a second before putting on a small smile. “I’m T-Twilight Sparkle… thank you for helping me, Thorax.”

He smiled. “Nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle. It’s my pleasure.”

Author's Note

I feel I should point out: This story is not meant to focus on the survival aspects. They are meant merely to serve as a framing device and set up for the meat of the story, which is the developing friendship between Twilight and Thorax. As such, I am not aiming for hardcore realism with the survival aspects. I point this out now because I've seen some people in the comments ruminating on various ways Twilight could be doing better irl, such as with the water situation. I am taking those points on board, of course, but if I feel they might throw off the story I aim to tell, then realism will be discarded. I hope that makes sense.

Delivery Bug

Thorax spent some more time in the cave with Twilight, periodically stepping out to gather more of the materials needed for his tea. Twilight found herself fading in and out of consciousness during those times, her body eager for some actual sleep now that the symptoms were decreased. She still felt like absolute garbage, but at least now she could think clearly and had a modest amount of control over her own body and its waste disposal functions.

In the interim, Thorax answered a few basic questions Twilight had; how he made his tea, where she could find food, if there were other reliable sources of water nearby. Pretty much anything her foggy mind could think of that would be of help to her in surviving this blasted wasteland. Thorax had not disappointed her, answering each of her questions in remarkable detail.

It was still strange to Twilight, thinking about just how much the changeling was helping her. What did he stand to gain? What was his end goal? Was he just being friendly, or was there some ulterior motive she hadn’t yet been able to decipher? More than once had she tried to form words to ask these questions, but her own weakness had, more often than not, left her unable to finish her questions in any way Thorax could understand.

Eventually, though, what little strength she had began to fade, and she fell into a light, restless slumber. She wasn’t sure how long she was out for, but when she awoke, she found that the fire had long since burned down to little more than smoldering lumps of charred wood, and the glow coming from beyond the cave mouth had darkened considerably. The various supplies that Thorax had brought were leaned up against the far wall from Twilight, neatly arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Slowly, and still struggling with the putrid feelings in her gut, Twilight sat up on her haunches and looked around some more, searching for Thorax. But there was no sign of him in the cave. Twilight swallowed heavily, a bead of anxiety forming in her heart. “T-thorax?” she called out before falling into a coughing fit. Her throat was dry. She needed water.

Moving quickly, she dropped a few planks of wood from her stockpile onto the fire pit and lit it ablaze with a spark of magic from her horn. As the warmth and light of the rapidly swelling blaze filled the cavern, Twilight staggered over to the pool in the back, bringing along the chiseled bowl.

In short order, she had some water set to boil, giving her some time to look around and figure out what was happening. Cautiously, she dragged herself over to the edge of the cave and peered outside. The sun had set some time ago, and the moon had risen to bathe the world in its pale glow.

Twilight licked her lips. “Thorax? Are you out there?” she called out again, putting as much power into her voice as she could manage.

Nothing answered her, though, save for the distant hooting of a desert owl.

Twilight stood still for several moments before deciding to head back inside, her stomach gurgling in protest. She was still sick, after all. Sighing, she set herself down in front of the fire, her eyes locked onto the blaze.

Had Thorax left her? She supposed it made sense. He wasn’t going to be around all the time. He had a home, after all. A ‘Hive’ as he had called it if she was remembering correctly. Considering those other changelings she had seen him with the first time they had met, it seemed likely that he was their subordinate. If so, then him heading back home was probably for the best.

Though that still left the question of why he had bothered to help her in the first place. She didn’t exactly have anything to offer him in turn, save for boundless gratitude at having saved her life. He may have done it twice, actually, helping tend to her injury and keep it from getting infected.

Her hoof drifted to hover over where the gash in her barrel had been, and she winced as phantom pains tingled along her side. She still remembered with an odd mixture of disgust and fascination how the resin had felt against her fur. She had eventually pulled it off like a bandage when her injury had healed, not wanting the extra weight while trudging through the desert.

With a sigh, Twilight took the bowl of now-boiling water and set it down on the cave floor until it cooled. When she was sure it wouldn’t burn her mouth, she drank it down with greedy gulps. Her whole body came alive as the life-giving liquid swam down her throat, and she felt a palpable wave of disappointment when she swallowed the last drop.

“Back on my own,” she thought with her ears drooping. She could already feel the loneliness scratching away at the back of her head, but she was quick to shake it off. She couldn’t afford to count on Thorax coming back. She had to fend for herself, at least for now.

But for the moment, with her symptoms still less than pleasant, Twilight eventually settled down under her blankets and closed her eyes, hoping to get a good night’s rest. When she woke up, she’d try her hoof at making some of that tea. It didn’t seem too hard…

A few days passed, with very little progress being made. Twilight’s stomach rot persisted, proving itself quite a formidable disease. Luckily, she was able to make enough of the soothing tea to ease her symptoms enough to use her time productively.

Namely, she managed to purify plenty of water and fill up not only her canteen but also make the equivalent of filled water pots. The process had been as simple as wandering just far enough from her cave to bring back some large stones before hollowing them out with her magic and filling them, bit by bit, with boiled water from Thorax’s bowl. She also made a bigger bowl to help speed things along.

Now, three full pots, each enough to hold roughly a gallon of water, sat lined up against the back wall of the cave. The process of making them and filling them had been long, tedious, and tiring, but at least now she had a reliable means of storing safe-to-drink water, and an easy place to quickly fill her waterskin for whenever she was healthy enough to resume her forays into the desert.

But all the while, she couldn’t stop thinking about Thorax. She was more curious than anything about the changeling, but she was also exceedingly grateful for his aid. She owed all of the progress she had just made to his efforts to help her. Every time she drank down some of his tea, she silently thanked him, and every time she lay down to try and sleep through her now mild fever, she hoped he was doing well.

After a few days, Twilight was pulled out of her slumber by the sound of hooves scraping along the stone floor of the cave she had called home since coming to the badlands. She peeled open one eye, able to tell from the lighting that it was mid to late morning. What caught her attention more, though, was the changeling that walked into sight from around the corner. Something resembling saddlebags made out of the same mucus he had used to bind her wounds hung off of his sides, and Twilight’s eyes bulged at the sight of plants through the transparent green sides of the pouches.

Thorax turned to her and jumped in surprise when he saw she was awake. “Oh! Uh, good morning,” he greeted timidly, lifting a hoof to wave. “How are you feeling?”

Twilight blinked in surprise and slowly sat up. She groaned when her stomach gurgled and churned in protest from the movement, and her body shivered somewhat. She still had a fever, albeit much reduced. Rubbing at her eye to dispel the sand that had clumped there, she gave Thorax a relieved and questioning glance. “Thorax? Is that you?” she asked dryly.

Thorax grinned and nodded. “Uh-hu!” he said before pulling off his saddlebags and setting them down not far away. “You’re looking a little better, but I bet you’re pretty hungry, aren’t you?”

Twilight’s eyes again fell on the bags, and her stomach let out a much different type of growl. She instinctively licked her lips and leaned forward like an eager dog when showed its favorite treat. “Is that food?” she asked.

Thorax pulled open the pouches and levitated out a collection of mosses, leaves, and plant stems that, to Twilight’s partially-starved stomach, looked like a royal banquet. He turned to face her with a sheepish grin. “I kinda figured you were an herbivore when I saw your flat teeth, so I thought I’d bring you some of the older plants from the Hive’s storage.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, her mouth starting to water in anticipation. It all looked so good! Another eager growl from her stomach prevented Twilight from giving voice to any questions. Thorax levitated over the plant matter, and in short order, Twilight snatched them out of the air and began to greedily wolf down everything she could. She might have blushed from the frantic, almost savage sounds she was making as she ate, but right then, she just didn’t care. She was eating food. Actual food.

When there was none left to consume, she leaned back against the cave wall and let out a long, relieved sigh. She absently took a swig from her waterskin before turning to Thorax, who was currently sitting on his haunches, staring at her with a small, shy smile. She smiled back. “Thank you, Thorax. I owe you.”

Thorax chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Y-yeah, you’re uh, you’re welcome.”

Twilight’s smile slowly shrank as the immediate need for sustenance faded away. Carefully, she adjusted herself before speaking up. “So… why are you helping me?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Thorax seemed genuinely surprised by the question. He blinked at her in confusion. “Huh?”

She gestured vaguely at him. “It’s just that, the first time we met, I got the impression we’d never see each other again, and we only met for a short time. I thought I was all on my own out here…” she looked down, her ears folding back. “It’s been pretty hard for me to get by each day… and if it weren’t for you coming to help me a few days ago, I… I probably would have died by now. I’m really grateful, I want to make that clear. I just…”

She lifted her eyes to look at him again, her expression pleading. “I just don’t understand… why are you helping me so much? What made you decide to come back?”

Thorax was quiet for several seconds. He shifted on his haunches before letting out a tired sigh of his own. “Honestly? ...It’s because you’re the first creature aside from my brother to ever be nice to me,” he eventually said in a quiet, despondent voice.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What? Really? But you seem so nice.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda the problem,” Thorax replied with a sad shake of his head. “The other drones pick on me all the time. They have since I was a grub. I’ve always been friendly, and that makes me easy to bully and push around. Even my own brother isn’t all that nice to me...”

He looked up at Twilight and pointed at her. “But then I bumped into you, and after you calmed down enough to stop attacking me, you were… actually really nice. Scared, sure, but nice. You didn’t insult me, you didn’t call me names, you didn’t push me around...” his lips curled up into a small smile. “I’d never had someone treat me like that before, and… it felt really good. And then I saw those lights you were making in the sky at night, and I thought you might need help. And, well… here I am.”

Twilight stared at him for a few seconds, her mind reeling. Then, slowly but surely, her smile returned with gusto. “Well… thank you very much, Thorax. I appreciate it more than I can describe.”

Thorax’s wings buzzed briefly on his back, his lips peeling back into a happy grin that put his sharp teeth on display. Twilight briefly cringed, and the drone was quick to close his mouth so she didn’t have to see them. Thorax then rose to his hooves and trotted closer. “So, uh… where are you from?” he asked.

Twilight paused for a second, briefly caught off guard. “Oh, uh… do you know about Equestria?” she asked after a second.

Thorax nodded. “Only by name. The Queen talked about it from time to time, but I was never told anything significant. All I know is it’s north of here, and it’s where ponies live,” he explained before settling down on his haunches on the other side of the darkened fireplace from her. “So, uh, what’s it like?”

Twilight was still for a second before an enormous grin slowly began to spread on her face. She was not able to restrain the excited squeal that slid past her lips as she clapped her hooves in front of her face.

Thorax got a bewildered look on his face. “Uh… wha? What’s so funny?”

“I’m making first contact with another race!” Twilight squealed, cursing her sickness for hindering her energy. “Oh, wow, I can write so many essays on this! And my letter to Princess Celestia! I’m going to need, like, uh, twelve pages, at least, to talk about all of this! Oh, I’m so excited!”

“Yeah, I can tell,” Thorax noted, nodding slowly at the air above the vibrating unicorn. “I mean, I can see your excitement. It’s very… yellow.”

“And I have so many questions!” Twilight enthused ecstatically. “I wish I had a notebook! There’s so much for me to learn!”

Thorax chuckled in amusement before gesturing at her with a hoof. “Well, I asked you about your home first.”

Twilight took a deep breath in a bid to quiet her scholarly excitement for the moment. It worked, albeit only somewhat. She nodded and leaned back before beginning. “Well, Equestria is a vast land, and very diverse. There are forests, mountains, open grasslands, deserts, jungles, and even an open tundra at the northern border.”

“I’ve never seen a forest before,” Thorax noted, settling down and looking almost like an enthralled foal listening to a bedtime story. “Or a grassland, or a jungle, and I’ve only ever seen mountains from far away.”

Twilight’s smile grew.

For the next several hours, Twilight regaled Thorax with everything she knew about the geography and the culture of Equestria, although she did keep a few things close to her chest, such as the nation’s defenses. Shining Armor would roast her alive if she let that kind of information slip.

Thorax listened to every word with rapt attention, his eyes wide with awe, and Twilight occasionally giggled. She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he struggled to imagine what she was describing. He seemed to have a particularly hard time wrapping his head around the ideas of the jungle and the ocean. Water for as far as the eye could see in every direction? It seemed all but impossible to him.

When she began talking about the culture, Thorax seemed disbelieving at first. He just didn’t seem to grasp that yes, it was possible for a land as peaceful as Equestria to exist. It was honestly somewhat sad to see. The more Twilight talked about Equestria, and of Ponyville, and the more she saw Thorax’s growing wonder and disbelief, the more she realized that the life of a changeling drone must have been horrible in comparison.

Eventually, though, the conversation had to come to an end. Thorax glanced over towards the light streaming in through the mouth of the cave. His eyes widened, and he abruptly shot up to his hooves. “Oh. Hives! Is it this late already?!” he exclaimed, galloping over to look outside.

Twilight rose to follow him, although her pace was significantly slower than his. “Is something wrong?” she asked, glancing outside as well. If she had to crack a guess, she’d say it was maybe an hour before noon.

Thorax nodded. “Yeah, I’m supposed to be back at the Hive and reporting to my brother before noon,” he said, cantering for the entrance. “I’m sorry, I wish I could stay and talk more, but I need to get back.”

Twilight’s ears drooped, but she nodded in understanding. “Oh… I see,” she muttered in disappointment. After a second, she leaned forward to call after him. “Can you come back sometime soon? I’d love to keep talking with you!”

Thorax looked back at her as he went, flashing her a friendly grin. “I was already planning on it!” he called out. “I’ll see you then!”

“Yeah!” Twilight lifted a hoof to wave. “Take care, Thorax!”

“You, too!” he replied, waving in response. Then, with a quick buzz of his wings, Thorax rose into the air and out of sight.

Twilight lowered her hoof to the ground, the silence creeping in on her. But in spite of the quiet, she was able to smile.

Even in this barren wasteland, it seemed the magic of friendship had plenty of room to grow. And as long as she was here, she would do her best to make sure it did.

With a mild spring in her step, Twilight turned around and made her way back to the fireplace, eager to make some more of Thorax’s fantastic tea.

Author's Note

Heads up: This story will be going on the back burner for a little bit. My other big story, Scarlet, is currently in one of its more major plot moments that I have been building up to for a long time, and I am eager to see that section done. Once I am past the sequence in question this story will resume as normal. The delay will, at most, a week or two.

Sharing Stories

The night came and went in a strange blur for Twilight. She was still hungry, and the lingering symptoms of Stomach Rot were doing her no favors. But in spite of this, she was able to feel happy, or at least more at peace then she had been so far. She was able to sleep that night, and relatively well, too.

Of course, the following morning saw the resurgence of her symptoms and her hunger. Luckily, due entirely to Thorax’s generous aid and instruction, she had a solution for at least one of those problems.

Soon, she was leaning back against the wall of the cave, using the various fabrics of her makeshift bedroll as a sort of pillow to keep herself from developing a backache. In her magic was a bowl of Thorax’s tea, the heated contents letting off faint, gently twisting plumes of steam. She took a sip, cringing at the still undesirable taste, but nevertheless letting out a relieved sigh a few minutes later as the stuff went to work, quelling her symptoms enough that she could function.

There was, however, a downside to her morning. With the sun being up and with her health still being questionable at best, she wasn’t going to be leaving her cave anytime soon. As such, she had nothing but time and nothing to pass it with save for her own thoughts.

Thankfully, she had much on her mind this morning to keep her occupied.

Specifically, Thorax, that strange new friend she had made in this most unlikely of places. She owed him her life, really. Without his timely intervention, she didn’t doubt that she would have died from the disease at this point, given his earlier mentioning of it being fatal if untreated. More than that, the changeling had brought her food. Not much, but enough to keep her from starving.

And then, of course, there was the conversation they had had. Thorax had been keen to poke and prod at her for any scrap of information she was willing to divulge, and had listened with the same sort of wonderment that a foal learning how the sun and moon move for the very first time had—or of an explorer finding an ancient valley that hadn’t been seen by pony eyes in thousands of years.

He was so curious about her, in fact, that Twilight had barely gotten a chance to ask him any questions of her own. There were so many things she wanted to know about him and his race! She knew they could shapeshift, now, and that they had magic not dissimilar to that of ponies, but beyond that, she was in the dark.

“I will just have to fix that when next he comes around!” she decided with a smile before downing the remainder of her tea.

As if on cue, the sound of buzzing wings reached Twilight’s ears, followed shortly by a cheerful voice calling out. “Hey! I’m back! You in there, Twilight?”

With her smile evolving into a grin, Twilight rose up to her hooves and cantered around the bend to meet her visitor. Sure enough, there was Thorax, approaching her with a large grin and shining eyes.

“Thorax, you came back!” she greeted, bounding up to meet him. “And so soon, too!”

Thorax chuckled, though he did flinch back a bit from her sudden proximity. “Well, yeah. You’re still dealing with Stomach Rot, aren’t you? I gotta come in and make sure it’s not getting any worse,” he said before pulling off his resin saddlebags with his magic. “Plus, you’re really fun to talk to, and I wanna get to know you better!”

Twilight’s eyes widened, her grin fading away and being replaced with a small ‘o’ as she beheld the contents of the bags. “Food. You brought me more food?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, I figured I might as well,” Thorax replied with a small smile and nod.

Twilight licked her lips before reaching out with her magic and taking out the assortment of plant matter that Thorax had brought with him. More of the same of what he had brought last time, but that was fine. Familiarity bred comfort, and Twilight had been in need of some comfort food ever since getting stranded out here.

With her smile returning, she met Thorax’s gaze. “Thank you so much… would you like to come and sit down? We can pick up where we left off last time.”

The bug’s wings buzzed briefly on his back, his smile growing. “I’d love to!”

Restraining a giggle at the endearing display, Twilight turned and led Thorax back for the campfire. With a deft flourish of her magic, she took the fabrics for her bedroll and set them down into a collection of loose seating mats. She settled down on hers before digging into her food. She made it a point to eat at a slower pace this time, as compared to the last time he had brought her a meal. She had manners, after all, and if she was going to befriend this changeling, she was going to use them!

After a few bites to quiet down the grumbles of her stomach, she affixed Thorax with a thoughtful look. He was looking down at the fabric beneath him with a raised eyebrow and a quirk in his lips. He poked at it idly with a hoof as if it were a particularly gnarly scab before looking back at her. Then, with stiff motions, he settled down onto his belly, mimicking Twilight’s posture.

Twilight’s smile weakened a little. She was quick to cast aside her dismay at seeing his seeming lack of familiarity with blankets and pointed a curious hoof at him. “Okay, so, last time we met, you asked me most of the questions, wanting to learn all about Equestria and ponies. This time it’s my turn to ask you some questions. Sound fair?”

Thorax was snapped out of his uneasy examination of the blanket and offered up a nod. “Oh! Uh, sure!”

Twilight was quiet for a second before nodding to herself and taking a deep breath. There were a lot of things about him she wanted to know, but she had to go about this the right way. “Focus, Twilight!”

She let out her breath and smiled. “Well, my first question is about your magic. I’ve noticed that you have a horn, and I’ve seen you moving things around with levitation before. What is the extent of changeling magic? Do you know?” she asked, immediately clamping her mouth shut afterward to keep herself from spewing out a dozen more questions before the first one could even be answered.

Thorax hummed for a second, tapping his chin. “Hmmm. Well, I don’t really know, frankly. When it comes to magic, I’m honestly one of the worst in the hive. I know we have a wide range of spells that we can use, and there are a few that all drones are expected to know.”

“Like your ability to shapeshift?”

“Well, no, actually,” Thorax said with a shake of his head. “That’s not really a spell. It’s… it’s more like an instinct or a muscle. It’s based on magic, yes, but all changelings can do it, regardless of their skill with other forms of magic.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight said, wishing she had some way of taking notes. “Is there any limit on what you can turn into? I mean, I saw you turn into a giant woodpecker, after all.”

Thorax shrugged. “Beats me. Shapeshifting does require magic, though. The more complicated our disguises get, the more energy they take up. Turning into something smaller or larger than our main bodies also takes up more energy. I could probably turn into a mouse and stay like that for a few hours, or I could turn into a pony and stay like that for literal weeks, as long as I could stay fed.”

“Because your body is so similar in shape, size, and complexity to that of a pony?” Twilight pointed out, her eyes briefly wandering over Thorax’s chitinous form.

“Uh-huh,” he acknowledged with a nod.

Twilight grinned, clapping her hooves together in front of her face. “Oh, wow, this is so fascinating! I wish I had a notebook! I could go so in-depth if I did!” she said energetically, allowing her scholarly excitement to show through.

Thorax’s soft smile returned. “You’re pretty excitable, aren’t you?” he noted after a moment.

“I am literally pioneering all of Equestria’s knowledge into a new species!” Twilight declared, thrusting her hooves into the air. “How can I not be excited?! This is one of the reasons I even came to the badlands! To learn things!”

Thorax’s smile was replaced quickly with a small frown, his ears lowering. His eyes flicked back for the entrance to the cave before he lowered his head and voice. “Hey, uh, I’m real glad that you’re excited about this, but… can you not tell anypony else about us?” he asked.

Twilight’s excitement stalled, her smile fading away. “Huh? Why? What’s wrong?”

Thorax shifted uncomfortably on his haunches. “...We, changelings, are a very isolated and secretive group. Queen Chrysalis values and prioritizes those things above all else, just before making sure the hive is fed. If word were to get out that we exist at all, and if it could ever be traced back to me…”

Twilight’s eyes widened when Thorax shuddered, his eyes screwing shut. “I’d probably be executed. So please, just… you can ask me whatever you want, but it has to stay between us, alright?”

“Executed?!” Twilight choked out, her ears folding back in shock and horror. “But that’s so harsh! Not to mention immoral and unethical! Why is that the punishment for letting other creatures know you exist?!”

Thorax sighed. “...A few centuries ago, at the start of Chrysalis’ reign, it’s said that she reached out to another race in the hopes of establishing peaceful relations. But when contact was made, we were shunned and vilified as monsters. The creatures the queen reached out to lashed out at us and almost destroyed us. In the end, she was forced to subdue the whole lot of them just to protect her subjects. Since then, Queen Chrysalis has decided that we must be a secret, only ever to show our faces to the world if left with absolutely no other choice.”

Twilight’s ears lowered, her eyes wandering as she took this new information in. If the story was true, then there was at least some justification for wanting to stay isolated. She couldn’t blame the changelings for that, not really. “But… execution? It just seems so extreme…” she pointed out in a more measured voice.

Thorax nodded. “The law is the law, and it’s basically suicide to break it. We only have the hive for support out here in the Badlands. If something goes wrong inside, every changeling will suffer for it. Extreme punishments are the only way to maintain order and ensure that the hive prospers.”

Twilight was quiet for several seconds, her prior jovial mood all but squashed under the weight of this new information. Thorax’s earlier awe and wonder when hearing about Equestria was making more and more sense by the minute. To him, it no doubt came off as alien and borderline mythical that a place as idyllic as Equestria was even conceivable, much less that it had survived for a thousand years.

Twilight then took a deep breath before quickly moving on to a new subject, hoping to lighten the mood back up. “W-well, uh… a-anyways, uh, next question,” she stumbled out. She cleared her throat to steady her voice and tried again. “Ahem! You told me when we met that you eat, uh, ‘love.’ Do you think you could tell me a little more about that?”

Thorax was quiet for a second before nodding. “Well, we use ‘love’ as a sort of umbrella term. And we don’t actually eat the emotions, either, that’s not how it works. Uh… how do I explain… uh...Okay, have you ever had magic surges caused by heightened emotions before? Like, you were really scared or really angry?”

Twilight nodded, recalling the incidents ranging from her confrontation against Nightmare Moon to her panicked teleports when being crowded in the streets of Ponyville, to her efforts to subdue and remove a rampaging Ursa Minor from Ponyville. “Yes, a few times. Why?”

Thorax pointed at her. “It’s because strong emotions generate power. Kinda like adrenaline, you know? And we changelings eat the power generated by positive social emotions. So, you know, love, compassion, sympathy, joy, even lust is a go-to for some drones.”

Twilight blinked, trying not to think about that last point. Nevertheless, the gears in her head were turning again, and her scholarly interest helped raise her back up out of her earlier funk. “Wow… that’s incredible! But, what about negative emotions?” she asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. “Like anger or fear or hatred?”

“Those give us indigestion, by and large,” Thorax replied, visibly cringing. His forked tongue snaked out to subtly hiss at the air. “Uegh. It can even poison us if it gets too bad…”

“Oh… I guess that makes sense,” Twilight noted thoughtfully before looking down at her food. Her stomach grumbled in protest, and she was quick to wolf down some more of Thorax’s gift. After a few seconds, she lifted her eyes to look at Thorax again. “I’d love to know more of the details, but I get the impression you’re not exactly an expert on these things, are you?”

Thorax shook his head. “Not really, no.”

“Well… what is it you do at the hive, then?” Twilight asked, deciding to turn her line of questions to the culture and society of the changelings rather than their physiology and biology. “I would assume you have designated castes and roles, like an ant colony or beehive? Warriors, gatherers, that kind of thing?”

“Er, kinda?” Thorax replied with his brow furrowing. “It’s a little more complicated than that. All drones have the same body types, so really, our roles are designated by our individual skillsets rather than anything determined at birth. I mean, I’m a part of patrol, like my brother and all of the fast drones. Although, I’m only in it because my brother decided to make me…”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “He made you join patrol?” she asked.

Thorax sighed and nodded his head. “Yeah. I dunno why. I hate fighting or being violent, but that’s one of the main objectives of going out on patrol. If we see a threat, we’re supposed to eliminate it. If we find intruders, we’re supposed to detain them and bring them before the queen to face her judgment. But no matter how much I keep telling him that I hate this job, he won’t budge on the matter.”

A lump formed in Twilight’s throat. Intruders were to be brought before the queen? Did that include her? It was an unsettling thought, to be sure, especially considering what she now knew about her. Chrysalis sounded like a ruthless ruler, and Twilight had no desire to see her face to face as a captured prisoner. As an ambassador, maybe.

Thorax’s ears perked up, his eyes widening. “O-oh! Don’t worry, I’m not turning you in!” he quickly assured her as if he had read her mind. “You’re too nice!”

Twilight blinked and leaned back in surprise. “What… how did you know what I was thinking?” she asked. Could changelings read minds, too?

Thorax chuckled sheepishly. “O-oh, sorry. I just saw all the anxiety suddenly coming off of you when I mentioned detaining prisoners and, uh, well, I put two and two together.”

“That… makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking,” Twilight said, letting off a quiet sigh of relief. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Kinda hard to eat something you can’t see, huh?”

Thorax nodded. “Uh-huh. Emotions have all sorts of colors, you know. Anxiety is this kind of muted shade of purple, and fear is really dark purple,” he explained. “While love is this really pretty shade of pink, and excitement is a vivid yellow.”

“Heh. I’m gonna have to come up with a color wheel one of these days to keep track,” Twilight said jokingly.

Thorax’s face lit up, and Twilight could only guess he was seeing her mirth radiating off of her right now. It felt a little odd knowing that he could always tell exactly how she was feeling. That kind of empathy was unprecedented, and it gave him a pretty intense advantage over her, socially.

Now that she thought about it…?

“So, what colors am I right now?” she asked, sitting upright.

Thorax blinked in surprise. “Huh? Oh, uh…” he leaned forward, narrowing his eyes as he considered her. “Well… there’s still a little purple in there… plenty of yellow, a little bit of this ugly mossy green color, I think that’s because you’re still dealing with Stomach Rot. Let’s see here... oh. There’s some dark blue in there, too.”

Twilight’s smile faltered. The way Thorax’s voice had turned solemn at the mentioning of dark blue set her a little on edge. “Er… and what does dark blue mean?” she asked carefully.

Thorax hummed. “Well… it usually means sadness,” he explained quietly, his voice becoming far more timid as if he were afraid of upsetting her. “I… I know it’s not any of my business, but… is there something making you sad?”

Twilight paused for a second before looking down at her hooves, her ears lowering. “...Yeah, there is,” she admitted after a moment with a quiet sigh. “My friends. I miss them… and I imagine they’re probably missing me, too.”

“Your friends?” Thorax ventured carefully. “So… you mean you’re lonely?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes… They’re all back in Ponyville. I don’t know if they’ve been told what’s happened to me yet. I don’t think they have, seeing as I haven’t heard from Spike, yet…” she said, her mind slowly wandering back towards those mares and one dragon she cared so deeply for.

Thorax shifted back a little bit, his ears drooping. “Oh… uh… I’m sorry, I won’t ask anymore,” he said apologetically. “I don’t wanna make you any more upset.”

Twilight smiled, however weakly, and dismissed his apology with a sad shake of her head. “No, it’s fine…”

“No, it’s not,” Thorax countered, much to her surprise. Confused, she looked up to see him looking at something just above her. He grimaced. “Just thinking about them’s making you fill this whole cave with dark blue… you’re really missing them.”

Twilight blinked, having forgotten for a moment that negative emotions were not as appetizing as their positive counterparts. Quickly taking in a deep breath, she did her best to at least soothe her feelings and think happy thoughts. She had no intention of bottling it all up, but if only for the sake of her new friend, she could keep her sorrows under the lid for now. She could vent when he wasn’t here.

She shook her head after a second before meeting his gaze again. “Right, I’m sorry. I’ll wait until you aren’t here,” she said apologetically. “But right now, I have a few other questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

Thorax was quiet for a second before smiling and nodding. “I don’t mind at all. I have an hour or two before I have to go back, so we can talk as much as you’d like.”

Twilight smiled at that, allowing her heart to warm up a little in response to his understanding. “Thank you. Now, for my next question…”

The two fell into a steady back and forth after that, asking one another questions about their homes, their lives, their cultures. Twilight found herself becoming increasingly fascinated, in a morbid sort of way, by Thorax’s depictions of the hive. It was a truly harsh place where slacking was all but unheard of, because every drone had no choice but to pull their own weight or be left behind. It was brutal and intense, but for the drones of the hive, it worked, and it had served them well for centuries. Whatever moral objections Twilight had with this Queen Chrysalis’ methods of law enforcement, she could not deny that their system worked.

But as she sat there, chatting with this strangely friendly drone, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was so impossible for them to change their ways. If a drone like Thorax, timid, shy, sweet, and socially awkward, was able to survive and make his way, then what was preventing the others from doing the same?

Ultimately, Twilight chose not to voice these thoughts. It was not her place to try and change the way of life of an entirely new culture, especially when he still knew so little about it. So for now, she contented herself with listening to Thorax, getting to know him, and learning more about his people.

Author's Note

Aaaand we're back to this story.

Fire in The Sky

Thorax was late today.

Twilight stood by the entrance to her cave, squinting into the distance for any sign of the drone — one hoof raised to shelter her eyes from the piercing light of the sun. It was late evening now. Within the hour, the sun would dip beneath the horizon and leave Twilight in the dark of night.

“Where is he…?” she whispered quietly to herself. This wasn’t normal for Thorax. Now, admittedly, she hadn’t known him long enough to know a whole lot about what constituted as ‘normal’ for him. But every other time he had shown up had been either in the mornings or middle of the day. And he had given her his word that he would be turning up today.

Had she misremembered what he had said? No, that didn’t seem right. It wasn’t like Twilight to forget things like that. Hay, she’d even started scratching a rudimentary calendar into the cave wall with a loose stone just so she could keep track of what day it was and what she had to do on each.

She was starting to become worried when, finally, the drone appeared in the distance, flying as fast as his insect-like wings could carry him. He caught sight of her and waved as he approached. “Hey!” he called out to her, his voice muffled by the distance.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and returned the wave. “There you are!”

Thorax touched down a few yards away from her, stumbling as he went. He looked like he had just run a marathon.

“Not technically accurate, but close enough,” Twilight decided internally before cantering out to meet him. “What took you so long? I was starting to get worried!”

Thorax took in another deep breath, offering her a sheepish smile. “Eheh, yeah, sorry. There were some last-minute changes to the schedule, and I got a night patrol,” he explained, glancing anxiously back over his shoulder. “Apparently, the Queen wanted patrols inside the hive increased for a while, so Pharynx had to shuffle everyone around.”

Twilight frowned. “An increase in patrols inside? Did something happen?”

Thorax was quiet for a moment before shaking his head. “N-no, I don’t think so. If it did, I dunno about it. Nobody ever tells me anything in that place,” he replied.

Twilight’s frown deepened. Something seemed off about the way he had said that…

Before she could question it, Thorax perked up and turned to smile warmly at her. “Anyway! Here I am!”

Twilight hesitated before dismissing her previous concern and returning the smile. “So you are! Come on, let’s head back inside. I think I have some leftovers from your last visit still lying around somewhere...”

Thorax cantered up and fell into step by her side, a skeptical look on his face. “Er, really? I seem to recall you scarfing it all down within a few minutes of getting your hooves on it. Unless…” he paused to tap a hoof against his chin. “Wait, can ponies regurgitate food like birds can?”

Twilight belted out a short laugh and shook her head. “Wha- HA! What?! No! No, we can’t do that! Birds usually only do that to feed their young, and ponies have a different way of doing that!”

Thorax tilted his head for a moment. “...Huh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Kind of a weird leap in logic to throw up to stop being hungry.”

Twilight laughed again, lifting a hoof to cover her face in amused exasperation.

“So, Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

Thorax shifted on his haunches, watching Twilight curiously as she continued to work on her calendar. The sun had set a little while ago, forcing them to rely on the glow of the campfire for light.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you if you knew about the colorful magic lights I saw exploding out here a while ago.”

Twilight paused in her work and turned to face Thorax directly. “Oh, that? Yeah, those were me,” she admitted with a small smile.

“What was it?” Thorax asked, tilting his head in that way he always did when he was curious. It was an endearing little physical quirk, one which made Twilight feel increasingly fond of the bug every time he did it.

“Well, it’s a spell I was taught by my teacher, Princess Celestia,” she went on to explain, lighting up her horn for an example. She shot off a miniature version of the spell, creating a pearl of lavender light about the size of a small marble in the center of the chamber. A second later, it exploded outwards into several smaller pearls that caught the light of the fire and reflected it around brilliantly.

Thorax nodded, his eyes widening. Twilight noticed how the fading sparkles of light were reflected in those pale blue orbs. “It’s pretty… but, uh, what is it for?” he eventually asked, turning to face her when the lights were gone.

Twilight settled down on her haunches to give her hooves a rest. “Well, it’s kind of like a magic version of an emergency signal flare,” she said. Thorax’s blank look told her that he probably had no idea what that was, and so she tried again. “You see, I’m stranded out here, right? I was traveling with others, and up until you turned up, I was holding out hope — a foolish one, I admit — that the ponies I came here with were still around. I was using that spell to try and get the attention of either them or…”

She paused, her lips curling up into a small, pleasant smile. She looked at Thorax, a whole new feeling of appreciation falling over her. “...Or anyone else who’d be willing to help me. And you saw it and came to help me, right?”

Thorax nodded, smiling back at her. “Uh-huh. I saw it while I was on night watch in the hive. I didn’t know what it was at first, but I pretty quickly figured that it must have been coming from you. It was the same color as your magic, after all.”

Twilight’s smile evolved into a full-on grin. “Then the spell worked! It did exactly what I wanted it to do!” she declared, thrusting a hoof up in the air for emphasis. It was a little late to feel the relief, but knowing that her silent prayers that night had been answered, even if a little late, was more than a little gratifying.

And at this point, she would take whatever victories she could get.

Thorax licked his lips and hummed in content, no doubt sucking up some of the happy emotions Twilight was emitting. She cringed somewhat, an involuntary response. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake a small feeling of unease whenever she thought about how changelings fed themselves. Especially when she had learned about how they could forcefully rip the energy out of a creature.

A painful process, apparently, and one they tried to avoid resorting to unless they were desperate.

After a few seconds, Thorax’s meal ended, and he beamed appreciatively at her. His smile didn’t last long, though, and he leaned forward in an almost conspiratorial manner. “Well, uh… I know you haven’t used it since we met, but… it might be a good idea for you to not use it at all while you’re out here,” he said quietly, his voice faintly lined with anxiety.

Twilight’s smile, too, faded away. “Huh? How come?”

“The hive,” Thorax replied simply, nodding towards the mouth of the cave. “Remember, most changelings aren’t exactly nice… not to me, and especially not to outsiders. You’re really lucky that I’m the one that met you. If it were any other, you probably would have been bagged up and hauled before the queen, and… A-and I don’t wanna imagine what she might have done to you.”

Twilight swallowed heavily, glancing nervously towards the mouth of the cave herself. As gratifying as it was that she had gotten help, knowing now what she did about the changelings, she couldn’t deny Thorax’s point. She licked her suddenly dry lips and took a deep breath. “R-right… um… she wouldn’t have… executed me, would she?” she asked carefully.

