The sun was shining over the Hive. Many of the changelings were moving around the Hive, either doing the Feelings Forum, or other activities set up. Thorax himself was moving around the Hive checking on his subjects as they continued to do their activities. Should probably check on Pharynx the king thought. He looked to his brother's room. He walked into his brother's room. He peeked into the room. Nothing. He turned to leave, but something caught his eye. He turned back to the room. What is that? he thought. He moved to the object. He looked at it. Is that a rock? he thought looking at it. He felt the rock, then it hit him. No way, he thought. Chrysalis’ throne. Or at least a chunk of it. He looked at it. How’d he get that? He didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe I should…
“Thorax!”
The Changeling king jumped out of fear, “sweet Chrysalis Pharynx! I think I just had twelve heart attacks!” Thorax said rubbing his abdomen.
The Prince/General walked towards him, “why are you in my room?”
“I mean it’s our room but okay.”
“That’s not the point! The point is that you’re snooping around my part of the room.”
Pharynx walked over to the king. Thorax looked at his brother, then back at the throne piece, “why do you have this?” Thorax asked.
“If another Pony-Changeling War happens, we’ll need this to protect us,” he said, “and I also want it for memory.”
“Oh.”
“Well. I’m going to go run a combat sim.” The Prince turned and left. Thorax reached for the piece. “Do not take that throne piece!”
Thorax practically jumped out of his skin. “Okay! Geez!” The Prince turned and left for the arena. Thorax looked back to the throne piece, then to his brother. He decided to follow his brother. The arena was still used by the army and Changelings who wanted to release anger or just just do something else. Thorax hadn’t fought in the war after faking his own death to try and escape. He himself was surprised at how long that lie had lasted. He followed his brother to the arena to watch him.
“What sim are you choosing?” Thorax asked.
“I dunno. Maybe Trident.”
Thorax looked at him. “How long is it gonna take?”
“20 or so minutes.”
Thorax looked at his brother, “can I join you?”
Pharynx almost laughed. “Wow Thor, I didn’t think you’d be one to join in combat.”
“Think I owe you something. Y’know, for not joining you in the War.”
“You owe me a heckuva lot more than that.”
Thorax chuckled, “yeah, you’re right.”
They walked to the arena.
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
One Beach Storming Later
Thorax walked beside his brother quivering, while the latter was simply laughing. “How could you enjoy that?!”
“I guess it’s just the thrill of storming a beach and blasting RG’s.” Pharynx said laughing.
Thorax shuddered again. “Maybe for your crazy carapace.”
“Well, I’m going to hit the hay for a while.”
“Alright. I’ll join you soon.”
“Alright, meet you there.”
With that, Pharynx turned and left. Thorax looked around. He shrugged. He had nothing else to do today. There weren’t any meetings with the princesses, and his subjects weren’t doing anything. So he pretty much had the entire day to himself. He decided that he was going to hit the hay with Pharynx.
The king walked to his room. His brother was already asleep. Before he went to bed, the glowing throne piece caught his eye. He looked at it. He went to grab it. Please don’t wake up. Please don’t. His hoof was a few inches away when.
“Thorax?”
“Eep!” Thorax squeaked. He slowly looked over to his brother. Pharynx tossed and turned in bed. Thorax sighed, “sleep talking motherbucker.” He chuckled. Then he got an idea. He leaned down to his brother's ear. “Hey Pharynx?” he whispere. His brother mumbled the words, “huh? Thorax quickly thought of something that seemed stupid, “it’s…um… Luna?”
“Wha… L… Luna?”
“Yes? It is I, Princess Luna?” Thorax said, trying to match Luna’s pattern of speech.
“Wha… what… do you need..?”
“I came to uhh…” Thorax needed something. Then he got an idea. “I came to do this!” Thorax grabbed his brother and started shaking him around.
“Ah… aah… AAAH!” Pharynx started shaking his head around. “What’s going on?! Earthquake!”
Thorax chuckled as he continued to pull his brother’s “dream strings” like he was a puppet. “Hey Pharynx. What’s going on?”
“Thorax… It’s an… earthquake…”
Thorax held back a laugh. Then he decided to do more random things. Thorax thought of something else that seemed stupid. “Oh no! A Manticore!” he whispered into his brother's ear.
“Wha- Thorax… get back…” He said before slowly mumbling. He started throwing punches at what he thought was a Manticore. Thorax backed up a bit so he wouldn’t get hit.
Thorax was getting a kick out of this; he realized he practically had the power to do anything with his brother’s dream. “Pharynx! Behind you!” He thought of something stupid to say, “a diamond dog is stealing the throne piece!”
Out of nowhere, Pharynx grabbed his pillow and threw it at his “enemy”. Thorax jumped back before the projectile hit him. The pillow smashed into a bookcase and a glass vase and several books fell from the top of it. Thorax stepped out of the room before…
Crash!
Pharynx jumped out of his sleep, and bed, at full attention, horn charged in a matter of seconds. He looked at the doorway to see his brother standing there. “Oh. Um… hey Thorax?”
“Hey?”
The two brothers stared at each other in complete silence for a few seconds. Then Thorax asked, “what’s with the throne piece dude?”
Pharynx sighed, “I just kept it as a memoir. Y’know, from the old days. And it can be used as a defense against magic.”
“Yeah, but why’d you throw a pillow at the bookcase over it?” he said pointing to the mess of glass and fallen books.
“I thought a diamond dog was stealing it?” he replied sheepishly.
