After waiting for a couple of minutes in silence we all perk up as we hear the door to the guys door open as I see both Pharynx and Thorax come out.

"Are.. you doing better?" I ask cautiously

"Yeah, I say that we've reached an understanding of sorts." Pharnyx said

Thorax just nods as he makes his way back to the couch, leaning on me as he sits down.

"Remember what we talked about a couple of nights ago?" Thorax asked

I look at him confused for a second before remembering what he was asking. "I do, though, why are you asking?"

He's quiet for a minute before responding "I think that I would like to go along with that idea of yours, seeing as how with what we've learned we don't really have a choice in the matter."

My eyes widen as I slowly nod. "O-ok yeah we can do that." I pull him closer to me. "A-and your sure that this is what you want?"

He chuckles mirthlessly "Don't know about 'what I want' but, who knows." He shrugs. "I might grow to be comfortable here, I already think It's ok so far, well except for last night." He says with a cringe.

Rass then stands up "Well now that we got that out of the way, we're gonna need someone to be in charge of this new group so I guess I'll have to take up that role."

Pharnyx stands up suddenly as he gets in Rass's face "Unless I'm mistaken I don't remember agreeing to that arrangement."

Rass doesn't seem impressed as she raises an eye ridge at him in response. "Was that supposed to intimidate me? Cause If It was, then thats a perfect example of why you aren't fit for the role."

Pharynx scowls in response "Now you listen to me, before you came along we already had a leader who was already perfectly fit for the role already."

I nod backing up his statement "Exactly, and no offense, but he's already done pretty well all things considered."

Thorax nods as well "I also agree that we don't need another leader, since I think the one we have is all ready pretty amazing so far."

"Reallllllly, and do tell who this leader is of your little group."

"Joseph"
"Pharnyx"
"Joseph"

I look at them confused while they also return the expression to me. "Me?" I ask them.

"Yeah you, why would you think I was the leader?" Pharnyx questioned

"Yeah, I'm also a hard time seeing how you came to that conclusion." His eyes widen for a split second as he turns to Pharynx. "Sorry Pharynx, I didn't mean to insult you or anything." He says while slightly panicking

Pharnyx waves him off "Don't worry about it Thory-" he slaps his hand over his hand as Thorax begins to light up like a firefly.

"You used it! Oh I cant believe you used it." Thorax says as he jumps up and wraps Pharynx in a hug all with a big grin on his face.

Pharnyx proceeds to hold an arm out to keep Thorax's face away from his. "Yeah, yeah, love you too, point is." He directs his attention back to Rass. "We don't need a new leader because Joseph is already doing fine in that role."

"I am?" I cant help but question

"Clearly not, if you two were able to get lingnapped while he was none the wiser." Rass said

"Need i remind you who was responsible for getting us out alive last night? If not for Joseph you wouldn't be here right now." Thorax responds calmly

"H-hey guys, I appreciate what your doing for me, really I do, but let's not argue with eachother ok?" I say as I try to deescalate the situation before It get worse.

Rass then turns to me "Prove It then, prove to me that you actually are somewhat feasible of being our leader."

I pinch the bridge of my noise 'I've seen this enough times to know that I'm going to be ignored.' "And how exactly am I supposed to do that Rass?" I question

Rass proceeds to look at me like I'm an idiot "You stupid? With a Form Clash, obviously."

"Form Clash?" I ask confused

Thorax snaps fingers as he seems to remembers something "Oh right, Form Clashes I remember reading about them in the Hive during my time trying to be a Learner."

"So then, what exactly is a 'Form Clash'?" I ask still confused

"Allow me to explain." Lectul says after being quiet for a awhile. " A Form Clash was an ancient method used by our Ancestors back during the Solar Eclipse Era when Hives weren't a common environment for us to thrive in."

"This basically meant that the whole Changeling race of that time was defenseless to everything and anything, so in order to survive multiple Changelings would search keep searching for other Changelings expanding their group until It got to the amount where they would feel that It was enough for them to feel safe."

"Then, when the group felt the limit was reached a Form Clash would be initiated to determine which ling would be best suited to be able to protect and basically take care of the group."

"OK, so what would these 'Form Clashes' entail exactly?" I ask

"Well, the first part is determining two Changelings who would best fit the leader role and then having them, well, Form Clash." Lectul said

"The second part is a knowledge sort of part where the two Changelings would each pick three forms they've learned and show them off to the other side to display the 'knowledge' they've learned."

"Then for the third and final part they would pick one form they showed and battle eachother until either the other side gave up or died."