Thorax shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. More likely, though, she would have just stuffed you in a cocoon and used your love to feed hatchlings in the nursery hive.”

Twilight’s spine tingled with barely contained disgust. “H-h-hatchlings?” she asked, looking back to the drone. “And, uh… what are they like?”

In a flash of green flames, Thorax disappeared. What stood in his place was a large, stumpy white grub covered in black spots. At the front, Thorax’s face looked back at her with large baby cheeks, and his fangs bared in an angry snarl. His forelegs poked out of the white chitin, as thin as twigs.

The grub hissed at her, forked tongue lashing out to thrash wildly and aimlessly in the air. Twilight cringed back, her ears flattening against her skull. “Gah! Ew! Change back, change back!” she protested, covering her eyes.

She heard another swirl of flames, followed by an apologetic chuckle. “Heh, sorry. I just thought it’d be easier to show you,” Thorax’s voice said softly. She felt his hoof on hers, pulling them away from her eyes so she could see him. He had turned back to normal and was smiling at her.

Twilight pouted at him. “Maybe it was, but did you have to hiss at me like that?” she asked indignantly.

Thorax shrugged. “Uh… no?”

Twilight stood up and smacked him upside the head, her cheeks puffing up in an annoyed huff.

“Ow! Hey!” Thorax protested, holding a hoof to his chin while giving Twilight a flabbergasted look.

Twilight glared at him for a few more seconds before the facade broke, and she let out a few small giggles. She shook her head and patted him on the shoulder before strolling past him. “Sorry. Light smacks like that are kind of a thing my friends and I do sometimes. You should see how aggressive Applejack and Rainbow Dash can get with each other.”

Thorax followed after her until they were both standing at the mouth of the cave. He gave her a sideways glance. “I mean, I get that. A lot of changelings are like that, too. I just…” he winced and pulled his hoof away. “I’m not as fond of it…”

Twilight’s mirth faded away. Thorax had told her before that he wasn’t fond of violence at all, so even affectionate swats like that were probably unpleasant for him. She gave off a quiet sigh before nodding at him. “Right… sorry. I won’t do it again.”

Thorax gave her a tiny, appreciative smile. The two fell into a companionable silence after that, looking out at the night sky and, more specifically, the moon. Twilight began to relax, thinking back on the last time she had looked at the distant celestial rock like this. Back then, she had been all alone out here, wishing that the mare in the moon would still be there just so somepony could look back at her.

Now, though, she wasn’t alone. Thorax was here with her.

“Uh…?”

Twilight blinked when Thorax’s bewildered sound reached her ears. Curious, she turned to look and, with a startled squeak, realized she had been leaning against his side. She quickly pulled back. “Sorry, sorry!” she babbled, shaking her head.

Thorax blinked at her. “...Huh? I was confused, not upset,” he pointed out. “What was that?”

Twilight stared at him for a second before giving off a shaky laugh. “Eheh, nevermind. It’s just a thing ponies do sometimes. We like to show friends that we care through things like physical affection. You know, hugs, nuzzles, that kinda thing.”

Thorax made a small ‘o’ of realization with his mouth. “Oooohhhh. I see,” he replied before looking up at something over Twilight’s head. “So… does this mean that I’m your friend?”

Twilight, taken aback by the question, hesitated before giving a small nod of her head. “Yes, absolutely.”

Thorax was quiet for several seconds before looking down, a timid, but no less pleased, look on his face. “Heh… y’know, all I ever wanted in the hive was a friend. Ever since the day I first hatched…” he mumbled quietly, not quite able to meet Twilight’s gaze.

Twilight’s smile softened considerably. She reached out to pat Thorax on the back. “Well, you have one in me,” she said quietly.

Thorax finally looked back up at her, his eyes shimmering delightfully. After a few seconds, though, his expression slowly darkened, and he looked off in the direction Twilight imagined the hive to be in. She followed his gaze, slowly starting to frown. “Are you worried that the hive might catch wind of me?” she asked in a whisper.

“If I screw up at any time, then yeah, I am worried about that,” Thorax replied reluctantly. Twilight could feel him starting to tremble in his chitin under her hoof. “I’d be in trouble, and so would you… if one of us gets hurt or caught, then there’s nothing the other will be able to do to help. You don’t even know where the hive is, and if something happens to you away from the cave when I’m not here…”

Twilight slid her hoof further until it was draped over his shoulders in a comforting manner. She put on a reassuring smile. “Hey, that’s an awful lot of what if’s,” she pointed out.

“But they’re all important,” Thorax rebuked, turning to her directly. “I’m walking a very fine line by coming to see you like this. If I ever get caught, then…”

Twilight’s expression shifted to a thoughtful frown as she gave the matter some thought. As much as she didn’t want to add even more concerns to her buffet of troubles, she couldn’t afford to ignore this one. Thorax had a point. They were in a very precarious situation right now, and they needed to tread lightly. More than that, if something happened to one of them, they needed some way of getting in touch to help one another out…

An idea came to her, then, making her eyes light up. Barely containing an excited giggle, she clapped her hooves together before standing up. “I have an idea!”

“Huh?” Thorax asked, jumping in surprise from her sudden rush of energy. “What?”

Twilight helped him back to his hooves, grinning into his face. “I’ll teach you my signal flare spell! That way, if we’re ever in a bind and need each other, we can let each other know!”

Thorax blinked in surprise. “Huh?! But, the hive-”

“I know, we’d need to be very careful about when and how we used it,” Twilight cut him off with a more serious tone. “But it’s better than not having any means of reaching out to each other. Besides, I really want to know what it’s like to be a teacher for a change!”

Thorax eyed her for a few seconds, contemplating her suggestion. Her enthusiasm must have been contagious or something — probably literally, given his empathic nature — from the grin that slowly spread on his face. “Okay, sure! Sounds like fun, considering how excited you are about the idea.”

Twilight was not able to restrain her squee this time, prancing in place for a few seconds. “Eeeee! Alright, okay, so, ahem!” she cleared her throat and levitated a stray branch from one of the many dead trees that surrounded the cave and using it to start drawing diagrams into the sand.

“So, what you’re going to want to do is channel magic energy onto the very tip of your horn and form it into a sort of hollowed sphere. Inside that sphere, you’d then use Fireburst’s formulae to create a dense concentration of smaller pockets of magic, focusing on making them as luminous as possible. I tend to use Starswirl’s starlight cantrip for each one. Once you’re satisfied that you have enough, you then put a small hole in the side of the outer shell of the spell to destabilize it. This will make it shrink down and down, applying pressure to all of your little lights until, finally, the shell breaks and the sparks erupt out like a firework, creating the lights you saw before. Simple!”

Thorax stared blankly down at the sand in front of the cave. “...Uh?” he babbled uselessly.

Twilight pouted. “What? What is it? This is simple magic theory, here. It’s not that hard, is it?”

Thorax pointed at Twilight’s illustrations in the sand. “Is that… is that supposed to be math?”

‘Yeah. why?”

“When did they start putting letters with it?”

Twilight groaned. This was gonna be a long training session, wasn’t it?

To Twilight’s surprise, Thorax was a remarkably quick study. Over the course of the next hour or two, she walked him through the various different processes that made up the spell. The hollow shell, the individual sparks, and putting them together. The math had been a little trickier to explain, but he was attentive and caught on to at least the basics of algebra and the other needed calculations fairly quickly.

He couldn’t do them in his head quite like she could, so she did most of the rapid calculations for him to speed things along. He could practice his mental maths skills in his own time. Right now, they were trying to make pretty explosions.

At around the three-hour mark, Twilight was beginning to feel confident that Thorax knew enough to give the spell a proper try. She looked over their latest set of writings in the sand, giving his own calculations one last look before nodding in satisfaction. “Okay! I think we’re ready to give this a proper try! What do you say, Thorax?”

He glanced up at the moon, grimacing. “Yeah… but I gotta go, soon. I do need to report back in at the hive,” he said slowly.

Twilight frowned, then nodded. “Alright… well, okay, come on and stand next to me,” she instructed, the two of them standing side by side. Twilight lit up her horn with magic before giving Thorax a sideways look. “I’ll be casting the spell alongside you to help guide you along, alright?”

Thorax nodded, igniting his own horn in turn. “Right.”

“Okay, so, first the shell…”

The light on Twilight’s horn flared, and a sphere of magic formed on the very tip. Next to her, Thorax did much the same, the intense shade of green on his horn mixing oddly with the gentle purple of her own.

“Then the sparks… add the hole…”

Step by step, Twilight walked Thorax through it, the light on their horns growing brighter and brighter with every passing step. Twilight took in a long, deep breath. This was it, the moment of truth. “Okay… aim up, and release.”

In unison, she and Thorax tilted their horns to point up at the sky. With a pulse of energy, they fired off their spells. Twilight watched as the two spheres of light flew up around thirty feet before coming to a hover and starting to dwindle.

“Did it work?” Thorax asked, squinting up to try and see the spheres.

Before Twilight could assure him that this was supposed to happen, the sky overhead erupted with green and lavender light. Thorax’s eyes widened, and he audibly gasped at the sight.

Repressing the urge to smirk, Twilight turned to look at him. Her own lavender light reflected off of him far more than his own, painting him in shades of purple she was very unused to seeing. When he turned to look at her in turn, the glow shifted back to his own signature green. His eyes lit up with joy, his lips curling up into an enormous, ecstatic grin. “I did it!” he practically squealed before, much to her surprise, he lunged forward and wrapped her up in a big, grateful hug.

“Woah! Eheh, kinda clingy?” Twilight joked, lightly returning the hug.

“Nobody’s ever taught me anything like that before,” Thorax replied quietly, making Twilight’s joking tone fade away. The drone leaned back to look her in the eyes, and she saw the gratitude in them. “Not even my brother was ever that patient with me… I don’t know what to say, just…”

Twilight smiled softly at him. Without a word, she cut off any further words by pulling him back into the hug, trying to ignore the odd sensation of his smooth chitin on her fur. He was quick to return the embrace in full.

Neither of them said anything after that, simply sharing in their small victory as the shared light of their spell faded away overhead.

Author's Note

I see you there, shippers.

No.

Missing Supplies

Thorax took his leave of Twilight not long after successfully casting the signal flare spell. He had been briefly concerned about it drawing attention, but Twilight had assured him that the flares they had set off had been small enough and close enough to the ground to not attract any undesired attention.

She had then made him recite the process for casting the spell from memory before letting him go. “You have to have it down perfectly!” were her exact words when he had complained that it seemed unnecessary.

But, mercifully, she let him go after that, and he began his return trip to the Hive. All the way, he couldn’t stop grinning to himself. Were he going on hoof, there would be a very pronounced spring in his step.

“Twilight said she’s my friend,” he thought to himself, barely able to keep himself from cheering at the cold night sky. “I have a friend! This is wonderful!”

He kept himself from cheering, but a few giddy giggles did slip past his lips from time to time. It was just such an amazing feeling. He’d sucked up the love of many creatures in his time, most of which had been held in changeling cocoons, rendered catatonic and incapable of feeling the emotions naturally. It made them easy to feed on, but the emotions were often hollow and barely sustaining.

But the affection he was receiving from Twilight? It was staggering. Not only did it taste magnificent, but it was actually enough to decrease the perpetual ache he felt in his belly. It wasn’t enough to totally sate his hunger — nothing could ever truly satisfy the ravenous appetite of a changeling, after all — but it made it less painful. It also filled his chest with this warm bubbly feeling that he never wanted to lose.

After some time, the Hive finally came into sight. Thorax forced himself to flatten his expression and subdue his jubilation. He could celebrate once he was somewhere private. But if he acted too happy around the other drones, it would only draw unwanted attention. “Just go in, report to Pharynx, get to an empty sleeping chamber,” he told himself.

A balcony emerged in the wall of the Hive as he approached, permitting him to come to a landing. Passing through a hole in the wall, he found himself on the edge of a long corridor with many other tunnels branching off of it in every direction. Up, down, left, right, and everywhere in between. One or two other drones were standing around, chatting quietly amongst themselves. They gave Thorax a bored glance before resuming their hushed, chittering discussion.

“Uh, excuse me,” he called out to them, approaching slowly. “I need to report to Pharynx. Do either of you know where he is?”

One of the drones, a female, turned to give him an impatient scowl. “Why are you asking us, pacifist?” she asked.

Thorax flinched from the bitterness in her voice. “...Because I’ve been on lone wolf patrol all night and don’t know where he is?”

“Then try looking in the warrior’s nest,” the other drone, a male, bit back. “And stop wasting our time.”

Thorax shrank back, his ears folding down. “Right… sorry.”

“Tch. Pathetic whelp,” the female hissed under her breath as he made his way farther down the tunnel. The insult stung far more than he was used to, making his expression twist into a pained grimace.

The walls parted around him, allowing him to walk in more or less a straight line for the warrior’s nest. There weren’t very many changelings out and about right now. Mostly guards dressed in beetle-themed dark blue armor. They barely gave him a passing glance whenever they met, but he could see the disapproving glares hidden behind their stoic expressions.

His arrival at his destination couldn’t come soon enough. The wall opened up in front of him, and he was greeted to the same towering chamber where he had found Pharynx before. This time, the chamber was quiet. A few guards were stationed around, some of them standing on the walls or ceiling to get a better look at things, but for the most part, all was quiet.

An uneasy feeling formed in the pit of Thorax’s gut. Someone was watching him. He didn’t know who, but he could feel the eyes boring into him from somewhere in this chamber. Nevertheless, he had to report to Pharynx on time or face serious consequences. He was already almost late.

Taking a deep breath, Thorax leaped from his perch and gently lowered himself down to the ground, passing a few of the chambers in the walls on the way. He glanced in each one for any sign of Pharynx, but only found regular drones. All the while, that feeling of being watched continued to grow worse.

When he finally touched down on the floor of the chamber, his observers decided to make themselves known.

“Well, well, look at who finally came back home,” the sneering voice of Scorpion came from behind Thorax.

Yelping, Thorax spun around to see both Scorpion and Mandible staring at him, emerging from their own little hole in the wall with narrowed eyes and hateful frowns.

Thorax took a few uneasy steps back, a lump forming in his throat. Were they on to him? Did they know about Twilight? “W-well, yeah, of course, I’m back,” he stammered out, struggling to keep his eyes focused on the advancing pair of much stronger drones. “I’m s-supposed to report to Pharynx. I’m back from patrol.”

Scorpion scoffed. “You’ve been taking an awful lot of those solo patrols recently, you know that?” he pointed out skeptically. “Out of nowhere, too. Mandible and I can’t help but wonder why. Are you up to something, you little worm?”

Thorax tried to stand his ground, but their contemptuous glares broke down his resolve with ease. Letting out a withering whimper, he shrank down and looked at the floor. “...I’m just trying to pull my weight,” he mumbled quietly.

Mandible harrumphed in annoyance. “Pulling your own weight. And why the sudden change of heart?”

“Because that worm almost ate my brother!” Thorax finally shot back, his wings snapping open in a display of aggression. “And I almost did nothing! I almost sat there and watched my only family being eaten alive by a monster! And when I did do something, I ran! I can’t keep doing that!”

Scorpion suddenly advanced, cutting any further words from Thorax into pieces. Scorpion towered over him, their muzzle mere inches apart, the larger drone’s contemptuous glare drilling into Thorax’s fearful face and silencing any confidence he had built up. Scorpion’s lips peeled back into a malevolent grin, revealing his sharp fangs. “Oh? What’s this? Finally got a backbone, little whelp? Or is that just a load of bark you’ve been rehearsing on your ‘patrols’?”

“I...I…” Thorax cowered back, his belly pressing into the dirt. His words failed him, and inwardly, he cursed himself for being such a sniveling coward. Shame and embarrassment flooded his system, and he looked down at the ground with a defeated chitter.

Mandible shook his head in mock disappointment. “All bark, then.”

“I dunno, Mandible,” Scorpion said slowly, lifting a hoof and kicking it down hard between Thorax’s wings. “Maybe this crippled pup just needs some incentive to start biting.”

Thorax gasped, his eyes flying wide as the air was driven from his lungs. He squirmed under Scorpion’s hoof, struggling for any purchase so he could stand up and defend himself. He opened his mouth to protest, to ask them to stop, but all that came out was a breathless wheeze.

“What’s wrong, Thorax?” Scorpion demanded in a low, cold growl. He twisted his hoof this way and that, grinding it harder into Thorax’s spine. “Aren’t you gonna defend yourself? Come on, show us some backbone. Show us some bite!”

“THAT IS ENOUGH!”

In a heartbeat, Scorpion’s hoof left Thorax’s back, the tall drone backpedaling and standing to attention beside Mandible. A second later, another changeling slammed into the ground in front of Thorax with enough force to kick up a cloud of dust. Thorax screwed his eyes shut while struggling to catch his breath, the dust sending him into a coughing fit.

When he opened his eyes again, the dust had cleared, and Pharynx stood protectively in front of him, his purple eyes narrowed with disgust. “Both of you. Get out of my sight this instant, and maybe I’ll be nice when I report this to the queen!”

Like magic, Scorpion and Mandible turned and fled, though not before the former shot Thorax one more glare. The two vanished through a hole in the wall that closed behind them with the spine-chilling scrape of stone on stone. Pharynx maintained his defensive stance for several seconds before turning to glare down at Thorax himself. “That was a pathetic showing of self-defense, brother,” he scolded.

Thorax looked down in shame, forcing himself to sit up on his haunches. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled quietly, unable to look his brother in the eye.

A hoof roughly thumped him in the shoulder, making him wince. “Don’t be sorry,” Pharynx chastised him. “Be better. Now, you’re back from patrol. Report.”

Thorax straightened up to stand at attention. “Patrol went as planned. I passed over the ruins of that wagon I reported to you last time. Local wildlife seems to have picked it clean, sir. Other than that, nothing of note to report.”

Pharynx hummed to himself for a moment before nodding. “At ease.”

Thorax relaxed, letting off a quiet sigh.

“There’s something else I need to talk to you about,” Pharynx went on in a quieter voice, one that put Thorax on edge. Pharynx put a hoof on Thorax’s shoulder and guided him to a secluded corner of the room.

The lump in his throat came back with a vengeance. Thorax swallowed heavily in an effort to force it down, but it remained stubbornly in place. What could Pharynx want to talk about? He almost never used that tone of voice unless there was something serious going on.

Once they were tucked away, Thorax finally managed to find his voice. “What is it, Pharynx? Is something wrong?” he asked quietly.

Pharynx nodded before lifting a hoof up to his lips to indicate they should be quiet. “Yes. We have a problem. Supplies kept in the Hive’s communal storage have been going missing as of late. Small amounts, but enough to be noticeable. It’s causing some concern among the quartermasters. There is suspicion of a thief hiding somewhere nearby.”

Thorax’s ears drooped, a surge of guilt swelling in his chest. “There is a thief… it’s me,” he thought to himself. He had been sneaking into the Hive’s storage to bring Twilight food and supplies ever since he found out she had stomach rot. It was far more reliable then scavenging in the wasteland, at any rate. However, it left him with the knowledge that he was in danger of far more than just being discovered consorting with an intruder.

The guilt he felt at stealing from his own kind was intense. More than once, he had tried to convince himself to stop, to just scavenge what he needed from the desert. He had never managed to convince himself, though. Twilight practically depended on him to bring her food and medicine. If he stopped doing that, her odds of surviving would drop dramatically…

“Thorax, pay attention! This is serious!” Pharynx’s voice suddenly cut through Thorax’s guilt-ridden ruminations, along with a sharp smack to the side of the head.

“Ow!” Thorax protested before nodding along. “Sorry, sorry! What did you say?”

Pharynx snarled angrily but was quick to compose himself. “I was trying to ask you if you knew anything about it,” he said after a moment, his eyes staring deeply into those of his little brother.

Thorax swallowed heavily. The way Pharynx had said that… it was if he already knew the answer. It was a voice Pharynx only ever used when he was absolutely certain he had figured something out and was just waiting for the confession. Thorax had seen it in play numerous times when his big brother dealt with insubordinate drones. To be on the receiving end…

He cowered back. “N-no. I’m sorry, I don’t,” he lied, hoping against hope that his words were convincing. He couldn’t afford to let Twilight down now, no matter how much it hurt him to lie to his only family like this.

Pharynx stared at him for what felt like forever, his eyes narrowed with scrutiny. Then, with a slow nod, he took a step back. “...Very well,” he said simply.

Thorax blinked. “Huh?” he asked before he could stop himself.

Pharynx turned away from him. “Very well. I believe you,” came the simple response. “But keep your eyes open. And…” he looked back at Thorax over his shoulder. His eyes had softened, a worried frown on his face. “...Be careful, brother.”

Without waiting for Thorax to respond, Pharynx’s wings spread out and took him into the air. Thorax watched him go, his heart pounding in his chest and his mind reeling with a mixture of confusion, relief, and terror. He had never seen Pharynx do that before, not any time he had cornered a drone about a suspected crime.

A few seconds later, it clicked. Pharynx had given him the opportunity to lie, and when he did, he had accepted it and chose not to punish him. He must have been trying to give Thorax a chance to stop on his own, and spare him Chrysalis’ judgment.

As his elder brood mate disappeared through a hole in the wall, Thorax swallowed the lump in his throat and backed up through one of his own. “I’m so sorry, Pharynx,” he thought to himself in shame. He decided then and there that he would not steal from the Hive again, not unless he was left with absolutely no other choice.

He stepped out of the warrior’s nest, and the hole closed up behind him.

Author's Note

Well, then. Thorax has gotten himself in a bit of an unpleasant situation, hasn't he?

Homesickness

Over the next two days, Thorax did not go to Twilight’s cave. He deliberately focused on his patrols, doing his job with excessive diligence. He took note of everything he came across that was worth reporting and spared no details when he returned to the Hive. Each time he did so, the impressed look on Pharynx’s face became more and more pronounced.

The reason for this behavior was twofold. For one thing, Thorax wanted to prove Scorpion and Mandible wrong. By doing his absolute best on patrol, he was hoping to improve his physique and confidence. Maybe, he thought, if he worked at it hard and long enough, then those two insufferable bullies would finally start to leave him alone.

The second reason was because of his guilt over raiding the Hive’s storage. Pharynx almost certainly knew that it had been him, and the shame he felt was hard to describe. Those feelings of regret drove him to keep an eye out for potential gathering spots out in the wasteland to include in his reports. Every time he did so, he felt just the smallest spark of hope that he could make up for his selfishness.

On the third day, though, Thorax finally decided to return to the cave and see Twilight. She was probably starting to wonder what had happened to him to cause such a delay, and he needed to make sure her stomach rot wasn’t getting worse again. He wouldn’t be able to bring a substantial meal with him this time, sadly, but he could still go and see her.

His patrol today took him out of the Hive in the morning, only an hour or two after sunrise. It occurred to Thorax as he took his leave that his patrol schedule had been erratic and inconsistent. Probably Pharynx putting a deliberate strain on him so he could build up a tolerance to unexpected conditions and power through his drowsiness.

The journey to the cave passed by in a relative blur. Thorax’s eyes did scour the ground below him intently for any sign of trouble, but his mind was elsewhere for the duration of the trip. Namely, he was wondering whether or not he should tell Twilight how he had been getting the meals he had been bringing her. After all, she was a curious and perceptive mare, and would no doubt notice the sudden end of meaningful meals coming from him.

But could he really bring himself to confess to it outright? From all he heard about Equestria, crimes like that were relatively rare. It was such an idyllic place to call home… would Twilight really be okay with being friends with a thief?

“If she asks me,” he decided once the cave came into view up ahead. “I’ll tell her everything…”

He touched down just outside of the cave, careful not to make too much noise. Twilight was probably awake by now, but just in case she was still asleep, he didn’t want to disturb her too much. Moving slowly, he inched into the cave. “Twilight? You awake?” he called out in a low voice.

There was no answer.

Thorax frowned, allowing his eyes to refocus. The colors of the cave were suddenly washed out as a dense dark blue mist came into view, filling the entire cave. His stomach churned at the sight, and his jaw fell open in shock. Some of the mist slipped inside to tickle his tongue, and he almost retched on the spot. Clamping his muzzle shut, he slowly inched deeper and deeper into the cave. “Twilight?!” he called again, louder this time.

“I’m here,” came the reply.

Thorax paused. Twilight’s voice was quiet and weak, but not from sickness like it had been in the past. A lump formed in his throat, and he carefully made his way around the bend. Twilight sat there, her back facing him with her head hung low. She was holding something in his hooves, though he could not see what from this angle.

He gingerly approached, refocusing his eyes to block out the blinding haze of sorrow. “Hey… are you okay?” he called gently, reaching a hoof out to her shoulder.

Twilight turned to face him. There were tears in her eyes, a pained expression on her face. Thorax’s eyes widened at the sight before noticing the scroll of parchment clutched tightly in her hooves.

“They know…” Twilight choked out, lifting up the sheet of parchment to show him its contents. Thorax took it in his magic, his eyes scanning over the words. The writing was scratchy and sharp, making it hard to make out some of the words while giving off the impression of haste and desperation like the quill had been shaking frantically in the grasp of the writer.

Twilight,

We just got word from Princess Celestia. The expedition came back bruized and broken, and they said they had to leave you behind. They said that you were attacked by some kind of monster worm, and that you’re probably dead. But I don’t believe them, and neither do any of our friends! Where are you, Twilight? What happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? How can we help you get home?!

Please write back soon!

-Spike.

Thorax lowered the parchment, a lump forming in his throat. “Oh…”

Twilight took it back, setting it off to sit by the pillow of her bedroll with a sniffle. “They know what happened. They want to help me…”

Thorax tilted his head slowly to one side, his eyes still locked on the note. “Wait… how did you even get that?” he asked, pointing at the parchment. “I don’t think they sent a messenger, did they?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. Spike has the ability to send things to ponies via enchanted Dragonfire. We mostly use it to send letters and, sometimes, small objects. But…” she leaned back against the cave wall, pressing a hoof up to her temple. “I don’t have any writing supplies. I don’t have any ink, I don’t have anything to write with, and I don’t have any parchment to write on… I can’t send him back any replies… and they’re going to think that I’m dead, and...”

Thorax’s ears drooped when Twilight suddenly buried her face in her hooves, taking a series of deep, shuddering breaths. He worked his mouth up and down, fighting to put some words together that would help. Alas, nothing came. So instead, he sat down by her side and placed his hoof on her back, trying to impart whatever strength he could. “Hey… it’s gonna be alright,” he whispered to her in assurance.

Twilight didn’t respond right away. She continued taking deep breaths until finally, the shaking in her voice faded enough for her to speak coherently. She pulled her hooves away and turned to look at him, trying to smile. “I k-know. I know it will,” she managed to stammer out, though Thorax could taste her own doubt in that sentiment. “I just have to get home, that’s all.”

Thorax blinked. Somehow, in all of the time he had spent coming to this cave, the prospect of Twilight leaving had never actually occurred to him. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. She couldn’t stay here forever. She had friends and family back in Equestria who were probably missing her dearly, and who she clearly missed in return. There was also the fact that she wasn’t safe here. Not just due to the desert, but due to the Hive’s ever-looming presence in this wasteland.

“I guess I just hoped I wouldn’t have to lose my only friend,” he thought to himself before nodding his head in agreement. “Yeah, you should…”

“The question then becomes… how?” Twilight pondered, wiping a hoof over her eyes to dispel her remaining tears. She took one more deep breath to calm herself down before speaking again, her sorrow being buried under a mountain of forced determination. “I don’t know these lands well enough to safely navigate them, especially at night. I can’t make the journey in the day, I can’t carry enough water to get me through the heat. And even if I managed to get out of the badlands themselves, there’s still a long way to go on hoof before I could get back to hospitable territory or civilization. Several days, at least. I’d starve or die of dehydration before I got far enough to get help…”

Thorax chittered quietly, his brow furrowing in thought. “Hmmm… well… what if I guided you out?” he offered after a moment.

Twilight turned to face him. “Huh?”

“I’ve lived here my entire life, you know?” Thorax pointed out, putting on a reassuring smile. “I know the fastest routes on hoof, I know where all the safe spots are, I know where the food grows and where the water gathers. I could lead you out of the badlands and help you stock up on supplies for the trip.”

Twilight stared at him for several seconds before her lips curled up into a huge grin. “Thorax! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! Thank you!” she squealed, flinging herself against him for a grateful hug.

Thorax recoiled from the embrace, awkwardly returning it.

Twilight pulled away a moment later, her eyes shimmering with anticipation and an eagerness to get going. “Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Thorax’s heart beat a little faster in his chest, and he quickly lifted his hooves in a calming motion. “Woah, woah, I didn’t say I can do it right now!” he exclaimed, leaning back a little.

Twilight froze, her expression unchanging, but the emotions pouring off of her switched like a light; from joy at the prospect of going home, to a combination of embarrassment and extreme disappointment. Slowly, her smile faded away. “Huh?”

Thorax sighed, looked away. “I just… I have my job at the Hive to worry about. Leading you out to the edge of the badlands would take a lot longer than I ever have to spend on patrol. I’d need to find a window where I’m not scheduled to do anything around the Hive for several days. The problem is that Pharynx likes to keep me busy, and if I go missing, I’m going to be in a lot of trouble when I get back. And…”

His words faltered for a second as he stared into her eyes. He licked his lips and pressed on, his voice quieter than before. “...And I’m already on thin ice. I can’t take that chance. We need that kind of window before I can take you out of here.”

Twilight processed his words for a little bit, her aura slowly stabilizing with understanding. “I see… I’m sorry, I just…” she sighed and leaned back against the wall again, her ears drooping. “I just… really miss my friends, and I don’t want to keep them worrying about me any longer than I have to. And with the letter, I know they’re probably freaking out… Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, especially.”

Thorax gave off a quiet chitter on hearing those two names. Come to think of it, Twilight had only ever mentioned their names in passing from time to time, but he had never asked for any details. Now, though, with her stressing over them as much as she was, he found himself curious to know more.

He turned and got comfortable by her side, staring ahead at the far wall. “Ya know… I don’t think you’ve really told me about your friends,” he began carefully, giving her a sidelong glance. “Maybe it’ll make you feel a little better if you talk about them for a while?”

Twilight was quiet for a moment before smiling and nodding. “They’re… really the best friends a pony could ask for,” she began quietly, her eyes going distant as she lost herself in the memories of her friends. “There’s Applejack, an apple farmer. She’s strong, dependable, punctual, and honest as can be. Pinkie Pie’s a baker and party planner, and, uh…”

Thorax watched as Twilight’s muzzle scrunched up in thought. “...And honestly? Really hard to explain properly. She’s energetic, talkative, never slows down, and she can break the laws of physics nine times out of ten. She has these weird twitches and feelings she gets that let her predict the immediate future or something. She calls it her Pinkie Sense. I tried to study it once… it, ah,” she awkwardly rubbed at her forelegs, a sheepish look on her face. “Went… poorly.”

Thorax tilted his head in confusion. “She can… break the laws of physics? How?”

“I have no idea,” Twilight stated as a matter of fact. “But she’s friendly, probably the friendliest of all my friends. She knows everypony’s names, birthdays, likes, dislikes, party habits, and favorite foods by heart. She loves making ponies smile, to the extent that it’s basically her whole thing. She also throws the best parties in the world.”

Thorax tilted his head the other way. “Uh… the world’s a big place-”

“Whole. World.”

Thorax and Twilight stared at each other for a few seconds, the emphatic declaration hanging over their heads for a few seconds. Twilight’s lip twitched up, and a second later, the two of them devolved into a laughing fit.

Thorax got the feeling that Pinkie would be proud.

“Anyway,” Twilight went on, turning to face Thorax directly. “Next up is Fluttershy. I think you’d really like her. She’s shy and quiet, but she’s very gentle, and wonderful with animals. I have never seen a mare so averse to violence or anything even remotely aggressive. She’s kind and sweet, and really, just a wonderful mare all around.”

Twilight’s smile then became thoughtful. “Although, come to think of it, she can be very scary when she wants to be… I learned later I was misunderstanding it, but one time, I thought I saw her break a grizzly bear’s neck.”

Thorax’s jaw dropped. “That… sounds like the total opposite of everything you just described.”

Twilight giggled at his gobsmacked face. “Yeah, well, like I said, I misunderstood. Turns out, she was just helping him out with a tense knot in his shoulder. Undoing the knot and calming his down so she could give him a massage just happened to look like snapping his neck.”

Thorax blinked. “I… see?” he said awkwardly.

Twilight rolled her eyes before pressing on. “Then there’s Rainbow Dash. She’s, ah… a bit of a case,” she said, her brow furrowing in thought. “See, she’s really overconfident, and has something of an ego. She can also be really lazy and forgetful. Out of all my friends, she and Pinkie tend to get on my nerves the most with their antics.”

Thorax frowned, growing confused. That sounded like a lot of negative points in rapid succession. “Er… I thought she was your friend?”

Twilight quickly perked up. “Oh, she is! Sorry! I didn’t mean to make it sound like I dislike her or anything!” she said, waving her hooves in front of her. She put on a soft smile after that. “See, Rainbow Dash is a pony who really likes action. She’s brave — perhaps to a fault — and incredibly loyal. She’s also really strong, and easily one of the fastest fliers in Equestria. She has this kind of high energy tomboy attitude that makes her really endearing and fun to be around, despite all of her flaws. I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”

Thorax nodded along slowly. “Ah, I think I get it.”

Twilight nodded happily. “Then there’s Rarity. She’s pretty much Rainbow’s total opposite, yet they get along great anyway. She’s refined, proper, always conducts herself with grace and dignity. She’s a fashion designer with dreams of getting involved in the high society of Canterlot at some point. She’s also one of the most generous mares you could ever hope to meet.”

For a moment, Thorax contemplated asking Twilight what she meant by ‘Fashion.’ He shut down the question before he could ask it, though. Twilight was clearly on a roll, and he had no desire to stop it.

“And then, finally…” Twilight’s eyes drifted down to Spike’s letter. Her aura dulled with longing, and she gently lifted the scrap of parchment back up to her face. “...There’s Spike the dragon. My number one assistant, and… in a lot of ways, my little brother.”

Thorax leaned back slightly. “Your little brother is a dragon?” he asked in surprise. As far as he knew, dragons were a race of gargantuan creatures that would make even Queen Chrysalis think twice before crossing one. Imagining one of them being an assistant to Twilight was hard enough, but to then compound it with the idea of it being her little brother?

“Well, kind of,” Twilight went on, setting the letter to one side. “See, I hatched him when he was just an egg, so that technically makes me his mother. But I was only ten when I did that, far too young to be raising anything, especially a creature as rare and complicated as a dragon. So my mom and dad took it upon themselves to help me raise him up right. For the first several years, they took the lead on that front, so he was growing up beside me. So while I’m technically his mother, our relationship is far closer to that of brother and sister.”

Thorax’s confused expression grew into a smile. “Oh, I see. That makes a lot more sense then what I was imagining,” he admitted with a sheepish chuckle. “See, I was picturing a big fire breathing lizard too big to even fit inside this cave or something.”

Twilight barked out a short laugh. “Ha! Oh, I hope not! He’s only ever gotten that big once, and I don’t ever want to deal with that again!”

And just like that, Thorax’s understanding was shattered. “...What?”

Twilight giggled and waved him off. “I’ll tell you later. It’s a long story,” she dismissed before staring down at the scroll. Her ears slowly lowered, her smile turning into a somber frown. She clutched the letter close to her heart and closed her eyes. “...He’s always been there for me… And I really, really miss him. I can’t leave him alone like this… I have to get back…”

Thorax’s own good mood plummeted with Twilight’s return to melancholy. He took a deep breath and reached over to gently pat her back. “I’ll get you home, I promise,” he said softly, his eyes boring into hers. “As soon as I get the chance, I’ll get you out of here and back to your friends.”

Twilight nodded, swallowing down her sadness. She leaned forward slightly, entering into a gentle embrace with the changeling drone. “I know… thank you, Thorax.”

Without a word, he returned the hug. He saw her gratitude hanging in the air around them, her appreciation and affection for him as her friend. With an inaudible growl of his stomach, he pulled the energy in and swallowed it down, allowing the sustenance to pool in his stomach and warm it up.

“I will get you home,” he swore in his mind. “Your friends are lucky to know you, and I won’t let them lose you.”

Hunger Pains

Thorax had been hoping for a clear window to take Twilight to the border within a few days. Things had been pretty relaxed for a while, relatively speaking, so it had made sense that he could find a window to request a few days of personal leave to rest himself up. The excuse that he had overdone it a little with the scouting runs, and thus needed to recover, would probably be satisfactory for Pharynx, and would not seem at all out of character for him to the other drones in the Hive.

Alas, mother nature had other plans.

Thorax grimaced when a blast of thunder filled the air, heavily muffled by the stone walls of the Hive. A few other drones nearby glanced up for a moment before going back to their prior discussion.

