Seeking to normalize cluster naps among the hive's excitable young, Thorax has invented a game. For five minutes he attempts to capture nymphs as they fly around the nursery hive. Upon capturing one, a swift hug and the phrase, 'squeeze the bug!' signals a countdown. The other nymphs have ten seconds to free their friend, lest Thorax get a point. Five points and Thorax wins.
Being a sentimental monarch is hard work, but tiring out little changelings so he can take naps with them - most especially with his favorite one of all - makes it all worthwhile for Thorax.
* Featured 11/19/19!
* Part of the Love Bug Continuity!
* A spiritual sequel of To Love as His Own.
* Cover artwork done by the awesome KamDrawings!
YouTube reading by Skijarama!
Chapters (1)
This is too adorable!!!
The sheer adorableness of this fic gave me type 7826 diabetes and i LOVE IT
Also.
This sentence reminds me so much of this.
So. Darn. Cute.
How do you keep upping the cute factor on these stories?!
Awww, Pharynx called Apex 'nephew'. How long until it's officially in writing that Apex will inherit the Hive throne from Thorax?
So much fluff, and these changelings don't even have any fur to fluff up. Good work!
I blame a fic I could swear you wrote recently but can't find it anywhere on your page (one where Pharynx is trying to take a nap but Apex pesters him).
Did you delete it for some reason or did I dream that you wrote such a thing?
By the way, can Thorax adopt a daughter at some point too?
9948494
It's the latest chapter of The King of Love Bugs, which is a long, chaptered story.
I'm satisfied with nurturing the relationship with Apex, but if you'd like to write such a story, feel free!
I was wondering why this story had the Drama tag. And then...
9948507
And no, I don't really like children so I'm not likely to write such a story myself (but I do tend to tolerate girls a little better than boys, so you can probably guess why I asked).
Oh. That explains it
9948520
How come?
9948583
Because, in my experience, girls are less chaotic, less loud, and less wayward than boys
9948616
I see you have not met my twin siblings then.
Dammit, Navel, you are way too good at this for your own good.
Never stop.
This is absolutely adorable
Wonderful as ever!
...though I have to ask, why do you put these snippets out as spiritual sequels instead of chapters for The King of Love Bugs?
9949133
Mostly because oneshots attract new readers and watchers a lot quicker. A lot of the daily traffic isn't going to read the latest chapter of an 80k story, they're going to read that completed oneshot less than 4k because it's easier.
Ergo I do both.
When I can think of a unique description and cover art idea for something, or I think of an idea that I really want to just thrust upon the masses, I make it a oneshot. If it's something that kinda fits better as a continuation of KoLB, I do a new chapter.
Thorax is a leading character? Heavily features hugging changelings? Must be a new NavelColt fic!
Adorable as always. Pharynx will give in some day.
ACCEPT THE CUDDLES PHARYNX YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE ADORABLENESS THAT IS A CHANGELING NYMPH AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
But where do the nymphs come from if there's no queen to lay the eggs..?
9949163
You could always just publish 200 word chapters every day to your long fics to hang out in the bottom three of the feature box.
9949788
I'm of the belief that changelings, being half pony and not pure bug, have always laid eggs in pairs like mammals and other non-exoskeletal species. Chrsyalis merely forced all of the hive's young to be raised by herself as warriors. In her hive, who you were born to or with didn't matter. Hive strength and unity was all that mattered, hence why the changelings were always considered a 'swarm'. Kind of how ancient Sparta and I think Rome functioned.
The fact that Ocellus has unique changeling parents discredits the long-standing fanon theory that Chrysalis laid all the eggs. A theory I never personally subscribed to in the first place.
Under Thorax's rule, the hive behaves more like pack animals, so changeling parents take care of their young like how ponies do, and as seen with Ocellus. Thorax actually refers to the hive as a 'pack' in Triple Threat, which is where I started building the headcanon.
As such the nursery hive is like a daycare, now.
Adult drones can leave their nymphs here during the day when busy, and Thorax, along with a list of adult drones alternate shifts watching over/playing with them. Thorax, himself acts like a guardian/parent for all the changelings, both the adults and the nymphs, because again, pack animal theme. Lots of individual families living together and looking out for each other. 
And yes, I could, but then I wouldn't get the fun of creating new individual stories with unique artwork.
Y u give me diabetes, too much saccharine goodness.
