Growing Confidence

by BottleH2O

Rating: everyone
Tags: Pharynx, Slice of Life, Thorax, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Random, Adventure
Length: 11799

A timid Thorax is in dire need of a way to boost his confidence as the new King of Changelings, so Luna decided to lend a helping hoof by making him feel like he's on top of the world. Literally.

Only weeks ago Thorax was appointed as the new king of the Changeling hive after his evil mother fled, and he’s a nervous wreck. Wanting to help her new young friend, Princess Luna pays Thorax a visit in his dreams to help give him the confidence boost he needs. Her solution? Well, the growing into a giant thing worked before with Celestia, maybe it'll work again with Thorax.

Contains Macro/Micro

Published 2021-11-27 16:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-13 22:14:21 UTC

Chapter 1- A Growing Concern

King Thorax of the reformed changelings sat on his throne with a happy, content smile on his face. Before, his Carapace used to be completely black, with holes dotting up and down his legs and blank, blue, expressionless eyes. Just like his hundreds of brothers and sisters previously. Now, however, after going through a series of challenges and trials, he now sits as the new king of all Changelings. All of his buggy brethren had undergone a similar metamorphosis as he had. After it was discovered that their old way of living, in which all they did was take love from others to survive, was doing more harm than good, a good friend of his named Starlight had figured out that Changelings would feel fuller and more fulfilled if they shared love instead of taking it. Thorax was the first to try this, and it resulted in his transformation, and thus, toppling the dark kingdom ran by his evil mother Chrysalis. Thorax’s new form was lime green with a few hints of orange sprinkled in. Bright orange antlers protruded from his head, his horn was no longer jagged, his legs no longer were filled with holes, and even his elytra were a soft shade of purple.

Ever since the change, he had noticed that everyling had become, happier. Calmer even, after they shared love. They didn’t seem to hold that same aggressiveness as they then when they were constantly starving all the time. There was a hangry joke to be made there, but as his brother Pharynx said, it would be a bit below the belt.

But even with the change, it was still going to take the equine society and the rest of the world a while to get used to their new neighbors in the badlands. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that they had led an all-out assault on the capitol of Equestra; Canterlot. Led by, at the time, Queen Chrysalis, she had convinced all of the hive that the best course of action was to attack the pony capital so they can take the rulers captive, seize control of the city, then the country, and feast off of them to their heart’s content.

Thankfully the invasion had gone wrong, one thing lead to another, and now Thorax found himself as the brand now king of the reformed Changeling hive. He was trying his best to implement change in the Changeling system, to steer it away from what the dark structure his mother had set, but this proved to be much of a challenge, for many of his brethren were having…difficulty completely uprooting their previous way of life in favor of a more peaceful one. In fact, though many had opted to undergo a metamorphosis to become bright, colorful, happy, and fulfilled, many had refused to do that. Their reasoning varying greatly; some thought it was some weird form of brainwashing, some had thought their new look was dumb, and other were not too pleased they were going to give up their warrior ways. But the biggest problem was getting love. Sure, now they could share love amongst themselves so they wouldn’t starve, but the issue laid with the fact that all the other races across the world still saw the Changelings as the fearsome brutes that recklessly attacked Canterlot at the time of Shining and Cadance’s wedding, and thus, many still feared them and refused to share their love with them, especially now that they had made a treaty making it even harder to hide in plain sight like they used to. The hive was in a tizzy on how to bring a new influx of love into the hive now that they couldn’t steal it anymore, they still had plenty of mouths to feed, especially to those who had not undergone the metamorphosis. And Thorax didn’t want to force them to do that, who was he, Chrysalis?

At the moment, Thorax didn’t have an answer to their questions, in fact he was constantly trying to dodge the question whenever it was brought up, causing him to studder and shake violently in fear at his doubt and inability to come up with a suitable solution, but that didn’t seem to deter Changelings that wanted a straight answer and they kept pestering him about it. But just as suddenly, while Thorax was going over the week’s events in his mind, a group of unreformed changelings suddenly stormed into the throne room. And judging from their annoyed expressions, Thorax could hazard a guess what they were there to talk about.

“King Thorax!” One of them pipped up in the front “We are here to discuss with you the ever-present problem that has been afflicting the hive ever since you became king! We are running short on our supply of love!”

“Yeah!” agreed several more drones as they hopped up and down in their supposed protest.

“We want to know what you are going to do about this!” demanded the lead drone, pointing an accusatory holed hoof at Thorax “We can’t all just starve to death here ya know!”

“W-w-w-well I-I-I-I-I’m working o-on t-t-that,” Thorax stuttered out as the weight of this seemingly impossible task began to bear down on him once again.

“Oh really?” all the drones spoke in unison as they smugly looked at him “And how are you doing that, so called king of ours? Gonna fill our heads with more false promises perhaps? Face it, you stupid grub, you have no idea how to fix this!”

“T-t-t-that’s not true!” Thorax said weakly as he got off his throne and shakily walked up to them. The room seemed to be spinning as he made his way over to the group. But as he walked, the way there just seemed to be getting longer and longer. Absolutely no progress was being made

“Just like our love problem you’re NOT helping us with!” The drones snarled together.

“H-how is this possible? Changelings can’t hear each other’s thoughts!” an increasingly panicked Thorax thought as he futilely tried to run forward now, still gaining no ground

More and more drones seemed to pop up around him as Thorax tried galloping forward now, His brother Pharynx appeared in the crowd, along with Spike, Shining Armor and Cadance, Twilight and Starlight, and the rest of the mane 6. The all had blank, thousand-mile stares as they slowly moved forward. “You can’t do anything right King Thorax! We were better off with Queen Chrysalis. At least she actually had the Carapace to actually get stuff done! And look at you, hiding in this room while trying to avoid your problems. Talk about pathetic!”

“Failure, Failure, Failure,” chanted everycreature present as the bared down on him

“N-no, that’s not true! I’m trying! I really am!” Thorax said desperately as they all drew closer. Getting no response, Thorax put his hooves over his head and buried his muzzle into the ground, trying desperately to ignore the chants. But it was no use.

That is until the timely arrival of a certain moon princess.

“ENOUGH! BEGONE FOUL CREATURES!!”

There was a loud whooshing noise circulating Thorax as he still had his head buried between his legs, several screeches echoed around him before dissipating into the wind. Thorax whimpered, still scared to even look up, before a comforting hoof landed on his shoulder.

“Rise our young friend, thy foul demons will trouble you no more,” said a gentle and kind voice.

Shaking, Thorax slowly lifted his head to reveal the shining form of Princess Luna of Equestria, mistress of the moon and keeper of dreams.

“Princess…?” Thorax asked weakly

“Hush now young friend, you were merely having a nightmare,” Luna said as she lightly brought him close and wrapped her wings around his shaking form in a hug.