Thick storm clouds had rolled in from the east, blanketing a large region of the Badlands in darkness. Lightning struck frequently, filling the typically quiet wasteland with an irregularly recurring cacophony. No rain had fallen, yet, but given how recent the last major rainfall had been, it wasn’t impossible.

And if the rain did start falling, it would be all hooves on deck until it ended. Weaker drones around the Hive would be tasked with salvaging whatever water they could, while soldiers and warriors would make forays into the broken wasteland to ensure their prey wasn’t snatched away from them by angered Tatzelwurms or other such beasts driven mad by the flooding of their underground burrows.

There was also the matter of Twilight. As powerful as she was with magic, she was still woefully underprepared to handle herself against the worst the badlands could throw at her. She had barely survived her encounter with the Tatzelwurms before and had been severely wounded in the process. Her odds would be better now, thanks to her cave and her growing familiarity with the land, but her lack of sustenance meant she was steadily growing weaker with time.

“Hey!”

Thorax all but jumped out of his shell when Scorpion’s voice carved through the air. He spun on his hooves to find the other drone marching up to him with an impatient scowl. “You’re late for assignment, whelp, and Pharynx insists you be there,” he spat before turning his nose up in a sign of distaste for the head of patrol. “Sent me to find and drag your sorry shell back to the warrior’s nest.”

Thorax quickly stood at attention, mentally berating himself for losing track of time. “S-sorry! I’m on my way!”

Scorpion snorted. “Uh-huh. What, are you doing all the way down here, anyway? What, you hiding from your job or something?”

Thorax quickly shook his head. “N-no! I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all. I was taking a walk to clear my head,” he said, not technically lying.

Scorpion did not seem impressed. He scoffed and shoved Thorax towards the nearest wall just as it opened up with a spine-chilling scrape. “Gah, whatever. Just get a move on. Worthless grub.”

Thorax managed to keep his hooves under him, awkwardly turning his stumble into a brisk trot through the churning corridors of the Hive. Scorpion kept close behind him all the way, sending a chill down Thorax’s spine.

The two eventually came out of the wall of the warrior’s nest some distance up, already seeing most of the drones assembled and in position. One or two risked a glance towards them as they arrived, their glares boring into Thorax specifically.

Pharynx stood at the head of the pack, staring back up at Thorax with a subtle, disapproving look. “Thorax, there you are,” he called out once Thorax and Scorpion touched down.

“The stupid kid was down in the tunnels,” Scorpion declared with an impatient snarl. “Dunno why you wanted me to drag his sorry flank back here.”

“Watch your tongue, Scorpion,” Pharynx warned. “And get back in line. Thorax, find a spot.”

Scorpion growled under his breath almost inaudibly before turning and making his way to an empty spot in the back of the group. Thorax picked a spot on the opposite end, quickly standing at attention and awaiting his orders.

Pharynx gave a sage nod before starting to pace in front of his troops. “Alright, listen up, all of you!” he barked, his voice sharp and commanding to ensure all were paying attention. “In case any of you have had your heads rammed up a roc’s rump these last few days, dense storm clouds have recently come in to cover the Badlands. We had expected them to pass the morning after their arrival, but it seems our weather scouts made a mistake in their observations. The clouds are sticking around for a few more days, at least, and I am not going to take any chances. If rain starts pouring, I am going to need all of you ready to go at a moment’s notice, and I am stepping up patrols in the meantime, just in case.”

A few quiet groans passed through the gathered troops, no doubt from drones who had managed to procure some personal leave beforehand. Pharynx narrowed his eyes. “I heard that! Take your jobs seriously, you lot! This is one of the most important jobs in the Hive, and I don’t want to hear any of you grumbling like freshly-molted nymphs being put to rest in the nursery! We’re warriors, it’s our job to defend this hive, and we’re going to do it with pride. Now…”

Pharynx’s eyes fell on Thorax. “Thorax, you’ve been going on lone scouting runs for a while now, and your physique has visibly improved. Time to see if it’s all paid off. I want you to keep a closer eye on the sky while you’re on patrol today, as well as animal activity. The thunder is sure to have stirred some trouble, and I need you on the lookout for anything that might pose a threat. Be meticulous.”

Thorax nodded his head. “Yes, sir!”

“Maybe you should send someone with him, sir?” Another drone, a female named Spiracle, suggested from the heart of the pack. “I’ve seen his physical improvement, but we all saw how quickly he surrendered when Scorpion and Mandible ganged up on him a few days ago.”

Thorax’s ears drooped, and his face fell at the reminder of his shameful lack of resolve in the face of those two drones.

“You HAD to bring it up!” Scorpion’s voice complained from the back.

Thorax did manage to get a tiny ghost of a smile at hearing the other drone’s indignation at being called out.

Pharynx snarled. “Shut it, Scorpion! You’re lucky you got off as easy as you did! Now, then, Spiracle,” he turned back to the female that spoke out. “As valid as your point is, the whole reason Thorax is going on lone scouting missions is to build up his confidence and strength. Sending a drone to baby him will only slow him down. He’s not supposed to engage anything he finds, only report it back to me.”

“Understood, sir,” Spiracle replied before going quiet.

Pharynx nodded. “Now, then…”

Thorax only half-listened as Pharynx dished out orders. It didn’t take long, but soon enough, everyone had a task. Satisfied, Pharynx held his head high and spread out his wings. “Right, that will be all. All of you are dismissed!”

The warrior’s nest erupted into a flurry of activity. All of the drones sprang into the air, their wings carrying them up for a nearby wall. Thorax followed after them, passing through the newly-formed hole. Soon enough, the swarm came out of the Hive and spread out to carry out their various tasks.

“Try not to squeal too loud when the lightning strikes, Thorax!” Scorpion’s voice cackled at him over the intense buzzing of wings in the air.

Thorax flinched and looked away. He took a deep breath, trying to ignore the burning sensation in the base of his skull as well as he could. After a second, once he was sure the insulting bug was out of earshot, Thorax turned his eyes back to the swarm with a disdainful glare. “Yeah? Try not to squeal next time Pharynx catches you acting out of line,” he growled under his breath.

At the moment, the near-silent counter had felt good. But as Thorax made his way for Twilight, battered on all sides by the stronger-than-usual winds that were whipping across his homeland, he couldn’t deny a small feeling of shame and regret forming in the pits of his stomach. He was supposed to be better than that, wasn’t he? He shouldn’t allow himself to fall to their level.

Of course, who was he to think he was any better than Scorpion or Mandible? They weren’t the ones who had stolen from the Hive’s food storage, after all...

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he barely noticed when he came to a landing outside of Twilight’s cave.

“Thorax, there you are!” Twilight’s cheerful voice called out to him, snapping him out of his trance. He blinked and looked up to see her coming around the bend with a tender smile. “I was starting to get worried that you might not show up today.”

Thorax put on a weak smile as he stepped forward. “Sorry. Pharynx called a big meeting in the warrior’s nest because of the storm,” he explained, gesturing back at the sky. “If it starts raining, I’m probably gonna go missing for a few days, at least. Pharynx will need all hooves on deck to help patrol the desert.”

Twilight nodded in understanding, trotting beside him as he came inside. “I understand. Although…” she grimaced with an uncomfortable look on her face. “I guess that means we won’t be heading for Equestria until then, huh?”

Thorax sighed and shook his head. “Sorry, but no. I need a window where nothing’s expected of me. That’s not happening for a little while.”

Twilight fell silent. Thorax turned to her, his eyes adjusting to see her aura. He blinked in surprise when he saw several shades of fiery orange drifting off of her in thick waves — the telltale color of frustration and impatience.

“Gah, dangit!” Twilight vented, stomping a hoof against the ground. “I got myself all excited to go home in the next day or two, and then suddenly there’s a big storm, and my trip gets delayed! UGH!”

Thorax flinched back, lowering his head. “I… I’m sorry, Twilight, I…”

Twilight froze on hearing his mumbled apology. She quickly turned to him, her aura flickering from frustration to regret in a heartbeat. “Oh! Oh, no no, I wasn’t blaming you, Thorax! I know the weather isn’t your fault!” she said quickly, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sure you’re doing everything you can.”

Thorax was quiet for a second before nodding and offering her a warm smile. “Right. I am. I just wish I could do more...” he muttered.

Twilight sighed and pulled back, her aura dulling with what could only be described as ‘defeat.’ “I’m just… I really want to get home,” she said softly, sitting down against the wall in front of her campfire. “I know this is your home and all, but… I hate it here. All of this sand, the angry animals, the heat, the stomach rot. I just want to go back to my friends and my library and sleep in my own bed...”

An audible growl filled the cave as her stomach voiced its displeasure with her, making Twilight grimace. She cradled her belly and shot Thorax a sheepish look. “And, uh… I know you brought me some decent meals here and there, but I also would really like to have a good meal for a change. The food here works, but it’s no hayburger.”

Thorax trotted over to sit down across the fire from her, his face falling as his mind wandered. As irrational as it was, he couldn’t shake a small sense of regret at having to delay her return to Equestria like this. And now he could see that her situation was really starting to eat away at her nerves. It was clear in her aura, how the waves and curtains of color were frayed at the edges.

But what could he do about it? Twilight was miles from home with almost no contact with the ponies she held dear, the only exception being the now dust-covered letter sent by Spike. Having that reminder of her friends’ concern laying around was no doubt adding to her stress, pressuring her to get home as fast as possible, and spare her friends the pain of worrying over her.

“Wait,” he thought to himself after a second, his eyes widening. After a second, he cleared his throat and spoke up. “So, you’re hungry, huh?”

Twilight nodded her head. “All the time. Kinda like you, I guess, but…” she sighed and let her hooves fall back to the floor. “I know how to make my hunger go away for a while. Actually doing that is what’s vexing me, though. There just isn’t enough food around here, even with the donations you bring me sometimes.”

Thorax swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, his mind drifting to the food stores he had previously stolen from. An idea began to take shape in his head, a stupid, foolish plan that would be breaking the promise he had made to himself. Twilight was hungry, yes, but she wasn’t in any danger of starving. She’d be fine as she was for now…

Fine. But not happy. Thorax’s heart plummeted when Twilight’s stomach gurgled at her again, making her groan in annoyance at the unwelcome sound. She reached out and picked up Spike’s letter again, giving it a read before setting it down and burying her face in her hooves. She was probably trying to think of some way to reply to him, to let him know she was alright.

The sad sight stirred Thorax’s heart, and every ounce of concern he held for the unicorn in front of him was now screaming that he do something to ease her discomfort and bring a smile back to her lips. It was just such a shame that the best way to do that meant going back on his word.

“...This will be the last time,” he told himself with finality, subtly nodding to himself before speaking out loud. “Well… how about I bring you a nice meal next time I come to visit?” he suggested in a friendly voice.

Twilight blinked and glanced up at him. “Huh?”

Thorax gestured out of the cave. “I brought you some decent meals for my first few visits. What if I brought you a bigger one? Ya know, something big enough to quiet down that stomach of yours for a while? Could maybe make a nice big salad, or a soup, or maybe even something like those ‘hayburger’ things you mentioned.”

Twilight studied him for a moment. Thorax maintained his smile, though inwardly he was starting to shrivel up into an anxious ball of concern. Could she tell that something about this plan was upsetting him?

If she did, she elected not to comment on it. She smiled. “Well… if it isn’t too much trouble for you. I know how hard it can be to find food out here, even when you know where and when to look,” she eventually agreed. “I don’t want you to work yourself ragged on my account.”

Thorax shook his head. “Oh, don’t worry,” he said with fake confidence. “It’s no problem at all. It’ll be the biggest meal I’ve ever brought you! Enough for leftovers!”

“Assuming I don’t eat the leftovers while you’re gone again,” Twilight chuckled.

Thorax snorted at the reminder. “No, you ate the leftovers before I even left.”

“Oh, hush!” Twilight shot back before the two broke down into a fit of amused giggles, enjoying the company of the other as thunder boomed outside.

Red Hooved

It was the day after Thorax promised Twilight he would come back with a meal, and the time had come to carry through on his promise. He had not slept particularly well, anxiety at the prospect of being caught tearing away at the edges of his mind like a pack of wild animals. He did his best to hide his anxiety when he got up, and thankfully, the other drones were too busy focusing on their tasks to pay him much attention.

Once the various morning drills and exercises had been completed, Pharynx called the assembled drones to attention and began to dish out orders for the day. The clouds still hung heavy over the badlands, and so patrols were to remain increased. In a way, this was a good thing for Thorax. It meant that the vast majority of the drones that would be lounging in the Hive on a normal day would be preoccupied scouting out the wasteland.

“Alright, you’re all dismissed!” Pharynx’s voice barked through the warrior’s nest, snapping Thorax out of his thoughts. The towering chamber erupting into motion as the assembled drones flew up into the air to go about their duty, filling the air with the near-deafening buzz of their wings.

Thorax flew up and away from the others, passing out of the warrior’s nest and into the rest of the Hive. His direction was unlikely to draw anything more than a passing glance. The Badlands was a big place, and seeing as the Hive could shift and change to allow any drone to fly in a straight line without any obstructions from one end to the other, he was free to leave in any direction he saw fit to get outside.

Of course, this time, he was not heading outside just yet. He had a stop to make, first.

Thorax passed through a few more walls before coming to a landing in an empty tunnel that connected the nursery hive to the largest chamber of the Hive: The Queen’s Spire, where the Queen herself and all of her most trusted drones and advisors made their home. Thorax would need to get below that to reach the storage chambers and the food he planned to bring to Twilight.

“Okay, Thorax, you can do this. You’ve done it before,” he mumbled to himself before turning and looking down at the floor. A tunnel emerged from the stone, sloping down at a sharp angle. Thorax took a deep breath before hopping in and closing his entrance behind him. The world was plunged into darkness, but the glow of his eyes lit the way well enough.

The corridor was cramped, barely allowing him to walk upright. This was by design, of course. He didn’t want to make his tunnel too large and draw attention. The smaller it was, the less noise it would make, and the harder it would be to notice or accidentally spill into the tunnel formed by another drone.

This was always the easy part. Without being able to see him directly, most drones he would pass would be inclined to dismiss the sound of grinding stone as just some drone going about their business, not one of their own slinking his way to steal from them.

The hard part would be once he reached the bottom level. The deepest bowels of the Hive did not shift for just any changeling. Only the Queen and those with the proper permissions could effectively shape the stone down there, meaning that once he reached that level, Thorax would have to sneak through the old fashioned way.

He had done it before, of course. He was small, scrawny, and knew how to be quiet. Better still, he could just turn into a fly or a spider or something. Of course, then the danger of being seen and stepped on came up. He couldn’t help but shudder at the prospect of being squished in such a small form before snapping back to his true self. It would be agonizing for him and more than a little alarming and confusing for the poor drone who decided to go on pest control.

But so far, nothing like that had transpired, meaning he had no reason to think this time would be any different.

Eventually, his senses of the stone ahead of him began to grow hazy and muddled, a surefire indication that he was approaching the lower levels. He gulped heavily and came to a stop, keeping himself isolated in a small chamber that could barely fit his size. He scanned around, slowly spreading out his room to look for another one to step into. The process was slow, and as confined as he was, all he could hear was his own breathing and the subtle scrape of stone against stone.

Finally, a small stream of emerald light filtered into the chamber as his hole opened up into what appeared to be a standard tunnel. He immediately stopped expanding his chamber and perked his ears up, listening intently. He could hear the sound of hooves somewhere nearby.

Thorax held his breath, waiting until the hoof steps faded into silence. He stayed still for several seconds to ensure the patrol was not coming back before slipping into the tunnel, closing his chamber up behind him. With a flicker of green flames, he transformed into a black-colored moth, about three inches from one wingtip to the other.

Satisfied, Thorax fluttered up to the roof, blending into the shadows, and began to slowly work his way through the tunnels for the storage chambers. This one area of the Hive was typically left unchanged, and even when it did shift, there was always at least one path leading where he needed to go. Emergency supplies were stored there, and sometimes the Hive couldn’t afford to wait for a drone with the proper credentials to come and open a path.

Thorax heard hoofsteps again. If he had vocal cords, he might have sworn under his breath. Instead, he simply alighted upon a spike jutting down from the roof and held still. A patrol of three drones entered the corridor a moment later, chattering quietly amongst themselves. A minute later, the patrol passed, and Thorax continued on his way, his tiny insect heart hammering just a little harder than it had been before.

After a few more minutes of searching, he finally found his entrance. The tunnel he had been navigating opened up into a larger one heading both left and right. To the left, the tunnel curved up for the rest of the Hive, while to the right, Thorax could see the healthy green glow of the illumination pods that were kept in the storage room. Two changeling drones were stationed outside the cave, their eyes glaring forward. They were wearing the dark blue armor of the Queen’s Stingers, the most elite warriors in the Hive.

“They increased the defenses down here,” Thorax thought to himself. For a moment, he entertained the notion of abandoning his little heist. This was getting dangerous, a lot more than it had been before. If he was caught now, he was a dead drone, and he was of no help to Twilight if that happened.

But then he thought of the sound her growling stomach made, and his own twisted in sympathy. He could already see her disappointed face on learning that he hadn’t been able to bring her the meal he had promised, hear the resignation in her voice as she tried to assure him that it was fine.

He heard her stomach rumbling in his head again, like an earthquake bringing the whole world down on his head. He shook himself and pressed on. Twilight was his only friend, and he had made her a promise. He was not going to back down now. If it meant making one of the most important creatures in his life happy for a change, then he was willing to run the risk.

He moved slowly along the roof, shrinking his size down to be less conspicuous. The Stingers swept their eyes about from time to time, but much to Thorax’s relief, they never bothered to look up. He passed them by and slipped into the storage room without incident, his fake eyes looking around.

The storage chamber he had entered was only one of many, but it was no less impressive. A bundle of spikey, green resin hung from the ceiling like a chandelier, emitting emerald light that illuminated the whole room. It was circular in shape, with shelves etched into the walls in irregular patterns. Each one was stuffed and loaded with a wide range of supplies, from medicinal herbs to materials used to support an unstable tunnel, to magically conductive stones.

Thorax slowly fluttered up to the roof of the chamber to get a bird’s-eye view, assuring he was alone. Once he was satisfied that he was the room’s sole occupant, he snapped back into his true form in a rush of flame. “Okay, I gotta move fast.”

Moving swiftly, Thorax descended down to the food shelves, his eyes passing over all of them intently. His resin saddlebags felt oddly heavy on his sides as he scanned the shelves. No doubt he was anticipating the load he was about to walk out of here with.

“Okay, okay… Twilight’s an herbivore, and I know that she likes these,” he thought to himself as he plucked a few bundles of greens off of one shelf and stuffing them into his bags. “But she’s had these already. I’m gonna need more…”

He picked his way through, pausing every so often to listen for any sign that he was being followed. Every time, he was met with silence, and he renewed his search with vigor. He acquired a bundle of fruits, a small satchel of nuts, and finally, a few herbs that he knew could be ground up into a fine powder to act as a sort of spice. He dared not take anything else, though. For every item he nicked, his own feelings of guilt grew more intense.

“Okay… okay, that should be everything,” he whispered to himself. All he had to do now was get out of here and get outside before anyone-

“Is that so?”

Thorax froze as he came face to face with another drone, a male.

“W-wha… I…”

The drone’s lips curled up into a monstrous grin, and his forked tongue slithered out to lick at his lips. “Oh-ho, I see… so you’re the thief, huh? Makes sense. Can’t get any food normally, so you resort to stealing.”

“N-no, please, you have it all wrong,” Thorax stammered out, backing away until his rear-end pressed into the shelves he had just been stealing from. Where had this drone even come from?! Thorax had been alone in here! “I’m not s-stealing anything, I swear! I was told to come get these!”

“By who?”

Thorax opened his mouth to throw out a name, any name, but the words caught in his throat. He mouthed uselessly like a fish for several seconds.

The other drone scowled. “Thought not,” he snarled. He lunged forward, letting out a loud hiss that the guards outside no doubt heard.

Thorax cried out as the drone’s hooves plowed into his chest, forcing him to stand up on his hind legs with his back pinned to the wall. A moment later, the air was driven from his lungs when the drone lifted up and drove both of his hind legs into Thorax’s belly. He let out a breathless wheeze before toppling forward and crashing to the ground. Stars exploded across his vision as white-hot pain filled his skull. He tried to stand, but it was hard to get his hooves under him with the world spinning like this.

A hoof kicked him into the side, rolling him over onto his back before his hooves were pinned to the ground. His eyes refocused long enough to see the drone glaring back down at him. “You’re coming with me, whelp,” he growled in disgust, causing Thorax to whimper and cower into the floor. “The queen would like a few words with you…”

Thorax’s eyes flew as wide as saucers, his heart pounding with such force he feared it might burst out of his chest and run off without him. “N-no, please, wait!” he cried desperately, his eyes searching for a way out.

A glob of resin splattered across his muzzle, silencing his cries. His eyes stared pleadingly into those of his captor, silently pleading with him to reconsider.

The drone turned his eyes back down to Thorax’s prone body before leaning down. Thorax shuddered in revulsion and panic when he felt the unmistakable numbing sensation of changeling mucus pouring over his body. He thrashed and squirmed, trying in vain to get free, but his efforts were to no avail. In a matter of seconds, his entire body, save for his face, was ensnared in a tight, paralyzing cocoon.

“Ha. Too easy,” the drone chuckled to himself before turning and heading for the exit, dragging Thorax along the ground.

The whole way, Thorax was powerless to do anything but scream at cry through his gag, tears streaming down his cheeks as he was dragged mercilessly into the darkness.

The Queen's Justice

Thorax struggled with all of his might as he was pulled along the ground. He tried to twist and turn, to thrash and bite. He even tried to change form into something else just so he could fight back and run. Unfortunately, the queen had dealt with enough defectors in her time to have established counters to anything he could conceivably try. All he could do was scream into his gag, powerless to stop the imminent arrival of his fate.

It was made so much worse by the hostile glares of the drones they passed through the tunnels. His captor was making no effort to be discreet or fast. No, he was savoring Thorax’s agony. He was practically taking the longest, most scenic route he could manage through the hive as if to parade his catch to all of his peers. The drone who caught the thief, and who could it have been but the pathetic, lowly runt of the hive?

It was humiliating. All of those glowing eyes, glaring at him from the darkness. The directionless insults that had long been snipped back out of fear of reprisal from Pharynx were now unleashed like a hoard of feral dogs that tore into his heart and his mind. Never before had Thorax felt so small and weak, despite those two words defining his entire existence.

At long last, though, his torture was brought to a merciful end. The wall before his captor opened up to reveal a colossal chamber. A chandelier made of green resin hung from the ceiling, providing eerie illumination that made the whole room feel sick and putrid. Small tunnels and holes lined the walls in unsettling patterns that sent his instincts crawling in fear. In the center of the room, a jagged throne made of shadowy stone rose up like an imperial pillar, flaring out with spikes and ridges as if to reach out and eclipse the world in its grasp.

There were only a few drones in the chamber, all of them looking on as Thorax was unceremoniously hauled inside with a wide range of expressions. Only one of them appeared to be surprised…

Thorax’s heart fell into the pits of his stomach at the sight of his big brother’s horrified gaze boring back into him. Pharynx took a step back and blinked as if to dispel some sort of visual hallucination. Thorax would have looked away, but he could not turn his head in this darned cocoon. So he settled for closing his eyes and quieting his screams.

A moment later, he was thrown at the base of the throne. He grunted through his gag on impact, keeping his eyes tightly shut. His captor stepped up beside him. “Your majesty!” he called up to the seemingly empty throne. “I have found the thief that’s been stealing our supplies!”

Several seconds passed before a single sound broke the silence. A disappointed sigh from Pharynx. “...Oh, Thorax…”

“Oh Thorax, indeed,” a new, feminine voice echoed, each word dripping with a mixture of cold hatred and sadistic amusement. Thorax’s eyes snapped open out of primal fear, a cold sweat already blanketing his body. He tried to shift himself around to look up, but all he could see was the floor. He could see the other drones bowing just out of the corners of his eyes. His heart all but stopped in his chest.

Chrysalis was here.

“He was picking through our herbs and harvested plant-matter, my queen,” the drone explained, not coming up from his bow. “Enough for a very hearty meal, I’d wager.”

“Is that so?” Chrysalis’ voice cooed from above. Thorax stiffened when he caught sight of the tips of her hooves touching down in his field of view. She slowly began to walk around him. Every step she made echoed deafeningly in his ears, like a clock ticking down to his demise. “I must admit, I am impressed, Thorax. You must be resourceful indeed to steal from your own kind for as long as you have before getting caught…”

Thorax whimpered into his gag, trying in vain to shake his head and speak.

“Your increased security measures have proven most effective, Pharynx,” Chrysalis went on with a notably smug tone. “Well done.”

There was a moment of hesitation before Pharynx replied. “...I was merely doing my duty, your highness.”

Chrysalis hummed in response. The room fell silent. She paced around Thorax for a full rotation before coming to a stop directly in front of him. “Well, then… I suppose I have to hear what you have to say for yourself, don’t I?” she asked in an almost impatient manner. A flicker of magic slapped across Thorax’s face like a static shock, tearing away his gag. “Well, then, out with it. Give me one good reason why I should let you leave this throne room alive.”

Thorax opened his mouth, but no words came out. He was guilty as charged, after all. What could he possibly say that could save his life right now? He was not likely to succeed if he tried lying to her, as she had heard them all a thousand times before. Sob stories, elaborate lies, attempted framings, and redirections. She was a master at the game of deception, and he was barely even an ant on the side of the board.

Inconsequential. Pathetic. Worthless.

“Nothing?” Chrysalis asked after a moment, starting to pace the other way. “Not even an effort to beg? Not a word at all?”

“Thorax,” Pharynx’s voice called out tentatively. “Just talk. You can’t make this any worse…”

The room practically darkened as Chrysalis turned on the head of patrol. “I am sorry, but did I give you permission to interject, Pharynx?!” she demanded.

The discolored drone immediately clammed up and backed away a few steps.

Chrysalis pressed on. “As true as it is that your own efforts were what caught us this whelp, it cannot be ignored that your only brother, one you are notorious for defending in spite of his uselessness, is the culprit behind the thefts. Are you going to leap to his defense again?”

Thorax’s eyes widened, his pulse quickening. He struggled against his cocoon for a second before finally finding his voice. “H-he had nothing to do with it!” he called out in desperation. “It was only me! I didn’t have any help, and I never told anyone! I was operating alone!”

“Ah, and the grub finds his voice,” Chrysalis remarked with faux excitement. She strolled lazily back to his side, always just out of sight from his downturned eyes. “Well, then, Thorax, since you’ve now confessed to the crime, would you perhaps enlighten us as to your motive?”

Thorax licked his lips, his mind wandering to Twilight. If he told Chrysalis the truth about why he had been stealing, if he revealed her, then… she was probably going to die. Or worse, be turned into food for the hive. But the revelation of an interloper so nearby would probably do wonders to grant him at least some leniency…

...But she was his friend. His only friend. He couldn’t turn his back on her and sell her out to save his own skin. Not like this…

“Tick tock, Thorax,” Chrysalis purred, her voice right in his ear. A shiver ran down his spine as a lock of her long, ragged teal mane fell into view in front of his eyes. “If you don’t speak soon, I might run out of patience…”

“I…” he choked out, his fear of death struggling with his desire to protect his friend. His eyes darted this way and that, desperate for something, anything that might help him. Finally, he managed to screw his eyes shut and start talking. “I… I w-was hungry, your majesty,” he whimpered pathetically.

“We are always hungry, Thorax,” Chrysalis sneered. “What you meant to say, is that you were greedy.”

“N-no!” Thorax protested, trying to look up at her. “No, please, listen! I… I’m the runt of the hive… I’m always last to get fed. I’m never given room to myself, I’m never given any kindness or recognition. I’m… I’m weak. I’m pathetic, and everyone shoves me down without a care in the world… I’m lucky to get any scraps whenever the time comes to eat, and with how short the hive’s been on love recently…”

He shuddered as he pushed the half-lie past his lips. “...I was starving. Every day it got worse and worse… I couldn’t be of any use to the hive if I starved, but I’m not strong enough to earn any respect… no respect, no food… I just… I h-had no choice… I had to feed myself somehow… I swore I would stop stealing as soon as I had the strength to earn my keep… to pull my own weight…”

Several seconds passed in silence. He heard Chrysalis let off an unimpressed scoff. “Is that your story? Really? Honestly, Thorax, I was hoping for something far more engaging,” she drawled out before turning and leaping back to her throne, out of his line of sight. “I had hoped for some soul-stirring tale of another drone dumb enough to take pity on you, and your misguided attempts to foster a bond over stolen assets. I could have even done with a spiteful tirade about your hatred for me and all I stand for, an open act of rebellion to warrant the complete collapse of your skull. But all I get is this… you’re starving, and you got desperate. How absolutely pathetic…”

Thorax screwed his eyes shut and gave off a humiliated whimper.

“I do not know what else I was expecting,” Chrysalia sighed. “But alas, it is too late for you to change your tale. Your confession is made, and now it is time for you to face the consequences.”

The sound of Chrysalis’ horn lighting up with distorted magic filled the throne room. Thorax sucked in a deep breath, bracing himself for the end. “I’m sorry, Twilight,” he thought, struggling to contain his whimpers. “I am so, so sorry…”

He heard the spell go off, and he flinched in anticipation of incineration. However, to his surprise, the cocoon he was trapped inside of was peeled away with a bone-chilling squelch. He fell to the ground, dripping with foul-smelling green slime. His eyes snapped open in shock, and he looked up to see his queen chucking the already disintegrating prison aside.

“Y-your majesty?” he croaked.

“I did not give you permission to look at me,” Chrysalis snapped, her horn flaring up. Thorax felt it on the back of his head, forcing it down into the cold stone floor with shocking force. Stars exploded across his vision, a dazed grunt slipping past his lungs. “You have stolen from the hive, Thorax. Your crimes would, under any other circumstance, be punishable by death. However…”

Thorax heard her landing on the ground in front of him, stepping forward slowly. “To do so for as long as you did without getting caught is, as I said before, quite impressive. And indeed, the results of your labors speak for themselves…”

Thorax shuddered when he felt her hoof on his back, lightly tracing his frame with a feather-light touch that promised agony if he dared to resist.

“You have become rather plump, haven’t you?” she went on in an almost affectionate coo, drawing another terrified whimper out of him. “You’ve stuffed yourself to the brim… And your time in the wasteland alone, where you gorged yourself, I do not doubt, has certainly improved your physique. You’re stronger than you were…”

“I…”

“Shh,” Chrysalis shushed him, placing a hoof tip on his lips without letting his head rise. “No talking. Only listening.”

Thorax held perfectly still, save for a near-petrified nod of his head.

“I commend you on your skill. It isn’t any drone who is capable of such an elaborate scheme for so long. I will have use of such abilities in the future, and so your life shall be spared,” Chrysalis went on. Her magic then snaked to completely encase Thorax’s throat, hauling him up to hover before his queen in the air. His eyes were forced shut by her magic without his consent, drawing a choked gasp out of him.

“But you still stole from the hive. To steal from one is to steal from all, and your actions shall be punished…”

And then came the pain. Thorax opened his mouth to scream, but through the vice-grip Chrysalis had on his throat, nothing escaped save for a choked squeak. He kicked, and he thrashed, trying in vain to lift his hooves up to his chest and stop what Chrysalis was doing to him.

She was draining the love out of his body, forcefully tearing it right out of his stomach, his muscles, his very soul. The air was filled with a horrifying crunching sound as his body began to shrivel and compress, and the starvation he had thought to have gone since he met Twilight returned a hundred times worse than before.

Finally, the pull ended, and he was dropped to the floor in a gasping, crying heap. He curled up into a ball, clutching his hooves up to his belly in an instinctual effort to protect his innards. He heard Chrysalis give off a content hum before she spoke again. “Do you feel that pain? Don’t worry, it’s only going to get worse from here. That, Thorax, is the pain you would condemn your fellow drones to if you continued stealing from them. The pain of starvation,” she spelled out slowly, making sure each word resonated with the quivering drone. “Maybe now that you know that pain, you will think twice before bringing it upon the rest of my subjects.”

“Y-yes, my queen…” he stuttered out in response.

“Good boy. Now… from this moment forth, you are not to leave the hive under any circumstances without my explicit authorization, nor are you to go anywhere unattended. You shall always be accompanied by at least one other drone at all times, until such a time as I see fit to release you from your penance. Finally, your standard allowance of rations is to be suspended for the next week and halved after that until further notice. You will know the pain of starvation, Thorax, but you will not succumb to it. That is the extent of my mercy.”

Thorax, still shivering and gasping in pain at how empty he suddenly felt, was only able to offer a stiff nod. “Y-yes, my queen…”

Chrysalis stared down at him for a moment before snorting and turning away. “Pharynx, do be a good brother and take this slime out of my throne room. He is under your watch until further notice. Is that clear?”

“As you command,” Pharynx replied quietly. He stepped over to Thorax and helped him to his hooves. “Come on, you idiot. We’re going.”

As his elder brood mate guided him for the exit, Thorax managed to look up to him with tears in his eyes. “I… I’m sorry,” he croaked out, barely any strength in his voice.

“Shut it,” Pharynx shot back. “You brought this on yourself…”

Thorax looked down, closing his eyes in shame and regret. The wall sealed up shut behind them with a sickening crack. And with that, he knew he wasn’t going to be seeing Twilight again…

Author's Note

Hello, bugs! It's BAAAACK!

All Alone

Twilight stared out into the desolate wastes of the badlands from the safety of her cave. Her eyes swept across the barren crags and jagged trenches, hoping to catch sight of her one friend in this miserable place. He was due for his next visit, and she was eager to see what he brought with him this time. He had promised a hearty meal to lift her spirits, and she was more than enthusiastic about taking him up on that offer.

The sun inched farther and farther across the sky.

Twilight slinked back into her cave to fill her flask with water from one of her makeshift pots before returning to the cave mouth and looking outside again. What would he bring her, she wondered. Most of the food he had brought consisted of varying types of moss, desert flowers, and the rare, alien fruit that made her almost sad to consume them. She often wanted to keep them around so she could dissect them and study them, but due to a lack of tools, writing equipment, and her general hunger, she had regularly decided against it.

She took a sip from her flask. Maybe he’d bring more of those fruits, this time. Maybe a whole bundle? Or perhaps he’d bring something to make sandwiches with? She didn’t know if changelings had bread. It didn’t seem likely, given the lack of resources to make the foodstuff in this area. Maybe they had some sort of equivalent?

Well, they probably did, it was just highly probable that she couldn’t digest it. They were creatures that fed on emotions first and foremost, and as a supplement, they were omnivorous from all she had heard. In a hostile land like this, with such little plant matter, that meant they likely leaned more towards the carnivorous side.

Yeah, she could do without the sandwich, now that she thought about it.

The sun continued to travel across the sky. A dry wind washed through the badlands, sending thin waves of dust and sand drifting through the air. Twilight flinched back into her cave and took a sip from her flask. Any minute, now, Thorax would turn up. Any minute…

Minutes ticked by. Soon, those minutes began to bleed into hours. Twilight watched the skies intently the entire time, with nothing else to fill her time but wait for her friend. There was probably something else she could be doing right now, but really, all of her immediate needs were taken care of already. And so she waited.

And waited.

...And waited.

The sky began to turn orange as the sun dipped for the horizon.

Twilight felt an uneasy shudder run down the length of her spine. She took a comforting swig from her flask before narrowing her eyes into the distance. “Come on, Thorax… where are you?” she wondered to herself.

The sun vanished below the horizon, plunging the world into darkness. The intense warmth of the desert swiftly gave way to a biting chill that made Twilight shiver and withdraw deeper into the cave. She ambled up to her campfire and, with a quick flick of her magic, set it ablaze. She sat down on her bedroll, her eyes staring into the flickering flames while her mind wandered.

“He must have just been held up,” she eventually told herself. It was the only thing that made sense. Something had probably come up in the Hive, and Thorax had been called in to help deal with it. Even with his reputation as the runt, Pharynx was as keen on putting him to work. He was probably just busy.

“Well, I can wait,” Twilight decided with a cheerful smile. “I’ve waited on him for a few days at a time before. I can’t let the promise of food get me too excited.”

She held that thought close for a while, staring into the fire before it was eventually time to turn in for some much-needed sleep.

The next day proved to be much the same. Twilight did a few rudimentary chores early in the morning. She boiled some more water on the makeshift stove Thorax had made for her, and she began to make tally marks in the wall. It was hard to recall the exact number of days she had been trapped out here, but keeping track from now on would do her some good.

She was eventually pulled away from the menial tasks by the hungry growls of her stomach, and she was soon at the mouth of her cave yet again, keeping an eye out for her chitinous friend. But much like yesterday, there was no sign of the changeling. It was harder to keep track of how much time passed this time, as a thick layer of rapidly darkening clouds had rolled in from the distance to blanket the world.