9949948
I never really bought the fanon that Chrysalis laid all the eggs either...but it was pointed out to me once that it could also still be that Chrysalis was the layer of all eggs UP until her overthrowing, and then the changelings adopted a more traditional family structure AFTER they reformed and every changeling assigned a role in an adoptive family, in an attempt to better emulate the ponies. And as the show never presented any solidified evidence to disprove this, I can't exactly deny it as a possibility, and it's admittedly logically sound, as theoretically real-life hive-operating insects like bees could do it, if so inclined (the worker bees can and will lay eggs too, they just don't usually have the chance to be fertilized r in great number, and are quickly destroyed by other workers if they aren't the queen bee's anyway).
Like I said, I prefer to think like you, and that the changelings had always operated under traditional family structures more akin to most mammals and never had any one 'ling laying all the eggs. But I feel it's worthwhile keeping this alternative in mind anyway, if only for the more "old-fashioned," we'll say, among us.
9949948
Plus the practical side: Chrysalis would have had neither time nor energy to impose her rule if she had to lay all the eggs herself. Being a biological queen is a full-time job and I seriously doubt she would have been able to lead the hive while laying eggs, and the metabolic demands of mass procreation would have left her too weak to defend herself from her subjects if they were to rebel against her (by rebel here I mean in a "normal" way, not by what they actually did in the show).
Oh, and not all species of insects have a biological queen. A lot of them do lay eggs in pairs.
Edit: another reason why I don't think that she was responsible for laying the eggs is that we never saw any evidence of her trying to build a new hive/create new warriors after getting overthrown. In fact she resorted to magically creating minions from logs. Why would she waste energy on that if she could create more offspring?
9950390
Aren't worker bees sterile?
9950390
As such I take their silence on the subject as a +1 towards parental units always having been the norm. 
I prefer my headcanon over the 'adoption' route if even only because mass assigned adoptions sounds even more convoluted and high-stress for the new hive to deal with, and I would think Thorax would have mentioned something that major to Spike in Triple Threat, or maybe Ocellus in later episodes.
But yes, technically they could have mass adopted.
Heck, there's room for at least one buggo adoption in my stories, right here. Thorax just hasn't filled out paperwork, yet.
9950404
Technically, no, because genetically speaking, they're no different than that of the queen bee, and in the right circumstances for most bee species, they can start laying eggs too...they just aren't typically fertilized as they aren't exposed to males who can, y'know, do the deed. And for bees, eggs that aren't fertilized hatch as male bees by default, and for bees, it's not good for the hive if all your eggs are hatching as male. They generally don't enter this situation though, because under normal circumstances, there's no need to within the hive, and leave it up to the queen (who, in a way, sort of stands as a sole representative of that hive's whole gene pool).
9950427
Yeah, I keep waiting for that paperwork to get finalized already...
Thorax and his many Heirs in the middle of naptime. (1009 AC.)
I literally cant read all of it because id die of cuteness before i get half way through the story
God I love these lovebugs so much T___T
I can’t help but feel that he would be insulted being compared to a prey species.
10036918
He could be insulted that something like mice would be considered a prey species for him, too. We've seen them eat other large insects and love, and that's it. Anything else is speculation, no?
I'd better brush my teeth after reading this. All that sugar's going to get me cavities.
This was cute, but not sappy. That can be hard to do. Good job!
These stories of your look adorable!
9948351
Your mention of Anakin, and the context of family in this fic reminds me of THIS
1:30-1:35
Edit: Sharing YouTube videos with a specified start and stop is tricky
Edit 2: Fuck it! Here's an embed and the times for the part I want to show. It's the part where Anakin shouts "I have a family!"
10275014
LMAO
10275067
LOL!
Laughing at the clip, or at my table flip?
10275868
Both
This is the sort of thing I wish we got to see more of in the show, ya know, how the kingdoms are doing! great story! This was a really really cute read!
10646483
Thanks! I agree, it felt criminal that we didn't get to see more of Thorax's hive, or that Pharynx literally only had one speaking role appearance.
10037226
I never noticed those were bugs.
And
I’m not sure how I feel about it
Pharynx's inner voice: "Thorax is way too snuggly with the adorable troglodytes."
Pharynx's other inner voice: "Adorable?"
Pharynx's inner voice: "Ahhhh! Shutupshutupshutup!"
Cross over to the light side, Pharynx.
Bugs are adorable. Bugs need hugs.
11153960
One could even say that snugs are drugs for bugs.
Awwww this story was soooo cute, made me really feel warm and fuzzy inside XD. Would've loved if Pharyx gets stormed by the nymphlings before begrudgingly accepting to snuggle with them but still, I had a great time reading this. Well done.