“R-r-really? None of that was real?” Thorax asked hopefully

“Indeed, it seems that this particular nightmare stemmed from a particular fear you’ve been grabbling for the past few weeks dear,” the moon princess said softly as she continued to wrap her wings around him.

Thorax said nothing as he melted into the embrace, only to shake his head weakly at the statement. Gently, Luna released him and sat back on her hunches, looking at him with a sad expression “Thorax, I will always be eternally grateful for what you have done for both me and my sister as well as the Kingdom, so please, allow me to aid you with this. Why do you think you have been getting these particular nightmares so often?”

Thorax’s ears flattened against his head as he looked down in shame “I’d…rather not say your majesty,” he said quietly “It’s silly,”

Thorax flinched slightly as he felt a comforting hoof on his shoulder, looking up he could see Luna looking deeply into his eyes “Thorax, rarely anything would be considered silly in situations like this. I certainly would never think less of you, if you were to trust me with your feelings on the matter. So, I implore of you, will you let me help?” Luna asked.

Thorax continued to stare into her eyes for about a second longer before his resolve broke and he stared dejectedly at the ground “All right princess,” he said “I’ve been having a little trouble with the hive for the past few weeks. Ever since I became the new king, I’ve had to put in some new changes into the system so we can improve and grow as a new changeling society. But the thing is, some of the others don’t want to give up the old ways. One of the primary problems that I’ve been facing is that most of the other races, ponies included are extremely unwilling to share love with us. Even if we ask nicely, and the reason why is because thanks to my mother and her rash decision to invade Canterlot, mostly all of the species of the world sees us as nothing more than mindless creatures trying to drain them dry of their emotions. And because of this the hive’s supply of love has started to greatly dwindle,”

Thorax paused to take a breath; his ears folded back against his head as he continued “The hive has gotten really panicky and antsy lately, and for good reason. Everyling is looking to me to find some way to fix this mess because I was the one who wanted to switch lifestyles after learning to share love, but every time I try to solve the problem by meeting up with delegates from other nations or meeting with my fellow changelings I just keep freezing up and panicking and I completely make a fool out of myself!”

Thorax finished his mini rant, panting slightly out of exhaustion. Luna simply smiled slightly as she fixed him with another look “you’ve been wanting to get that off your chest for a while now, haven’t you?” she said, as Thorax nodded.

Luna looked thoughtful as she put a hoof to her chin “Well, you do have the right idea by wanting to meet with other nations so you can show that you’ve changed, but the problem is that you lack confidence, and it causes you to freeze up. Hmmmm….” Luna trailed off as she was left to her thoughts while Thorax, now sitting down as well, simply looked on in confusion. But a few seconds later, Luna’s face brightened up as she clapped her hooves together happily

“The wait is over our young friend; I have an idea on how to build up your confidence!” Luna exclaimed “The solution was so simple I can’t believe I nearly forgot! This is just like with Tia!”

“Um, I won’t have to go to any classes or anything right? Because if I’m being honest your highness, I don’t think I’d have time to do that anymore,” Thorax said bashfully

Luna simply grinned “Of course not silly, you’re going to build up your confidence right here in your dream!”

“How will I even do that? This is a dream, not real life,”

“True, but unlike real life, I can make certain things happen here in the dreamscape that normally wouldn’t happen in the waking world, such as right now!” Luna giggled as she lit her horn. It’s blue magic swirling around the spiral as she aimed it at Thorax, who back up a bit

“Uh Princess, what are you doing?!” Thorax asked in alarm

“I’m going to help you build up your confidence Thorax dear,” Luna said happily “And to do so I’m going to make you a giant,”

“WHAT?! How will becoming a giant even help me?”

“It’s simple, when you feel confidant, most of the time you feel like you’re on top of the world, like you can reach for the sky and do anything you want because you have the power to do so. So I’m going to let you experience this exact feeling in a more literal sense. Enjoy yourself as you tower over the land! Maybe tease your subjects a bit as you examine just how little they’ll become, go for a nice long stroll across the country as you cover miles with just a single step, or even throw your weight around a little. Remind all the little ones who’s large and in charge! And remember Thorax, this is all for your benefit, so when you become the largest being in the world, remember that there is nothing that you can’t do. Don’t be afraid because there will be no place to hide. Own the feeling and show the world who’s boss! Luna said, as her spell reached its end, the magic fully built up in her horn now “Well, have fun dear!”

“Wait Luna! I don’t think this is a good-” Thorax never got a chance to finish because at that moment the spell released, shooting straight for him before striking him in the chest, unleashing a huge blast of light.

Thorax tried blinking a few times, still trying to clear the white spots from his eyes “Was that really necessary?” He grumbled to himself as he raised a hoof to his eyes and rubbed it. But as he set his hoof down again, Thorax froze as he heard a soft BOOM!

His eyes shot open as he quickly examined his surroundings

And felt like a lump of ice had formed in his stomach

There, standing at leg height, was the Changeling hive, in all of its miniature glory. And right next to it was his green hoof, easily breaking into the ground like it was snow, forming a large, crater-like hoofprint next to it. If Thorax hadn’t known that Luna was going to make him enormous, he would have easily mistaken the hive for a little model. All around him he could see the familiar landscape, but greatly reduced in its stature. Trees were the size of grass; boulders were smaller than pebbles, and the once mighty mountains in the distance didn’t seem so mighty, in fact, to Thorax, they seemed comparable to large hills.

“Luna? Luna?! Where are you?!” Thorax frantically asked as he anxiously looked around him, the land trembling as the giant king turned around in circles, trying desperately to find the Moon Princess.

But Luna was nowhere to be found.

“Oh great, oh geez, oh my goodness, what do I do? I can't stay this big forever!” Thorax thought hysterically after he finished prancing around from his search “What if everycreature thinks I’m some kind of monster? They already don’t trust Changelings as is, what will they do if they see one that’s bigger than a castle? Will they deem me and my hive a threat and try to attack us? Oh my god I gotta get help fast! But where should I go?”

Thorax thought about it for a little while, birds flying past his legs while he did so, when suddenly a smile split his face “That’s it! I can go ask Shining and Cadance for help! They were so kind to me when they let me stay with them in the castle when I was stranded in the Crystal Empire, I’m sure they and Starburst can find a remedy for this in no time! Then surely I’ll be able to wake up from this nightmare!”

With his goal set, Thorax began to walk forward excitedly, only to stop in place after a few earth trembling steps “Wait a minute, how am I even supposed to get there? I’m several thousands of feet tall now. What if I hurt somepony on my way there by accident? Or worse?”

Thorax closed his eyes with a grimace, his ears drooping back against his head, before letting out a sigh. The powerful gale of wind expelling from his mouth, buffering the miniature trees below him as he made up his mind “Well, it’s not like they’re going to magically spawn here and help me. I just have to be super, super, EXTRA carful on my way there,”

His resolve set, Thorax once again began to set off across the little landscape, sending more thundering THOOMS across the land as the gigantic changeling king walked.