She kept waiting, trying to ignore the pearl of worry that was starting to manifest in the base of her chest. He was fine. She’d gone for longer than this without him before. This was normal. Everything was fine. She just needed to be patient...

When the world began to turn dark with the arrival of night, Twilight’s hooves began to anxiously fidget with each other. Worrying thoughts nipped at the edges of her mind like mosquitos, and she shook her head to dispel them every few minutes. It was fine.

The days dragged on and on. With each one that came, Twilight went through a routine she had grown accustomed to and then parked herself by the cave entrance to wait for Thorax. She tried to move as little as possible to conserve her energy. But even with her efforts, the ache of hunger crept up on her more and more with each passing day.

And with each passing day, her concerns became more and more intense. She couldn’t help but pace and mutter to herself, trying to figure out what might have gone wrong to delay him so much. She tried so hard to distract herself from her worries that she began rehearsing how she would ask him certain questions about the Hive.

It was getting on towards sunset, and Twilight’s hooves clopping and scraping against the dry stone floor of the cave was the only sound in her ears. Her mind was alight with a million thoughts, though, like the theatre in Canterlot, when the audience was chattering amongst themselves before the performance began.

A sound suddenly reached her ears, piercing the repetitive silence that had marked her days for so long now. Twilight stood bolt upright, her ears at attention as she listened for the sound to come again. A few seconds later, she heard it. Something was brushing through the dirt and sand outside the cave. Someone was coming.

Grinning, Twilight turned and scampered for the mouth of the cave. It was Thorax! He’d finally showed up! “See?” Twilight told herself as she went to round the corner. “Everything was fine! I’m sure he has a perfectly good explanation for why he-”

A high-pitched yap jarred her from her train of thoughts. Twilight slid to a screeching halt as her eyes fell on the dust-colored canine in the entrance to her cave. It quickly backed away from her, its hackles rising while its lips peeled back into a warning scowl. It growled at her, long and low.

Twilight blinked, taking a step back herself. The creature resembled a coyote, or perhaps a hyena if a bit smaller and lankier. It looked like it was built to easily slip through cracks in the broken, scarred landscape of the badlands. It came up to around her shoulders, she wagered, if it were to stand tall instead of crouched low like that.

It snarled at her again and advanced on seeing her reflexive backstep. Realizing it had perceived weakness, Twilight quickly planted her hooves and puffed up her chest, making herself as big as possible. Whatever this little thing was, she did not have the energy or resources to deal with it right now. “Best to just scare it off.”

The canine slowed its advance, but it did not retreat. It held its ground, snarling and snapping in her direction. Twilight met its gaze with her own; being sure to not flinch, and stand her ground. Her heart beat just a little harder in her chest as it took another threatening step forward.

“Alright, enough of this,” she decided. Her horn lit up as she channeled magic into her throat, specifically her vocal cords. She inhaled deeply, and then let out a loud shout, as guttural and angry as she could make it.

The sound was amplified many times over, echoing long and loud in the wastes beyond the cave. The canine’s ears folded back, and its tail tucked down between its legs. It let out a submissive whimper before turning tail and sprinting the other way, soon vanishing into the trenches at the base of the hill.

Twilight stared after the animal for several seconds. She took a deep breath before collapsing to her haunches, a long, relieved sigh slipping past her lungs. She lifted a trembling hoof to her chest, feeling her heart thumping wildly against her ribs. “I may have faced some pretty scary things, but wild animals are still near the top of the list.”

After a few seconds, she slumped sideways against the wall of the cave and stared out into the distance. The hope she had felt a moment ago was gone, replaced with confusion and, more than that, loneliness. “...Where are you, Thorax?” she wondered, her ears drooping. “Did something happen? Are you alright?”

The howling of the wind was her only answer.

That night, her hunger became too much. Twilight was forced to depart her cave for the first time in quite a while. She knew better where to look for food this time, but that didn’t make the experience any less unsettling. The distant calls of midnight creatures sent chills down her spine, and after her encounter with the canine earlier, she was even jumpier than normal.

Her path took her through the trenches, over a series of broken crags, and eventually into a small outcropping tucked away behind a collection of large boulders. She was greeted to the site of a few scattered flowers, and a dense patch of moss covering the ground. Her mouth watered. She wasted no time in collecting as much as she could, stuffing the food into her saddlebags.

Emboldened by her discovery, she ventured farther into the desert, hoping to find more food. The moon illuminated her way, albeit not as well as she might have liked. It was waning by this point, allowing only a small amount of light to filter down onto the badlands. Her horn did the rest of the work as she created a small point of purple light on its very tip.

She found a few more patches of vegetation before, finally, something new caught her attention. As she came to the top of a broken series of sharp-edged stones, she caught sight of a distant spire silhouetted against the sky. Her eyes locked onto it, and her heart sped up a little faster in her chest. It was a towering structure that spread out the farther it got to the ground. It was jagged in appearance, with off-shooting spikes and branches pointing up at the heavens, giving the whole structure an ancient, serrated appearance.

“Is that… the Hive?” she thought quietly. She had never seen the structure before, but she had heard Thorax talk about it plenty by now. It sure looked like what he had described — minus the ever-shifting part, but she’d have to get inside for that. She licked her lips and took a few cautious steps forward.

Maybe she could figure out what happened to Thorax on her own? Or leave him some clue that she was missing him? She knew she wouldn’t be welcome in the structure, and the closer she got, the greater the risk. She could leave a sign in the desert, though. He went on patrols often enough that he’d probably notice if she left something for him. Something that he might recognize…

Before she could give it much thought, though, she took a few steps forward. All at once, she felt an inexplicable tugging on her horn, and the light on the tip winked out of existence. Twilight gasped and staggered back, watching with wide eyes as the energy that had made up her light spell was sucked right off her horn. The wisps of light flew off into the distance toward the Hive, soon fading into the night.

“...What?” she asked herself. Confused, she lifted a small pebble in her magic and tried to float it toward the Hive. After a few seconds, her magic was suddenly disrupted, and the pebble fell to the ground with a quiet thump.

She spent several minutes experimenting with the seemingly invisible barrier, her expression growing more and more panicked with each attempt. It was as if something was eating her magic the moment it left her body past a certain point! She couldn’t use any magic at all if she got too close to the Hive. She lifted her eyes to the distant structure, her ears drooping.

“...I can’t go there,” she finally deduced. With her magic, she might have had a chance. Without it, though, she was absolutely helpless beyond this point. If she pressed on, she would fail, and all of this would be pointless.

Taking a deep breath to calm her rapidly fraying nerves, Twilight turned and slowly began to drag herself back for her cave. She paused just before the Hive vanished from view and looked back toward it. “...Please be okay, Thorax,” she whispered. “Please…”

With that, she slid back into the broken crags of the badlands, heading back for her safe haven, with her own loneliness serving as her only companion.

Looming Storm

“Thorax!” Twilight practically squealed in delight from her place by the mouth of her cave. Thorax smiled at her, touching down a few feet away from her. She was looking surprisingly healthy, all things considered, and the cheerful smile on her face lit a comforting fire in his heart.

“Twilight!” he greeted in response, his own lips pulled back into an enormous grin. He cantered forward to meet her, the two wrapping each other up in a warm, friendly embrace.

The two stayed like that for a few seconds. Twilight pulled back, smiling at him and looking into his eyes. “I was so worried about you! What took you so long?” she asked, looking him over for any signs of damage.

“I’m sorry for the delay,” he said, his smile fading. “Some… bad things happened at the Hive. I had to get through all of that first.”

Twilight’s own smile fell away, and he could taste the cold, bitter flavor of sorrow on the tip of his tongue. Thorax winced guiltily as a few waves of dark blue drifted off of the unicorn in his hooves. A pony as friendly and nice as her should never have a reason to be sad, especially not because of someone as pathetic as him.

“Are you alright?” she eventually asked, placing a hoof on his chest.

Thorax nodded. “I think so, yeah. I’m tired, stiff, and sore, but… but I’m okay,” he said. He looked her over, noticing that his earlier observation wasn’t quite as accurate as he had thought. She had lost a few pounds by the looks of things. In fact… were those her ribs he was seeing in her coat?

Suddenly feeling anxious, Thorax swallowed the lump in his throat. “W-what about you? How have you been holding up?”

Twilight looked down, her stomach audibly gurgling. “I’m… surviving,” she said quietly, her ears drooping. “It’s hard, Thorax. I don’t know how you do it…”

Thorax put on a reassuring smile. “Honestly? Neither do I. But hey, if you’re surviving, then that’s a good thing, right?”

Twilight gave off a quiet hum before standing up and making her way back inside. Thorax followed after her. His eyes were once more drawn to her barrel. The way the light struck her fur from this angle made her skinniness look even worse as if the shadows cast by her ribs were growing darker and more profound.

“So…” Twilight said once they got to the back of the cave, her horn flickering weakly into life. The firepit sparked, a small flame coming into existence. She turned to face him, the flickering firelight illuminating her dull, tired eyes. “I… I hate to ask, but… did you bring the dinner you promised?”

Thorax looked down and sighed. “I… I’m sorry, but no. I couldn’t. The situation at the Hive… it’s complicated.”

Twilight hummed. She slowly sat down in front of the fire. Thorax frowned, noticing how her forelegs seemed to tremble under her weight. “I understand…” she mumbled, closing her eyes. Her stomach gurgled again, louder this time. “I don’t know how you do it, Thorax… I really, really don’t.”

Thorax wilted. She sounded so sad… and so tired. Her voice was low and quiet, each word dragging on far more than he was used to. How much had she been eating? She looked so skinny, almost emaciated.

“H-hey… I’m sure it’ll be okay,” he said with forced optimism. “I can try and pick up some food for you next time I come to visit, o-or I can go get some right now if you’d like. It won’t be a big fancy meal, but, uh…”

Twilight looked down to the point her eyes were hidden by her dirty mane. She gave off a weak, dry sigh. “...I just don’t know how you do it,” she rasped before a hoof flew up to her mouth. Thorax gasped as a series of horrid, dry coughs ravaged her system.

“Twilight?” he asked, his heart starting to hammer against his chest. He stepped closer and placed his hoof on her back.

Bone.

Thorax withdrew his hoof, gasping. His stomach twisted with horror when he realized he could see Twilight’s spine through her back. His breaths started to come faster, each one shaking with unease. Twilight was practically a twig, and he realized now that he hadn’t misunderstood how skinny she had gotten. Her body was slowly shriveling up with every moment that passed.

“T-Twilight?!” he repeated, reaching down and gingerly grasping one of her shoulders. He winced. She felt dry and sticky, like leather left out in the sun too long. “Twilight, what’s going on?! Are you okay?!”

“I just don’t know how to survive out here…” she whispered, looking up at him. Thorax pulled away, his stomach churning with revulsion and shock. Her eyes had gone dull, losing their color alongside the rest of her body. Her cheeks were beginning to sink into her face, allowing him to make out the contours of her skull. “Why…? Why did you take so long?”

Thorax took a step back, his heart hammering against his chest with a ferocity he had never felt before. He was starting to panic, his eyes darting this way and that as he struggled to find a solution. “I… I-I didn’t mean to, I swear!” he pleaded.

Twilight did not seem convinced. She stiffly walked toward him, all but devoid of color and muscle now. Her eyes bored into his, those hollow, empty, dead eyes. They drilled into his very soul, causing him to back away until his hind legs pressed against the cave wall. Twilight continued her slow advance. She spoke again, her voice a whispered rasp that implied she had no moisture left in her. “You abandoned me… you left me all by myself… I thought you were my friend…”

“I am!” he pleaded desperately, pressing himself back against the wall, trying to cower away from her. “Please, I’m sorry!”

Twilight craned her neck down to be in his face. Her rancid breath filled his nostrils, and he had to resist the urge to gag. It was like sniffing at a carcass that had been left in the sun for too long. Fetid and putrid and nauseating.

Twilight slowly blinked, her eyelids sticking together for a moment before coming apart with a sickening smack. “Friends don’t abandon each other…” she mumbled into his ear, filling his heart with stone and his eyes with tears.

And then she crumbled. Thorax’s watched, petrified as Twilight Sparkle turned to dust before his eyes. She dissolved, her body being whisked away by an unfelt breeze. Her remains fell to the floor, becoming indistinguishable from the sand that blanketing the cave entrance.

“T-Twilight…” Thorax choked out, his heart dropping into the bottom of his belly. He reached out, his hooves catching the last few particles of dust that had once been his only friend in the whole world. The friend he had left all on her own. The pony who had trusted him. The pony he abandoned…

“There was never any other way this could end, you know,” the voice of Pharynx said from the mouth of the cave. “If you really thought you could have ever helped her make it out of here, then you really need to open your eyes to the world and wake up.”

Thorax turned to him, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Pharynx… I… I just…”

Pharynx strode into the cave, his hooves deliberately brushing through the stray dust. “You just what? Did you want a friend? You wanted to do something nice for someone?” he guessed. He snarled and slammed his fist into the side of Thorax’s head, sending him sprawling to the floor in a heap. “Wake up, Thorax. That isn’t your lot, and you know it.”

Thorax curled into a ball, covering his head with his hooves. It was no use. He couldn’t keep it in. He began to weep hysterically into the floor, his body ravaged by violent shudders.

Pharynx scoffed over him. “This is your lot. The sniveling, crying, pathetic whelp of the Hive. The disgraceful runt who can’t stand up for himself, who stole from his kin, and who dragged me down with him. How many more times will you screw everything up before I finally run out of patience with you? How long before we all Wake Up to the worthless waste of chitin you are?!”

Thorax cried out when he felt his brother’s hoof tightly forcing itself into his back, between his shoulders. Pinned to the ground, he could do nothing but wail and scream. Pharynx leaned down until his lips were by his ear. “Wake up, Thorax. It’s time to face the truth.”

Thorax finally cracked open an eye and looked up at his brother.

“Wake up.”

“I said wake up, you moron!”

Thwack.

“Gyah!” Thorax yipped when a hard hoof slapped across the back of his head. He sat bolt upright in an instant, his eyes darting frantically around while struggling to calm down his frantic, labored gasps.

He was in one of the many sleeping chambers of the Hive. It was a long, vaguely cockroach shaped room. The lighting was minimal, provided by two small resin lamps that were stuck to the walls in the middle of the chamber. The floor was smooth, although there were the occasional grooves worn into it.

“You were having a nightmare,” Pharynx finally said, drawing Thorax’s attention. The older drone gave him a hard stare. “And you were getting loud…”

Thorax sucked down another lungful of air before looking down at the ground. “I… I’m s-sorry,” he managed to stammer out as he got his breath under control.

“Oh, for the love of…” Pharynx grumbled before smacking Thorax on the shoulder, lighter this time. “Stop apologizing for every little thing. You’re not going to earn any respect back that way.”

After a few moments, Pharynx sighed and hauled Thorax to his hooves, ignoring the younger drone’s protests. “Now come on,” he said simply. “I have work to do, and I can’t leave you alone.”

Thorax gave a shaky nod but didn’t say anything. Pharynx stared at him for several seconds, his expression contorting. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then shook his head and turned to the wall, opening a passage. The two stepped out of the empty sleeping chamber, making their way for the Warrior’s Nest.

Thorax didn’t say anything. The only sound was the grinding of stone and their hooves clopping gently against the rocky floor. Thorax allowed himself to get lost in his thoughts, the constant white noise oddly soothing. His mind went back to his dream, and he couldn’t suppress his shudder. Now more than ever, he was scared for Twilight’s well being. She was getting better at surviving, yes, but there were still so many things she had no clue how to handle, and there was only so much in the way of food where she was.

What if she got sick again? Or what if she ran into another Tatzlwurm? Or a Stonepecker? Or any of the other dangerous animals that called this sun-forsaken landscape their home? Was she mad at him for leaving her like this? Would she understand if he ever saw her again? Would she hate him for being a despicable thief? Or would it be because her so-called-friend had abandoned her when she was counting on him?

“You were mumbling to yourself in your sleep, you know,” Pharynx suddenly spoke up, startling Thorax out of his reverie.

“H-huh?”

Pharynx glanced back at him over his shoulder. “Don’t make me repeat myself. You heard,” he said impatiently before looking ahead again. He slowed his pace to something a little more leisurely and lowered his voice, despite the two being alone in their personal tunnel. “You kept apologizing for something… and you kept going on and on about twilight of all things.”

Thorax’s heart skipped a beat, his blood going cold. “Uh… I d-did?” he asked anxiously.

Pharynx came to a stop and turned to look at him. “Yeah, you did. What were you dreaming about?”

Thorax gaped at Pharynx for several moments, his brain struggling to find an appropriate answer. He could lie and say he didn’t remember, but somehow, he had a feeling Pharynx wouldn’t buy that. He’d need something a little more compelling…

“I… W-well, you see… I…” he began, trying and failing to find the words.

Before he could truly get started, however, a rumbling sound passed through the Hive. Thorax blinked, his ears perking up. “W-what was that?”

Pharynx frowned, looking up. “I’m not sure… come on,” he said, continuing down the tunnel at a brisker pace. Thorax followed along, struggling to match the soldier’s pace set by his brother.

The two emerged into the Warrior’s Nest a few minutes later to find the place was in an uproar. Drones were flying to and fro, shouting to be heard over the chest-rattling buzzing of their wings. There was a palpable tension in the air, and Thorax shrank down. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

“Pharynx, sir!” a drone called out on catching sight of the duo. He came to a landing in front of them and threw a salute.

“Report,” Pharynx ordered. “What’s going on.”

The drone’s eyes fell on Thorax. “S-sir… Protoc-”

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll be taking your horn as a toothpick,” Pharynx cut him off, his purple eyes narrowing dangerously. “Just spill it.”

The drone stiffened but did not offer any further protest. He straightened up and spoke clearly, albeit with notable unease. “A giant Tatzlwurm attacked the Praetors by the main entrance. The entrance took significant damage, and the praetors were both wounded, but they were able to chase off the beast before it could cause any more damage.”

“A Tatzlwurm?!” Thorax echoed in alarm.

“Is it raining?” Pharynx asked.

“Yes, sir, as of about thirty minutes ago. It’s a downpour. The weather scouts are expecting it to last for the whole day, if not longer.”

Pharynx scowled. “Guh. Go figure…” he growled before turning to Thorax. “Sit still and be quiet,” he commanded.

Thorax fell to his haunches and obediently clamped his jaw shut.

Satisfied, Pharynx turned back to the chamber. “Hey! Stop buzzing around and form up!” he shouted, his voice carrying effortlessly over the swarm. In a manner of seconds, the drones were all coming to a landing in front of him, forming up into even rows and standing at attention.

A few seconds passed before Pharynx nodded to himself and spoke up. “Good. Now, I have just been informed that the Hive was attacked a moment ago by a Tatzlwurm, and, that there is currently a downpour taking place outside our walls. You all know what that means. We have work to do.”

“Sir, yes sir!” the drones replied in unison.

“Seeing as we were attacked, I think it’s safe to assume the Tatzlwurm’s are getting bold. Let’s dissuade them. I want drones stationed in the air around the Hive, providing assistance and support to the Queen’s Praetors as needed. Spiracle, Trachea, each of you pick six drones and get to it.

The two named drones threw sharp salutes. “Sir, yes, sir!”

“The rest of you, this will be the same as normal. We are heading out into the wastes to locate any worms getting a little too adventurous in the storm and drive them away from our food. But if this is a downpour, the worms are going to be angrier and more dangerous than normal. I want teams of five instead of three, at a minimum.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

Pharynx nodded. “Good. Remember to come back to the Hive and swap out for a different squad at a later time. I won’t have any of my warriors dropping due to exhaustion. We’re better than that. Does everyone understand their orders?!”

Once again, the soldiers voiced their understanding, but there was one who lifted his hoof. Pharynx nodded at him. “What?”

The drone lowered his hoof to point at Thorax. “What about you and him, sir?”

Pharynx hesitated. He glanced back at Thorax, his expression conflicted. Thorax stared back at him, a lump forming in his throat. Thorax wasn’t technically supposed to leave the Hive without the queen’s permission, wasn’t he? But Pharynx was expected to lead one of the squads heading out to deal with the situation.

“Go on without me,” he wanted to say. “Find someone you trust to watch me and go. I’ll be okay.”

“Just leave him here,” Someone else’s voice called from somewhere in the crowd in unknowing agreement. “The thief’ll just cause trouble.”

Pharynx’s eyes narrowed. He turned back to the crowd and spread his wings. “No. I will take Thorax with me.”

“Sir, with all due respect,” the drone continued carefully. “He is a thief. A criminal.”

“Yes, he is,” Pharynx answered bluntly. “One who stole from the Hive for several days before making a mistake and getting caught. The queen saw fit to spare him for his skill, and so this is his chance to start making up for his crimes. He will serve as my eyes, ears, and my scout.”

Thorax’s ear twitched. Somewhere in that assembly of drones, he heard Scorpion scoff.

“Wait, are you going out there with him alone?!” another drone asked incredulously.

“Yes, I am,” Pharynx replied. “Is there a point to your question, or are you wasting everyone’s time?”

Thorax’s eyes widened. Going out into the badlands with Pharynx… just the two of them? No one else? If he weren’t still so skinny from when the queen drained him, he might have been excited by the chance.

“Sir…” the drone that had spoken up tried to speak.

“If you have any problems with how I choose to run my swarm, then please…” Pharynx began, lowering his voice to a threatening growl. “By all means. Speak up. I’m all ears…”

A chilling hush fell over the room. Thorax watched as all of the assembled warriors looked at anything other than their commanding officer. In all honestly, it was truly terrifying how much respect Pharynx commanded, even more so when he got angry. Thorax didn’t get to see it often, and this time somehow felt even more serious than every time before it…

His mind briefly wandered back to Pharynx’s expression of loyalty and care not long ago, and his heart warmed up. “He’s protecting me… from them,” he realized after a moment, and a tiny smile appeared on his face.

“No one?” Pharynx asked, feigning disappointment. “A shame… You’re all dismissed!”

There was a moment of silence before the drones began to disperse to follow their orders. Pharynx observed them for a few moments before turning back to Thorax. “Get up. We’re going.”

Thorax complied, standing up. “Pharynx… are you sure about this?” he asked quietly, leaning in so only his brother could hear him.

Pharynx nodded. “If you think I’m leaving you all alone in this hive with this sorry lot, then you really need a wake-up call,” he said coldly. “Now come on. We have work to do.”

Thorax didn’t get to reply. Pharynx snapped out his wings and took to the air, flying up and through a newly formed hole in the wall of the Warrior’s Nest. Thorax stood still for a second before shaking the surprise away and taking off after his brother.

As they went, he couldn’t help but wonder if he would get a chance to contact Twilight out there. With Pharynx breathing down his neck, he probably wouldn’t get to speak with her, but maybe he could leave her a clue…?

“I won’t abandon you,” he thought, his brow hardening as a new sense of resolve came over him. “I won’t abandon my only friend.”

Return to Patrol

Twilight winced as another flash of light arced across the heavens. A moment later, her ears were filled with the near-deafening crack of thunder over the already all-consuming white noise of the downpour that had so suddenly begun to assault the world.

There were already numerous puddles and streams running through the mushy sand, and the trenches she had used as cover from Tatzlwurms and other predators were practically flooded. If she needed to leave the sanctuary of her cave for any reason, her travel options would become severely limited.

But that wasn’t what she was worried about. Her eyes slowly lifted up to the sky as it was split by another bolt of lightning. The thunder was instant, this time, forcing her ears to fold back against her head in a futile effort to drown out the explosion of noise.

“...Thorax,” she whispered to herself. Her heart withered in her chest when she heard the distinct cry of an angered Tatzlwurm far off in the distance, barely audible over the rain. A phantom roar to tickle her ears and set her on edge.

She knew that it was part of Thorax’s job to be out in the rain. That was how they had met, after all. But Tatzlwurms were dangerous, and Thorax was not a fighter. He probably had Pharynx and a few other drones with him, but she couldn’t help but worry for her only friend in this abysmal place.

“Please, be safe,” she whispered, her words stolen by the wind. With that, she retreated back into her cave, not eager to put herself on display for any hungry predators that might come by.

The wind was brutal. Thorax squinted his eyes to protect them from both the intense gales and the flurry of massive water droplets that assaulted him like a swarm of angry bees. He had to blink rapidly just to see, and even then, it was a struggle to make out the silhouette of Pharynx ahead of him.

An intense gust of wind blasted against him. Thorax gritted his teeth and growled into the wind, pumping his gossamer wings for all they were worth. He could do this. It was just a little wind. He had flown through intense gales like this several times before.

So then why was he having such a hard time?

His stomach growled loud enough to be heard even over the din surrounding him. His eyes lowered, and his growl of effort became one of frustration. He was starving. Chrysalis had drained him of so much strength that it was difficult for him to even move through winds like this. He resisted the urge to sigh in defeat. If it wasn’t one thing humiliating him and beating him down, it was another.

“You never finished telling me about your Nightmare!” Pharynx called back to him, snapping Thorax out of his trance. He looked up to see his big brother’s glowing eye staring back at him in curiosity. “What was it about?”

Thorax grimaced, thankful that the darkness hid his features. “What does it matter?” he countered. “It was just a dream, Pharynx.”

“It matters to me, you buffoon,” Pharynx replied. He bled some speed until he was side-by-side with Thorax, glaring sideways at him. “You do realize you were screaming before I woke you up, right?”

Thorax looked away, his heart beating faster and faster in his chest. “Was… was I saying anything specific?”

Pharynx raised an eyebrow. “You kept saying ‘twilight’ and ‘I’m sorry.’ You were also crying a lot, but that’s par for the course with you,” he spelled out. “I get the ‘sorry’ part, but what was with twilight?”

Thorax racked his brain, resisting the urge to bite his lip. “I… I was…” he tried, but to his growing anxiety, nothing came to him. He just couldn’t put together a lie that he knew Pharynx would buy.

He felt a hoof on his shoulder. Thorax turned to his brother to find a softer look on his face. He almost looked worried. “Thorax, just spill it. I’m trying to help you, here.”

Thorax stared at Pharynx for a few seconds, working his jaw up and down as he fished for some kind of answer. Once again, he contemplated telling Pharynx the truth about Twilight. Maybe, just maybe, he’d understand and help him-

Another gust halted any such notions. Thorax wasn’t prepared for it this time. He let out an alarmed shout as the intense winds caught his wings, tugging him back through the air without a care for his comfort. The wind roared in his ears alongside a rumble of distant thunder, drowning out his own screams.

“Thorax!”

Thorax grunted as something tackled him from the side, pulling him up and out of his freefall. He shook his head to clear away the stars, coming face to face with the concerned expression of his brother.

“Are you alright?” Pharynx asked, having to shout to be heard over the fading rumble of thunder.

Thorax nodded. “Y-yeah, I’m okay!” he replied, though neither of them believed it.

Pharynx grimaced, taking one of Thorax’s hooves in his own with an iron grip. “Be more careful!” he commanded before turning and taking to the sky again. Thorax flared his wings to follow, only to realize that Pharynx never let go of his hoof. Thorax yelped as he was pulled after Pharynx, but was quick to compensate and keep up.

The two carried on in silence for a short time. Thorax stared into the back of Pharynx’s head all the while, just waiting for the older drone to start the conversation back up again, to poke and prod at him until he finally relented and recounted his dream. But, to his surprise, Pharynx didn’t say a word. He was completely silent, focusing forward.

Thorax shuddered, recalling when he had been confronted about the thefts by Pharynx back in the Hive. This wasn’t much different, was it? Pharynx knew that Thorax was hiding something from him, and he had already addressed the issue. But just like last time, he was deciding to let it go. He was trusting in Thorax, even after the thefts and lies.

Thorax swallowed heavily, opening his mouth to speak. The words, however, did not come. What could he say in this situation? How did he begin? Where did he start?

An angered roar pierced the air. Thorax’s spine chilled, and he involuntarily clutched closer to Pharynx. He looked down at the ground below, seeing a large Tatzlwurm burrowing up out of the soil. The sopping earth churned and cratered around it like a sinkhole, rumbling to add bass and power to the beast’s infuriated roar.

Its roar was answered by others nearby. Thorax turned in place along with Pharynx, spying no fewer than four of the blasted creatures rising up to scream their rage and indignation at the weeping sky. Pharynx grimaced at the sight, especially as the beasts began to violently push through the earth and slither along the ground. They roared and thrashed like angered snakes, tearing away stone and mud and sand, kicking up splashes of water as they went.

Thorax was unable to keep a frightened whimper from slipping out. He had seen Tatzlwurms angry before, and he had even fought one, however briefly, to save Pharynx. But he had never seen them like this before. They were going into an all-out frenzy. The mere thought of facing even one of those things right now, as weakened as he was, sent his heart pounding against his chest and his stomach twisting as a freezing pit formed in his gut.

Thunder rocked the world again, Pharynx grimaced. “This is a lot worse than I was expecting…” he muttered, barely audible.

Thorax’s eyes widened as Pharynx turned to look at him. He wasn’t used to seeing uncertainty in his brother’s eyes, but he did now. He blinked a few times, trying to see clearly through the rain. “...Pharynx?” he asked.

Another angered roar cut through the air.

Right below them.

Thorax screamed as slippery tentacles wrapped around his hind legs and dragged him down, forcing him out of Pharynx’s hooves with a sharp jerk. A putrid stench enveloped him, burning his lungs and his eyes. He coughed and gagged through the smog as well as he could through his panicked screams, pumping his wings in a desperate effort to get away.

“THORAX!” Pharynx’s shout reached his ears. Thorax looked up to see the drone barreling down towards him like a torpedo, green flames already licking around his body as he went to change shape. “Let my brother go, you monster!”

The worm roared. Thorax cried out, clutching his hooves to his ears to stop the sound. It was so loud. His head began to hurt before, all at once, all sound cut out, replaced with nothing but his own beating heart and all-consuming ringing.

The tentacles coiled tighter and tugged him down again. Thorax screamed, unable to hear his own voice. His eyes flew wide in panic, boring into Pharynx’s just as the elder drone was entirely consumed in green flames, vanishing from sight.

And then the mouth closed.

Thorax screamed again as all three jaws of the Tatzlwurm’s mouth closed around him like a flower shying away from the light of the sun. Sharp barbs dug into his chitin, sending liquid fire burning through his veins. The stench became literally suffocating, and the tight, moist grip of the Tatzlwurm’s maw constricted him on all sides. He tried so hard to fight back, to claw his way out, but his smooth hooves could find no purchase on the sleek, slimy insides of the mouth.

His heart leaped into his throat when he felt it swallow. He cried out one last time, the already-strangling force constricted around him, compressing to the point he was sure his chitin was beginning to crack. In a last-ditch effort, he opened his own mouth wide and bit down on the inner lining of the mouth, piercing the flesh with his sharp fangs. A vile, revolting flavor assaulted his mouth, making his empty stomach churn with disgust. He held firm in spite of it, panic and terror driving him to accept it in favor of being eaten alive.

He held on for dear life, even as the muscles surrounding him tightened and constricted more and more. He screwed his eyes shut and screamed through the mouthful of flesh. He was starting to slip loose. His panic redoubled, and he tried in vain to dig his teeth in even deeper. The worm began to thrash around him, and his teeth came even farther out.

“No!” he thought, his eyes bulging. “Not like this! Please! Someone, anyone! Help me! Twilight, Pharynx!”

Another roar, this one muffled, reached his ears. Thorax squinted as his retinas were abruptly assaulted by a flare of green light. His ears were filled with the spine-tingling squelch of rending flesh, and a chittering roar from an unfamiliar creature.

A second later, he felt something grabbing him. He was forcefully hauled up and away, his fangs pulled free from the flesh with a wet shlick. Still in the throes of panic, he thrashed and screamed as he was suddenly back out in the raining wastelands. He could hear the Tatzlwurm angrily roaring beneath him, spurring his wings to buzz like mad. He had to get away. He had to run. He was not going to die here!

Something held him in place. Thorax spun in place to see a gigantic praying mantis with a glowing changeling horn attached to the side of the Tatzlwurm’s head, cutting into it with reckless abandon. The beast thrashed and screamed in impotent rage, trying to bite back, but the mantis was faster and in a frenzy of its own.

Finally, with a powerful sideways slash from the mantis, the Tatzlwurm had enough. It gave off one last warbling cry before turning and burrowing into the drenched earth, vanishing in a geyser of water and mud.

The air fell still, though far from silent. Thunder blasted across the sky, the rain had only gotten harder, and more roars echoed across the badlands. The mantic turned back to Thorax before vanishing in a swirl of flames. Pharynx emerged, flying up to catch Thorax as the adrenaline began to wear off. “Thorax! Are you okay?!”

“I’m… alive,” was Thorax’s mumbled response. He hurt all over, he smelled awful, he was slick with saliva and mucus, and he was pretty sure his carapace had a few new holes from that thing’s teeth.

Better than being eaten alive, at least.

Pharynx looked Thorax over, confirming the younger drone’s suspicions. “You’re hurt… that thing did a number on you,” he mumbled, his hooves hovering uselessly over a line of three puncture marks over his belly.

“I’ll be fine,” Thorax tried to assure him, putting on a crooked smile. “I’ve had worse.”

“If this is a joke about how I’m your brother, I will turn that lie into the truth right now.”

Thorax gave off a weak chuckle. He regretted it immediately. His lungs burned, throwing him into a violent coughing fit. He could feel Pharynx’s hooves clutching tighter onto him, and both of them rising higher into the air.

When his fit died down, he looked back up to Pharynx with bleary eyes. The older drone stared back at him with a worried grimace. Now, this was more than worry. If he had the strength, Thorax’s eyes would have widened when he realized that he saw true and genuine fear on his brother’s face.

“Bringing you with me was a mistake,” Pharynx suddenly said, looking back down to the churning earth. “I can’t protect you out here. We should find somewhere safe for you to hide.”

Thorax’s eyes widened. “W-what? But, Pharynx-”

“You were just about eaten alive a moment ago, Thorax! It’s too dangerous out here, and I can’t do my job and babysit you at the same time!” Pharynx snapped, his purple eyes boring into Thorax’s. They almost seemed to glow brighter in the darkness. “We are going to find somewhere safe, I am going to hide you there, and you are not going to move from that spot until I come back for you. If you do, I will personally beat you to a pulp. Is that clear?!”

Whatever protests Thorax had were summarily put down. He clamped his muzzle shut and offered a timid nod as his only response.

Satisfied, Pharynx turned his attention to the rain-soaked wasteland and tugged Thorax along, keeping his eyes trained carefully on the ground the whole while. Thorax put more of his weight on his brother as they went, his body sagging with exhaustion. Pharynx bore it without complaint, but that didn’t stop Thorax from inwardly cursing himself for his weakness. If he just had a little more strength…

Eventually, Pharynx began to descend for the ground, towards a collection of rocks jutting up from the ground in a fashion that reminded Thorax of one of the animals Twilight had talked about. ‘Porcupines’ or ‘Hedgehogs’ or something. It was hemmed in by more rocky formations and mesas, providing ample cover that Tatzlwurms couldn’t tunnel through.

They came to a landing by the base of the formation. Pharynx turned and put his hooves on Thorax’s shoulders. “Okay, stay here. If any Tatzlwurms come by, hide in the spikes, assume a smaller form if you can, and for the love of the Hive, don’t draw any attention to yourself.”

Thorax nodded. “R-right… I will.”

Pharynx gave Thorax a smack on the shoulder. “Alright, then stay down. I’ll be back soon.”

Thorax watched his brother turn to fly off. He felt a compulsion, and before Pharynx could leave, Thorax reached out and grabbed his hoof again. “Pharynx…”

“Let me go, Thorax. I have work to do.”

Thorax hesitated, his ears drooping. Eventually, he smiled and let go. “Just… thank you, Pharynx. For looking after me… and good luck.”

Pharynx paused, looking down at the ground. A moment later, he glanced back at Thorax with an uncharacteristically warm smile. “You’re my little brother. It’s my job,” he said before kicking off and taking to the sky.

Thorax watched him go, his own lips curling up into a small smile. “Right…” he whispered before turning back to his hiding place. It was jagged and rugged, looming over him imposingly. He swallowed heavily and took a hesitant step forward, the mud squishing beneath his hooves.

He curled up at the base of the formation, taking the weight off his hooves. He let off a quiet sigh of relief and lowered his head to the ground. He allowed his eyes to drift closed, blocking out the rain so he could get some rest.

He couldn’t help but wonder how Twilight was doing in all of this. He felt the urge to go and find her, but he wasn’t in any condition to go running right now. He was hurt — not seriously, but bad enough that he needed to rest for a while. And besides, he knew Pharynx well enough to know that his threat had not been a hollow one. If Pharynx came back and Thorax was missing, he would never see the end of it.

Something crumbled nearby.