"Died!? That seems a bit extreme don't you think?" I say shocked

Lecture nods "Indeed Is a bit extreme, but you have to understand that back then we couldn't risk appointing a leader that wouldn't be capable of the role thus putting the rest of the group at risk."

"Now, come on were having a Form Clash." Rass says as she starts making her way towards the door. "And where exactly are we going to do this? Unless you forgot there isn't really anywhere we can go to privately do this." I point out

Rass stops walking as she turns back around with a frown on her face. "Well if you got a better idea 'leader's then let's hear it." Rass said

"Look, let me ask you something, are we in the Hive?" I question

Rass looks at me like I'm stupid "Of course were not in the Hive fucking idiot, you get kicked in the head when you were a grub?"

I ignore her insults as I continue on with my point "Point is, we don't have to follow how the Hive works anymore, we can decide how WE want to do things as a group, not as prt of the Hive." I explain

The room goes quiet for a minute until someone speaks up "I think that would be nice, all things considered having your voice heard." Thorax said

"Right? We can just discuss things instead of having to take orders from one ling, we can talk about how we feel about certain situations, instead of having to ignore it because of what the 'leader' wants at the time." I said

"So if there are no objections, let's raise our hands in agreement." I say as I raise my hand

Thankfully, albeit slowly they all start raising their hands in the air leaving only
"Rass?" I ask

Everyone turns to her as she glares at everyone before reluctantly raising her hand with everyone else.

"Fine, now what do we do?" Rass asked

"Well, seeing as how thise Unicorns were able to overwhelm us last time, I feel like we should work on improving ourselves." I explain

"And how exactly are we supposed to 'improve ourselves'?" Ardinal asked

I frown "I'm not entirely sure, without the Hives resources were kinda on our own here, so we'll just have to improve our own way." I quickly exit the living room as I enter my room to grab thr books I had gotten from the library the other day as I reenter the living room dropping the books on the couch. "And we'll start with this." I said

Thorax picks up one of the books as he turns it over to read the front. "Modern Spellcasting?" He asks

I nod "Since we no longer have the assistance of the Hive to help us learn, we'll just have to learn our own way."

Ocellus grabs the Magical Compendium book as she turns to me "Well, as much as I like the idea of that, w-where exactly are we supposed to learn?" She asks

I sigh "Yeah, that part I'm still not sure of, if anything well just have to keep anything magic related here though it'll have to be pretty contained to not risk anything happening and then we can just practice sparring with eachother while in our disguises." I said

"Well, I may not look it but I think I remember a few tricks when it comes to fighting so I might be able to help in that area." Eetle said

I nod "OK thank you Eetle, now for practicing our magic were gonna need to know everything we can so we should probably get started on these books."

"Wait! I just remembered, what about the farm?" Thorax asked

"Oh don't worry about that, I'm pretty sure we're not needed for a few days." I say reassuring Thorax.

"Oh ok thank goodness, though I do wonder how there doing right now?" Thorax wondered

"Gosh darnit, Applebloom get back here!"

"I'm sure they're doing great without us, anyway let's put it up to a vote on what we should decide to focus on right now." I said

"A vote?" Ardnial asked

'Oh right, not a thing in the Hive.' "Y-Yeah, its a thing I came up, as a group thing. How it works is, I give the group as whole a choice between two options and we decide on what option we want to pick, then whatever side has the most votes Is the option we go with first." I explain

"Ohhhhhhh ok, weird but I kinda like it." Ardinal said

"Agreed, it definitely provides a fresh perspective considering this whole 'group' thing you've told us so far." Lectul said

I nod "Thanks, now raise your hand if you want to focus on our magic?" I ask

Ocellus, Thorax, Pharynx, and Lectul raised their hands. "OK and raise your hand if you want to focus on fighting?"

Only Rass, Ardinal, and Eetle were the only ones who raised their hands.

"Alright, well it seems like we've made our decision, so in that case let's get reading." I said

45 minutes later

"OK, it's official reading about magic sucks." I say as I flop back into the couch

"Agreed." Ardinal says laying on the floor

Thorax chuckles "Speak for yourselves, this is so interesting, look here." He says pointing to a somewhere in the Magical Compendium. "Did you know that according to this book Unicorns that have abnormal magic would be able to manipulate lower tier spells to act like their high tier versions all while having the low cost of the low tier one." Thorax said

"Wait what but that doesn't make any sense, when I read a bit of the Principles of Magic book it said that it wasn't possible." I pointed out

Thorax nodded "Yeah I also read that part too but it says here that while that would normally. be correct, Unicorns with abnormal amounts of magic are special exceptions that the whole Equestrian nation has a system to keep track of those Unicorn exceptions, look they even have their faces here." Thorax says as he points to their pictures.