In a small village that was somewhat close to the Crystal Mountains, a group of ponies were outside doing repairs to their homes. The reason being that a little while ago, there had been an unexpected avalanche from the mountain and the resulting snow had caused some damage to the residences there.

And being that the village was so close to the Crystal Empire, this proved to be a bit of a problem because of the cold weather. Nevertheless, ponies in the community took on the challenge enthusiastically as they all went about with the repairs. Those who had no damages done to their homes were eagerly going about provided warm cups of hot chocolate to the workers or even getting their hooves dirty by pitching in to help themselves.

“There! Almost done!” One stallion thought happily as he and his comrades finished the repairs to the walls of his house. The workers there cheered and congratulated each other as they finished patching up the wall, completely sealing up the cracks.

Flushed with their success, the workers decided to take a quick break and drink another cup of warm coco that the kind mare from the general store was nice enough to set up for everypony present.

“This is going great. Another few hours and the town will be as right as rain,” the construction stallion thought as he took another sip from his paper cup “I’m happy that we were all able to chip in as a community and lend a helping hoof for each other,”

The stallion settled back against the log he was sitting on, enjoying the warm drink as he simply took a break, happy that the work will soon come to an end

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The stallion’s eyes shot open as the ground began to violently shake, his hot drink spilling all over him as he tumbled to the ground in a heap. All around him there were screams as ponies ran around in a panic from the vibrations. Barrels were bouncing about in the air, stands got knocked over, and the newly repaired housed began to crack again.

“What is this? Another avalanche?” The stallion wondered from his position on the ground. But that couldn’t be it because as he glanced up at the mountains, he could see that they were completely clear, not a single falling bit of snow in sight “If it’s not the mountain that what could it be?”

His question was soon answered as a shadow appeared and covered the entire town, the originator of said shadow looming high above them all. Then, before anypony could react, there was a resounding CRUNCH.

The ponies in the area winced at the unpleasant sound before slowly turning at the point of origin. There, where one of the newly finished vacant houses were, was a gigantic, bright green, chitin hoof.

Slowly training their eyes up, everypony present gawked at the humongous, green, buggy, newcomer.

“Oh, my goodness I’m so sorry!” The enormous changeling exclaimed in shock as he slowly removed his giant hoof from the splintered remains of the house “I didn’t even realize there was a town here, everything looks so small and different now!”

“You-you-you just completely destroyed that house!” cried out one of the citizens

The giant’s ears flattened as he slowly backed up, only to freeze as there was another CRUNCH. Unknowingly to him, he had accidently squashed another house under hoof.

“I-I’m really sorry about that everypony, I promise that once I get back from the Crystal Empire, I’ll fix all this. But I’m really in a hurry!” and just as quickly, the giant king spread his elytra wings and tried to fly out of the area to prevent anymore damages. But as he lifted off the ground and began to fly towards the mountains, Thorax completely forgot that due to his newfound size, even the most mundane thing he did could have staggering consequences to the environment around him.

The powerful gusts of wind from his wings sent several ponies and debris flying everywhere, tools, wooden planks, and more swirling around. By the time the dust cleared, the ponies were able to see that the town had been completely ruined. All of their hard work had been completely undone.

The ponies just stood in shock, gawking uncomprehendingly at the scene. It had all happened so fast. One minute they had almost finished repairing the town, and the next, that walking catastrophe lumbered through and completely ruined everyponies hard work!

And all the ponies were mad

“That big oaf! Look what he did!” One mare screeched, gesturing to the remains of her flattened house

“Yeah! That monster completely tore up the entire town!” Another agreed

“What should we do? Everything’s been completely destroyed,” someone else pipped up

“I know, we should go after that monster! He said he’s going to the Crystal Empire right? All we have to do is get there too and then we can ask for Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor to have him arrested!”

There was a chorus of cheers all over the town as the ponies began to hand out pitchforks and torches, and all other necessary mob material, and together, they all set off towards the same direction as the colossal changeling, and towards the Crystal Empire.

Thorax meanwhile landed at the edge of the empire with a resounding THOOM! His knees buckled briefly from the impact. Grunting slightly, he took a second to study himself before beginning to slowly walk forward, and into the empire itself.

The city trembled and shook with each step, all of the tiny ponies scattered about on the ground bounced in the air from each one of his mighty steps. Thorax carefully stepped over a cluster of houses and shops before he finally made his way to the center of the empire. And where the Castle was.

Now standing as tall as the Crystal Castle itself, it wasn’t like Thorax could just knock on the door and ask for help, so he did the next best thing. Thorax raised his gargantuan green hoof and very delicately tapped the fun sized castle with the underside of his hoof, completely unaware on the mite sized guards standing at the little entrance by his gigantic hooves.

The castle shook from the taps, dull thuds rang forth from each strike, all while Thorax called out “Cadance! Shining! Starburst! Anypony home?”

For a few minutes there was nothing, then suddenly, the doors to the balcony opened, just at eye level with Thorax, and his previous hosts/guardians stepped out.

“Thorax we hear you, no need to shout,” Cadance said as she and Shining Armor emerged from the royal suite “Now what’s going….going….wuargh?” Cadance and Shining stopped in their tracks, openly gawking at the, now, skyscraper sized changeling king.

“Wha-what happened to you?!” Shining Armor asked in shock as he fully took in Thorax’s enlarged form, not even able to see Thorax’s huge face fully as the giant looked down at the couple pleadingly.

“It’s a long story, but basically what happened was I met Luna a little while ago and she kept going on and on about how I need to work on my confidence so she randomly made me huge and so I panicked and came over here to you guys because maybe you can help me reverse this and set things right!” Thorax finished, panting a little from how fast he just laid all that out.

Shining and Cadance blinked, trying to process the exposition dump Thorax had just laid out in front of them.

“So, wait, you said Luna did this to you?” Cadance asked

“Yes,”

“And she wanted you to build confidence?” Shining asked

“Yup,”

“But you panicked and came here?”

“Yes I did! So can you help? Please? It’s really scary and nerve-wracking all the way up here. I’m scared that at any moment I’d do something bad or something will go wrong or something else that’s bad could happen,” Thorax bumbled out the mess of words as he gave the two another pleading look

Cadance and Shining glanced at each other, confirming with a quick nod they were about to answer, but before a word could be said, everypony suddenly heard a commotion behind them.

Thorax turned around and saw that there was an apparent mob of ponies heading towards the castle, all of which were carrying torches and pitchforks. The lead ponies in the front caught sight of Thorax and pointed accusingly at him “There he is, there’s the monster that ravaged our village!”

Thorax let out an “Eeep!” of fear and immediately ducked behind the little castle, trying in vain to hide his enormous, bright green form.