Thorax froze, his blood turning to ice in his veins. He snapped his eyes open and slowly rose to his hooves, looking out into the stones for any sign of movement. Nothing stood out to him, though.

The noise came again, closer. Something was coming. Thorax bared his teeth and spread his stance threateningly, expecting there to be some predator coming around the bend.

What he saw was even worse.

Two changeling drones rounded the nearby bend, their glowing eyes staring back at him with smug satisfaction and murderous intent. He didn’t even need them to draw closer to know who they were. “As if it could be anyone else…”

“And so the thief is left all on his own,” Mandible declared confidently, a smug smile on his face.

Scorpion’s lips peeled back into a fang-filled smirk, his eyes narrowing with sadistic hunger. “See? What did I say?” he asked before licking his lips. His next words came in a low, hungry, feral hiss.

“That brother of yours wasn’t going to be around to protect you forever...”

Author's Note

Thorax just cannot catch a break, can he?

Fit For a Thief

Thorax took a step back, fighting to repress a terrified whimper. His eyes darted around, looking for some way out, some means of escaping them. To his growing dread, there was none. He was completely cornered, his back literally up against the wall.

Not like it mattered, he remembered. Even if he was able to get away and start running, there would still be the matter of the Tatzlwurms. Besides, Scorpion and Mandible were significantly faster than him even at his best. Drained by Chrysalis and now wounded by a Tatzlwurm, there was no chance of escape, barring a miracle.

“You’ve been shown leniency for long enough…” Scorpion snarled, his expression morphing from sadistic enjoyment to murderous contempt. “Any other drone would have died a dozen times over. But you’ve scraped by at every turn because of your brother. Chrysalis won’t dispose of a liability like you…”

“And so it falls to her loyal servants to recognize that error and correct it,” Mandible added, licking his lips. “And deliver a punishment fit for the worthless thief you are.”

Thorax tried to back up again, only for his shell to meet the jagged edge of the rock formation. He risked a look back at it before lighting up his horn. Adrenaline flooded his veins, as he focused on the smallest form he could think of. A tiny desert mouse. His body was consumed in a swirl of green flames as he kicked back, trying to lose himself amid the spikes of stone.

As the flames dispersed, however, Thorax realized with a horrified squeal that he was now floating in mid-air, ensnared in an emerald glow. He twisted and turned, reaching out for the only heaven he had, forced to watch as he was tugged away from it in Scorpion’s magic. He was sharply twisted to one side, his small form flaring with pain, and came face-to-face with Scorpion.

The colossal changeling grinned down at him, his fangs catching what little light there was in a way that set Thorax’s mind into complete and total panic. “Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get to run away this time!”

The world blurred. Thorax’s stomach lurched to the side, and an odd sensation of vertigo filled him. He barely had time to realize he had been launched at the ground before something struck the side of his entire body. A sickening crack went through his small form, immediately causing it to disperse as every one of his fake bones splintered at once.

Thorax screamed as he snapped back to his true form, a new series of cracks having appeared along the side of his barrel. He rolled once before coming to a rest, face-down in the mud. An odd numbness blossomed out from his side, filling his body with cold lead. It was strange. Was his body trying to ignore the pain? Or had he simply gone into shock?

“No one is coming to save you this time,” Scorpion hissed before spitting on the back of Thorax’s head. That alone served to awaken the broken drone’s senses. With a shrill cry, he went to run, only for a hoof to drive itself into the back of his head, pinning him to the earth. “Not the queen’s misplaced mercy, not some hero, no wild animals, and certainly not your brother.”

Thorax kicked and thrashed, trying in vain to get out from under Scorpion’s hoof. His screams devolved into agonized coughs and wheezes as his face was pushed even harder into the mud, causing drenched sand and muddy water to invade his mouth and throat. His lungs burned, his eyes watered, his head screamed for mercy.

A hoof struck him in the side where his chitin had cracked. More pain, beyond description, clawed at his senses. It was hard to think through the endless assault on his senses. The mocking jeers of his murderers invaded his ears just as pain invaded his nerves, and mudwater invaded his lungs. Yet through that mindless cacophony of torture, one string of thoughts managed to be heard above all others.

Escape. Survival. He had to escape. He had to get away, or fight back, or something! He couldn’t let it end like this! How would Pharynx take it if his little brother, the only family he had ever known, was taken from him like this? How would Twilight take it if her only friend in this horrible, detestable, wretched wasteland of a landscape perished in the rain, never to see her again?

He could barely make out her voice. A phantom sensation at the very edges of his disoriented hearing. He focused on the sound, trying to make out what she was saying. His heart all but stopped when he realized that she was not speaking… she was crying. Just like when she had received that letter from her friends, only now, her tears were for Thorax…

“No!”

A surge of adrenaline pumped through Thorax’s broken body. Pushing a loud, guttural scream past his cut lips, he forced himself to rise, successfully shoving an unsuspecting Scorpion and Mandible off of him. His mind kicked into overdrive, running through the calculations in a heartbeat as his horn lit up with magic.

Scorpion cackled. “Oh? You have some bite this time?!”

Thorax turned to him with blazing eyes and bared fangs. “SHUT UP!” he bellowed before angling his horn and firing off his spell. Scorpion effortlessly leaped to one side, scoffing as the sphere of light went streaking past him and up into the sky.

“Make me!” Scorpion shot back, his own horn charging.

Before he could let loose any spells, however, the sopping scene was abruptly bathed in emerald green light coming from the heavens, followed by a muffled crack of sound. All eyes turned to look up at the sky, and for a moment, Thorax’s heart soared with nostalgia as his signal fire spell went off without a hitch. The light could be seen for miles in every direction, and as if in answer to his magic call for help, the rains seemed to weaken, if only for a second.

It was hard for Pharynx to concentrate on what he was doing. His mind felt torn, pulled in three separate directions between the roar of the rain, the cries of the Tatzlwurms, and his own raging thoughts. He couldn’t stop thinking about Thorax’s injury, and how sickly he had started looking. Really, he should have taken Thorax back to the hive for immediate medical attention.

But Pharynx was needed out here. If he brought Thorax home, he’d have to head right back out into the rain, leaving his little brother all alone with those spiteful savages in the hive. And there was not a chance in the world that Pharynx was letting that happen. Not while he had any say in the matter.

His lips peeled back into an ugly snarl as he recalled how much Thorax had been ganged up on as of late. Sure, he had brought it on himself by stealing from the hive, but that didn’t make it any easier. If anything, it made it worse. His regret over that incident was so obvious it made Pharynx almost feel sorry for him every time he looked into those soft, shining eyes.

Almost.

What did drive him to feel sorry for Thorax, though, was how small he was. He was tiny, weak, and passive. How many times had Pharynx leaped to his aid to fight off bigger, stronger changelings who took some perverse form of pleasure out of beating up on him? How many times had he been forced to sit there and let his brother embarrass both of them by crying into his shell when they were younger, in view for all to see? How many times had Thorax apologized to him for holding him back or slowing him down when all he was doing was looking out for the only part of his family Chrysalis had ever allowed him to know?!

Pharynx was unable to keep it in. He stopped in mid-air and turned back in the general direction of the hive. With a twitch in his eye, he leaned forward and loosed a long, enraged scream into the howling winds of the storm, knowing that nothing could hear it. A scream of anger, of indignation, of humiliation, and of warning. A warning to any and all who might dare to lay a hoof on his little brother.

His throat burned by the time the scream ended. The vestigial echoes rang in his ears, even as thunder boomed overhead, rattling his shell at the seams. He stayed still, taking a moment to catch his breath and stare out into the rain.

He had not expected anything to answer his scream. It had been a moment of weakness, only allowed due to his isolation and distance from his home. It was supposed to be a moment lost to the rain, never to be noticed by any. And it wasn’t.

And yet it was answered.

Pharynx’s eyes widened as a spark of green light rose up into the air, far in the distance. He squinted through the rain, trying to make it out. It looked like changeling magic, but he had never seen a spell like it before.

Suddenly, the spark rapidly expanded, blossoming out to fill the sky with dozens more of them, forcing him to squint. A few seconds later, a faint, muffled boom reached his ears. He watched in confusion as the sparks drifted back down to the ground, slowly dwindling away and fading into nothing.

“That explosion came from where I left Thorax…” he realized. A pit began to form in Pharynx’s heart. Something was wrong.

Without hesitation, he immediately doubled back for his brother, pumping everything he had into his wings, causing them to burn at the base as they sped him along.

Twilight’s eyes remained focused on the falling stars of emerald light from the mouth of her cave. She blinked several times, her jaw hanging open in shock. “That was the signal fire spell…” she realized, her heart starting to beat a little harder with excitement. There was only one creature out here who could possibly know that spell.

Her excitement gave way to dread, her ears drooping. Only one creature out here knew that spell, and there was only ever one reason he would use it.

“Thorax…” she breathed. Twilight hesitated for a moment, the echoing screams of the Tatzlwurms sending a shiver down her spine. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to deal with them again. Two had been bad enough when she had gotten here.

But if she didn’t go, there was a chance that something might happen to her friend. And that was not something she was willing to allow.

Twilight put her hoof to her chest and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. When she let it out, she opened her eyes and stared defiantly out into the rain. “Hang on, Thorax!” she declared before breaking into a mad sprint from the cave, feeling the rain on her fur for the first time since she had gotten to this wasteland. “I’m coming!”

“Did… did Thorax make an explosion like that?!” Mandible asked in surprise.

Scorpion snorted. “Looks like it. Not surprising, really…” he turned back to Thorax, his grin returning. When next he spoke, his voice was trembling with an ominous thrill. “Any animal gets dangerous when backed into a corner… isn’t that right, grub?”

“I said, SHUT UP!” Thorax shouted, lighting his horn for another shot. Sadly, he didn’t get the chance. Mandible shot in and kicked him in his broken side before he had a chance to react. White-hot pain stabbed him in the gut, stealing the air from his lungs and sending him sprawling to the ground with a breathless wheeze. Scorpion took the chance and leaped on him, pinning him down.

“Nice try,” Scorpion cackled, leaning in close, so he was right in Thorax’s face. “But do you think we’re dumb enough to let you bite us?”

Thorax snarled back up at him, throwing his inhibitions to the wind in the face of the drone he hated above all else. “You’re dumb enough to be doing this instead of your job!” he spat back, struggling against Scorpion’s grip to no avail. “Pharynx was right. You two are a disgrace to the hive!”

Mandible let out a low whistle. “Huh. I think that is the closest thing to damage he’s done since we got here.”

Scorpion growled, lifting himself back up to his full height. “Yeah… cause now he’s gone and made me mad!”

Thorax’s eyes widened when he felt the constricting force of magic wrapping around his body. He barely had time to rasp out a shout of alarm before he was hauled off the ground the then thrown back into it with significant force. A splash of mud and water was kicked up, the wind flying from his lungs all over again.

He went to stand, but the hooves came again. Scorpion laid into him, pounding his shell and pushing him into the mud. He squirmed and tried to resist, to fight back, but the blows just kept coming, each one jarring his senses more and more into confusion and delirium.

Finally, Scorpion kicked him in the side of the head one last time before backing off. Thorax’s vision swam. His head felt foggy and unfocused. He gave off a few, barely audible whimpers while trying to look around. The world was a blur. Something wet was falling all over his chitin, rinsing away the mud and warmth that clung to him.

A voice reached his ears. Mandible. “I think we’re done here…”

“Yeah…” Scorpion answered. Thorax became keenly aware of a thick haze of green light entering his vision. “Let’s put this matter to bed.”

Thorax blinked, and at last, his vision focused. Scorpion and Mandible had their heads lowered, pointing their horns at him, and charging them with magic. Thorax’s heart leaped into his throat as he realized what they were doing. Gasping, he went to stand and fly away, but it was too late.

The spells were released.

Thorax screwed his eyes shut to await the end.

“NO!”

Thorax gasped when he was suddenly yanked up into the air by yet more magic, but this time it felt different. He opened his eyes and was met with the view of a green explosion going off where he had been. Steam and heatwaves rolled up to meet him, and he knew, then and there, that the blast would have incinerated him if it had hit him.

But it hadn’t. Why? And what was he doing so high up in the air?

“Enough is enough.”

Thorax looked up. There, hovering in the air over the two drones that had tried to snatch away Thorax’s life, was Pharynx. His horn was glowing with magic, and his purple eyes were narrowed with a sort of calmness that set off every red flag in Thorax’s mind.

“Uh oh…” Mandible breathed, taking a step back.

“Pharynx…” Thorax murmured, his voice a weak and strangled whisper.

“Don’t say a word,” Pharynx cut him off in a surprisingly gentle fashion. He began to drift down to the ground, pulling Thorax carefully along with him. When he landed, Pharynx set Thorax down in the mud behind him. “Just stay put. I’ll deal with this.”

“Pharynx…” Mandible began, his ears folding back. “...Please stand aside, sir. We’re trying to get rid of a liability. It’s our duty.”

Pharynx didn’t say a word. Instead, he simply lit his horn with magic.

Mandible never stood a chance.

A small, needle-thin beam of magic shot from Pharynx’s horn, hitting Mandible in the chest. His eyes widened, and he fell to the soaking earth in a limp heap. Scorpion cried out in alarm, taking a few steps back, fear and panic overriding his contempt.

“W-wait!” he tried, his wings twitching on his back. “S-sir, I surrender! Please, show me mercy! Just… J-just let it be! W-we’ll-”

“Did you?” Pharynx cut him off, his voice low and even.

Scorpion blinked. “S-sir…?”

Pharynx took a step forward. “Did you ever once, in all of the years you’ve tortured him, shown any mercy, any at all, to my little brother?” he asked again, an edge of impatience in his voice.

Scorpion swallowed heavily. “I… I…”

Pharynx’s horn glowed. “Exactly.”

Another needle of magic. Scorpion let out a dry gasp before joining his partner in crime in the mud.

Overhead, a bolt of lightning split the sky in half, filling the heavens with a crack of thunder.

Author's Note

Pharynx one-shotted both of em.

Confession

Thorax blinked, utterly dumbstruck by what had just happened. His eyes shot between the back of Pharynx’s head and the downed drones that had only moments ago been trying to end his life. They lay perfectly still, the rain battering their unconscious forms into the soggy muck.

“He… he took them both down in one shot,” Thorax thought, swallowing heavily. At that moment, he had never felt more relieved that Pharynx was his brother. If they had turned out to be unrelated, Thorax did not want to imagine how things might have turned out for him when he was caught stealing from the Hive.

Pharynx turned back to face him. “Are you alright?” he asked as he approached. His tone was calm and quiet, not the least bit shook. It was as if he didn’t even care about the bodies behind them.

Thorax gave a shaky nod. “Uh… I th-think so,” he said. He tried to stand, only to disprove his words when firey pain exploded through the cracks in his side. He collapsed back to the mud with a cry of pain and a murky splash.

Pharynx was by him in an instant, resin flowing from his mouth to cover up the injury. Thorax held still, wincing in mild disgust as his brother patched him up. All the while, his eyes remained fixed on the crumpled forms of Scorpion and Mandible. They still hadn’t moved an inch, and in the darkness and rain, he couldn’t tell if they were breathing or not.

A cold feeling wormed through his veins at the idea. Had Pharynx… had his brother actually…?

“You can get that look off your face,” Pharynx suddenly said, tearing Thorax from his anxious ponderings. The elder drone sat up on his haunches, his work done, and stared into Thorax’s eyes. “I didn’t kill them. That spell only knocked them out. It’s not my call to make if they live or die.”

Thorax gave a sigh of relief. As much as he hated them, he didn’t want to imagine them dying.

“I will be taking them to Queen Chrysalis, though. It’s about time these morons got what was coming to them,” Pharynx went on.

Thorax wilted. “Oh… well, nevermind, then.”

Pharynx looked him over some more before grunting. “Gah… you’re really messed up. We can’t stay out here. I’m taking you back to the Hive,” he said in mild annoyance. He rose to his hooves and turned to trot for Scorpion and Mandible. “Just let me get these two bound up.”

Thorax’s eyes widened. Going back to the Hive? Now? “Oh, no, no no no… I can’t go back now!” he thought, his heart beating faster against his cracked chitin. Twilight had surely seen his signal flare, and that meant she was on her way. If he was gone by the time she turned up, she would get worried and start looking for him all over. But with all of the drones out right now, not to mention the Tatzlwurms, it would be extremely dangerous. The odds of her staying undetected were basically nonexistent.

“I have to find her,” he concluded, forcing himself to stand. He was still wobbly on his hooves, but for a mercy, Pharynx’s resin bandages did wonders to ease the pain. Good. He could find Twilight and escort her back to her cave with little to no issue. He’d have the chance to check in with her, apologize for disappearing, and make sure she knew where he was and why he couldn’t see her as often anymore.

There was a problem, though. Thorax grimaced before looking over to Pharynx. His older brood mate had just finished cocooning Scorpion and was already starting on Mandible.

“Pharynx won’t let me out of his sight. Not now,” he thought, his ears drooping. After everything that had just happened, Thorax would be lucky if Pharynx ever left his side again. There was no way he could go and find Twilight without either dragging Pharynx with him or running away. Neither option was appealing. Bringing Pharynx meant blowing Twilight’s cover, and running meant the risk of being labeled as a deserter.

Pharynx pulled his mouth away from Mandible to inspect his work. After a moment, he nodded in satisfaction before lifting both of them in his magic and turning to Thorax. “Okay, come on. We need to move.”

Thorax didn’t budge an inch, even as Pharynx drew closer. His heart was beating harder and harder in his chest, and a cold sweat was forming on his chitin to join the many drops of rain that ran down his body.

Pharynx frowned, seeing the growing anxiety on Thorax’s face. “What? Thorax, what is it? I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, you know.”

“I… I…”

Pharynx reached out and put his hoof on Thorax’s shoulder. “Come on, snap out of it. We can’t stay here, it’s not safe.”

Thorax stayed rooted to the spot, passively resisting when Pharynx tried to tug him along into the air. He screwed his eyes shut. He had no choice. With a horrible feeling of dread building in his gut, he lifted a hoof and brushed Pharynx’s aside. The confusion in his brother’s face only made it even worse.

“Thorax, what’s gotten into you? Are you sure you’re okay?”

Thorax took a deep breath, steeled himself, and spoke. “I can’t come with you,” he said softly.

Thunder punctuated the sentence, rolling over the badlands like a revelatory wave.

Pharynx stared at Thorax for a moment, his eyes narrowing in disapproval. “Thorax. I am giving you a direct order. You are coming with me back to the Hive, you are going to get patched up, and that is all there is to it-”

“I can’t!” Thorax exclaimed, loud enough for his voice to echo around them, even in the rain. “I can’t go back! Not yet! I have something I need to take care of out here, first!”

Pharynx growled impatiently. “What in the world are you blabbering on about?” he demanded, grabbing Thorax by the shoulder again. “We. Need. To. Go. You’re in no condition to be out here right now, patched up or not.”

“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” Thorax tried to assure him. He reached up to brush Pharynx’s hoof aside again, but this time the limb held firm. Thorax grunted. “But I have to do this! Please, Pharynx, just trust me!”

Pharynx’s eyes narrowed, his lips peeling back in an agitated snarl. “That is enough, Thorax!” he snapped, his grip tightening to the point of being like a vice. “I don’t know what worm you’ve got in your head that’s making you act like this, but if you don’t kick it out of there, I’ll do it for you!”

Thorax jerked himself back, trembling as he finally shouted what he’d wanted to tell his brother for so long now. “I can’t leave her out here, Pharynx!”

That got Pharynx’s attention, thankfully. He stopped tugging on Thorax and tilted his head. Thorax met his brother’s gaze, standing his ground with as much conviction and determination as he could.

Pharynx worked his jaw from side to side for a moment. “...Who?” he finally asked, his voice low and dubious.

Thorax swallowed heavily. “...Twilight. Twilight Sparkle,” he finally confessed, his ears drooping. “She’s a pony from Equestria. I met her in a cave out here the last time it rained. She’s why I wanted to go on those Lone Wolf patrols. She’s why I was stealing from the Hive. The food wasn’t for me, it was for her. She’s the one who taught me that spell you saw… But above all of that, she’s my friend.”

Pharynx inhaled sharply through his nose, his eyes widening and angling with disapproval while his wings twitched on his back. He leaned in, his lips peeling back while his voice slithered out in an infuriated hiss. “What?!”

Thorax held his ground as well as he could, though he could not stop himself from shaking. “She would have seen my signal. She’s out here right now. I have to find her and get back to her cave, or who knows what might happen to her!”

“Thorax, you… you IDIOT!” Pharynx roared, smacking Thorax across the face and sending him staggering to the side. “You absolute, braindead MORON! Do you have ANY idea what you just confessed to?!”

“Yeah, I do!” Thorax shot back, turning to meet Pharynx’s eyes again in spite of the pain in his face. “I confessed to having a friend! Someone I care about, who cares about me! A wonderful, charming, intelligent mare that inspired me to better myself! For my sake, and hers!”

“She’s an intruder, you sentimental oaf!” Pharynx shot back. “And you’ve been consorting with her?! You were stealing supplies for HER?! That’s basically treason, Thorax! If word of this ever gets back to Chrysalis, your life will be forfeit!”

“Fine! Let it be forfeit!” Thorax snapped, his eyes starting to mist over. He wiped a hoof over his face to dispel his tears before facing Pharynx again. “Maybe I’d rather that then let the only friend I have ever had be left all alone to fend for herself out here!”

Pharynx spluttered incoherently, his face twitching with a mixture of rage, confusion, and complete disbelief. “Y-you… You can’t be serious!” he finally barked, his wings buzzing angrily on his back. “You can NOT be serious! I can’t believe you’d say something like that! Why is the pony so darned important that you’d throw your life away for her?! That you’d betray the Hive?!”

Thorax bristled and jabbed a hoof at the cocoons floating behind Pharynx. “Because what is left for me back at the Hive except for changelings like them?!”

Pharynx froze, his eyes widening in surprise. He glanced back at the cocoons before releasing his hold on them, sending both falling to the mud with a wet squelch and a small splash. He stood there for several seconds, his face torn with conflict. “...I should drag you before the queen myself,” he seethed.

Thorax took a step back. “Pharynx… please… I’m begging you, just let me do this. I won’t be long, and she’s no threat to us. I swear it.”

“How can I believe that, Thorax?” Pharynx demanded, marching up to Thorax and shoving his muzzle in his little brother’s face. “You’ve lied how many times now? First, you lied about why you were going on patrols all on your own. Then you lied to me about the thefts. Then, in front of the queen herself, you lied to the entire Hive about why you were stealing! How can I trust that you aren’t lying to me again, Thorax?! How can I believe a word you’re saying now?! What assurance can you give me?!”

Thorax swallowed heavily, now keenly aware of just how sharp Pharynx’s fangs looked. He took a deep, shaky breath before giving his answer. “B-because I’m opening up to you now, aren’t I? We’re alone out here… and I trust you, Pharynx.”

Pharynx glared at him for several seconds. “Is that so…?” he asked skeptically.

Thorax nodded. “It is. How many times have you looked out for me, Pharynx? How many times have you stood up for me no matter what I did wrong? How many times have you been there to watch my back and pick me up when the others knocked me down? How many times have you tried to get me stronger so I could take care of myself? Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

Pharynx stared at him for several seconds, not looking convinced. Thorax swallowed again, finding it difficult to meet his brother’s gaze.

Finally, though, Pharynx gave off a quiet sigh. “...The funny thing? I only believe you because I know you aren’t smart enough to pull a con this elaborate,” he said with a humorless chuckle.

Thorax blinked. “Huh?”

“You’re a coward and an idiot, Thorax… and you’re sickeningly nice,” Pharynx went on, lifting his head with a strained smile on his face. “Maybe that’s what I find so endearing about you… something in me just can’t stand to watch you suffer, because I know you can’t take care of yourself out here the way you are. You’re far, far too gentle. Puts a big target on your back...”

Thorax offered a tiny smile of his own. “Eheh… thanks? I think?”

“I didn’t mean it as a compliment, but if you want to take it as one, be my guest,” Pharynx pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

Thorax managed a weak laugh at that before turning to look up at the sky. “So… does this mean you’ll let me go to her?” he asked carefully. If he left now, he could probably find her before she got too far from the cave. The longer this discussion went on, though, the harder things would become.

“...On one condition,” Pharynx finally spoke up, drawing Thorax’s attention back to him.

“What’s that?”

Pharynx turned to meet Thorax’s gaze. His eyes shone with a solemn resignation, even though his lips were curled up into an affectionate smile. “...That you take her as far away from here as you can. Get her out of the Badlands.”

Thorax blinked. “Pharynx?”

Pharynx put his hoof on Thorax’s chest. “She is an intruder, Thorax. If you care about her as much as you claim, then you know perfectly well that she isn’t safe here. If any other drones find her, she’s done for… and I know you well enough to know that losing her like that would break you, just as surely as losing you would break me.”

“It would break you…?”

“You’re my brother. You’re the only family I have ever been allowed to know. All we have is each other. Of course, it would break me if I lost you,” Pharynx replied quietly. “It would break me into a hundred pieces… The only difference there is I know you aren’t strong enough to put yourself back together. And I don’t want to see that… I don’t want to watch you grieving. So you get her out of here, and spare both of you that fate.”

Thorax just looked at him for a moment before regaining hold of his spiraling thoughts. “A-alright… w-what about you? What will you tell them back at the Hive?”

Pharynx glanced back at Scorpion and Mandible. “I’ll tell them that a ravine opened up in the sand because of a mudslide and that I was attacked by a Tatzlwurm on the way. I dropped you and lost track of you in the rain. You’ll be MIA, and that should give you a few days to get back before anyone gets suspicious.”

Thorax was dumbstruck. It was hard for him to imagine that Pharynx would go this far for him, especially given how harsh and cold he had been immediately following his punishment for stealing from the Hive. To tell such a lie, to give Thorax this chance to escort an intruder out of the badlands… just how far out was Pharynx going to stick his neck for his brother’s sake?

A whole new wave of affection and appreciation blossomed in Thorax’s heart. With a quiet laugh, he threw himself against Pharynx and gave him a tight hug, much to the older drones’ annoyance. “What the- hey! Stop that!” Pharynx protested, though his attempts to pry Thorax off were half-hearted at best.

Thorax ignored that command, burying his face into Pharynx’s shoulder. “Thank you, Pharynx… Thank you so much.”

Pharynx squirmed for a few more seconds before sighing in defeat and awkwardly patting Thorax on the back of the head. “Yeah yeah, you’re welcome. Just make sure you get back to me in one piece, you hear? I’m not letting you go just yet.”

Thorax pulled back and smiled. “I will, don’t worry.”

Pharynx’s expression flattened. “Thorax.”

Thorax chuckled. “Okay, okay. Worry an appropriate amount, then?”

Pharynx raised an eyebrow. “...Fine.”

Thorax chuckled again before releasing his hold and stepping back. “Really, big brother. I mean it… thank you.”

“You said that,” Pharynx dismissed, lifting up the cocoons in his magic. “Now get going. And be careful.”

“You, too,” Thorax called as Pharynx prepared to take off. Just before his brother could go, Thorax spoke one more time. “And Pharynx?”

“What is it now?”

Thorax’s smile softened. “...I love you.”

Pharynx blinked and glanced back at Thorax. “...Yeah, uh, okay, that’s nice?” he asked uncomfortably.

Thorax chuckled. “Heh. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Oh, I know,” Pharynx grumbled, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Believe me… I know.”

With that, Pharynx kicked off, flying into the air. The cocoons followed shortly behind him. Thorax watched them go, his smile slowly fading until, at last, both his mirth and his brother vanished entirely from view.

Thunder boomed overhead, and the distant cries of Tatzlwurms grew louder.

Thorax took a deep breath and turned in the direction of Twilight’s cave. “Okay, Thorax,” he whispered to himself as he took to the air, flying away from his brother. “You can do this. You can do this…”

Lightning split the sky, and Thorax disappeared into the darkness that followed.

Author's Note

Pharynx coming out of his shell a bit.

If all goes according to plan, we've got maybe 5 chapters left in this fic before it can be considered complete.

Lost in The Rain

Twilight stifled a startled yelp as a dense collection of mud and stone came away from the vertical slope to her right. She took several steps back, afraid a Tatzlwurm was about to pop out with the intent to down her for dinner. She waited for several seconds, holding perfectly still. She didn’t even dare to breathe, lest the quivering in her lungs drew forth some untoward beast. When she was sure she was safe, she let it out in a relieved sigh and pressed on.

It had been like this for a little while now. When she had set out from the cave, adrenaline and the hope of finding Thorax had been her motivation. However, it hadn’t taken her long to get lost. The rain was breaking down the landscape, causing the once familiar sands to slide and run almost like a collection of dark rivers. Her mane wasn’t helping matters either, sagging as it was. She was becoming genuinely tempted to surgically cut it back with her magic if it kept getting in her eyes like this.

To make matters even worse, the thick cloud cover and rapidly dwindling light made it significantly harder to see where she was going with every passing minute. As the light faded, the sounds became clearer. Twilight had been frighteningly aware of the hungry roars of enraged Tatzlwurms all around her for a while now. She had broken her spring once the fear of drawing attention had set in, causing her to slow down and move with an excessive amount of caution.

Now she was slinking quietly along the soaked base of a jagged plateau on her right. She swept her eyes back and forth across to her left, but to her growing dismay, there was nothing to be seen through the rain and darkness.

“This is hopeless,” she thought to herself, grimacing. “I can’t see anything out here. If this keeps up, I’m going to be Tatzlwurm food!”

The clouds overhead flickered and flashed with a series of lightning bolts. The air rippled with the steady rumbling that followed. Twilight folded her ears to drown out the oppressive sound and tried to focus on the terrain. “But I can’t just leave! Thorax needs my help! He used my spell! That means he’s in trouble! Oh, what if he’s hurt?! What if he’s being attacked by something and I’m stumbling around like a blind mare!”

Twilight grit her teeth and pushed on. She needed some way of relocating Thorax. Maybe, if she used her own signal fire spell, she could get him to repeat his? It was a long shot, and it ran the risk of drawing the attention of any other changelings out and about. Or worse, the worms.

“But what choice do I have?” she thought. She bit her lip and looked up into the sky, trying to blink away the water. “If I keep going like this, I’ll never find him…”

She took a deep breath and lit her horn. Her heart beat faster as she gathered energy on its tip, forming it into a dense sphere and filling it with bright sparks. “I just hope he understands what I’m doing…”

With that thought, Twilight pointed her horn to the sky and fired the flare. It rose up high, an almost blinding purple gem set into an equally blinding black canvas. It flickered and faded from view before exploding outwards. A dull pop reached her ears as the badlands around her lit up with a soft lavender glow.

“Now to wait…”

Twilight got down onto her haunches to rest her legs while she waited. She kept her eyes trained on the badlands while her ears listened for any potential threats.

When almost a full minute came and went with no response, Twilight stood back up. “W-why isn’t he responding?” she thought, her heart twisting with fear and dread. “Am I too late? Is he alright? Did he even see it?”

Twilight’s line of thought was brought to an abrupt and unceremonious halt when a patch of ground twenty feet away from her burst open, sending a geyser of mud, stone, and murky water soaring into the air. Twilight cried and leaped away, throwing her hooves over her head to protect it.

Rocks and sticky lumps of mud struck her in the back several times. She gritted her teeth and bore it, curling up into a tight ball to protect her belly. A few seconds later, the unscheduled addition to the rain came to an end. Twilight gulped and stood on quivering hooves. She didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to see what had caused that hole.

The spine-tingling growl of a hungry Tatzlwurm told her all she needed to know.

Twilight swore under her breath and broke into a mad sprint, not bothering to look. The earth shook under her hooves as the worm gave chase, its angered roar piercing the air and drowning out the roar of the rain. The noise drew a frightened scream out of Twilight. “I need cover!” she thought, her eyes darting left and right in a frantic search for shelter. If she could lose this thing in trenches like she had the first time she had encountered these things…

There was a jolt in the earth, and the shaking stopped. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. Without thinking, she allowed instinct to take over and leaped to one side. Not a moment too soon, either. The Tatzlwurm bit down on the ground where she had been less than a second ago, kicking up mud and water and jarring the earth. Twilight grimaced, her heart flipping with disgust when she felt a sharp tug on her tail before she came to a landing.

Grunting, she rolled onto her back to see the monster that wanted to devour her. It rose up above her, slowly, ominously, like a monolith rising from a lake. Even in the low light, there was a definite sheen to its purple scales and black, beady eyes. Its multi-jawed mouth curled open like a flower with a sickening squelch.

Lightning flashed, affording Twilight a view of the inside of its maw. Her eyes widened. There was a chunk of flesh missing from the inner lining of its mouth, in an alarmingly familiar place. Its eyes glared down at her, almost as if in recognition.

“This is the one…” she realized, a lump forming in her throat. “This is the one I had to hurt to get away…”

The low rumble of a roar filled her ears like shifting rubble. The worm then lunged, tentacles reaching with something more than mere hunger.

Crying out, Twilight enveloped herself in magic and vanished from in front of the Tatzlwurm in a flash of light. She reappeared behind it, briefly overcome by a wave of dizziness. She shook it off when she felt the earth shake, and her legs carried her into motion once more. She risked a glance over her shoulder and screamed again when she saw just how close it was on her tail.

It was gaining ground, and fast. She had to lose it, somehow!

“Go away!” she shouted back at it before focusing forward. Her heart all but dropped out of her chest, and her hooves dug into the mud, bringing her to a sliding stop mere inches before she would have fallen into a deep ravine in the mud. In the dark and rain, she couldn’t see how far down it went.

The Tatzlwurm hit her from behind, hard.

Twilight might have screamed out from the pain, but the air was driven from her lungs by the force of the impact. She was thrown over the ledge, her eyes widening and her hooves reaching frantically for the opposite side. She gave a dry rasp of terror as she realized she was falling too quickly. The slick wall of the ravine rose up to meet her, and she met it head-on.

Stars exploded across her vision while a thousand mallets struck her skull at the same time. Twilight fell into a daze, flailing limply through the air as she fell down along the wall of the ravine. She was in the air for a second or two before striking a small platform jutting out from the wall of the ravine. She grunted on impact and curled into a ball, her hooves wrapping around her chest.

She stayed perfectly still for several seconds, a mixture of confusion and relief washing over her. She was alive, thank Celestia. But where did the worm go? Groaning, she lifted her head to look for the creature. There was no sign of it, save for a new hole that had been burrowed into the wall of the ravine a few yards above her.

Groaning, Twilight pushed herself back to her hooves. “Ow… I gotta get out of here,” she mumbled, reaching a hoof up to rub at her sore head. Something warm dripped out of her nose, but she tried not to think about it. She had more pressing concerns than a nosebleed. The Tatzlwurm was gone for the moment, but she had a feeling it would be back. If these things were at all intelligent, then it remembered her, remembered how she had blown a part of its mouth open.

“I really hope this is just a coincidence, and it isn’t out for revenge,” she murmured before closing her eyes and focusing her magic. Her reserves were far smaller than she was used to, sadly. All this time with so little food had left her considerably weakened, both physically and magically. She had it in her for maybe one more teleport before she would be tapped, so she had to make this count.

Something shifted. Twilight’s blood ran cold, and she spun on her hooves. The wall in front of her exploded outward, and she was greeted by the opening maw of the Tatzlwurm. Its tentacles shot out at her with a moist whiplash. She opened her mouth to scream, but her voice was silenced as a tentacle coiled tightly around her throat. Another ensnared her left foreleg, while yet another coiled tightly around her barrel and squeezed.

Twilight’s mouth hung open in a silent scream as the worm slid out of the hole in the wall. The Tatzlwurm craned its head up to the sky before throwing Twilight back and forth like a ragdoll. The tentacles on her body and the rapid movement made it impossible to focus on her spell. She squirmed, she tried to fight back, but its grip was like iron, and she didn’t have the strength to resist.

Her vision was starting to blur from a lack of air. Fire and sweet numbness filled her muscles, while a soft heaviness flooded her veins. Her eyelids began to feel heavy even as her pupils twitched in erratic terror. Was this it? Was she about to die?

“This can’t be how it ends…” she thought, fighting to keep her eyes open. “What will Princess Celestia think? Or my friends?! I haven’t seen my friends again yet. Spike, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack… Thorax…”

She couldn’t fight it anymore. Her eyes drifted closed. “Thorax… I’m sorry…”

Something warm and wet closed around her, and sharp barbs began to dig into her body. She braced herself for the end.

“TWILIGHT!”

A pulse of adrenaline flowed through Twilight’s muscles. Her eyes snapped open just as a bolt of green magic darted into the partially shut mouth with her. The bolt shot past her and exploded against the stem of the tentacles at the back of the worm’s mouth. At once, the constricting force binding her came undone, and she slid out of the roaring Tatzlwurm’s mouth.