Thorax looked at the throne piece. Then he got an idea. He looked at his brother. “I think I’ll go check on everyone…”
“Yeah… you do that. I’ll just…” he looked at the mess, “clean this up.”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Thorax trotted through the Hive, heading the Arts and Crafts table. In his hoof sat a rock, almost identical to Pharynx’s throne piece. He walked past the many Changelings who were working on small projects. This however wasn’t a small project. This may just be the best prank ever. Well, at least in Thorax’s case. He just had to find the material for it. After a while of searching, he finally found the Changeling he was looking for, “hey Helix.”
Helix, a light blue schemed changeling, looked over, “hey Thorax. What do you need?” he replied, taking a sip from a tea cup a few feet away.
Thorax sat the rock on the table, “I need a bit of help with something, and I wanted to know if you could help.”
“Well I’m here sir.”
“You see, Pharynx has a piece of the Queen's throne, and I had an idea to prank him.”
A smirk grew on Helix’s face. “I’m listenin’...”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Thorax moved into his brother's room as quietly as he could. He looked around the room. His brother was still asleep. He moved towards the throne piece. Alright. Now for the hard part. He grabbed the throne piece and switched it with the rock, which was now covered in some kind of glowing mushroom oil. He took the throne piece and put it under his bed. Then he moved to the glowing rock and proceeded to wake his brother. “Hey Pharynx?”
The prince lazily got up and rubbed his eyes. He sat up and looked at Thorax. “Oh. Hey Thorax. What do you need?”
Thorax gulped, “uh, Pharynx? What would you do if someone stole the throne piece?”
Pharynx tilted his head, “why?”
Quick Thorax! Make a good lie! “Uh… because we want to prepare a sorta medical treatment for the creature on the receiving end of your “justice”.”
Pharynx rolled his eyes, “well, let’s just say that they’d be in for the beat down of a lifetime.”
Thorax gulped, again. Then he asked, “wha… what if I stole it?”
Pharynx laughed. “Like you’d ever have the guts to do it.” He continued laughing.
Thorax shook his head. “It’s a legitimate question!”
Pharynx gave a slight smile, “well, I probably wouldn’t beat you like a senseless animal, but I would chase you down until you gave it back. Why’d you ask?”
Thorax took another breath. “Well, I just wanted to know before I did this!” With that, Thorax jumped up and grabbed the rock and took off.
Pharynx sat there for a few seconds, trying to process what he’d just seen. Surely this was a dream, right? There’s no way Thorax had the guts to do that. Right?
“Hey, uh Pharynx? Thorax is running away with your throne piece.”
He looked at the light blue changeling standing there. “I know Helix. I’m about to get it back.” Then, like a rocket ship, Pharynx took off after his brother, leaving Helix literally in the dust. He coughed for a bit before looking at the two brothers.
“Good luck sir. You’re gonna need it…”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Thorax continued running through the Hive, while still holding the rock. Alright. Now think, where to teleport? He ran many scenarios in his head. Then he decided on Mount Aris. He quickly looked over his shoulder, only to see Pharynx charging him like a bull in a teapot shop. He concentrated his magic, then he imagined Mount Aris. Then he yelled, “see you at Mount Aris!” before poofing out of sight.
Pharynx wasn’t gonna let that stop him. He too teleported to Mount Aris. He saw his brother run towards the top of the mountain. He of course gave chase. The two brothers ran and ran for a few minutes until Thorax found the cliff of the mountain. He turned around to meet Pharynx face-to-face. “Well, this is awkward…”
Pharynx hadn’t broken a sweat. “Alright. End of the line. Hand it over.”
Thorax started to back up. He looked over his shoulder. He was getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. “Pharynx. Back up, really slowly.”
“Then give me the throne piece back.”
“Fraid I can’t do that.”
“Then I’ll just take it.” With that, Pharynx charged him.
Out of pure reflex, Thorax turned around and yelled, “YEET!” Then, he threw the rock off the cliff.
Pharynx grew an expression of shock and horror. He ran past his brother and looked over the edge, with the same shocked expression on his face. He turned back to face his brother. “D… did you just…”
“Uh… Pharynx?” Thorax smiled sheepishly, “wha… what are you doing?”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Ocellus flipped through her book, reading up on Equestrian History. She showed particular interest in the changeling Navy ship, The Cricket.
“You work too much.”
She looked up to see her friends. “Oh. Hey guys. What do you need?”
Silverstream smiled, “we were planning a camping trip. We wanted to know if you wanted to come with us.”
Ocellus smiled, “of course. Let me just—
Crash!
The six students jumped out of the way of the falling object. The figure hit the table and smashed it all to pieces. The students looked at the figure. “Thorax?”
The green changeling got up. “Oh. Hey Ocellus.” He dusted himself off.
Ocellus looked at him. “Where’d you come from?”
“Long story.”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Pharynx scrabbles through the many, many rocks that were on the shoreline. It didn’t help that it was broad daylight and the throne pieces glow wouldn’t be able to be seen. He threw rocks left and right, one after another. After twenty minutes of throwing rocks, he heard hoof steps. He looked over his shoulder. There stood Thorax.
“Hey, Pharynx…”
“What do you want?” Pharynx growled.
Thorax pulled out the throne piece, “here.”
“Wait! B-But… How… I…”
“That “throne piece” I threw was a rock.” Pharynx gave him a death glare. “April fools?” Thorax said sheepishly.
Pharynx snatched the throne piece away from his brother. “Don’t do that again.”
“No promises.”
Pharynx looked at him. “What?”
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
The Young Six finished setting up the tent. The camp was complete. Ocellus smiled. “Done,” she said looking at the tent. The students nodded.
“Ahhhh!”
Crash!
The students looked at the pile of rope that was sitting behind them. There, tangled in the rope, was a familiar green changeling. He sheepishly smiled. “Um… help?”
Author's Note
My attempt at comedy. That small dream scene was inspired by BezierBallad’s Bedbug