In a short amount of time, the crowd of ponies made it to the castle entrance, where the royal couple had already made it down to intercept them, along with a platoon of guards. “Your royal highnesses,” one of the lead ponies in the mob called out “We beseech you, arrest that monster behind you immediately! That thing has completely destroyed our homes and town, you have to arrest it right now so it doesn’t do the same to the empire!” there were cheers from the mob as they all made to surge forward, trying to get past the guards and confront Thorax themselves. The guards were trying their best to hold back the mob while Cadance and Shining were trying to restore order.

All while Thorax laid shaking behind the castle, terrified.

“What’s going to happen to me if they do get their hooves on me?” he wondered in fear “There’s so many of them! And they’re all so angry! Oh, what to do?”

Thorax was just contemplating weather or not he should run when suddenly everything went silent. Raising his head slightly, Thorax carefully poked his head and snout around the side of the castle and was able to make out the mob and guards still interlocked in their conflict.

A conflict that had seemingly completely frozen in time.

“What’s going on? Why is everything frozen?” Thorax wondered, when suddenly:

“My, This is certainly a strange place to find the gigantic and mighty king of the changelings!” said a familiar voice.

Thorax blinked, and out of nowhere, a mini Princess Luna popped into existence and landed on his humongous snout.

“Princess! Thank goodness you’re here! I didn’t know what to do!” Thorax said with relief as he went slightly bug eyed to stare down at the little princess.

Luna simply giggled into her hoof “Do what my dear friend?” she asked innocently.

“The mob ponies! I don’t know what to do about them; should I run? Apologies to them again? Leave it to Cadance and Shining? I don’t know! This is all so scary!” Thorax said quickly, a fearful edge in his voice.

But to his dismay, instead of banishing the supposed nightmare with her dream magic, Luna simply grinned and said “I believe you already know what to do my young friend,”

Thorax looked at her, confusion and fear written all over his face “what do you mean?” he asked

“Really now, are you really going to let a bunch of ponies who are smaller than insects to you rile you up? Come now Thorax, assert yourself! Show them who’s in charge here! Not some mites who showed up with some toothpicks and matches, but the gigantic and powerful King you are! You know you’re sorry for damaging their village so make sure that they get that message and send them packing!”

“But, but what if I can’t? What if they just start attacking me again?” Thorax asked

Luna fixed him with a stern, yet gentle glare at him “Thorax, you’ll never know unless you try. Shying away from the problem won’t solve anything. The problem won’t fix itself; it’ll only gather and swell up until it become even more of a problem. That is why it’s important to face these fears head on before it can get the better of you!” Luna said as she began to glow and rise up towards the sky, about the exit the dream “Control your fears! Don’t let your fears control you!”

And with a flash, Luna was gone

Thorax blinked as time resumed at it’s normal pace, the squeaks of the struggle going on below him reaching his ears again. But Luna’s final words echoed through his mind again “Control your fears! Don’t let your fears control you!” His resolve building, Thorax slowly rose to his feet and made up his mind. He knew what he had to do.

Stepping around the castle, the Crystal Empire was able to behold the gigantic King in all his glory, Thorax emerged from the side of the castle and stomped his hoof down onto the ground, sending a huge tremor across the land THOOOM!

The shouting quickly ceased as both parties looked up at the giant, who in turn, was staring down at the bug sized ponies with a stern expression plastered all over his face

“That’s enough,” Thorax rumbled “I already apologized from ruining your village, there’s no need for this violence,”

“You didn’t ruin it! You completely destroyed all our hard work!” a few yelled up

Thorax nodded solemnly “And for that I’m truly sorry little ones. As king of the changeling hive, please allow me to reimburse you for any damage done to your village. And on top of that, I will send many squads of my best worker changelings to assist you with any more repairs that may need to be done to your homes,”

The mob ponies glanced at each other, clearly not expecting a proposal like this. They began to mutter amongst themselves, thinking over the proposal, until finally, one of the lead ponies once again spoke up “We accept your proposal! Thank you so much your majesty!”

Thorax simply let out a kind smile and gave a little bow “Of course little one,”

With no more need for conflict, the mob ponies began to pack up their things and begin their track back to their village. Some opting to toss aside their torches while others simply put theirs out in the snow. All while Thorax towered above them with a happy grin on his face.

After they left, Thorax began to prance in place happily, shaking the world with each impact “Yay! I did it! I actually did it!” He exclaimed happily, the tiny ponies on the ground running for cover, away from the gargantuan hooves as they danced about joyfully.

Flushed with his success, Thorax turned to thank Shining and Cadance, only to realize that the crystal castle looked a lot smaller than it did before. With a jolt of realization, Thorax realized that he was beginning to grow even bigger than he was before, unknowingly fuled by the newfound confidence surging within him. All around Thorax, his surroundings dwindled in size as he continued to rise above it, the empire soon being reduced to a small dot by his city sized hooves.

Thorax tapped his hoof against the ground, watching with mild amusement as the surroundings shook and trembled from the simple act.

“This is incredible! Just like what Luna said. But now that I’m this large, what should I do now?” Thorax wondered, that is until he thought back to what Luna had said earlier “Enjoy yourself as you tower over the land! Maybe tease your subjects a bit as you examine just how little they’ll become, go for a nice long stroll across the country as you cover miles with just a single step, or even throw your weight around a little. Remind all the little ones who’s large and in charge!”

Thorax looked out across the horizon with a confident smirk on his face “Well, no time like the present,” he said as he began to walk across the continent, jostling the earth as he walked.

Author's Note

And here we are folks! The first chapter of the long awaited Growing Concerns! Now that Thorax is finally feeling confident in himself, how will that effect the rest of Equestra as he storms across the country next chapter?

Will Thorax maintain his kind nature, or will he succumb to the power like Celestia briefly did? And why is Evil Bugmom tagged? All questions will be answered next chapter!

Special thanks to Nodqfan for the story idea/request. I'm happy I finally got a chance to write this!

I hope everyone enjoys this latest story, and more to come soon!

Chapter 2- The Big Lesson

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A confident smirk now on full display, Thorax trotted across the country, taking great pleasure in the fact the whole world was essentially trembling from him doing the simple act of walking. It didn’t make him feel meek and cowed as he normally would feel in new situations, or any instance were he was at the center of attention. Instead, Thorax now felt wonderful, powerful even. Like he could do anything. Anything he wanted and get away with it. Chuckling at the realization, Thorax continued to walk around the landscape, sending tremors across it with every step.