She sucked in a lungful of air, and then immediately released it in a confused, terrified scream. She was falling freely through the air, right down into the ravine. This time, there was nothing for her to land on. She was dead-center.

Instinct took over. Her horn lit up with magic, and with the last of her power, she vanished from the air with a loud pop. She came out of the teleport with speed, slamming into the mud on the other side of the ravine from where she had started. She slid and rolled for several feet before coming to a stop, gasping deeply for sweet, life-giving air.

The Tatzlwurm roared again.

Twilight lifted her head. The worm was biting at something, but she couldn’t see it from here. She squinted through the darkness, her scared brain running like a hamster on a wheel to try and piece the situation together.

The small speck flying around the worm suddenly exploded into green flames, and a massive woodpecker emerged from the embers.

“No. Not a woodpecker…” Twilight’s heart sang with joy, and a massive smile spread on her face. “That’s a stone driller!”

“Thorax!” she called out.

Thorax alighted on the worm’s back before it had the chance to spin around and face him. With one quick movement, he darted his head down and began to violently jackhammer into the scales just behind its head, filling the air with a sound to match the comparison. The Tatzlwurm shrieked and thrashed its head angrily from side to side in a vain attempt to dislodge the shapeshifted changeling.

Twilight’s eyes widened as sparks and chunks of scale began to fly away from Thorax’s efforts. The worm tried one last time to spin and snap at Thorax before it finally had enough. With a great roar mixed with an agonized squeal, it dove into the ravine. Thorax leaped from its back as it did so, spreading his new feathery wings wide to slow his descent. Twilight watched him with a gaping jaw as he arced around before coming to a landing in front of her, facing the ravine with his wings spread wide protectively.

Nothing moved. The sound of the worm’s agonized howling was soon muffled by the ravine and echoed into silence. Slowly, Thorax’s wings curled up at his sides, and he turned back to Twilight.

“...Thorax?”

The bird was enveloped in green flames. Thorax stood in the stone driller’s place when the embers parted, a relieved look on his face. “Twilight…” he replied, his lips curling up into a soft smile.

A heavy silence fell over the two. Twilight stared at him, a thousand thoughts and feelings running through her. A part of her wanted to yell at him and ask what took him so long to come to see her, while another wanted to fuss over every inch of his chitin and make sure he was alright. A primal part of her wanted to jokingly ask if he brought that dinner he had promised her.

The part of her that won out, in the end, was the one that just wanted to hug the changeling. Twilight darted forward, wrapping her forelegs tightly around Thorax and pulling him close. He yelped in surprise, and she realized with a small pang of guilt that he was covered in a few spots by resin. He was hurt.

But before she could back away, Thorax returned the hug, pulling her close and burying his face into her shoulder. “Twilight… I’m so sorry,” he whispered, shuddering from something other than the rain sapping the heat out of him. “I… I’m so, so sorry for leaving you all alone. I d-didn’t want to, b-but…”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s okay, Thorax. It’s okay. Relax,” she assured him, giving him a few pats on the back of the head. “You came when it really mattered. When I needed you the most. Thank you. You saved my life, just now. Again.”

Thorax managed a weak chuckle at that before pulling back to smile at her. “Heh. Y-yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I? How many times does that make, now?”

“More than twice,” Twilight giggled.

Thunder boomed somewhere directly over their heads. Thorax jumped in his shell, clutching closer to Twilight as if for protection. Some small part of her couldn’t help but find it amusing that Thorax was scared of a little thunder when he had just fought off a Tatzlwurm for her sake.

He swallowed heavily after a moment before standing up. “Realy, though, I am really sorry for vanishing on you,” he apologized again before holding out a hoof to help her up. “I can tell you all about it on the way.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “On… on the way?” she asked, taking his hoof and getting back to her hooves. “To where?”

Thorax nodded to his side. “Equestria. I’m taking you home.”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “Equestria?! Really? B-but, my supplies, and your work-”

“We’re never gonna get another chance like this, Twilight,” Thorax interrupted her, his expression turning firm. “Just trust me, okay? I can scavenge whatever supplies you need, but we can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

Twilight stared at him for a moment. She had been wanting to go home, yes, but she hadn’t imagined their departure would be like this. She swallowed heavily before nodding. “A-alright… uh, lead the way, I guess?”

Thorax smiled at her before turning and pointing to what she assumed was the north. “Alright. Come on, this way,” he said before setting off at a brisk canter. Twilight fell into step behind him. She cast a look back over her shoulder, her thoughts wandering to her cave.

It was strange… after all the time she had spent there, leaving now almost felt like leaving a second home. A very poor, very dusty home that gave her what was basically super dysentery, but nevertheless, a second home…

She looked back at Thorax.

No, it wasn’t the cave that had made her feel so at home… it was the friend she had made.

“Hey, Thorax?”

“Yeah?”

Twilight’s smile grew. “I… I’m really glad to see you again.”

He looked back at her, and she could have sworn she saw a faint blush on his chitinous cheeks. “Yeah… I’m glad to see you again, too. I would have come sooner like I said, but, well…” he looked forward, a grimace appearing on his face. “Some… bad things happened back at the Hive.”

“I’m listening.”

Thorax hesitated, then took a deep breath. Twilight listened with rapt attention as he told her his tale. All of it.

Soon, their voices were lost to the white noise of the rain, and their bodies disappeared into the darkness as the changeling led his only friend back towards the border that divided his home from hers.

Author's Note

And so the Bug and the Pony are reunited!

A Parting Under Sunrise

The rain persisted for what felt like an age, soaking the world and slowing Twilight and Thorax down on their journey. Thankfully, though, that was the only drawback to the downpour. The constant supply of fresh water was a practical lifesaver, and with some help from Thorax, Twilight was able to gather plenty of it into makeshift stone jugs for when the rain finally ended. Food was a bit more problematic, but Thorax was on top of things. It wasn’t much, only ever enough to keep her strength up, but Twilight wasn’t about to complain.

But in Twilight’s mind, the food and water situation was more of a footnote. Her attention was focused solely on Thorax as he regaled her with his tale of everything that had happened since the last time they met. She heard about his thefts, how he had been caught, his punishment, and the miserable days that had followed. She heard about Pharynx’s increasingly protective stance over him, and about Scorpion and Mandible, the two drones that had seen fit to disobey the queen’s will and try to end Thorax personally.

Their lives were almost certainly forfeit now. A chilling thought, no matter how much second-hoof resentment she had developed for them over their treatment of her friend.

She had been torn over Thorax’s confession of theft. She had been sure to give him a small scolding and lecture about that, but she hadn’t found it in herself to stay upset for long. It had been wrong of him, yes, but at the end of the day, it had saved her life. If only out of gratitude, she couldn’t find it in her to hold it against him. Not much, at least.

But when she heard about the horrible physical and even mental abuse he had been forced to endure as a result, any anger she felt had been washed away. It was sickening that such cruel and unusual punishment was allowed in the Hive, and that Pharynx was the only one doing anything to mitigate it! Thorax was a thief, yes, but that didn’t mean he deserved to be tortured!

Eventually, his story had concluded when he told her about how Pharynx was giving him a few days to escort her out. Twilight had been a little apprehensive when she had learned that, but Thorax didn’t seem worried about his brother at all.

“If Thorax trusts him, I guess I can too,” she had thought.

They traveled through the night, not bothering to stop for sleep. Thorax’s keen eyes picked out their paths through the mud and stone with practiced ease, and he guided her every step of the way. There were times when small mudslides or nearby Tatzlwurms had forced them to hide, but never once had they been accosted. They passed by what little remained of the wreckage from the old expedition team’s wagon and pushed on to higher ground.

The next day came, and the rain persisted relentlessly. Twilight had begun to shiver partway through, worried about hypothermia. They stuck to cover wherever possible, and stopped more than once to dry off and warm up. Thorax often assisted with this by transforming into something warm and fluffy before curling around her like a big blanket. It was helpful and gave her an excuse to hug him relentlessly. Every time she did, she made sure to pour every ounce of affection she could into it, giving the drone all the food and strength she could manage.

Before they knew it, it was night again, and they pressed on. Twilight’s muscles were aching and burning from the lack of rest, but she forced herself to continue. Their pace slowed considerably every so often so she could get her strength back, and more than once, Thorax had turned into a larger creature and allowed her to ride on his back. Empowered by her affection as he was, it was a simple matter.

At long last, the rain finally began to let up. Twilight’s heart began to warm with hope as patches of grass and flowers became more and more frequent, and the shredded, jagged wasteland of the badlands started to smooth out and relax into something far more pleasing to the eyes. She almost squealed with joy when she saw a tree on it on a distant hilltop that actually had some leaves growing on it.

She recognized this region. They were about two days of travel south of Dodge Junction, where the expedition team had first set off from. They just had to pass through a gap in the mountainous wall that separated the Badlands from the rest of Equestria, and she’d finally be back in her homeland.

As she stepped up and into the pass, Twilight looked up at them. The rain had stopped a short while ago, and the clouds were clearing out, affording her a humbling view of the towering wall. It loomed over her, its very tips shining a fiery red as the first light of the dawn began to spill across the rain-soaked world.

She remembered these. The expedition team had passed through this very same pass. She could vaguely recall Relic listing off some information about the geographical significance of these mountains, and how she had listened with rapt attention and taken notes. She had been so excited back then, ready and eager to explore uncharted territory...

Now, she was just eager to get the heck out of here and get back to her friends. She could only imagine how they had been taking her disappearance. “Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll bump into them on the way home,” she thought, smiling slightly. “That’d be a relief! I could see my friends again, and they’d get to meet Thorax, and… wait…”

Twilight slowed to a halt when she realized that Thorax was no longer with her. Worried, she spun around to look for any sign of her chitin-clad friend. She found him standing right at the edge of the pass, filling her with a mixture of relief and confusion. Why did he stop? She looked closer, staring into his eyes.

“Thorax?” she called back, walking back for him. “Why did you stop? Is something wrong?”

Thorax opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came. He looked down, his eyes shifting with indecision as if he were waging some intense inner battle. Twilight’s ears drooped, an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine with every moment that passed. She wasn’t sure what, but something was wrong.

Finally, Thorax found his voice when he gave off a quiet sigh and looked back up at her. His lips drew into a thin line before, at last, he spoke. “I… I’m sorry, Twilight. Really, I am, but… I can’t go with you any farther.”

Silence. A dry breeze washed over the two of them, causing Twilight’s mane to drift lazily through the air. She blinked at him, not sure if she really heard him right. She licked her dry lips and leaned forward a little bit as if to hear him better. “What are you talking about? Equestria’s right through this pass. We’re almost there, just a little more, and we’ll be home free.”

Thorax shook his head. “I know, Twilight, I know… and I know you’ll be safe, now, but…” he turned back and looked out into the badlands, his ears drooping. “...I can’t leave the badlands. I have to go back to the Hive.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “W-what?! But, Thorax!” She protested, reaching out and taking one of his hooves in hers. “How can you think of going back there?! After everything you told me, about all of the abuse you have to deal with, I thought for sure you would want to leave and never look back!”

Thorax didn’t speak for a second. “...I’m tempted, Twilight. Really, I am,” he said, a small tremor creeping into his two-toned voice. He turned back to her and offered a small, tentative smile. “But awful or not, it’s my home… and I promised Pharynx I’d come back to him. I’ve lied to him too much lately, I’m not about to go back on my word to him now. He… he’s the only family I have. I can’t abandon him.”

Twilight stared at him, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. She searched his eyes, looking for any sign of deception or exaggeration, or even doubt. But there was none. Thorax held firm, his decision having been made long before they reached this point. He was never going to leave the badlands with her… no matter how much she might have wanted him to, if only so she could know he wasn’t in that horrible hive, surrounded by so many abusers.

“Thorax…” she whispered, her eyes starting to mist over. “Are… are you sure?” she finally asked, slowly releasing his hoof.

Thorax nodded. “I am… I’m sorry.”

Twilight sniffled and shook her head. “N-no. It’s okay, Thorax. You don’t need to be sorry,” she told him. She reached a hoof up to her face to wipe away her tears. “I guess it was kind of silly of me to think you’d come back to Equestria with me after everything I’ve learned… I just…”

“I know…” Thorax whispered, his eyes looking at something that was floating above her that only he could see. “I see it. I don’t want to say goodbye, either… you’re the first friend I have ever had, Twilight, and… now that I know what having a friend is like, I don’t want to let that go...”

He looked down and locked gazes with her. “But I have to let you go. If keeping you in my life means putting you in danger, then what other choice do I have?”

Twilight gave him a weak, quivering smile, before leaning in and pulling him into a tight hug. He returned the embrace immediately, burying his face into her shoulder and taking a long, deep breath.

“I’m going to miss you, Thorax,” she whispered to him, squeezing him close and savoring the contact with his hard chitin. Once upon a time, the touch might have disgusted her. Now, though? She could wrap herself up in this kind of embrace all day and never grow tired of it.

She felt him nodding into her shoulder, a certain dampness soaking into her fur. “Y-yeah… I’m g-gonna miss you t-too, Twilight,” he replied, his own voice trembling worse than before. “So much…”

Slowly, but surely, the sun rose in the distance, bathing the rain-soaked world in its warm light. The red, dust-smothered light washed over the pony and the changeling as they shared one last embrace, warming their hearts and their bodies.

After a few minutes, Twilight pulled back and looked into Thorax’s eyes. “Just do me a favor, Thorax, okay?” she asked in barely a whisper.

He tilted his head at her, a curious chittering sound emanating from his throat. “Oh, uh, of course. What is it?”

Twilight’s smile grew at the adorable sound before she held her hoof over his heart. “Never forget this feeling. The feeling of caring for others…” she told him. She leaned forward and pressing her forehead against his. “No matter how awful they are to you, no matter how much they tell you you’re wrong, never, ever let go of this feeling. There is nothing greater or more powerful in this life than the magic of friendship… It makes us complete when we’re hollow, it lightens our hearts when they’re heavy, and it fills our souls with warmth when they feel cold.”

Thorax lifted his hoof to rest on hers. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “...I won’t forget. This feeling… or you. I promise,” he said. He then leaned back and stared into her eyes with growing determination and conviction. “I’ll show them. I’ll teach them everything I learned from you. I’ll prove to them that w-we have it all wrong, that we don’t have to be m-monsters, and when I do, I’m gonna come find you, and I’ll show you just how much better we can be.”

Twilight smiled at him. “I look forward to it… Make me proud, Thorax.”

Thorax grinned at her, his wings buzzing briefly on his back. A few seconds later, his grin faded, and his ears drooped. A sheepish look overcame him, and he suddenly had a hard time meeting her gaze. “Uh… b-before you go, uh… I have something for you…”

Twilight tilted her head, her smile replaced with a curious look. “What is it?”

Thorax took a deep breath and pressed his other hoof against hers, pinning it to his heart. “See, all this time that I’ve known you, I’ve eaten up all of the love and affection you’ve had for me at every turn. And… since it was meant for me, Thorax, not some disguise I was wearing... it’s been the most filling meal I have ever had,” he said, closing his eyes. “And it feels incredible. I can’t even describe it… It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world, and…”

He opened his eyes and stared into hers. “And I want to share that feeling with you. It’s the least I can do to thank you for being my friend.”

Twilight blinked. “Oh, uh… okay. But… how? I’m not a changeling. I can’t eat emotional energy like you can.”

“No,” Thorax said, lowering his voice to a low, gentle whisper. He held her hoof tighter to his heart and closed his eyes again. His horn began to glow with emerald light. “But I can give it to you all the same…”

And then his heart began to glow. Twilight’s eyes widened as several, faint wisps of pink light began to emerge from Thorax’s chest and flow into her hoof. A warm feeling, unlike anything she had ever felt before, began to spread through her being like ink in a glass of water. It was slow but invigorating, soothing her muscles and easing her mind.

“Is this what it feels like?” she wondered, her jaw falling open. “Is this a changeling’s love?”

It felt like an eternity that the two sat there together, with Thorax granting Twilight what he could spare of the affection he had for her. The two glowed, shining like a brilliant pink diamond at the border between Equestria and the Badlands. Two creatures that were never supposed to meet, now in perfect harmony with one another.

Eventually, the moment had to end. The light slowly began to dwindle and fade, before winking out entirely. The wisps of pink light retracted completely into Thorax’s chest, but the warmth in Twilight’s veins persisted. Thorax opened his eyes and released Twilight’s hoof, allowing her to pull it back and look at it.

“Wow… that felt… just…” Twilight breathed, finding it difficult to find the words.

“That’s the gift you’ve given to me,” Thorax said simply, pawing sheepishly at the ground. “I hope it wasn’t too much… I’ve never done that before. We’re all taught to never give up our love to other creatures like that. It’s kinda risky if we overdo it even among other changelings.”

Twilight shook her head. “No! No, it wasn’t too much. It was… it was…” she smiled and held the hoof Thorax had held over her own heart, her eyes starting to shimmer with tears again. “It was wonderful, Thorax. I’ll never forget this feeling… ever…”

She met his gaze, her smile widening. “Thank you. For everything.”

Thorax shook his head. “No… thank you. For being my friend.”

Twilight held out her hoof one more time. “Heh. You’re welcome, Thorax. It was my pleasure.”

Thorax lifted his hoof to hers, grasping it firmly and giving it a slow, friendly shake. Twilight stared at him for a short time, taking the moment to memorize his face. If this was to be the last time she saw him, she was going to make sure she didn’t forget anything about it.

“Well… I guess this is it, then,” Twilight said, her voice heavy with resignation when the shake finally came to an end.

“Yeah. You need to get back to your friends, and I need to get back to the Hive,” Thorax agreed, turning back to look out at the desert. “...And to my brother.”

“Tell him I said thank you.”

“I will,” Thorax nodded. For a moment, he appeared satisfied. Then he tensed up and turned back to her as if he had forgotten something important. “And one more thing…”

“Don’t worry,” Twilight cut him off with a shake of her head. “I won’t tell anypony about the changelings. Your civilization’s secrecy is safe with me.”

Thorax relaxed, giving off a sigh of relief. “Oh, good… thank you, Twilight.”

“Don’t mention it…” she replied before taking a step back.

The two shared a moment of quiet. Thorax cleared his throat and nodded past her. “Get going…” he urged her softly.

Twilight hesitated, her hooves locking into place. She really didn’t want to leave him like this, but she knew it was time. Her friends were waiting for her. “It’s time for me to go home.”

She gave Thorax one last smile and nod. “Alright… goodbye, Thorax.”

Thorax smiled softly. “Until we meet again…”

And with that, Thorax leaped into the air, his wings buzzing into motion and carrying him back towards the Hive. She watched him go, never once taking her eyes off him. She watched him get smaller and smaller until he was barely a speck in the distance. And then, finally, he faded entirely from view.

Twilight stood there for a moment, another dry breeze washing over her. She held a hoof up to her heart, feeling it beating gently against her ribs.

“...Until we meet again,” she whispered quietly.

With that, she turned around and left the Badlands behind her.

Homecoming

Twilight took a swig of water from one of her stone bottles, quenching her thirst as well as she was able. She may have been out of the badlands now, but the environment was still hot and dry, threatening her with dehydration if she didn’t drink regularly. The hot summer sun bearing down on her didn’t help matters, sapping her already waning strength and matting down her fur with a thick layer of sweat to replace the rainwater.

It had been about a day since she and Thorax had parted ways. Despite stopping for a rest after the sun had set, her muscles burned with exhaustion, threatening to give out on her at any time. She dragged her hooves through the dry, yellow grass, struggling to lift her eyes from the ground. She managed to look up every so often to look at the sun and make sure she was going in the right direction. Straight north.

While the serrated nature of the badlands had been a nightmare to navigate, at least there had been clearly distinguishable landmarks there. In this savannah south of Dodge Junction, it was basically just grass and the occasional acacia tree. Not that she was complaining about that, though. It meant she finally had a bountiful supply of food to keep her strength up.

But with no landmarks, her only guide was the sun. But if she veered too far off track, it was quite likely she’d march right past Dodge Junction without even seeing it. She gave off a quiet snort at the idea. “Oh, that’d just be wonderful,” she thought to herself. “I came all this way, and I overshoot my target. Rainbow and Spike would never let me live that down…”

She crested a hill and came to a stop to catch her breath. There was a lone acacia tree jutting up from it, providing her a degree of shelter from the harsh glare of the sun. She took another swig of water, downing that particular bottle and casting it aside. She gave off a weary sigh and stared ahead at the grasslands before her. Just grass and trees as far as the eye could see…

“It’ll probably be another day before I spot anything familiar,” she thought with a disgruntled snort. “If I start listing off to one side when traveling, I need to make sure it’s to the west. That way, I can stumble on the railroad and follow it east to the Junction. Then I can hitch a ride home, and this will be all over…”

As she sat there, contemplating her plan of action and going over just what she would tell her friends when she met back up with them, something on the horizon caught her eye. Curious, Twilight leaned forward and squinted. Something was moving through the sky. It was fast, incredibly so, and it looked oddly familiar. She just couldn’t put her hoof on what it was…

Until it darted hard to the left, leaving a rainbow-colored trail in its wake.

Her eyes flew wide open, a gasp tearing past her lips. “Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed, forcing herself to her hooves. She stumbled forward, but her exhausted legs saw fit to give out, sending her falling back to the ground in a heap. She grunted and swore under her breath while looking up at the distant prisms again. “I need to let her know I’m here!”

Groaning with effort, twilight called upon the last dregs of her magic. Her horn lit up with an arcane glow, a small sphere gathering on the tip. Then, with a cry, she fired the bolt off into the sky. It went up and up, a tiny red spark against the blue heavens, then faded entirely from view. A few seconds later, her flare exploded out with a muffled pop.

Almost immediately, the distant rainbow blur stopped moving. There was a beat of nothing before it appeared again. It only took Twilight a moment to realize it was heading her way incredibly quickly. Her heart sang with joy, and she forced herself up to her haunches. Her lips split open into an eager grin, and she waved her forelegs frantically in the air. “Ahaha! Rainbow Dash! HEY!” she called out, throwing her voice as far as possible.

The pegasus drew closer, pivoting for her directly. Twilight’s grin widened as details began to come into focus. Feathery wings, piercing, dark pink eyes, cyan fur, and a distractingly colorful mane and tail.

“Twilight!” Rainbow shouted, her voice echoing into her ears even from this far away.

Twilight blinked. Rainbow wasn’t slowing down.

“Oh, no-”

Rainbow slammed into Twilight with enough force to knock the air from the unicorn’s lungs. She gasped as she was thrown onto her back, the colorful pegasus clinging onto her so tight she couldn’t breathe.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you’re alright!” Rainbow stammered out in relief. She pulled back and glared angrily at Twilight. “What the hay, Twilight?! We were all worried sick about you! Why didn’t you write back?!”

Twilight sucked in a few lungfuls of air before smiling at Rainbow. “Heh. Good to see you, too…” she said weakly.

Rainbow’s anger quickly melted away, replaced entirely with relief. She managed a weak smile before hauling Twilight to her hooves. “Sorry. That wasn’t cool of me…”

“It’s okay,” Twilight dismissed the apology, leaning against Rainbow’s side to keep herself standing. “It’s kind of a long story… where are the others?”

As if on cue, the voice of a certain dragon pierced through the air. “Twilight!”

Twilight looked up, and there was Spike, running ahead of the others. They were all there. Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, each and every one of them smiling with relief at seeing their friend safe and sound.

Spike ran into Twilight’s waiting hooves, knocking her back to her haunches as he buried his face into her chest fur. “Oh my gosh, Twilight! I was so worried about you!” he babbled, starting to cry tears of joy into her coat. “W-we heard you were dead, and I s-sent you that letter, and y-you never wrote back, a-and, a-and…’

“I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized, wrapping him up in an affectionate hug. “I’m so sorry I scared you, Spike. I didn’t mean to, I swear…”

“Oh my goodness, you’re so skinny!” Fluttershy exclaimed, her eyes affixed to Twilight’s visible ribs as everypony else huddled around her and Spike in a large group hug. “Have you been eating at all?!”

“Where I can,” Twilight replied weakly. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat, silenced by a very large and unattractive yawn.

Applejack chuckled. “Heh. Looks like y’all could use some sleep there, sugarcube,” she said, patting Twilight on the back.

‘And a bath,” Rarity added. “All of that dirt and sand. And…” she leaned in closer, balking at the remnants of Twilight’s injuries. “Is that dried blood?!”

“Girls, really, I’m okay,” Twilight tried to assure them. “I’m just tired… and I really wanna go home.”

Pinkie hummed happily, nuzzling into Twilight’s mane. “I’ll make you a super-duper extra-special ‘welcome home’ cake when we get back!” she promised. “And then, when you’re up to it, an even more super-duper extra-special welcome home party to celebrate!”

Twilight laughed, hauling herself back to a standing position with Rainbow’s help. With the last of her magic, she deposited Spike on her back. “That sounds good, Pinkie Pie… but right now, let’s go home.”

There were no disagreements to be had with that plan, and without missing a beat, they set off for the north, heading for Dodge Junction. As they went, Twilight was assaulted on all sides by questions. Rainbow wanted to know how she had gotten hurt and survived, no doubt hoping for some awesome story about an epic battle with a horrific monster, while Fluttershy was more concerned about looking after her health, though she did ask about the local wildlife from time to time as well.

Twilight told them what she could. But she never once mentioned Thorax. She made sure to keep her promise to him and kept his existence, and the existence of his people, a complete and total secret from her friends. It didn’t feel right to lie to them about it, especially to Applejack, but she wasn’t going to go back on her word to Thorax’s last request from her.

Every time she had to omit him, however, the same thought crossed her mind…

“I hope he’ll be okay...”

The stone wall in front of Thorax split open with a spine-tingling scrape, revealing the throne room of Queen Chrysalis on the other side. Elite changeling guards lined the walls, staring down at him with raised eyebrows and disdain. He did his best not to react to them, however. He held his head high and focused on the scene in front of him.

Two green cocoons rested at the base of Chrysalis’ throne, where Pharynx and an elite guard stood over them with scorn and resentment. Chrysalis reclined in her throne, looking down on them with boredom and disgust. She glanced past them at Thorax as he entered, and her lips peeled back into a fang-filled grin. “Oh? Thorax, you have returned,” she called out to him.

All eyes that hadn’t noticed him up until now focused on him. Pharynx locked gazes with him, and the relief in the elder drone’s purple eyes was clearly visible to Thorax, even if invisible to all others. Thorax flashed him a small smile before stepping forward and dipping into a low, low bow. “Yes, your highness. I came back as quickly as I could once my injuries were healed enough for me to move.”

The royal guards in the room glanced amongst themselves with surprise but did not speak.

Chrysalis’ grin grew. “Is that so? Yet again, Thorax, I am impressed by you. Not for your cunning this time, but by your raw resilience. To survive the wounds these two disgraces inflicted upon you, as well as the fury of the Tatzlwurms among such an intense rainstorm?” she said, rising from her throne and jumping down.

Her hooves slammed into the stone between the squirming cocoons, eliciting terrified squeaks from their occupants. She strode towards Thorax, an almost mothering look on her face. “As infuriating as your passivity is, you are clearly far more capable than we have all been giving you credit for… you are clearly cut from a different cloth than the rest of my drones.”

Thorax kept his head down. “T-thank you, my queen,” he said nervously, remembering the last time she had drawn so close to him.

She chuckled quietly under her breath and placed her hoof on the back of his head. “You truly are a fascinating one, aren’t you? I have clearly been far too harsh on you thus far,” she said, spinning on her hooves. “I cannot, however, say the same of these two.”

Thorax’s cringed, a chill running down his spine at the venom in his queen’s words. He heard Scorpion and Mandible’s desperate cries, muffled by the resin covering their mouths, as Chrysalis drew near. “These two grubs took it upon themselves to defy my will, to try and execute you when I had already passed my judgment. Their actions can only be described as treason, and there can be no place for traitors in my hive!”

The thrum of her magic filled the air. Thorax screwed his eyes shut, shuddering fearfully as Scorpion and mandible screamed in agony through their gags. He could hear their cocoons peeling away, and he could sense the love being forcefully torn out of their bodies. His heart twisted in his chest as the familiar crunch of contracting chitin filled his ears.

Finally, it ended, and two whimpering bodies were dropped back to the floor with hollow thumps. Chrysalis turned back to Thorax, holding her head high. “Rise, Thorax.”

He did as instructed without hesitation, standing up before his queen and staring directly ahead. She marched up to stand over him, looking down with a stern frown. “You were wronged by these two, and I aim to ensure it never happens again. They tried to kill you when I spared you. But it must never be forgotten why they tried to end you. You stole from the Hive, Thorax, and that crime is unacceptable. I trust you understand this?”

Thorax nodded. “Yes, my queen. I understand…”

Chrysalis hummed before her horn lit up. “Very well. Never forget it,” she commanded before pink light flowed from her horn and into his chest. Thorax’s eyes widened as he felt an influx of love, stolen from Scorpion and Mandible, pouring into his being. Within moments, he was fully restored to where he had been before he had been caught stealing. Chrysalis cut the flow and stepped back.

“As recompense for their attempt on your life, I have restored your former strength. However, all of your other punishments shall remain in effect until I declare otherwise. Your rations are to remain halved, and you are still not to leave the Hive alone. Do I make myself clear?”

He bowed his head without hesitation. “Yes, my queen, perfectly.”

“Good,” Chrysalis purred. She turned back to Scorpion and Mandible, her horn glowing once more. “Now, to dispose of these scoundrels…”

Thorax’s heart skipped a beat in his chest. He lifted his head, taking a step forward before he could stop himself. “W-wait!” he called out, unable to prevent it.

The entire room fell silent, all eyes staring at him in disbelief. Pharynx’s wings wavered on his back, his eyes darting between Chrysalis and Thorax in disbelief and rapidly mounting dread.

Slowly, Chrysalis turned back to Thorax, an impatient glare on her face. “...Wait?” she echoed quietly. “Is there something else you wish to say, Thorax?”

Thorax swallowed heavily, nodding towards Mandible and Scorpion. “I… If I may, your highness, I… I humbly request you to s-spare them, too,” he managed to stammer out, lowering his head respectfully.

“And why would I do that?” Chrysalis asked. “Why would you even want that? They tried to kill you, defying my judgment in the process. They committed treason. They are to be eliminated.”

“I know, but… if they die, then they can never make up for their mistakes,” Thorax tried, scuffing his hoof along the ground. “And… for as stupid and arrogant as they are… they are good at their jobs. Besides…”

He risked a look up into Chrysalis’ eyes, though he made sure he was submissive. “...You spared me, didn’t you?”

Chrysalis eyed him critically for several moments before turning back to Scorpion and Mandible. “Very well… but if they step out of line one more time, their lives will be forfeit. I will hear no objections.”

Thorax bowed again. “Of course not. Thank you, your majesty.”

She hummed before turning back to Pharynx. “You are no longer needed, Pharynx. Take your brother for a medical examination. I will not have such a promising drone go without proper care.”

Pharynx threw a sharp salute. “At once, your highness!” he replied before turning and marching over for his brother.

Chrysalis glanced at Thorax over her shoulder. “Get well soon, Thorax… I have a feeling I will have need of your skills in the days to come.”

Thorax nodded and bowed one last time before allowing himself to be escorted out of the throne room by Pharynx.

The moment the wall closed behind them, Pharynx clipped him behind the ear. “You moron!” he snarled.

“Ow!” Thorax protested, rubbing at his head. “What was that for?!”

“For darn near squandering any goodwill you had garnered with the queen!” Pharynx shot back. He sighed and shook his head. “Ugh. Asking for those two nimrods to be spared… you really are too gentle for your own good, aren’t you?”

Thorax smiled at him. “Would you rather it be any other way?”

Pharynx did not answer. He simply grabbed Thorax by the hoof and tugged him along for the healing chambers. Thorax followed along without protest, managing a tiny laugh.

It wasn’t until they were halfway there, alone in an empty corridor, that Pahrynx stopped and turned back to him. “So… she’s gone?” he asked in a low whisper.

Thorax hesitated, his ears drooping at the reminder of Twilight. “Yeah… yeah, she’s gone.”

“Good,” Pharynx replied, allowing Thorax a brief glimpse of a small smile. “That's one less thing to put you in danger.”

Thorax rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I love you, too.”

“Keep talking, tough guy,” Pharynx snarked, yanking him along again. “See how long my patience lasts.”

Once again, Thorax laughed.

A few seconds later, Pharynx looked around to ensure they were alone. And then he laughed too.

Author's Note

Fun fact: This whole chapter was actually improvised, and not part of my original outline. As it is, the chapter where Twilight gets chased by the worm and then got rescued by Thorax was originally supposed to be two, but it kinda got mushed together into one. Figured I'd slip this in here to wrap up the character arcs for the main cast before we get to the finale.

Fun Fact 2: The part where Chrysalis gave some of the love she drained from Scorpion and Mandible was actually inspired by this comment:

So, thanks to that commenter for giving me the idea.

The Bug in The Cave...

Thorax had tried to make it work. He had tried so, so hard to make things work out. He had tried, in his own way, to show them that they had it all wrong. He had tried to show by example rather than speech, as he knew his words would never reach them. He had labored for months on end to carry out his promise to Twilight, to be better than his peers, and show all of them that there was a better way. That they didn’t need to live their lives as solitary monsters that preyed upon the innocent.

But it never amounted to much. His ‘example’ was discarded as an oddity. His passive behavior was, as it ever was, ignored as nothing more than a persistent annoyance. What respect he managed to earn in the weeks and months that followed Twilight’s departure was far from enough to sway any drones to his way of thought.

But then the wedding happened.

He had been forced to participate in an atrocity the likes of which he had never seen. He had hated every moment of it, from start to end, but he had forced himself to endure it… Until he saw Twilight in the chaos. She had been at the heart of the invasion, fighting back against the swarm with all of her might, defending her friends and being defended by them in turn, in stark contrast to the swarm tactics of the changelings.

In the end, the invasion had failed, and every changeling in the city was blasted miles away in a wave of blinding light. It was an abject failure, and Queen Chrysalis’ impotent rage had been tangible in the quivering walls of the Hive for weeks afterward.

For most drones, it was a humiliating defeat. They were known to the world now as a dangerous threat to be stamped out on contact. Their entire way of life had been jeopardized by one failed assault.

For Thorax, it was the last straw…

The towering spire of stone that was the Hive loomed high above Thorax, darkened into a silhouette against the night sky, and threatening to tear a jagged tear into the heavens with its sharp tip. He looked up at it from his place at its base, feeling so small and inconsequential when compared to the monolithic structure of stone and resign.

It was his home. It always had been. It was where he had been born, where he had grown up, where he had lived ever since he hatched. Almost every single struggle and accomplishment in his life so far had come and gone within this place…

And he could no longer say he felt anything for this place but pure, abject hatred. Hatred of what it represented, and perhaps a little fear of what it could come to be. The seat of power for a power-hungry queen dead-set on spreading her influence and controlling everything she could.

He couldn’t be part of it anymore. He wouldn’t.

He took a deep breath and turned to go, his eyes set on the south. He had to get to Equestria. If he could get there, then...

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Thorax froze in place, his blood turning to ice in his veins on hearing that voice. His ears fell flat against his head. He slowly turned in place, his eyes reluctantly flicking to look at the new arrival.

Two purple eyes glowed at him from the shadows beneath an overhang of jagged stone. They narrowed with scrutiny before their owner stepped forward, and Pharynx came into view. Thorax shied away from his brother’s intense glare, his heart hammering against his chest in terror.

“I… I, uh…” he stammered, taking a few steps back. He couldn’t find the words. They all kept dying in his throat. He should have known that Pharynx would find him. Thorax was an excellent infiltrator, that much had been proven numerous times already. But to think he could ever hide what he was doing from Pharynx… It was beyond stupid of him.

Pharynx lifted his head up, staring down his nose at his little brother. “...Speak up, Thorax. I can’t hear you,” he ordered in a cold, stern growl.

Thorax screwed his eyes shut and shuddered. No use in lying, he decided. With a deep, shuddering breath, he opened his eyes and met Pharynx’s gaze. “I… I’m l-leaving, Pharynx,” he said simply.

Pharynx stared at him long and hard, his brow furrowing. “Is that right?” he asked slowly, closing the distance between them with measured steps.

Thorax stepped back and offered a reluctant nod of his head. “Y-yeah, it is.”

“Why?”

Thorax paused. “...Huh?”

Pharynx gestured at him, his expression impossible to read. “Why? Why are you leaving? I suspect you have a reason.”

Thorax stared at him, wide-eyed and baffled. He had been expecting Pharynx to tear into him the moment he said those words, to violently chastise him and drag him, kicking and screaming, back into the Hive to make sure he didn’t go anywhere.

Pharynx raised an eyebrow. “...Well? I’m waiting. Spit it out, already.”