"Huh, would you look at that." I say as I quickly look over the pictures

"Ughhhh, Joseph can't you just use that special magic of yours? Its already good in my opinion." Pharynx asks, sliding down the couch

"I could but as much as good as it is its not exactly going to protect me from much until I make something capable of protecting me." I explain

"Wait you can make stuff with your magic?" Ardinal asks with stars in his eyes

"I know right!" Thorax exclaims, agreeing with Ardinal

"Sounds fake." Rass says dismissively

"Nope, their telling the truth, I specifically remember him trying to make something during our first magic lesson in the Hive and almost dying because if it." Pharynx said

"Do it then JoSePh, make something." Rass challenges

"Why do you feel like I have to prove myself to you everything one of my friends says something positive about me?" I questioned

"Friends?" Rass asks ignoring my question

"Yes, Friends." I say grabbing both Pharynx and Thorax in a one armed hug each pulling them close to me causing Thorax to chirp in embarrassment and Pharnyx to just sigh.

Rass rolls her eyes in response "Cause In my opinion your not much to talk about so I want you to prove it." She said

"And last night? That wasn't good enough?" I ask

"You just got lucky, thats all." Rass says in response

I sigh as I cant really refute the fact that I had gotten lucky, extremely lucky in fact. "Fine, might as well make something worthwhile since I'm doing this." I said

I close my eyes as I start to feel my magic slither up through my body up to my horn as I start to imagine something to create.

'Now what Is something that would be really helpful to have right now? I guess I could make something for these gu-"

I pause as I realize how much of a asshole I am. 'THORAX, oh my God I had totally forgot to make something for him this entire time,but what exactly what he want? Something knowledge related? I mean he does like learning new things, but he also needs something to defend himself wi- actually hang on why don't I just ask him?' I think to myself

Without opening my eyes I turn towards Thorax "Hey Thorax, would you like anything?" I ask

Even though I can't see him I'm pretty confident that his eyes widened not expecting me to ask him that.

"O-oh no you don't have to make me anything." Thorax said

"Don't be like that bro." Pharynx said

"W-what do you mean?" Thorax asks

"If I were you I would take up his offer, Maker knows that whatever he makes works well enough, with what happened last night." Pharynx explains

Its quiet for a couple of seconds until I hear Thorax speak again "W-well in that case, I think that I would like something that would let me up close and personal."

"Really?" I asked surprised. "You don't want something that you can attack with, like far away?"

"No, I, I-I'm done being scared of everything, if anything is going to happen then I want to be there alongside you to help, not wait off in the distance as I wait for you to take care of it." Thorax says with such conviction that I've never heard before.

"O-ok sure, I can do that." I said

"R-Really?" Thorax asks

"Yeah, if thats what you want then who am I to stop you." I said

"...Thank you Joseph." Thorax says sincerely

"No problem, buttttt as your friend I have the right to add my own twist to it so why don't we do that." I said

'And I know exactly how to do that,' I think to myself as I start to infuse love into what I'm making as usual as I then start to imagine a black grip with a hole at the butt of the grip while the other end starts to form a shiny gray curved like blade extending up to 3 inches long.

Finished forming i hear it drop to the floor. "Hold up I'm not done just yet." I say as I move on the second part of my gift to Thorax as I then start infusing love again this time as I imagine a gun of sorts but not one that shoots bullets exactly as I start to imagine a pistol like frame but one that doesn't have a normal trigger since the trigger is sort of in the grip as it continues to form the rest of the frame with a circular imprint on the side of it near the grip continuing onto the barrel forming a sort of square like barrel with a claw like hook inside the barrel.

Dropping to the ground i finally opne my eyes as I start to stumble a bit before regaining my balance.

"Tsk, whatever I guess you weren't just lying after all." Rass says with her arms crossed as she looks at what I made. "Whatever is it?" She asks

"This is my gift to Thorax, your welcome buddy." I say smiling at him

He smiles back "Thanks Joseph, though as much as I would like to test these out i think we should get back to learning more from the ponies versions of tomes, dont you think?" Thorax asks

I sigh hoping he would forget about that "Yeah, alright, you can take the learning away from the ling but not the ling away from learning." I say as I pick up Magical Compendium preparing for a day filled with reading.

Author's Note

Enjoy this if you can and bash as usual.