He had noticed however that he was still getting bigger, the world getting smaller around him as his confidence continued to increase. And to be honest, he was definitely fine with that. As he walked, Thorax came across a cluster of cities scattered about in front of him, with a mischievous, but not malicious grin plastered on his face, Thorax stomped his green hoof down near them, watching them tremble from the step. Thorax put his hoof to his cheek in a playful manner and said “Goodness, I certainly didn’t see you little guys all the way down there. You guys gotta be more careful, or else I could have accidently squashed you underhoof,”

Chortling, Thorax’s horns lit up, and there, a green glow surrounded one of the tiny cities. The inhabitants on the ground far below tumbled around a little as they felt themselves and their entire city rise up into the air, Thorax effortlessly plucking it out of the ground like it was a stone.

The population of the city gasped in shock and slight fear as the sky above the city’s skyscrapers was replaced with the glowing purple eye of Thorax looking down at their diminutive forms, a kind twinkle filling the gargantuan eye. Thorax let out a small chuckle as he inspected the puny city inhabited by pony shaped specks. “Hey down there little fellas! Don’t mind the intrusion, just your friendly neighboring gigantic king spending some time out and about” Thorax laughed as he gave the city a very gentle nuzzle with his snout, the teeny ponies getting bombarded by the multi-mile tall warm green muzzle from the friendly giant.

The ponies cheered on the colossal Changeling king, as Thorax lowered the entire city back down softly onto the ground by his hooves. The ponies looked up in amazement at the gargantuan pillars of lime green looming into the sky, well above the clouds. Thorax winked down at the little city with a grin on his face and stomped off, leaving behind a hoofprint bigger than the city itself to the mites as a souvenir, to remind them that he visited their little city. The ponies waved the departing changeling good-bye as Thorax walked off, all of them happy to have gotten a chance to see the titanic king.

Thorax meanwhile walked with a skip in his step, sending extra tremors across the world’s surface as he went. “Princess Luna wasn’t lying,” Thorax though, euphoria flooding through him like a title wave as he passed by some mountains “This feels amazing! I really feel like I’m on top of the world!”

But as we know, and as Thorax will be reminded of, for those in the world who feel like they’re unstoppable, there are still those in the world, left behind in their shadows, who are unnoticed by most. And those who are left unnoticed are usually taken advantage of.

A little while later, while Thorax was busy gently prodding a town with his muzzle, trying to ease the fears of the townsponies, his powerful humongous ears picked up the faint squeaks of somepony talking, and not in a very friendly tone. Blinking, he turns his massive head towards the sound and listens in, not intervening yet, as he tries to assist what’s going on. In a nearby alleyway near a schoolhouse, out of view from Thorax’s eyes, a small Pegasus colt, with both wings wrapped in bandages, found himself being surrounded by some of his classmate. Classmates that don’t exactly treat him well.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? Looks like the little Skywing is still grounded!” One of the ponies said mean spiritedly, poking Skywing on the side, tapping on a bandaged wing.

Skywing let out a grunt of pain and backed away more, trying to put some ground between him and the bullies “L-leave me alone! It’s not so bad, soon I’ll be back up in the sky in no time!” he said defiantly, his back hitting the side of the house.

“Heh, looks like you ain’t gonna be at the top of the class anymore buddy! Guess that makes you a looser huh? Oh wait, now you’re even more of a looser than before because you could barely fly even before you broke you wings!”

Tears began to well up in Skywing’s eyes as the bullies began to taunt and call him names, his 0head slumping to the ground in shame as the recollection of all the past failures in flight school came back to him.

Until:

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” a thunderous voice yelled, the very ground and air shaking from its power

The ponies on the ground yelped in fear as the shockwaves reverberated from the voice, the ground rumbling around them, just as an immense shadow covered everything around them. The bullies faces seemed to have gone pale as they slowly looked up and beheld the titanic form of Thorax, glowering down at them.

“R-r-run!!” one the bullies cried out

The bullies, leaving poor Skywing in a heap behind them, all dashed towards the alleyway’s exit. Only for a colossal green hoof to slam down in front of the entrance. The bullies all squealed in fear as the gigantic purple eye descended down from the sky to glare at them.

“All of you should be ashamed of yourselves! Picking on this colt just because of his broken wings, have you no shame?” Thorax growled, his visible eye narrowing in the sky at them

“W-well, we-uh,” the lead bully tried to stammer out but ultimately words failed him as he couldn’t think of a coherent response to give the massive king.

Thorax snorted frustratingly, sending a massive gale down to buffer the tiny town, before lifting his huge hoof up, the ground rumbling as he did so, exposing the cracked and mangled ground below, before withdrawing a little back up into the air and gesturing with his snout forward, a stern expression still present “You lot better get back to your homes then, and don’t let me catch you causing trouble anymore. Is that understood?”

The bullies silently nodded, a frightened faces still present, as they took one last look at the behemoth changeling looming high in the sky above them, before dashing off in separated directions to their houses.

Thorax watched the little specks scurry off, a disapproving frown still laced across his face, before turning his attention back to the alleyway. There he was able to see one last small blue speck cowering down among the debris left behind the schoolhouse, shaking like a leaf.

Thorax’s ears flattened back down against his head as he slowly backed up from the town, not wanting to frighten the foal. Once back at a sufficient distance he began to slowly lower himself, all four of his legs crouching down until his stomach made contact with the earth, causing it to shake with a small BOOM! Setting himself into a seating position, Thorax leaned his head back over the town and spotted the young colt, who was trying to walk out of the alleyway. But one glance up at Thorax’s looming face caused him to squeak out in fear and scamper back into his hiding place.

“H-hey, it’s ok little guy, I won’t hurt you,” Thorax said reassuringly, a small, yet kind smile beginning to form on the colossal king’s face. Skywing slowly peaked his little head out from behind some boxes timidly, taking in Thorax’s gigantic form, and letting out another whimper.

Thorax lit his horns, and a soft green glow surrounded the teeny colt and very gently lifted him up into the air and deposited him down on his massive green muzzle, Thorax going a little cross eyed to see the mite sized colt laying on his nose.

“Hey down there little guy, I saw what was going on just now and thought I’d step in to help. Heh, literally. Are you ok?” Thorax asked softly, his snout vibrating slightly from the force of his powerful, echoing voice.

The little colt blinked, and finally stood up straight, looking Thorax in the eye, a bit of apprehension still there but fading “Your-you’re not going to hurt me Mr. Giant?” he asked timidly

Thorax grinned “Of course not little guy! I wouldn’t be much of a king if I went out and went looking for trouble now, would I?”

Skywing cocked his head to the side “You’re a king Mr. Giant?” he asked, bafflement plastered on his tiny face as he took in Thorax’s seemingly alien appearance.

“Yup! I’m Thorax, your friendly neighboring gigantic King of the Changelings and happily at your service!” said Thorax, with a little bit of a playful flourish at the end.

“Um, I’m Skywing your highness. But why did you waste your time helping me? Don’t you have, you know, really important royal duties to attend to?” Sky asked curiously.