Thorax jumped in his shell and shook himself. “S-sorry, sorry!” he babbled before finding his words. “I just… I can’t stay here. After what Chrysalis did, after all of the innocent creatures she made us hurt at that wedding in Canterlot… I can’t be a part of this anymore.”

Pharynx hummed quietly, glancing up at the Hive again. “...You do realize why she had us launch that invasion, don’t you?”

“Of course I know,” Thorax replied, his ears drooping. “But that doesn’t mean I think she was right!”

Pharynx gave off a heavy sigh and turned to face Thorax directly. “Are you even listening to yourself? This is what we are, Thorax. It’s what we’ve always been. You may not like it, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is how we have to do things in order to survive.”

“I don’t believe that,” Thorax shot back, shaking his head. “Not for one minute.”

“That so?” Pharynx challenged, stalking forward, starting to hunch like a predator about to pounce. “Then please, oh enlightened one. Explain to me how else we could be doing things.”

Thorax took another step back. His heart slipped up into his throat when he felt his hind legs pressing up against a stone wall. He swallowed heavily, fear clawing at his throat with every step his brother took. “...W-well, we… we don’t have to steal love, you know,” he offered weakly. “Remember Twilight? She offered her love to me freely when she and I became friends. And I’d never felt so full before.”

“Of course I remember her,” Pharynx remarked, halting his advance. “How could I forget? Ever since she left, you’ve been acting even more passive and gentle than usual. You even risked your life for that intruder.”

“Right, but you let me,” Thorax countered. “I cared about her, and she cared about me. Me. Thorax. Thorax the changeling. Not some face I was wearing, not some fake skin I put on to deceive her. She was my friend, Pharynx, and there was no feeling better than the love she gave me of her own free will.”

“So a gentle pony met a gentle changeling,” Pharynx noted clinically. “Miracles happen from time to time, I suppose.”

If Thorax had a coat of fur, he would have bristled at that remark. “You don’t understand! She’s not really all that different from most ponies! She told me all kinds of stories about Equestria and the ponies that live there! For them, good, gentle, caring ponies are a lot more common than bad ones! If we opened up to them, maybe we could actually get somewhere!”

“After the wedding?” Pharynx asked with a scoff. “Tch. Don’t make me laugh. Maybe the ponies are nicer than we are, and maybe they could have opened up to us. But they are also superstitious and spiteful creatures. I don’t see them warming up to us any time soon after what we did to them.”

“Then I’ll get us started,” Thorax pressed, taking a slow step forward. “If I go to Equestria, make some more friends, then maybe-”

“No.”

Thorax wilted. “W-what?”

Pharynx stamped a hoof for emphasis. “Absolutely not. You are not going to Equestria all on your own! Even if we assume you survive the journey there, then what? What will you do? The ponies will hate everything you are, and the moment they catch wind of you, they will tear you apart! There won’t be any love for you there!”

Thorax grit his teeth. “You say that as if there’s any love for me here!”

“THERE IS!” Pharynx suddenly bellowed, his wings flaring out. He pressed a hoof up to his chest, leaning forward slightly. “From ME, you idiot!”

Thorax paused, his ears folding back. A heavy silence fell over the two of them for what felt like an age. Pharynx snarled and set his hoof back down on the ground. “...Do you think I don’t care about you? After everything I’ve done for you? Every hoop I jumped through for your sake? It wasn’t all out of pity, you know. I’ve always stood up for you and tried to make you stronger because I care about you! How many times do I have to give this speech before you get it through the only thick skin you have?!”

He reached out and shoved Thorax back against the wall. “So don’t you dare tell me that there’s no love for you here! At least in this place, you have a family! But what will be waiting for you in Equestria, huh? Answer me that!”

Thorax blinked several times, his eyes wide in shock. Pharynx’s words rolled around in his ears for several seconds before he swallowed heavily and put on a small smile. “...Twilight will.”

Pharynx hesitated, his wings wavering slightly. “...you really think she’ll be happy to see you again?” he asked skeptically, his voice lowering. “After what we did to her family? Do you really think that Twilight will want to see you again?”

“I know she will,” Thorax insisted. “She’s a good mare… she’s my friend. That has to count for something, right?”

Pharynx stood still for several seconds, his eyes shifting with indecision. He took in a long, deep breath and looked away. “...If you go through with this, I won’t be around to guard you if you ever come back,” he said slowly. “Out there, you will be on your own. You won’t have me or any other part of the swarm to watch your back. And even if you find Twilight, and she still cares enough about you to do it for me, the rest of Equestria will not be so kind. It will be harder for you there then it will be here…”

“I know,” Thorax acknowledged, looking down. “I know that. But I also know that they will give me a chance to prove myself, to make amends for what we all did wrong… and maybe I can get them to reach out to the Hive as friends instead of enemies.”

Pharynx stared at Thorax for a long time, his expression impossible to decipher. Eventually, though, the facade broke. A small smile crept onto his face. “Huh… you know? I think this might just be the bravest thing you’ve ever done,” he said quietly, a hint of pride in his voice.

Thorax returned the smile, holding his head up. “What can I say? My big brother wouldn’t settle for anything less.”

The two shared a small chuckle at that. Pharynx shook his head as his died down before affixing Thorax with a more critical look. “...Be careful out there, brother,” he instructed simply. “You find Twilight, and you be safe, you hear me? But more than that, just…” he sighed and looked down. When next he spoke, his words were laced with a solemn regret that Thorax had never heard from him before. “Just… be happy for once… If you’re so sure that you can make some actual friends there, then make them, and be happy with them… That is my final order to you, Thorax.”

Thorax swallowed heavily, his heart convulsing in his chest. His eyes began to mist over. “R-right… y-yes sir,” he replied, straightening his posture.

Pharynx lifted his head and stared at Thorax for a moment. Then, with a tiny smile, he stepped forward. To Thorax’s shock, his older brother then pulled him into a hug. It was stiff and awkward, but it was nonetheless genuine and heartfelt. He was so blindsided from the unprecedented act of affection that he didn’t even return it for several seconds.

“...Goodbye, brother,” Pharynx said to him quietly before pulling back. “Make me proud.”

Thorax stared up at him for a few moments before sniffling and nodding. “I will… thank you, Pharynx. I… I’m gonna miss you.”

Pharynx nodded and backed away. “So am I. Now get a move on. You’re wasting time, and once word gets around that you’re missing, there will be scouts looking for you all over. I can buy you some time, but I won’t stop them from looking once they get started.”

“R-right,” Thorax nodded. He took a deep breath, his wings buzzing into life. He lifted a few feet off the ground, his eyes locked onto those of his brother all the way. “Thank you, Pharynx. I love you!” he called down before turning and flying to the south.

Pharynx watched him go, his expression unchanging. “...I know, kid,” he finally muttered. He turned back to the Hive and began to trot forward, his head held high.

That meeting with Pharynx had taken place several months ago, now. Thorax had made his way across the Badlands as fast as he could, all too aware of the possible threat of more changelings appearing out of nowhere to drag him back before the Queen. He had no desire of being brought before her as a deserter, and the fear of what might happen to him if he was, drove him on to fly faster than he ever had before.

It had taken him less time then he had thought, but he was soon slipping out of the badlands and passing into the savannah that lay beyond the mountains. He had done his best to remember what Twilight had told him of Equestria’s geography, deciding to try and find Dodge Junction. He had blundered around aimlessly in the wilds for a while before the small town eventually came into view on the horizon.

The locals, few of them as there were, had surprised him. When he had walked into town, disguised as a skinny blue stallion with a swept-back black mane and tail, he had been expecting an air of suspicion and skepticism or at least indifference. A lone pony walking into town from the south? He was sure that was going to turn some heads.

But no. Not a single pony he met had been at all aloof or suspicious of him. They all welcomed him with smiles and cheerful greetings. It had been beyond shocking to him. Even with all of Twilight’s glowing testimonies of the nation, he had not been expecting them to be this friendly. Culture shock hit him hard, and he struggled to find an adequate way of composing himself.

The next month or so had passed in something of a blur. He had no idea where Ponyville was, or how to get there. There was also the small matter of money. He had heard of ‘bits’ before when talking with Twilight, but the concept was still incredibly hard for him to fully grasp. Small gold circles that could be given in exchange for services and items? Everything about his old life in the Hive screamed at him that such a concept was wrong, but he forced himself to adapt. He had to.

It had taken a bit of time, but he had actually learned from a nice mare named Cherry Jubilee that apparently, one of Twilight’s friends, Applejack, had actually worked on her farm for a week or two once upon a time. He had been beyond happy to hear about that and had been given his first look at an Equestrian map when he asked about it. At last, he had been gifted with a direction and had set out not long after, carving his way across the land for Ponyville.

The savannah had soon given way to lush grassland scattered with copses of trees. He had never seen so much green before in his life and had more than once stopped to just stare at the grass or the leaves.

And then he had found the edge of the forest. He flew over it for most of that day, believing this to be the ‘Everfree Forest’ that he had heard so much about. A less than pleasant place. It seemed to be the opposite of the badlands in terms of the contents of its threats. Where Thorax’s home was dry, barren, hot, and devoid of vegetation, the everfree was damp, lush, cool, and made of nothing but vegetation, a lot of which would try to eat anything that wandered too close.

From one extreme to the other, he supposed.

Now, though, it was getting dark. The sun dipped for the horizon in the distance, its light fading fast and plunging the world into the cold. Thorax grimaced at it, his wings buzzing a little harder in irritation. “Oh, no…” he muttered, glancing down. He had to stop to rest, he knew. But right now, all he could see was forest in every direction.

Swallowing heavily, he resigned himself to his fate. “I’ll just have to find some cover.”

With nothing else for it, he descended below the tree line. Immediately, whatever light the sun afforded him was washed away, replaced by an almost all-consuming darkness. He shivered slightly as he was met by an invisible wall of cold air that contrasted starkly with the warmth overhead.

As his hooves touched down on the damp, mossy ground, his ears were assaulted on all sides by the sounds of life. He turned on his hooves, looking around with rapidly growing anxiety. Chirping birds, hooting owls, the growls of distant beasts, the hissing of snakes, the rustling of the trees. So many sounds when all he was used to was a hollow, empty breeze.

It was almost overwhelming, and he had to take several deep breaths to try and calm his nerves. It worked, albeit only slightly. Steeling himself, Thorax lit his horn to light his way. Everywhere he looked, his eyes were met with densely-packed trees with crooked branches that reminded him of claws. Moss and vines hung from every conceivable surface, while mushrooms and spikey ferns rose from the soil.

Lush, but not friendly.

Thorax gulped and started to slowly trot through the forest, hoping for somewhere to lay down and get some rest. He must have been wandering for an age before, finally, he found what he was looking for. He broke out into a small clearing, at the center of which was a collection of stones that led down into a cave.

A small wave of nostalgia came over him. Fond memories of the time he met Twilight, and all the time he had come to see her afterward, filled his mind with a pleasant haze. He took in a deep breath and poked his head into the cave. It was small, probably only big enough to give shelter to a grizzly bear or two. It was mossy, and he could hear the faint drip of water periodically coming from within.

Still, it was better than nothing. With a nod to himself, Thorax stepped inside and put out his light. He felt around for a while before coming across a small patch of moss. He settled down on it and gave off a quiet sigh as he finally took the weight off his hooves. Now he could rest.

Setting his chin down, he closed his eyes, the sounds of the forest reaching him through the mouth of the cave.

Thorax mumbled drowsily as something stirred him from his rest. An annoying sound reached his ears, and he flicked them a few times in a hopeless bid to shut the sound out. Something was moving around outside his cave, but just then, he couldn’t be bothered to care. “Just five more minutes,” he thought in annoyance, his cheeks puffing up like those of a spoiled nymph.

The sound continued unabated, though, drawing Thorax fully from his slumber. Resigning himself to an early rising, Thorax opened his eyes and looked up. He immediately regretted it, as a beam of morning sunlight stabbed directly into his retinas, filling his skull with fire.

“OW!” he yelled, flailing back with his hooves flying up to cover his eyes. He fell back to the ground on his back, a strangled oof tearing past his lips on impact. He curled up into a ball, his already stiff and sore body now complaining at him even more from the sudden movement. He took a deep breath and let it out in an annoyed hiss. “...Today’s gonna suck, isn’t it?” he asked quietly.

“Hello?” a new voice suddenly pierced the air. Thorax’s eyes snapped open again, his heart skipping a beat. Now he knew what the noise he had been hearing was! It was footsteps! There was someone close by!

Panicking, he rose to his hooves, his ears folding back. He turned back to the mouth of the cave, trying to think of a good disguise.

Too late. He had already been seen.

The creature that stood in the mouth of the cave was unlike any he had ever seen before. It was short and looked remarkably young. It stood up on two stubby little legs, while equally short arms at its sides were held up in fright. Big, emerald green eyes with reptilian slits for pupils stared back at Thorax, perfectly accenting the wave of raw fear that was coming off of him in droves.

The creature’s body was covered in purple scales, while his underbelly was a pale green color. Spines ran down the center of his head and down his back, tapering off to an end near the tip of a short tail that was standing up and pointing at the sky.

Thorax stared at him for a moment before opening his mouth and saying the only thing that came to mind. “...Uh…”

The creature screamed.

...And The Pony he Saved

Twilight Sparkle stared out the window of the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville with a small smile on her face. A mug of tea floated in the air next to her, held gently in her magic. The town beyond the window was happy and cheerful, everypony going about their day to day routines.

It had been about a year since she left the Badlands and returned to Ponyville. The first months back had been pleasant, if stressful, as she worked to regain her lost strength and get back into a normal routine. Her friends had been plenty supportive on that front, helping her out whenever she stumbled and cheering her on when she wanted to stand under her own power.

After she had regained her strength, her daily routine was back to normal. She went about her life, happy as can be, solving local problems, learning lessons, sending letters to Princess Celestia, and deciding not to join an expedition to some other part of uncharted territory. She knew the odds were small, but she was happy to just read about what the teams found upon their return.

Every so often, though, her mind would wander back to Thorax, or her time spent in the Badlands. Every time they did, she would find herself missing him more and more, wondering how he was doing; if he was making any progress in improving the Hive like he said he would. She had kept an eye open for any signs, no matter how small, that his actions had borne fruit, but had never once heard of anything. Over time, she realized that worrying about him wasn’t helpful, and since she was sworn to silence anyway, she slowly began to put him out of her mind.

Sadly, he would be brought back into her mind in the form of the wedding in Canterlot. Her eyes drifted past the ponies of Ponyville, over the houses, and soon alighted upon the city up in the mountains. Her smile faded, and she took a sip from her tea. There were still visible signs of damage along the city walls and towers.

The wedding had happened only a few months ago. When the changelings attacked, Twilight had been shellshocked. She had hoped to see changelings again — one in particular — but not like that… When she had been forced to defend herself and her friends, she had been hesitant every time a changeling crossed her path. She had to be sure none of them were Thorax before she fought back.

It had been a nightmare. The city had almost fallen. There had been countless bits worth of property damage, and a few ponies had wound up hurt. It had all seemed hopeless there for a little while... But in the end, the day had been won, not by the Elements of Harmony, but by Cadance and Shining Armor.

Twilight knew that emotions could supercharge magic, of course, but she had never imagined that love could empower a barrier spell to such an incredible extent. Shining Armor, empowered by Cadance’s love for him, had formed a whole new barrier around the city, and in a few short moments, blasted all of the changelings out in a wave of blinding light and affection. They had all been sent scattering for miles and miles, vanishing into the horizon, scattered and disorganized.

The changelings didn’t come back after that. Twilight figured they had slunk back to the Badlands to lick their wounds and hide from any reprisals that may come their way. The world knew about them now. Unfortunately, they knew about them as enemies more than anything else...

She gave off a quiet sigh. Ever since that day, she had wondered about Thorax, again and again, worrying for the friendly drone that had saved her life. Sometimes she wondered if he had been in the swarm that she and her friends had fought through. Sometimes she feared that he had been hurt, or worse, in the fighting. If he had been there, had they crossed paths? Had he seen her fighting against his kindred as hard as she was? Had she attacked him, not realizing who he was?

Such thoughts had plagued her mind for months now, and she still had no answers. All she could truly do now was hope for the best and carry on with her life.

Speaking of which…

The door to her room swung open, and Spike came waddling in with a big grin on his face. “Hey, Twilight. I’m back!” he proclaimed with a cheerful voice.

Twilight turned back to him, finishing off her tea and setting the mug aside. “Spike! Where have you been? You just kinda ran off on me without saying anything,” she said, adding a slight scolding edge to her voice, though not enough to upset him at all.

“Oh, sorry. I was helping Rarity and Sweetie Belle look for stuff with Zecora out in the Everfree Earlier,” he said with a shrug. “Sweetie needed to collect samples of local plant life for some school project or other. Rarity was tagging along to help her, and they wanted me to come with, so I could scare off any ‘big scary monsters’ in the forest.”

Twilight rolled her eyes knowingly at Spike. “Heh. Alright, if you say so. And how did that go?”

“It went pretty well, I think. Only thing that went wrong is I almost slipped and fell into a pit.”

Twilight blinked. “A pit? What happened?”

“Oh, uh, while I was looking around, I got spooked by an animal in a cave. I ran as hard as I could, and I wasn’t looking where I was going. I almost slipped and fell inside, but the animal saved me. Turns out, it was friendly.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. Something about the way Spike had said all of that struck her as strange. She decided not to question it for now, though. “...Okay. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, giving him a quick examination just to be sure. “You didn’t scrape anything, right?”

Spike shook his head. “Nope, I’m alright. Only thing that took a ding or two was my pride.”

“What pride?” Twilight asked with a playful smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Spike pouted at her. “My pride as a fearless fire breathing dragon, of course!”

Twilight giggled and reached out to ruffle his head spines. “Okay, fair enough,” she said before sniffing at the air. She had to fight the urge to gag then and there. “Gah! Oh, oh no!”

“What? What is it?” Spike asked, clearly confused.

“You smell like a skunk that took a bath in Froggy Bottom Bogg!” Twilight declared, lifting Spike up in her magic and ignoring his following protests. “Your pride doesn’t mask that smell! Come on, you need a bath!”

“What the- HEY! Twilight, put me down! TWILIGHT!” Spike complained, kicking feebly at the air as the unicorn hauled him through the library for the bathroom.

She giggled in amusement at his struggle, allowing herself to get lost in the simple, mundane task of giving Spike a proper bath.

“You are an absolute witch, you know that?” Spike asked an hour or two later, seated on one of the many lounge chairs around the central room of the library. He was rubbing at his cheek with an annoyed grimace. “Did you have to go so hard with the loofa?”

“In my defense,” Twilight began with a cheeky smirk. “You were acting like an angry cat in that tub.”

“Because I smelled fine!”

“Trust me, you didn’t. I found no fewer than seven different species of stinky fungi growing in your pits, mister dragon,” Twilight rebuked, although, in reality, it was more accurate to say she found some moss stuck to his pits and decided to annoy him with it.

“Oh, that was a single bit of moss I picked up in that cave, and you know it!”

Twilight giggled again, well and truly foiled, before rolling her eyes. “Heh, okay, fair enough, you got me,” she confessed. “But really, you did smell. I wouldn’t have bathed you if I thought otherwise.”

“Meh,” Spike grumbled, sulking childishly in his seat for a few seconds.

Twilight smiled and stood up from her own to head for the nearby window. She opened it with her magic, allowing a gentle breeze of fresh air to wash over her face. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out with a happy smile. But once again, her eyes slowly drifted up to Canterlot, and her smile faded.

Just like before, her thoughts drifted back to Thorax. She stared up at the mountain for a long time, her mind wandering aimlessly over all the time they had spent together. She glanced back at Spike to see he was now pulling a comic book from one of the shelves, probably a Power Ponies issue.

Even after the invasion, she had never mentioned Thorax to anyone. She had kept his secret even after it had been revealed to the whole world. Maybe it was some misplaced sense of loyalty that drove her to keep her knowledge to herself, keeping her promise not to talk about him even now. Perhaps she was just too shy to bring up that she had befriended one of the creatures that had ruined her brother’s wedding and almost the lives of everypony in Equestria.

Whatever the reason, she had stayed silent… but every so often, she felt the urge to speak up. Like right now.

Spike hopped back up into his seat before he noticed she was staring. He tilted his head at her in curiosity. “Hm? What? Is there still something on my face?” he asked, flipping open to the first page.

Twilight looked out the window. “No. It’s n-nothing,” she lied.

Spike blinked at her. He then gave off a quiet sigh and set the comic aside. “Okay, I know that tone. What’s bugging you?” he asked gently.

Twilight stayed quiet for several seconds. It would be no use to try and fend Spike off, now. The dragon was a master at seeing through her attempts at misdirection. She sighed and turned to walk back towards him. “I dunno, Spike. I was just thinking about the changeling attack on Canterlot is all…”

Spike raised an eyebrow at that. “Again? You’ve been doing that a lot lately. We won, Twilight, you can relax now,” he said.

“I know, I know,” Twilight admitted, plopping down into the seat next to Spike’s. “But… I can’t help it. I keep wondering about it, and…”

Spike waited patiently, letting her work the words out as she usually had to when dealing with something frustrating or emotionally taxing. That whole ordeal with the wedding had been beyond difficult on her and her friends, and doubly so on her family. It only made sense that he’d figure that was the reason.

She took a deep breath before looking directly at him. “Tell me, Spike… do you think there were any good changelings in that swarm?” she finally asked.

Spike’s eyes widened in surprise. “H-huh?”

Twilight looked ahead, gesturing vaguely with her hooves. “You know, good changelings. Not evil. Maybe they weren’t there by choice, or maybe they just didn’t realize that what they were doing was wrong. I can’t stop thinking about it. If there are good changelings in there, then, shouldn’t we reach out to them? You know, try and make them our friends so that we don’t have to fight them again.”

Spike scratched his head for a second, clearly taken aback by her request. “Uh, well… I…” he stammered. For a moment, she was expecting him to offer her a non-committal shrug and dismiss the question as a silly hypothetical, or even claim that there was no way there were any good guys in that swarm. But to her surprise, he actually smiled and nodded up at her. “Ya know what? I know there were a few good ones in all of that.”

Twilight stared at him. “You… you know? How would you know that?” she asked, though, in her heart, she hoped he was right.

Spike leaned back in his seat, his claws casually folding behind his head. “Eh… call it intuition,” he said, though it was clear that was a fumbling excuse. He was hiding something. “Ya know. There were just so many of them, it only makes sense there’d be a few good eggs mixed in with all the rotting ones.”

“Ha. Eggs,” Twilight snorted. “Because they lay eggs. I get it.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “...The point is,” he continued in a deadpan. “I’m pretty confident there was at least one good one in all of that.”

Twilight gave off a quiet sigh, leaning back in her seat. “Heh… glad you think so, too. I was starting to wonder if I’d gone a little crazy or something.”

“I’ve seen you crazy,” Spike deadpanned. “This ain’t that. For one thing, all of Ponyville isn’t getting embroiled in a war over your fillyhood Smartpants doll.”

“Oh, hardy har,” Twilight shot back, a tiny blush forming on her cheeks. Deciding that she didn’t need Spike poking at any more of her less-than-proud moments, she hopped down from her seat and made her way for the stairs. “I’m heading back upstairs. I’m gonna read some more. Keep it down out here, okay?”

“Oh, uh, before you go,” Spike called after her, drawing her eyes back to him. He had the look of a dragon that only just now remembered something important. He scratched his head for a moment as if trying to rack his brain for the right words. “Uh… did you hear about the, uh, the thing that’s supposed to happen near the Everfree Forest tonight?”

Twilight tilted her head. “...What thing?” she asked, confused.

“I dunno. Rarity told me about some cool thing that’s supposed to be going on over there,” Spike said, flopping back into his seat. “But, I was a bit too busy getting seven different species of fungus trapped in my armpits to remember any details.”

Twilight chuckled at that. “Okay, okay, I get it, I went in too hard with the loofa. Heh… But no, I didn’t hear about this.”

“Hm. well, we can probably see it from here,” Spike said with a shrug. “Supposed to be happening at sunset, I think. Have a look, might be cool.”

Twilight stared at him for a few seconds. Okay, Spike was definitely hiding something. He was a devoted and loyal friend, the best assistant she could ask for, and the little brother she had always wanted. But because of all of those things, it meant he was a terrible liar, especially to her. She squinted at him, sorely tempted to press the subject, and pry the answers out of him.

A few seconds later, though, she decided against it. It wouldn’t do to go harassing him if it turned out she was wrong. And besides, it was Spike? How harmful could this be?

She briefly paused halfway up the stairs and mentally decided to not answer that one before vanishing back into her room.

Epilogue

It was getting on towards sunset now. Twilight sat on the balcony outside of her bedroom, gazing out towards the Everfree Forest. She had bee there for about an hour now, despite Spike’s claims that she was too early. “No such thing!” had been her instant and easy counter, eventually leading to Spike deciding to just come out and join her.

The two sat in companionable silence, only occasionally striking up a small bit of small talk to pass the time. It was nice, just sitting around without having to worry about much. The most pressing concern she had at that moment was making sure she saw whatever it was Spike had told her was due to happen.

With any luck, she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The sun was inching closer and closer to the horizon with every second. As the time drew near, Twilight began to lose herself in her imagination, trying to speculate about what she might be waiting around for.

“Maybe some kind of meteor shower?” she thought, thinking back on the last time she nad her friends had shared such a view. “Or maybe it’s some Ponyville thing I don’t know about yet? Is something going to come out of the forest?”

Whatever it was, she hoped it would be worth the hassle. As nice as summer was, she’d still rather be inside when the sun went down.

And down it went, finally tucking itself under the blankets of the horizon, its orange glow fading rapidly from view and dipping the world into a state of relative darkness. Twilight focused intently on the forest now, her eyes narrowing as she looked for any sign of Spike’s surprise.

Nothing. There was nothing. She stared out at the forest for several minutes, but there was no sign of anything meaningful coming from those trees. She began to wonder if Spike had been wrong, and was about to ask him about it when, finally, something happened.

It was small, almost imperceptible at first. It rose up from the edge of the forest, a single green star of magic, colored a deep shade of emerald. Her eyes latched onto it, her eyes going wide. A wave of memories a year old washed into her mind, her breath hitching in her throat. “No way… no, it can’t be… can it?”

Up and up it went, flickering and fading into the darkening skies before vanishing altogether. A moment passed. Then another. Twilight slowly rose to her hooves, her muscles tensing with anticipation. “Please go off, please go off, please go off, please go off…”

The sky was suddenly illuminated by an enormous burst of green light, like a giant firework erupting in the heavens. The entirety of Ponyville was bathed in its emerald hue, while a muffled pop echoed for miles around.

Spike raised an eyebrow, squinting into the light. “Huh… that’s not what I was- huh?! Twilight?!”

Twilight wasn’t listening to him. Or anything else, save for the fading echo of the spell in her ears. Without hesitation, she sprang forward and leaped over the railing of the balcony, using her magic to slow her fall. Her hooves met the ground running, sending her into a mad sprint for the edge of the Everfree Forest. All the way, her heart hammered in her chest, her ears folded back, and sparks of hope and fear danced around in her chest in equal measure.

That had been changeling magic just now. She would recognize that putrid hue anywhere. And if there was one changeling, she feared there could very well be more. But she had only ever known of one changeling who knew that spell, and it was her hope that he was still the only one.

She sprinted by several ponies in the streets, all of whom had turned to look up at the fading embers in confusion. A few startled squeaks sounded around her as she tore through the streets. She only spared single-word apologies as she passed them, her mind not even lingering on the ponies she was alarming. She didn’t care about them just now. She had to know if it was him.

She breached the edge of town and came to the bottom of the slope that led up to the Everfree Forest. The flare had come from somewhere around here, she knew it. She looked around frantically, her breath coming in pants from her unprompted and sudden sprint through Ponyville. “Guh… huh… Thorax!” she cried out, her voice echoing in the trees. “Thorax, is that you?!”

A chilly breeze washed over her, stirring the branches in the trees and filling the air with a soft rustling sound. No voice answered her, though. She looked around again, squinting into the darkness. “Thorax?!”

A flicker of blue light caught her attention. Confused, Twilight turned to look and just made out a shape slipping back into the treeline. She stared after it for a second. Had that been him? Why wasn’t he coming to see her? What was going on?

Confused but hopeful, Twilight broke into a gallop after him, dismissing the way her legs burned. “Thorax, where are you?!” she called out, reaching the top of the hill. She came to a sliding stop when she was greeted by the wall of darkness that marked the beginning of the Everfree Forest.

Something moved inside. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat, and she hesitantly lit her horn with magic. “Th… Thorax?”

As her lavender light illuminated the first few yards of forest, her eyes focused on the lone figure sitting in the shadows. His black chitin reflected the glow of her light spell with a gentle shimmer, while his sparkling blue wings fluttered on his back. Two glowing blue spheres of light on his face peeled open, and his jaw fell free to show off a pair of sharp fangs jutting down from his upper lip.

The two locked eyes with each other for several seconds. Slowly, the bug rose to his hooves and took a few tentative steps forward. “...Twilight?” he asked quietly.

Twilight’s heart sang with joy on hearing that voice again, and she almost leaped forward to hug him right away. She held herself back, though, tempering herself as memories of the wedding flashed through her mind. She clamped her jaw shut and frowned. “...Thorax? Is it really you?” she asked carefully. “...Or are you just some other changeling pretending to be him to get at me?”

Thorax hesitated for a moment, a look of hurt flashing across his face. He then smiled and reached a hoof up to hover over his heart. “Of course, it’s me. If it weren’t, how else could I remember the very first time we met?” he asked. “How the very first thing I ever said you, hidden from the rain and the angry Tatzlwurms in that cave in the badlands, was... ‘uh...’”

Twilight’s eyes widened, a wave of nostalgia falling over her as the changeling recounted their first meeting.

Thorax wasn’t done, though. He rose from his sitting position and trotted forward, talking all the way. “How could I forget all the times I came to see you after that? Helping you deal with your stomach rot, or feeding you food I had stolen from the Hive, or how you hugged me after teaching me how to call for your help?”

He came to a stop right in front of her and held his hoof over her heart. Twilight’s heart gave a single beat, and a warmth she had almost forgotten about pulsed through her body. Her eyes widened. “...Thorax…”

Thorax’s smile grew. “...Or how I gave you the greatest gift you ever gave me when we split up?”

Twilight’s eyes began to mist over. It was him. It was really, truly him. A surge of emotion claimed her without warning, and she lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around her old friend in a shell-crushing embrace. She heard him gasp from the force of it, but he returned the hug nonetheless. She buried her face in his shoulder, making a sound that was somewhere between a joyful laugh and a trembling sob.

“It’s you… it’s r-really you…” she choked out.

Thorax rested his chin on her head, closing his eyes. “Yeah. It’s me… It’s real good to see you again, Twilight,” he whispered to her.

Twilight pulled back, staring imploringly into his eyes. “I’m happy to see you, too… but what are you doing here?” she asked, a needle sowing a thread of nervousness into her mind. “I thought you were supposed to be back at the hive, trying to make things better?”

Thorax’s ears drooped, and he looked away. “Er… y-yeah, see, the thing about that is… ugh,” he sighed and sagged. “I tried, you know? I tried really hard to show them that there was a better way, but… They were never going to listen to me, or follow my example. It was a losing battle right from the start… And after the attack on Canterlot…”

Twilight’s heart dropped. “You… were you there?”

“Uh-huh. I was there. And I saw you fighting back,” Thorax mumbled, his ears drooping, giving him a truly pathetic look. “I’m so, so sorry for what my people did, Twilight. I… I c-cant even… I didn’t want to… I tried to-”

Twilight smiled softly and held a hoof up to Thorax’s lips, silencing him. In the end, there was only one thing she needed to know. “Did you hurt anypony?”

Thorax shook his head, mumbling out a negative through her hoof.

She drew it back. “Then there’s nothing for you to be sorry for… Whatever role you had in that atrocity, I forgive you.”

Thorax stared at her, wide-eyed. He visibly relaxed and leaned into her embrace again, this time resting his face in her shoulder. “I’d never seen anything so awe-inspiring… you and your friends, fighting back the entire swarm like that. It was incredible. If I hadn’t been busy defending myself already, I would have jumped in and joined you… So many times, I wanted to come and warn you, or help you, but I never got the chance… I had to do my part, and I hated every second of it.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight assured him. “It’s alright. We won, in the end. The invasion failed.”

“But there was an invasion,” Thorax rebuked, shaking his head into her shoulder. “We attacked you, and a lot of ponies were hurt. When we were driven back, Chrysalis was furious. The hive practically shook the entire time… and I realized that I didn’t belong in that horrible place anymore.”

Twilight blinked, taken aback by the implication. “Thorax?”

“I ran away, Twilight,” Thorax stated, lifting his head. “I slipped away in the dead of night and ran away from the hive. Pharynx told me to come find you.” smiled and placed his hoof over her heart again. “He wanted me to be happy with you. And more than anything, that’s what he wanted… for me to be safe and happy.”

Twilight placed her own hoof over his, her smile growing. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she sent a silent thank you to Pharynx, wherever he was out there in the world. “...Well, I’m glad you’re here, Thorax,” she finally said. “I’ve really, really missed you.”

Thorax smiled and shrank down slightly, looking a little sheepish. “Er, y-yeah, I’ve missed you, too. A lot…”

Twilight hummed before standing up and helping Thorax to his hooves. “So, that means you’re here to stay?” she asked hopefully.

Thorax nodded, staring into her eyes. “If you’ll have me, yes,” he replied, equally hopeful.

Twilight’s smile grew, and she tugged on his hoof, guiding him back toward Ponyville. “Come on, then… let’s go, Thorax.”

Thorax paused, staring down at the small town for a few seconds, his wings wavering on his back. They caught Twilight’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but notice that they were different than she remembered them. They weren’t as tattered as they used to be. Small particles were peppered throughout the membranes, glistening within and giving the gossamer appendage a sparkling appearance. It might have been her imagination, but it also seemed like the holes in his legs were a lot smaller than before. And was that a hint of color in his chitin?

Thorax’s lips curled up into a broader smile. “Yeah. That sounds good.”

Twilight’s heart soared with joy at that statement, and she guided Thorax down the slope for Ponyville. She could already see a bunch of ponies gathering at the edge of town, including her friends and Spike. They all looked at her with anxious expressions and tilted heads. When they saw the changeling with her, most of them either tensed up defensively or shrank back in fear.

Except for Spike. He made eye contact with Thorax, then Twilight. He smirked, gave them a thumbs-up, and offered both of them a small nod and smile. Twilight stared at him for a second, and it clicked. Somehow, someway Spike had found Thorax in the forest earlier and had helped arrange this meeting.

She smiled and nodded gratefully at the drake. She would have to take the time to thank him properly for that later. But for now, there were more pressing matters. She came to a stop in front of her friends, Thorax anxiously standing by her side.

Rainbow was the first of her friends to speak. “Uh… Twi? What’s with the bug?”

Twilight didn’t even bat an eye at the slur. She instead turned and gestured happily at Thorax. “Girls, Spike... This is Thorax. He’s a changeling from the Badlands… and he’s my friend.”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped. “He IS?!” she squealed in shock. Already Twilight could see the gears turning in her head.

“Pardon me, dear,” Rarity added, grimacing back from Thorax. “Are you meaning to tell us that you know this garish thing?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I do. Back when I got lost in the Badlands a year ago, Thorax is the one who came to my rescue. If it weren’t for him helping me in those early days, I don’t think I would have survived long enough to get home.”

She then reached over and pulled Thorax into a side hug, eliciting an anxious chitter out of him. “And he’s not garish, Rarity!” she protested, shooting the fashionista a pout.

There were a few seconds of silence. The assembled mares looked between themselves in confusion. It was then that Spike stepped forward and took a position on Twilight’s other side. “I can vouch for him,” he said with a big grin. “I bumped into him in the forest earlier, and he saved my life. We talked for a while, and I know he’s a good guy.”

Spike’s testimony seemed to ease tensions a little bit. Applejack hesitated for a second, then tilted her hat back with a small smile. Her eyes focused on Twilight. “Somethin’ tells me y’all never told us the whole story way back then, did ya?” she asked.

“Yeah, uh, that was kinda my fault,” Thorax interjected with an awkward smile. “See, I uh, I kinda asked her to keep me and my people a secret.”

“And I gave him my word that I would,” Twilight acknowledged, giving Applejack a pointed stare. “It didn’t feel right lying to all of you, but I wasn’t about to go back on my last promise to him. He means far too much to me for that.”

“Aaw,” Fluttershy cooed sweetly. “That’s so sweet of you, Twilight.”

A few seconds passed before Applejack’s smile grew. “Well, then, Ah guess it’s time that story came to light, huh?” she asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, it is… but, uh, let’s not do it right here,” she suggested, noticing a few awkward glances they were getting from other ponies. “Let’s take this to the library.”