Thorax fixed his stare on Skywing, keeping a level look on his face as he said “Because I very well couldn’t just leave you to get harassed like that little guy. And you shouldn’t have to put up with those guys either. Especially since you know that your better than that,”

Skywing’s ears perk up as Thorax says this “I-I am?” he asked in bewilderment “But how do you know your highness? I can’t really fly all that well, and that’s all those guys seem to pick on me about. I can’t ever get better,”

“Not with that attitude you can’t Sky,” Thorax said gently “I used to be treated the same way back at my hive when I was younger for being different. Instead of fighting all the time and getting into scuffles to see who was stronger, I was more content to play with action figures and shying away for fighting. Changelings used to tease me and pick on me all the time for being like that, and I only had my brother to stick up for me. But even then, I never let that deter me from staying true to myself. And now look at me! I’m the King of the entire hive now. If I can do it, surly you can too little buddy!”

“Do you really think so sir?” Skywing asked, a glimmer of hope beginning to sparkle in his eyes.

“I know so Skywing. All it takes is determination and a little help from your friends, and then you’ll soar to even greater heights. You just have to be willing to put in the work to get better,” Thorax answered as he lit his gargantuan horns again and plucked the puny pony off his muzzle and set him back down in the town.

Thorax got back on his hooves, the world rumbling once again as he did so, towering over the tiny town by several dozen miles as he gazed down at it, spying the diminutive form of Skywing sitting on his rear in the middle of the town, waving his forelegs wildly above his head and a big smile on his face as his squeaky little voice called out “Thank you for your help, Mr. Giant King Thorax! After my wing is healed, I’ll get to training right away!”

“Attaboy Sky! Good luck!” the titanic form of Thorax thundered as he winked down at the specks by his hooves before turning around and setting back off on his earthshattering walk. The town he left behind bouncing in the air comically as he walked, his powerful strides once again shaking the land as he walked away into the distance.

Thorax let out a sigh of pleasure as he resumed his walk, happy to have successfully helped out little Skywing “That wasn’t so bad,” Thorax thought to himself, his confidence from the encounter giving him another growth spurt, entire mountains had now been reduced to the size of anthills as the colossal changeling king stormed across the land, mile wide footprints left behind by Thorax as he continued to march forward. But as he thundered across Equestria, the more doubtful part of his mind began to speak up “Well yeah, of course it was easy Thorax. This is a dream after all. It’s not like dreams are going to translate into real life and magically solve all your problems now, will it?”

Thorax paused, frowning a bit as he thought that last bit over, before shaking his head and resuming his multi-mile saunter. And as he did, even from his massively elevated height, our favorite changeling king began to notice a few landmarks.

Vary familiar landmarks

Blinking, Thorax stopped walking again and looked down with bit of an amused expression

There, laying innocently in his walking path was Ponyville, and a little further beyond was Canterlot. And by goodness they were absolutely miniscule! The town and capital were no bigger than tiny little pebbles. Thorax was sure that if he hadn’t noticed them in time, he was almost certain he would have squashed them both underhoof and kept walking without ever realizing what had just happened. They were that small.

And they looked absolutely adorable down there.

Chuckling to himself, Thorax thundered up to Ponyville and stopped, just outside of its boundaries. Lighting up his horns again, he watched as his light green magic engulfed the tiny town and he promptly pulled the entire thing out of the ground effortlessly.

Raising Ponyville to his gargantuan eye, Thorax was able to make out the minute forms of Carousel Boutique, Twilight’s castle, Sugarcube corner, and even Sweet Apple Acres.

Thorax smirked at how tiny everything was before opening his mouth, capable of devouring several mountains, to address everypony.

“Hello down there Ponyville! Any familiar faces want to come out and say hi to me?”

From high above, Thorax could hear several squeaks from the ponies far below, all of whom were shouting welcomes and greetings to the gigantic King. Several of them were gathered out in the town square, while others were clumped up on the roofs of various buildings and establishments. But amongst the various splotches of color that was the speck sized ponies standing on the miniature town Thorax held in his grasp, he was able to make out one particular color: a certain speckle of purple and the faintest hint of green mixed in all of the other colors.

A gigantic smile graced Thorax’s features as he squinted down at the town square “Hey down there Spike! How’s it going my very little buddy!”

“Hey Thorax!” squeaked up the baby dragon, cupping his stubby little hands over his mouth and hollering up the green titan “How’s the weather up there?!”

Thorax burst out laughing at the question, the mere act of him doing so causing the entire town of Ponyville to tremble in his grasp. “Pretty good Spike! So, what do you think of the new and improved me? Pretty big and powerful right?”

Spike simply grinned and held up two thumbs up, stretching out his teensy little arms as far as they could and held them up into the sky “Looking pretty good bro! Love the confidence!”

Thorax chucked softly at his little friend’s antics as he gently set the entire town back neatly inside of the creator he pulled it out of

“Thanks lil’ buddy,” Thorax boomed as he repaired the cracks around Ponyville from where he tore it out of the ground, before standing back up to his full, magnificent, height. His towering green bulk blotting out the sun and parting the clouds “Give my best to Twilight and Starlight ok?”

“You got it Thorax!” squealed Spike as he watched his massive friend raise a city sized hoof and take a step forward, walking away.

As Thorax continued his globetrotting walk he soon found himself looking down upon the little mountain of Canterlot, home of the rich, powerful, and snobby. But in spite of all this, it was also home to the two kindest and most wonderful mares he had the pleasure of meeting: Celestia and Luna.

Leaning down again, Thorax brought his head close to the mountain, no bigger than a small mound of dirt, with the mighty capitol of the ponies protruding off the side of the mountain, which was now no bigger than a pebble. Holding back a smile Thorax leaned in and spotted the mini castle. And even better, he was able to see two small white and blue flecks of color standing on the balcony.

“Hi Princess Celestia! Hi Princess Luna!” Thorax rumbled happily

Down below, the two princesses waved back, happy to see their newest friend enjoying himself and seemingly having the time of his life. Luna in particular, because for the first time in weeks Thorax actually looked happy.

“So what do you think Princess Luna? Do you think I got that confidence boost like you wanted,” Thorax said teasingly as he winked down at the infinitesimal forms of the princesses.

Luna giggled into her hoof at Thorax’s playfulness before calling up to him “I believe you have made some wonderful progress dear Thorax! You have definitely grown significantly! But I have to ask, are you ready to put it to the test now that you think you have acquired your confidence?” Luna asked

“You got it!” Thorax said, leaning back up and grinned down a little boastfully at the mountain “with my newfound size there’s nothing that will be a problem for me!”

“We shall see my young friend,” Luna thought as she prepared her dream magic again and casted a spell “While I admire your tenacity to overcome and grow as fast as you did in the Crystal Empire you are beginning to reach that stage my dear Tia did when she got a little too comfortable being a giant. I have full confidence in you Thorax but I still do hope you don’t fall to pieces when I ‘test’ you,”

Clearing her throat and shouting up with the royal canterlot voice, Luna said “I have casted a spell that will allow the dreamscape to manifest a thought or feeling that has been troubling you Thorax. Your test now is to overcome it and prove to me, and more importantly, to yourself, that you can overcome the obstacle that has been weighing you down!”

“Ha! Easy-peasy little Luna,” Thorax thundered with a confident smirk as he continued to eye up the tiny mountain and it’s residents “I can handle anything you throw at me!”

But as Thorax finished saying that, the landscape around him began to change. The sky grew dark, the sun seemed to vanish behind the clouds, and the dreamscape seemed to have become unnervingly quiet.

“Heh…ok, what’s the deal princess?” Thorax said, the confident edge slowly beginning to slip away as he took in the changes. But there was no reply from anypony. Thorax looked back down at Canterlot and saw to his shock that Luna and Celestia were completely gone. In fact, the whole population of Canterlot had seemingly vanished.

Thorax gulped and stole a glance down at Ponyville, which was a few paces away only to yield the same results.

“Princess Luna?! What happened? Where did you go?” Thorax called out, his titanic form turning around to look behind him, in some foolish hope that Luna would magically be there “Don’t leave me here alone!!”

But as he said that, Thorax began to feel the ground shake, somehow impossibly, considering his great height but to make matters worse, he heard a silky and smooth voice behind him. One that positively dripped with malice.

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing, to watch my failure of a son driven to this?Groveling and crying to his sworn enemies for help? Absolutely pathetic,” said voice.

Thorax’s body seemed to lock up, inklings of fear began to flood his stomach and overturned it as he, very slowly, turned around and beheld the speaker.

There, standing a good five heads taller than him, was the gargantuan form of his mother, the former leader of the hive, Queen Chrysalis.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Thorax as she stomped her way over to him, entire cities vanishing underhoof as she walked forth. Tiny shrieks of panic rang out from the ground as ponies tried in vain to get out of the way of the monolithic hoof but to no avail, as Chrysalis uncaringly stepped down, leaving behind a crater of miles of upturned dirt and cracked earth.

Thorax’s ears flattened against his skull as he backed up, terror beginning to grip his heart as he recalled the hate and spite that fueled his mother’s voice when he last spoke to her. She swearing revenge on him and all of his new friends, and now it seemed like that time was now.

Thorax winced and flinched back as he witnessed Ponyville disappear under Chrysalis’ hoof. The ponies down below couldn’t even run out of the way of the titanic queen’s path, she was simply too massive, all they could do was scream in fear as they watched their impending doom fall from the sky, the cause of it not even noticing they were there as she casually walked. And from Chrysalis’ perspective, ponies were now no bigger than microbes, pests at most, something to wave her hoof at, swipe away, and pay little mind to because of how insignificant and powerless they were to her.

Chrysalis finally reached Thorax, looming above him as she glared down at his shaking form, anger radiating from her person in droves. It was almost enough to make Thorax sick.

“I am extremely disappointed in you son,” Chrysalis said, almost softly. Her eyes narrowed as she continued on “I remember what happened like it was yesterday. You and your pathetic purple friend barged into my throne room and began to spiel off some garble about how you had seemingly found a better way at living life. That it was better to give love instead of taking it,”

Chrysalis closed her eyes with a humorless chuckle as she shook her head, tiny clouds on either side of her getting swiped away as she did so. When she finished she eyed up Thorax before continuing.

“How incredibly naive child. Did you really believe that because you put on a smile, changed your carapace color, and acted all cute like those ponies that the world would accept our hive? How wrong you are, we changelings are a fierce race, once that was feared by many for centuries. Long before you decided to undergo this sickening transformation!

It’s a mockery to everything the Changelings stand for! Everything I have built! And because of your foolish blunders the hive is now in a worse position than before! The hive’s love reserves are now dangerously low, even lower than they were when I was queen, and you actually thought you could just hide in your room and wish for it all to go away?! Have you no shame?! Changelings protesting your rule are right! You really have no idea what you are doing, the hive was better off when I was ruler. Because at least I could get the job done and take love whenever I wanted.

And now look at where you’ve ended up, you’ve relied on these ponies so much you can’t even sneeze without asking for their permission. Much less take love from them. You might as well sign over the hive to them and go live with them!” Chrysalis tore her eyes away from Thorax and looked down at the ground with a glare, Thorax blinked in confusion and looked down too. Only to get another jolt of panic as he realized, standing helplessly between himself and Chrysalis was Canterlot mountain.

“It looks like to me, all these ponies have done is distract you,” Chrysalis snarled as she raised her hoof and leveled it with the side of the mountain “Might as well take care of these pests too,”

“Wait no!” Thorax cried out, but it was too late. Chrysalis swung her hoof to the side and completely tore the mountain out of the ground as she kicked it aside, sending it spinning through the air as chunks of earth and mountain flew off in all directions. The capitol completely disintegrating as it sailed through the air from the force of the kick.

“Hmph. Serves those insects right,” Chrysalis said, looking out at the horizon where the city had been flying through moments before. She turned back to Thorax with another glare, her horn now beginning to light up, its sickly green magic swirling around her horn as Chrysalis charged up a spell “And now to deal with you and regain control of the hive. I will reinstate it as the most powerful nation on Equis!”

Thorax closed his eyes in fear and fell back on his rump, terror beginning to consume him again “What do I do?!” he thought desperately “Luna said to have confidence when I was at the empire but it’s not like I’m facing down a bunch of angry farmers again! This is so much worse! There’s nothing I can do!”

But as Thorax thought this, his mind began to wander back to his conversation with Luna, and her talk with him about having confidence. While she had said he should feel like he was on top of the world, Thorax was beginning to suspect that there might have been more too it. Something he had to figure out himself. He thought back to when he first grown and how terrified he had been, so his first thought had been to go to Shining and Cadance’s castle for help. They were always there for him, even going as far as adopting him when his stay in the empire became permanent. But then he also thought about Spike, his first friend and how much he helped him. As well as all the others he had met over the past few months.

While he had tried to be brave during these scenarios, his friends had always been there to back him up if he ever needed help. Maybe, being confident wasn’t just assurance and becoming self-reliant. But also knowing when to rely on those you trust. Like your friends and family when things get though so they can help you out.

Gulping, Thorax opened his eyes and stared back up at Chrysalis

“Ready to vanish?” she asked, her horn beginning to glow even brighter

“Y-you-you’re wrong mom…” Thorax stammered out

“What was that welp?” Chrysalis snarled, her horn’s glow beginning to dim as Thorax began to talk

“It’s true that things in the hive may look bad now, but I can say for a fact that things are miles better than how they were when you were ruler!” Thorax said, raising his voice a little, becoming more defiant as he looked into Chrysalis’ eyes with a confident look. “Converting to an entirely new lifestyle won’t be easy but it’s not impossible, and I know that with the help of my friends I can do just that! I know I can help the hive and restore the love storages in no time at all! All I need is just some confidence in both my own abilities and in my friends! We can work together and self the problem, I know we can!”