Applejack nodded along. “Sure thing, Twi. After y’all,” she said, stepping off to one side to clear the way.

Twilight took a deep breath, then turned back to Thorax, her smile growing. “So… ready to go home?” she asked quietly.

“Home?” Thorax echoed in bewilderment. He looked at her before looking ahead at Ponyville. His eyes drifted slowly over the small, humble buildings that made up the old village, taking in every detail, and the faces of the ponies who were staring back at him.

“Yeah, I think so,” he eventually answered.

Satisfied, Twilight nodded and took the lead, pausing just long enough to deposit Spike on her back with her magic before setting off at a slow, leisurely trot. Thorax kept close behind her, the rest of her friends forming a loose circle around them. It was clear they were still anxious, but that was fine. Twilight knew he’d grow on them, given time.

She took a moment to look at Thorax, making eye contact with him. The warmth in her chest returned. A wonderful, all-consuming feeling of peace and serenity that filled her from the bottom of her hooves to the tip of her horn.

And based on the look on Thorax’s face, she knew he was feeling it as well.

“Welcome home, Thorax,” she thought, walking through the streets of Ponyville, side by side with the gentle changeling that had saved her life.

Author's Note

Hoo boy! Lemme tell ya, getting this ending down right was a lot harder than you might have thought! All three of these last chapters went through several iterations before we finally settled on one that my editor and I were happy with. It was getting to a point where we were considering just deeming 'Homecoming' as the end of the story and calling it a day.

But yeah. That is another 'Bugs in Strange Places' story completed. Don't any of you worry, I already know what the next entry in this series is gonna be, and I am already working on outlining it. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

Soggy Expedition

The appropriately named badlands was not a place to be traversed lightly, being a vast, largely unmapped desert. The terrain was wild and hard to navigate on hoof, and every corner was filled with vicious wildlife. There were virtually no standing sources of water above ground, and almost no plant life, except for patches of moss and flowers that were dubious at best that grew in isolated clumps where the sun never managed to shine its light. Add onto that the sweltering heat that burned at the earth and reflected off of the sand and stone, and you had a recipe for a truly dangerous stretch of land.

It was for this reason, and a fair few others, that Twilight’s friends had been less than thrilled when she had told them she was going to be joining an expedition to the badlands as a part of a personal project. The poor unicorn had endured the protests of each of her friends, one after the other, for well over a week leading up to her departure on the Friendship Express to meet up with the team at Dodge Junction.

“Look, I don’t wanna say you’re not awesome, but Twi, even I don’t wanna go there. And Look at me! I’m the most awesome mare in the room!”

“Darling, please. We all know that you’re a curious sort and that you do so love to tackle a new project, but this is a little extreme, even for you.”

“My granny pie used to tell me all about the badlands when I was a little filly! She told me that it was a bad, bad place, and never ever go there. Not even smiling and laughing can make it better! And that’s saying something because smiles and laughs make everything better!”

“But it’s so full of scary, dangerous wild animals! Like Maulworfs and giant scorpions and sandtrap spiders!”

Out of all of her friends, Applejack had been the one to offer to the least complaint. She had been worried, yes, but she had kept quiet more than the rest. Twilight could only assume this amounted to Applejack letting Twilight make her own choices. A mindset the others had all eventually come to align with on the day of her departure. Each of them had given her their own little words of encouragement, hoping that the boost in her confidence would help make sure she came home safe.

And now, here she was, standing at the top of a jagged slope of rock that jutted up from the earth like a broken fang, scanning her eyes across the vast and seemingly endless expanse of serrated earth, winding ravines, and spires of stone that coiled into the air as if to puncture a falling pegasus.

It was made even moodier by the persistent rainfall that had come in from the south, obscuring the sky in a thick layer of dark grey and muting the colors for as far as the eye could see. Not that there were many colors to mute in this wasteland. Mostly browns, reds, and dull oranges.

With a quick spark of magic from her horn, Twilight pulled out a map from her saddlebags, keeping it safe from the downpour with an umbrella-shaped barrier she manifested over her head. If she was reading the map right, which she was confident she was, then she was just at the edge of what was known and explored, around a day’s worth of travel away from Equestria’s southern border.

A small, excited smile crossed her face at the thought of braving unexplored territory. Who knew what kinds of discoveries were lying in wait! Ancient ruins from long-lost civilizations, exciting new creatures never seen by ponies before, rare magic resources, strange geological formations! Maybe, if she was exceedingly lucky, there was even a whole new race of creatures out here, and she could say she had a hoof in discovering them!

“Hey, rookie!” a stallion’s voice shouted at her to be heard over the white noise of the rain. Jumping, Twilight put away her map and looked down to see the rest of the expedition team at the base of her rise of stone. There were at least two dozen of them, and each one had a designated task. Some were in charge of mapping out where they had been and gone, others were in charge of taking note of anything and everything they found, while others still were mostly here to haul along large wagons filled with the provisions they would need for this trip. They were supposed to be out here for several weeks, after all, perhaps even months if they found anything particularly interesting.

Twilight’s eyes eventually landed on the leader of the expedition, a tall and grizzled looking earth pony stallion with an orange coat and a short, silver mane and tail. A wiry beard decorated his face, trimmed into a haphazard goatee. His name was Relic Finder, and in the short time Twilight had known him, she had determined that she had no idea what to make of him.

He jerked his head back in an indication for her to come down. “Come on, kid! Or we’re gonna leave you behind! And be careful, you don’t wanna slip!”

“Coming, Relic!” Twilight shouted back. With a quick surge of energy, she was enveloped in a burst of magic before being deposited right next to the stallion. She smiled at him once the light faded. “Here I am.”

Relic let out a short snort of either amusement or irritation. Twilight wasn’t sure which. “Tch. Show off,” he grumbled ambiguously before nodding ahead. “Rainfall out here’s pretty rare, so we’re gonna find a spot to hunker down and wait out the storm.”

“We could probably take the opportunity to gather water, too,” Twilight suggested, an eager bounce in her step. “The desert’s bound to get hotter the further in we get, so having a surplus of drinking water can’t go wrong.”

Relic nodded. “Yeah, that’s the plan. We’ll also wanna find some way to gather more of the stuff reliably. Maybe we can find an oasis out here, somewhere.”

“Not likely. Not close at least,” Twilight said, wrinkling her nose as she thought back on the view her high perch had afforded her. “From what I could see, it was just rock and rock as far as the horizon. Now, granted, there are a lot of places for water to hide in all of that, but I didn’t see anything that could point to an oasis.”

“Hm…” Relic frowned at that before glancing over at a pair of pegasi that were trotting nearby. “You two, head on up and nab a few of the clouds, would ya? Bring them down and see what you can do to tame them into doing what you want. If we’re lucky, maybe we can use them to make water for ourselves.”

The two pegasi nodded, and both launched into the air. Twilight watched them go for a moment, her brow furrowing. “Hmmm… I might be able to help with that, actually,” she said after a moment of thought. “I’m pretty good with magic. Maybe I can help them tame this wild weather with some-”

“Hey, now,” Relic cut her off with a severe look. There was a hint of appreciation in his eyes, though. “Don’t go stretching yourself too thin, rookie. You got magic, yeah, we all saw that when you made an umbrella outta the stuff, and we all know you’re Celestia’s student. But like it or not, you’re still just one mare, and we need everypony to do their assigned part. And you,” he poked her in the shoulder for emphasis. “Are here to take notes and study things, not help tame the weather. Let the pegasi do their job so you can do yours, yeah?”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but after a moment decided that Relic was probably right. This was largely uncharted territory for all of them. Taking on more responsibilities could wait until they were more familiar with their surroundings. She offered up a small nod of understanding. “Alright, will do.”

Relic hummed and looked directly ahead, focusing on the path.

Twilight did the same, scanning the terrain for any signs of shelter, supplies, or something new to catalog. Already she could pick out a few small plants hiding out in little nooks and cracks in the stone, and her scholarly mind was already kicking into gear. Curious, she trotted up to one, pulling out one of several notebooks she had brought with her for this venture, and began to take notes.

There was a range of specimens here that she was already somewhat familiar with. Enough so to know that they were cataloged and known already. Nevertheless, she took down notes anyway. Having a list of all the known types of flora and fauna they found on this little venture would go a long way in making the rest of their journey easier. Thankfully, these particular plants were all safe to eat, albeit they never grew in large quantities, and weren’t exactly the most nutritious.

“Better than nothing, though,” Twilight thought before turning her attention to one plant she did not recognize. It was a small, thin thing that looked as if a gentle breeze could snap it like a twig under a manticore’s weight. A few wrinkly, yellowish-green leaves at the ground surrounded the base of a needly stem that was topped off with a white flower, the petals folded closed.

It didn’t look familiar. Curious and excited to make the first discovery of new plant life, she leaned in closer to examine the thing in finer detail. “Judging from the small size of it, I am going to assume that this is just a sapling…” she thought before tentatively sniffing at the closed pedals. “No particularly identifiable smells. I’ll need to keep my eye out for extra samples as we go…”

Jotting down the find in her notebook, she turned and cantered to catch up with the rest of the team. The natural path they were following began to slope down at a fairly steep angle, with more spires and fangs of raw stone piercing the earth at all kinds of angles up ahead. It was like wandering into the lower jaw of some titanic skull with dozens of rows of uneven, sharp teeth.

A charming mental image, and one that Twilight was quick to put out of her mind. She had to focus on keeping her eyes out for anything worth cataloging, or anything of use to the team. She couldn’t afford any distractions!

“Hey, anypony else feel that?” a mare called out from farther ahead, drawing Twilight’s attention from her resolution. Turning to look, she saw that the speaker was an earth pony mare, and she was staring at the dirt with narrowed eyes.

“Feel what?” Relic asked, glancing down at his own hooves with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t feel any- Wait… hold on, yeah, I feel it, too.”

Confused, Twilight closed her eyes for a second and focused on the mud beneath her hooves. After a few seconds of focusing, there wasn’t anything particularly noteworthy as far as she could tell. “Must be their sensitivity and bond with the earth,” she deduced before opening her eyes. “What do you feel?”

“A tremor,” Relic replied, shifting uneasily on his hooves. “Something’s moving. Something big.”

“Something’s movin’?” another stallion, a pegasus, asked in a gruff voice. “What kinda somethin’?”

Relic shook his head, his eyes scanning the ground mistrustfully. “I don’t know… I got a bad feeling about this.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak up when, finally, she began to feel it, too. It was subtle, at first, little more than a vibration. But it was getting stronger, and fast. The whole team had come to a stop at that point, all of them looking around with varying degrees of growing concern.

“Is it an earthquake?” One of the other unicorns asked. “If so, we should get out from under anything that can fall on us.”

“It’s not an earthquake,” Relic dismissed, shaking his head. “It’s something else… something-”

Relic never got to finish the sentence. Suddenly, the ground behind him erupted upwards in a geyser of dirt and mud and stone, splattering the entire expedition with sticky globs and sending their leader falling forward to the ground. A chorus of alarmed cries and shouts rang out, their echoes lost to the rain and the rumble of the titanic creature that had just torn up from the earth.

Twilight screamed, backpedaling until her back pressed up against a wall of rock. “That’s a big worm!”

An enormous wormlike creature covered in purple scales now loomed over the expedition team, easily thirty feet tall and six feet in girth, and that was just the part above the soil. It’s pink, vaguely cone-shaped head pointed down at them, and Twilight could see small, beady black eyes staring with interest.

“What is that thing?!” One of the mares shrieked, scrambling back and away from it.

The worm followed her with its eyes. For a moment, Twilight found herself desperately hoping that whatever this thing was, it was merely curious about them. They were not prepared for unknown monsters like this. But at the same time, she subconsciously began to draw a rudimentary sketch of the creature in her notebook.

Her hopes of a friendly, or at least passive, local creature were torn to shreds when it opened its mouth. Like a flower opening up to greet the sun, the worm’s face split open, revealing slimy pink insides, sharp barbs that looked quite dangerous, and four wriggling black tongues that reminded her eerily of tentacles.

“RUN!” Relic bellowed, turning on his hooves and sprinting back the way they had come.

Twilight didn’t need to be told twice. In a matter of moments, she had joined the enormous stampede of frightened ponies that were rushing to get away from the towering, angry worm. It continued to watch them for a second before, finally, it made its first move. Twilight’s already pounding heart lurched in her chest when she heard the sound of breaking wood and small objects squelching into the mud. A stallion cried out in terror, and the overall exclamations from the fleeing ponies grew louder.

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Twilight’s throat tightened when she saw the great worm lifting up one of the supply wagons in its mouth with the pony still hitched. The stallion was kicking and screaming, frantically trying to unclasp himself.

“He’s too high!” Twilight realized with a chill running down her spine. “If he unhitches from there, he’ll be seriously hurt when he hits the ground!”

“Hey! HEY!” The stallion screamed from high in the air, still struggling with the clasp. “COME BACK! SOMEPONY HELP ME!”

Twilight quickly swept her eyes over the rest of the stampede, hoping that some of the pegasi were moving into motion. However, it seemed none of them had even heard the cries from their comrade, and were continuing on regardless.

Some small part of Twilight had to remind herself that not all of them had experienced some of the same harrowing things she had. Facing down Nightmare Moon, an Ursa Minor, running from a Hydra, dealing with a Parasprite invasion, stopping Discord. The most recent catastrophe she had been present for was when Spike had suddenly grown to several times his normal size and started hoarding everything he could get his claws on, breaking a lot of Ponyville in the process.

Dragon greed was scary.

But not as scary as this, and definitely not as scary as the prospect of letting that innocent pony get hurt, or worse, when somepony was in a position to help him.

With a grimace, Twilight skidded to a stop and started to sprint back towards the worm, her horn flaring up with magic. The sound of splintering wood filled her ears along with the stallion’s panicked screaming, making her heart skip a beat. It was about to shatter!

With a grunt of effort, Twilight fired off a small, condensed burst of raw magic energy, striking the giant worm in the side of the head. It recoiled from the snipe, an alien roar billowing outward from its open mouth. Twilight’s ears drooped as it occurred to her that she had only succeeded in making it mad.

Nonetheless, the desired result was had. The worm released the wagon from its maw, allowing it, and the attached earth pony, to plummet back down to the ground. Moving fast, Twilight reached out with her magic and grabbed onto the whole wagon, trying to slow its descent.

It was a heavy object, and the pony’s frantic flailing only made it harder to get a firm grip. But, thankfully, she was able to slow it down enough that it touched down without shattering or hurting the stallion.

One more flick of magic undid the hitch, releasing the pony to go running. “Thank you, miss!” he shouted over at her, boundless gratitude in his voice.

Twilight nodded and turned to join him.

A shadow passed over her, and something long, smooth, and wet suddenly wrapped around the center of her barrel. Twilight’s eyes widened, and she screamed out in a panic as the ground dropped away beneath her. She was suddenly in the air, kicking and flailing as the worm lifted her up, clearly not appreciating her earlier attack. Another roar echoed, this time originating from directly behind her head and making her ears ring.

Acting quickly, Twilight lit her horn and released another burst of unfocused magic straight up just as the jaws were closing in to swallow her whole. The worm roared again, nearly deafening Twilight as it released her from its tentacle’s grasp.

Safe from being eaten alive for the moment, Twilight now had to save herself from falling to her demise. Without any time to think of a good place, she let instinct take over. Channeling magic into her horn, she allowed herself to be consumed in the burst of light that was her teleportation spell mere moments before the worm snapped at her again.

When she came back to the world in another flash, her momentum carried her sideways. Twilight cried out in pain as she was sent rolling along the ground uncontrollably, mud and small rocks getting stuck in her fur and mane and battering her on all sides. She finally slid to a stop when her side struck a particularly large stone jutting up from the earth. Red hot pain flared up in that spot, and she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice lost to the rain.

She flopped onto her back, taking a second to catch her breath and trying not to think about the sudden warm wetness that joined the cold rain along the left side of her barrel. With heavy breaths, she opened her eyes and looked around, trying to discern her location.

She was on higher ground, now. She could still make out the angered roars of the worm, not to mention the rumbling of two dozen hooves pummeling the earth in a mad dash to escape, albeit both sounds were quite muffled by distance.

Groggy, Twilight slowly dragged herself up to her hooves and looked around, trying to nail down where the noise was coming from. “If I can just nail down a direction, I can get back to the others and help them!”

She frowned in frustration when she found that the sound was stupidly hard to pin down. Her anger began to devolve into horror as she realized that, between the rain muffling the noise, and the rockiness of the terrain around her providing plenty of surfaces for it to echo on, the sounds she was hearing could be coming from almost anywhere.

“Oh no, no no no no!” She babbled frantically, starting to trot in place as terror gripped her heart. On the verge of total panic, she turned and broke into a mad dash for the nearest jutting spire of rock she could find, hoping to catch sight of the worm from there.

When she finally reached the high ground, she was able to catch sight of the scene. The worm was still chasing the expedition team, but it had luckily lost some ground, and slithering along above ground seemed to be less effective than one would give such a beast credit for. Its movements were sloppy and inefficient, giving the fleeing ponies the room they needed to get away.

Any further details were impossible to discern due to the distance and the rain. Twilight growled under her breath and looked down the rocky slope she was now at the base of. Climbing down would be difficult, but she could do it if she was careful.

Before she could commit to anything, though, the ground beneath her hooves began to quiver and shake as it had before the worm emerged. With a short inhale, Twilight realized that there must be more than one of them. “Are they drawn to the surface by movement?!” she wondered before quickly looking for even higher ground, preferably something not part of the dirt.

Before she could find such a location, the platform beneath her hooves suddenly lurched, and she knew that another of the worms was about to emerge right beneath her. Throwing caution to the wind, Twilight leaped from her platform, sailing through the air and the rain before dropping for the ground below. Her eyes widened when she realized just how big this drop was, and her horn sparked into life again to slow her descent.

The cliffside she had just been standing on exploded outwards with mud and dirt, another of the giant worms emerging and coming right at her, its mouth already peeling open and tentacles reaching out.

Consumed with panic, Twilight fired off another raw bolt of magic at the worm’s face. The blast hit its mark on the inside of one of its many jaws, erupting in a burst of lavender light. The worm roared in agony, and Twilight’s eyes widened with shock and disgust when she realized she had just blown a small hole open in its mouth. She quickly tore her eyes away from the grizzly scene, unable to focus with the ground- “WHEN DID I GET SO LOW?!”

The ground was mere yards away and coming up fast. Crying out, Twilight pumped more power into her horn in a desperate effort to slow her descent. However, in her panic, her spell didn’t go off quite as she intended, and she instead sent herself into another wild teleport.

If anypony else had been there to watch, it would have looked as if Twilight passed through the ground in a shimmer of light before flying back up out of it at the same velocity around fifteen feet away. Her legs kicked and flailed in the air, one more panicking shriek tearing past her lips before she landed in the mud with a soft plop.

Twilight lay still for a second, trying to catch her breath and determine if she had actually lived through that or not.

Sadly, today seemed to be just one bad thing after another. Perhaps thirty feet behind her, the large worm she had just injured suddenly slammed into the ground after a fall of its own, sending a heavy tremor through the earth.

Twilight shot back to her hooves and backed away, gasping for breath and desperate for a way out. The worm lifted its head up after a second before turning to glare at her, a small trickle of purple liquid dripping out one side. With an ominous, rumbling hiss, it began to slither after her, clearly not finished with her yet.

“Leave me alone!” Twilight cried out, turning and sprinting away as hard and as fast as she could. She felt her panic rising when she realized that she was running away from the expedition and deeper into the badlands. But with this great worm on her tail and the terrain as jagged as it was, any chance at turning around or circling back to link up with them were thrown to the wind for the time being.

“Just stay alive!” Twilight told herself as adrenaline took over, carrying her down a slope and into a collection of narrow, low-walled trenches with jagged walls. The worm gave chase, roaring all the while.

Twilight didn’t know for sure how long she was running before, at last, the slippery sound of the worm slithering after her faded into silence, and its deafening roars came to an end. In spite of that, however, her fear drove her to keep running and running. The narrow walls of the trenches were claustrophobic in the extreme, and thunder had started blasting overhead some time ago, rattling her bones and sending her most primal of instincts into overdrive.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she came out of her mad dash as the trench widened out, the terrain smoothing and lifting up to the base of an enormous, dusty, red mesa that was practically a mountain in its own right. A few long-dead trees were scattered around on the slope, their crooked, mangled branches sending a chill down Twilight’s spine.

Dragging her hooves and gasping for breath, Twilight slowly moved up for the mesa, spying a small, nondescript cave set into its side. The rain was finally starting to lessen up, but that changed nothing. Twilight had seen how dangerous it was to be out in the open here, and she wasn’t going to do anything else until she had some functional shelter.

Lighting up her horn to let her see, she stepped through the mouth of the cave and looked around. The entrance tunnel went on for some twenty feet before turning sharply to the right, but even from the cave mouth, she could tell it didn’t go any further than that. Good. The deeper a cave was, the more likely it would be that something could be hiding deeper inside.

And with what Twilight had already met today, she didn’t want to imagine what could be hiding even deeper in the ground.

As her exhaustion caught up to her, and the adrenaline faded from her system, Twilight finally decided to acknowledge the agonizing burning sensation that had been the left side of her barrel for the last while. Barely containing a whimper, she looked down and shuddered when she saw a long, nasty, and jagged gash marring her coat. It wasn’t bleeding profoundly, thank goodness, but it was nevertheless ugly to look at, and excruciatingly painful.

Biting down on her tongue to keep from screaming, Twilight limped deeper into the cave, tears starting to well up in her eyes. She should have listened to her friends. She never should have come to this Celestia-forsaken wasteland! Now she really understood why it had never been properly explored before. The travelers of the past had the right idea: stay away.

As she rounded the corner at the end of the tunnel, she was met with the sight of a roughly circular chamber with a roof around fifteen or seventeen feet high. The most notable feature was the small pool of water at the very back, which looked surprisingly deep.

“Okay… okay… Think Twilight. You can do this,” she whispered to herself after a moment, slowly settling down onto her haunches. She went to reach for her saddlebags, only then realizing that, somewhere in all of the chaos earlier, she must have lost them. “Oh no… no, no! My bandages!” she exclaimed, feeling herself over as, praying to Celestia that she was simply hallucinating and that the saddlebags would still be there if she looked hard enough. “My paper! My ink, my quill!”

All gone. She was left completely devoid of supplies with a bleeding injury. Struggling to keep her voice down, Twilight pressed her hooves against the injury to try and stem the flow, but the angle was too odd and uncomfortable for her to do much more than irritate it further.

Gasping, on the verge of tears, Twilight was almost completely oblivious as the rain finally came to an end over the course of several minutes, and the red glow of sunset streaming in through the mouth of the cave.

That is, she was oblivious until she heard something, and caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

Going silent, Twilight fearfully looked towards the red light that washed over the floor and walls of the cave. Her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of a shadow creeping along the floor, cast by the low angle of the sun.

Something was in the cave with her.

Author's Note

Well, that was dark. In a similar fashion to Bug in The Basement, this story opens dark, but I assure you it gets really sweet and heartwarming as it goes.

I hope you guys enjoy it!

A Moment of Concern

Thorax’s stomach audibly growled, echoing throughout the Warrior’s Nest. A few of the other drones in the chamber cast him agitated glares as if offended. Of course, many of them were offended. Annoyed by his mere presence, by his continued life, by his crimes. None of them hid their disdain, and unlike before, Pharynx did nothing to stop them, save for any displays of violence. They mocked him, they insulted him, they threatened him from afar, and he wasn’t allowed to run from any of it.

It was horrible. It was Tartarus. Thorax didn’t even know what Tartarus was like, but when Twilight had told him that it was the eternal prison for evil spirits and monsters, he imagined it was a very unpleasant place.

He was currently seated with his back against one of the walls, his ears down and his shoulder slumped. Pharynx wasn’t far ahead of him, keeping a watchful eye on a large group of drones in the middle of going through a rigorous set of exercises. He watched them like a hawk, never taking his eyes off them. But Thorax knew that his elder brother was keenly aware of everything he was doing. He had been called out enough times for that to be clear.

Thorax’s attention was drawn away from his self-pitying ruminations by a series of excited chitters and squeals from above. Looking up, he saw a collection of drones flying in with green cocoons held in their hooves. It was feeding time. Instinct kicked in, his stomach roaring with hunger, and he rose to his hooves.

“Sit.”

Thorax froze the moment Pharynx’s stern command reached his ears. He looked to his brother and opened his mouth to protest, but the harsh glare from Pharynx immediately silenced anything he had to say.

A beat passed before Pharynx scowled. He lit his horn with magic. “Did I stutter? Sit down.”

Thorax gave off an undignified yelp when he was tugged roughly back to the hard stone floor by his tail, sending a crack of pain through his hips. He groaned and whimpered, closing his eyes.

This was one of the worst parts. He wasn’t even allowed to feed himself anymore. It was always Pharynx who came back with his portion of rations. It was degrading and humiliating, but he honestly couldn’t find it in himself to complain about it. He had brought this on himself, after all. He had stolen from the hive; he was a criminal.

He deserved all of this.

“I just wish it didn’t have to mean leaving Twilight…”

His thoughts turned to the unicorn, and his already somber mood soured to the point of grief. His face screwed up as he tried desperately to keep himself from breaking down then and there. Guilt and remorse clawed away at his heart. Was she alright? Was she scared for him? Or was she mad because he had seemingly abandoned her? What was going through her mind right now? What if she caught stomach rot again?

Scenario after heart-piercing scenario flooded his mind even as the sounds of other drones ravenously devouring their meal reached his ears. Hungry hisses and snarls reverberated in the chamber, bleeding together so he couldn’t tell where one ended and another began.

“Eyes up,” Pharynx’s voice came over the ruckus. Thorax looked up just in time for a small green shell to slap into his muzzle. He grunted and pulled it away with his hooves, finding a small field mouse ensnared within the cocoon. Pharynx gestured. “Eat.”

Thorax looked back up to Pharynx, then sighed. He opened his mouth and lit his horn. Inside the cocoon, the mouse stirred. A stream of thin, wispy pink light came from its chest. It flowed through the outer shell of the cocoon to swim down Thorax’s throat. He drank up as much as he could, scraping up every last dreg he possibly could before Pharynx’s magic snatched it away.

“That’s enough,” came the simple decision. Thorax was unable to stifle a disappointed whining sound. He immediately regretted it when Pharynx leaned in to get right in his face and lowering his voice to a hostile hiss. “Don’t make that noise with me! This was already more than I’m supposed to give you. So you shut up and be thankful that I let you eat that much!”

Thorax whimpered and shied back against the wall. He was only able to offer up a small, timid nod to show his acknowledgment. Pharynx snorted and pulled back, finishing off what scraps of love were left in the mouse before chucking it lazily back into the pile. Thorax watched it go, his heart going out to the small animal. Unlike some of the larger ones they had cocooned, that mouse was probably not going to live through the day as it got passed from nest to nest.

“Pharynx, sir!” a new voice called out. Pharynx looked up as another drone, female, came to a landing in front of him.

“What is it?” he asked bluntly.

“Returning from patrol, sir.”

“Ah. I see. Report, then,” he ordered matter of factly.

The drone hesitated, her eyes darting to Thorax. “...Sir… Protocol…” she ventured carefully.

Thorax’s ears drooped. She must have found something interesting if she was clamming up now. It was standard procedure to not give off any meaningful reports within earshot of a drone on punishment.

Pharynx stiffened, his brow furrowing with frustration. “Oh, for the love of…” he turned and pointed a hoof at a drone that was just departing the food pile. “You! Watch him until I return!” he barked out.

With that, Pharynx turned and followed the other drone through a new hole in the wall that closed up behind them. Thorax swallowed heavily, suddenly feeling far more vulnerable than before. Dozens of the drones in the chamber sent him anticipatory leers and glares as if they were all wanting to dig into him next. And with Pharynx gone, there was no one to stop them. No one who would, at least. It was probably only the fear of incurring Pharynx’s wrath that held most of them back.

The drone that Pharynx had pointed to scoffed as he came up, but didn’t say anything. Thorax tried to give him a friendly smile, but that only earned him a slap to the face. He fell to one side, crumpling to the ground with a pained gasp. “Don’t look at me, thief,” the drone snarled. “You shouldn’t even be alive right now.”

Thorax closed his eyes and held perfectly still. Time seemed to drag on and on, and his weary mind slowly began to taper off. His thoughts drifted lazily to Twilight, and he absently wondered if she would try to leave without him. She was a smart mare. She could probably figure out a way home that wouldn’t get her killed in the badlands…

A hoof driving itself into the side of his barrel snapped him from his daydreaming. Gasping, Thorax snapped open his eyes and looked up. He whimpered pitifully at the sight of Mandible and Scorpion standing over him. It had been Scorpion that kicked him.

Thorax looked desperately to the drone watching him, but he didn’t seem to even be paying attention. In fact, it was like he was deliberately ignoring what Scorpion and Mandible were up to. Letting them have their fun.

“You’re a lucky little maggot, aren’t you?” Scorpion growled, leaning down and baring his fangs in Thorax’s face. “You’re supposed to be dead right now.”

Thorax swallowed heavily. “I… I…”

Scorpion slapped him, harder than the other drone had. “I didn’t say you could talk! Thieve’s don’t get to talk!”

Thorax covered his head, trembling in fear.

Mandible gave off a snort of his own. “I honestly do not understand what the Queen was thinking, letting you live. I can think of no other thief in our history who was given such leniency.”

“Oh, I understand,” Scorpion replied. He pressed his hoof into Thorax’s head and twisted, griding his face into the cold hard ground and filling his skull with increasingly hot bouts of pain. Thorax grunted and gasped, starting to squirm in a desperate attempt to free himself.

Scorpion continued, effortlessly pinning him down. “The Queen spared your life because she likes Pharynx…”

“Ah, yes. Pharynx,” Mandible noted, an audible grimace in his voice. “The head of patrol is one of her favorites, isn’t he…?”

“Useful, efficient, and professional,” Scorpion added, applying more pressure to Thorax’s head. “But he’s got one weakness. You. Pharynx has an infuriating soft spot for you, doesn’t he? He likes you, for some stupid reason. And Chrysalis likes him.”

“She kills you, she loses him,” Mandible clarified slowly.

Thorax whimpered, giving up his feeble attempts at resistance and just putting up with it.

There was a sudden scraping of stone, followed by an angered shout. “Scorpion, Mandible! That’s enough!”

Thorax’s heart briefly soared with hope at the sound of his brother’s voice. The pressure on his skull decreased, and for a brief, wonderful second, he felt like he was about to get some respite.

Then Scorpion snarled into his ear. “That brother of yours won’t be around to watch your worthless shell forever…”

With that, Scorpion and Mandible turned and flew off to disappear higher into the Warrior’s Nest. Thorax held perfectly still, his eyes wide. He felt cold and heavy, as if he had been petrified. The world tunneled ahead of him as the weight of Scorpion’s insinuation dawned on him. A tiny, horrified squeak slipped past his lips, and he involuntarily curled up, clutching his hooves to his belly to defend his innards. A fear unlike anything he had ever felt before pumped through his veins with every beat of his frantically hammering heart.

A few seconds passed before he felt a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, Thorax. Get up,” Pharynx’s voice echoed in his ears, but Thorax could barely hear it through the high-pitched ringing flooding his thoughts. “Thorax!”

A few seconds passed. Thorax gasped when he was suddenly and forcefully hauled up to a standing position by Pharynx’s firm grip. The stronger drone looked into his eyes for a second, then to the side of his head. The intensity in Pharynx’s glare faded somewhat, and he sighed. “For the love of… those two have a death wish, I swear,” he grumbled before turning for the wall. A hole opened up in it, expanding out into a small, empty chamber. “Come on, get in.”

“Huh?”

“Just move it.”

Thorax staggered numbly into the room. The wall closed up behind him, plunging the chamber into relative darkness. He slumped against the wall and took a deep breath, vaguely aware of a dim light emerging from Pharynx’s horn.

“Look at me.”

Thorax didn’t comply at first. Pharynx didn’t have the patience to ask again, though. He reached out and turned Thorax’s chin so they were eye to eye. The fire in Pharynx’s gaze had faded, and he held a hoof up to the side of Thorax’s face that had been pressed into the floor. Thorax hissed at the touch. It burned fiercely, and he knew he was bruised and swelling there.

Pharynx sighed and shook his head. “I wish I could feel sorry for you, brother. Really, I do,” he admitted softly before backing up a step. “But I can’t blame them… I honestly wanted to beat you senseless myself. If I wasn’t in charge of watching over you right now, I would have.”

Thorax cringed and looked away. “...I’m sorry I disappointed you,” he mumbled.

A heavy silence fell over the two. Pharynx gave off a growl of frustration and dropped to his haunches. “Guh! You were doing so well, Thorax! You were making such good progress, and then you had to go and throw it all away! I was starting to feel proud of you for a change, and now…”

Thorax flinched under every word. Pharynx buried his face in his hooves and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. “...You are lucky. You really are…” he finally said.

Thorax nodded. “I know… Scorpion and Mandible talked about it…”

Pharynx sighed before standing up and coming up to his little brother’s side. “Try not to listen to them. They’re lucky they’ve managed to slip by as long as they have without getting slapped with something major,” he said before sitting down in front of Thorax. “What matters is that you’re alive, and that means you have an opportunity to make up for your mistakes.”

Thorax blinked, confused. “Wha… huh?”

Pharynx looked down. “I’m not exactly a consort, but I know Chrysalis likes me. If you behave yourself, I might see if I can convince her to lessen your sentence somewhat…”

Thorax’s eyes widened. “But… wouldn’t that bring your motives into question? Wouldn’t that make everyone else mad at you, too? For… for looking out for me?”

“Let them be mad,” Pharynx spat. “I couldn’t care less what petty nonsense they choose to get upset over. They can laugh, mock, insult, and jeer at me all they want. It doesn’t matter to me. What does, however, is my brother.”

Thorax’s eyes widened. “Pharynx… n-no, I… I can’t ask you to do that for me,” he stammered out, unable to put any strength into his words. “I stole from the hive. I deserve this… Just let it happen.”

Pharynx’s nostrils flared. He suddenly rose to his hooves. “Do you think I’m enjoying this, Thorax?!” he shouted, causing the smaller drone to jump. Pharynx slammed a hoof into the wall hard enough to knock a few chips loose. “Of course I don’t! You are all I have in this blasted wasteland! Do you have any idea how hard it is on me to sit by and watch while you suffer like this?!”

Thorax shrank back, his eyes flying wide as his brother went on with his sudden tirade. “Yes, you stole from the hive, and yes, you deserve to be punished. But I stopped caring about what you deserve a long time ago! You. Are. My. Brother! The only family I have, Thorax! Do you understand that?! My small, weak, frightened, gentle, and only brother! If it means making your life just a little easier until you can stand on your own hooves, than I will happily weather any backlash I may incur from trying to help you!”

Thorax stared at Pharynx in complete and utter shock. Never once in all of the time they had known one another had the elder brother opened up so intensely. Thorax couldn’t even think of a single time where Pharynx had come close. He had always been cold, blunt, and harsh on him.

He swallowed heavily. “But… y-you just said that you would have beaten me up for what I did if you could…” he pointed out.

Pharynx slapped him upside the head. “And I meant it, you buffoon. Life is hard here, and stupid mistakes can’t be tolerated, and this is by far the biggest stupid mistake you have ever made.”

Thorax managed a tiny smile, despite the added layer of throbbing in his skull. “Heh… even the time I found that drawing rock?”

Pharynx narrowed his eyes. “Go ahead, Thorax. Keep talking. See how long my sympathy lasts when you bring that up.”

Thorax didn’t say another word. He did, however, manage a small laugh. He looked at Pharynx after a moment, his smile fading and his mind kicking into overdrive.

Pharynx had never been so open with his devotion before. If he was serious, and he meant to go to the Queen to try and ease his punishment, even if only a little bit… He was taking a huge risk to do that. If he said one thing wrong, his loyalty would be called into question, and he could be punished, too.

To go to such lengths…

Thorax’s thoughts drifted to Twilight again, and he began to consider opening up to Pharynx about why he had really been stealing from the hive. Pharynx would probably not understand. He’d probably get even angrier. But if he was willing to go this far for his sake, then maybe, just maybe, Thorax could trust him to know about her? Let her know what happened?

Before he could speak, though, Pharynx turned, and the wall peeled open. “...Now come on. I still have work to do, and you don’t get to be alone. Just…”

He turned back to Thorax, his eyes softening considerably. “Behave. Please.”

Thorax blinked. “Did Pharynx just say… please?”

Without another word, Pharynx turned and stepped back out into the Warrior’s Nest. Thorax followed after him a moment later, the chamber sealing shut behind them.

Author's Note

This chapter was so fun to write. Pharynx especially.