Thorax finished his speech with a surge of pride as he met his mother’s cold gaze. It was here Chrysalis decided to speak.

“And how do you know this will even work Thorax? How do you know that because of your efforts the hive will not be doomed to perish?” she asked

“Well, I just got to have some faith and confidence that it’ll all work. Trying something is better than trying nothing after all.” Thorax replied

Chrysalis snarled again and re-lit her horn to charge up another spell, but as she did so, cracks began to form all around her, exposing a glowing white light inside. With a shriek of anger Chrysalis tried to lunge at Thorax but fell short as she completely disintegrated into dust. The dark particles wafting off into the warm afternoon air as light began to return to the kingdom around him.

Thorax let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding “I did it,” he thought, an almost dreamy expression coming over his face “I actually stood up to Chrysalis!” Thorax raised his hoof and pumped the air in jubilation “WOO-HOO! I ACTUALLY DID IT! TAKE THAT MOM!” he yelled joyfully.

“Yes, well done dear Thorax,” said a very familiar voice

Thorax turned around, and there, standing at the same size as he was, was Princess Luna smiling warmly at him.

“You’ve done extremely well Thorax, not only have you gained a significant boost in your confidence, but you also managed to put a major fear that’s been clouding your mind for some time to rest. And for that, I am so proud of you,” Luna said as she walked up to him and embraced him in a hug.

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” Thorax said as he gladly hugged her back “I couldn’t have done this without your help. Truly.”

“I’m happy you allowed me to do so,” Luna giggled, recalling how the encounter had originally started.

Thorax chortled, remembering his initial reluctance to grow, but now that he had, he couldn’t have been happier that it had happened.

“And I trust you will take what you have learned here and apply it to the waking world?” Luna asked

Thorax nodded “Definitely I will princess. In fact, ever since I had that talk with Chrysalis, I actually managed to come up with a way to restore the hive’s supply of love,”

Luna raised an eyebrow “Oh?”

“Yeah! I think I finally figured it out. But I’ll need the help of all my friends to pull this off. When I wake up, can I write to you and Princess Celestia?”

Luna simply giggled “Of course you may silly, it’s not like we’re strangers. Ever since my niece and nephew adopted you, I view you as family too Thorax. Don’t be afraid to reach out to us,”

Thorax nodded as all around him, his surroundings began to vanish, indicating that he was beginning to wake up “Thank you Auntie Luna! I’ll be sure to write to you as soon as possible!”

All around him, there was another blinding flash of light as the dream magic faded away and Thorax awoke with a gasp, now back to his regular size and sitting at his desk in his room. Groaning, he rolled to the side and fell on the ground in a heap. Just in time too as there was a few quick knocks on his door and his brother Pharynx stuck his head in.

“There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you! What do you think you’re doing slacking at a time like this?” Pharynx asked sternly as he made his way into Thorax’s room and helped him up.

Thorax coughed a few times as he got his bearing, then it all came flooding back to him, the nightmare, Luna, the dream, and his solution. With his eyes sparkling up, Thorax whirled around and grabbed Pharynx by the shoulders

“Pharynx I got it! I just came up with a great idea on how to get the other races to willingly share their love with us!” Thorax said happily

Pharynx blinked in his younger brother’s grasp before reaching his hooves up and slowly removing Thorax’s legs from his shoulder.

“Ok…? And what is this grand plan of yours?”

“I’ll explain in a bit! But right now I need you to get me as much paper as possible! I need to send a bunch of letters out right away!”

A few days had passed since Thorax had the dream with the aid of Luna, and now the hive was positively buzzing with activity. All of the Changelings had gathered in the throne room because their King had said that he had an announcement to make. But what really had them all in a frenzy was the fact that Thorax had said he had found a way to solve their love problem.

All of those present were chatting away, theorizing what this supposed mystery plan was, until Thorax stepped into the room with his brother Pharynx.

Thorax took his place at the throne, sitting down while Pharynx stood off to the side as the ever-vigilant guard and older brother he was.

Thorax raised his hoof into the air, and gradually the chatter amongst the other ceased and the room became silent as Thorax spoke

“Greetings everyling, I’m sure you all know by this point why we have gathered here today, the rumors of what my announcement had not apparently gone unnoticed among the hive. But I am happy to announce to you all that I have found a way to restore the love supply that has been plaguing our hive for the last few weeks. As we all know, many of the other races among the world now knows of our existence, this was revealed to them when Queen Chrysalis had attacked Canterlot. And from that point on, their perspective of the Changelings had gone from myths to battle hungry savages.

I cannot stress enough that we were not entirely to blame for this, only that at the time we were following the orders of a disillusioned madmare who had corrupted herself by seeking petty revenge for a conflict she started in the first place. After Chrysalis had been removed from power the only ones who stand by us as close allies are the ponies, while the rest of the world remains fearful of us and therefor treat us with the same unease and untrust as before. This will have to change, because as of know they still think that we are the same as before, as corrupted and misguided as before.

Which is why I think that, in order for the other kingdoms around the world to truly learn and understand who we are, I will open up the hive to the world and reestablish connections with every kingdom, not just our pony friends. Which is why I will be inviting the leaders of every nation on a special trip to the Changeling hive so they can see for themselves our wonderous new lives and beautiful culture. After they see who we are now, how we have changed and given up our vengeful ways, our relationships between other species will improve drastically!”

All of the changelings burst into applause as they stomped their hooves at the announcement. Thorax gave a slight bow at the crowd as he stood up, waiting to answer any questions that they may have.

After the question-and-answer segment was over, Thorax and Pharynx made their way back to their chambers, Pharynx pulling his younger brother aside for a second outside of Thorax’s quarters. “I think you made the right choice there Thorax, I really do. But I can’t help but express some concern for you. Will you be ok leading and being around some many different creatures from so many Kingdoms?”

To Pharynx’s great surprise, Thorax playfully slugged him on the shoulder and looked at him with a huge grin on his face.

“Don’t worry Pharynx, have some confidence in your little bro! I know what with your help along with our friends help and my leadership with the meeting, this will all work out perfectly!” Thorax said happily, winking at Pharynx.

Author's Note

And here we have it! The final chapter for Growing Confidence. Thorax, like Celestia has also undergone a journey of self reflection and personal growth (pun intended) and has emerged from the other end better than before. Looks like things are looking up for the Changeling hive!

Thanks again to Nodqfan for the story suggestion. This has actually inspired me to add some more sequels to this line of stories where a character may be struggling with some personal problem and they receive some "big" help from Luna. I have some ideas on who to use in the future but if there are any more suggestions I'll decide whether or not I'll make a story on them.

Until then,
Keep it real y'all!