//------------------------------//
// Pharynx hates books 
// Story: Singular's Demise 
// by The Psychopath 
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Pharynx looked around the crystal castle's large and tall hallways with contempt.

"Your hallways are too big. Anything can come in here in large numbers and attack it all," he said.

"Stop worrying about that," Twilight replied. She stopped in front of a pair of doors and pushed them open. "No pony is going to attack the castle, and even if they did." She looked at Pharynx and smiled. "It's protected by the magic of the table."

"Our home was also protected by magic, but it didn't prevent anyone from entering it," the changeling retorted with a scowl.

Twilight smiled sheepishly but said nothing. They entered a large room decorated with only a few bookshelves, a table, and some chairs. There wasn't much else in it.

"Sorry about this. I only just got all of this in the castle, and now I'm trying to fill my bookshelves with as many books as I can get." She started to shake uncontrollably. "WHILE alphabetizing them and categorizing them based on the majority of their contents!" The alicorn admired her collection. "I wanted to decorate my personal library, but I still don't know with what."

"Why not books?" Pharynx replied sarcastically.

"That's a GOOD idea," Twilight replied with equal humor. ", but no. I need something else." She brushed away the thoughts. "Instead, I need your help confirming a few things for me." The changeling raised a brow at Twilight's request. "Your brother asked me to help him find history on changelings."

"Because changelings don't really keep it. The queens do."

"Exactly!" Twilight threw a foreleg into the air. Her enthusiasm started to fade. "The thing is...I haven't been able to find much information concerning changelings apart from the reports of terrified ponies attacked by them or missing reports." She tapped a shelf board rhythmically. "I thought you might be able to help me recognize anything about it since most of changeling history tends to be about--"

"War and covert operations," Pharynx finished. He leaned against the wall and looked at Twilight with a raised eye. "So why exactly do you want me here?"

Twilight blinked several times in confusion. "Wh...I just said because--"

"No. That's the SURFACE reason," the changeling specified. "What is the ACTUAL reason?"

Twilight would have twiddled her thumbs if she had any. Instead, she was left with biting her lower lip and averting Pharynx's gaze. "Exactly what I told you."

"No. You can get all you need from the books, and you know that we never recorded our history." Twilight didn't respond to the changeling, aggravating him even further. "Fine. If you don't want my help, then I'll just be leaving and--"

"No!" Twilight had instinctively reached out to Pharynx and cursed herself internally for it. "Fine. I need you to help confirm rumors of other changeling hives existing. I can't find anything, or, at least, I can't recognize any possible mentions," she mumbled to herself.

"Other hives?!" the changeling repeated in indignation. "If there really were other hives, we would have found them!" he yelled angrily. "Instead, Chrysalis never found trace of any other in Equestria and beyond while she wandered the lands during her early years." He exhaled loudly. "Our hive was always left to fend for itself, even when we looked elsewhere." He grabbed a book from the shelves violently, throwing the others on the floor and causing Twilight to dive forward to try and catch them with both her hooves and magic. "I don't even know what some kind of stupid little pamphlet thing can tell us!" he says whilst holding the book from its side and making the pages flutter down.

Twilight glared, her jaw agape, in indignation at the changeling and swiped the book back. "These aren't just pamphlets," she mocked. "They're treasure troves of new ideas and knowledge! ESPECIALLY KNOWLEDGE!" she blurted at Pharynx.

He cleaned out his ears in reaction to her scream. "Well, it doesn't matter what you say, because we're the only hive in the world."

"The WORLD, you say?" Twilight wondered. A grin formed across her face. "It sure would be STRANGE for something as big as the WORLD to only have...ONE hive, wouldn't it?" she wondered matter-of-factly.

"Okay fine. I'll help you look for them, but I won't like it." He frowned further at the bookshelves. "Books are annoying and never get to what you need at the exact moment you need it." He grumbled to himself and grabbed one that Twilight joyfully passed to him. 

"Tell me when you find something that sounds familiar," she told him. "I'll tell you as well."

"Alright," Pharynx sighed. He leaned his head against his foreleg and started reading. The tediousness was extreme.



"So what have you to report now?" Pronotum asked her scouts.

The scouts saluted their queen, making Clypeus chuckle while she sharpened her mandibles. The blue-purple queen hissed at her quietly.

"Nothing much, my queen," a first scout saluted. 

"Except..." another trailed off nervously.

"Except?" Pronotum repeated with a raised brow.

The changelings looked at each other nervously. "Well...They're friends with ponies and dragons. They have connections to a few other races but it's through the ponies."

The queen's eyes twitched briefly. "How?" she asked. "That's impossible. No one has EVER been comfortable around us even when we were revealed to them." She paced about. "Is it their new forms?"

Clypeus laughed. "Or is it because of her?" she pointed at Chrysalis with a mandible. "After all, she revealed the existence of their hive and became the source of their hatred and fear. By chasing her off, they made her the target of most hatred, alleviating SOME of the issues with changelings." She jolted away from her mandible in pain. "Ow. Stab," she said under breath. "And with the intervention of some of the ponies responsible, it became easier to bring them into their society."

The three queens and scouts stared at her. "How do you--" the elder queen attempted to speak.

"I took the place of several psychologists. It's easy to take what little love they have left over and watch them destroy each other." She cackled. "I love it when they tear at each other's throats after I've drained them completely. Always fun to watch."

The elder queen nodded in approval. "Much fun to be had in manipulating your enemies psychologically. They destroy each other while you don't even need to lift a finger." She laughed alongside Clypeus. "I didn't think I would get to see another creature, let alone changeling queen, who goes the that way."

"Can you two focus, pleasure?!" Pronotum shouted. She reered back when the elder queen looked at her. "Not to disrespect you, elder queen."

The queen brushed the apology off with a calm face. "No need to apologize. It was not an affront towards me." She turned to face the scouts. "Don't you have more to report to your queen?"

"R-right!" the scout stammered. "I think that the best way to earn everything about them is to take the place of a few of the other races and see what they're doing with the changelings and what they think about them."

Pronotum pondered the idea. "Then we should take the place of a high ranking member of each society."

"Yes," Clypeus agreed. "If you don't want to learn about the regular people, of course."

The blue-purple queen glared at Clypeus from the corner of her eyes. "What are you talking about? The highest ranking members of society have the most resources and the most information to part with."

"And are the furthest away from the commoners." The yellow queen stood up and snorted out the dust from her sharpened mandibles. "Having one in both worlds would be the best possible solution, preferably being as separate from each other as possible."

"But that's a waste of resources!"

"Do you WANT to eliminate these changelings o not?" she retorted angrily.

Pronotum scratched her chin. "I'm not entirely decided on that, actually."

Clypeus' face twisted in frustration. "What? What do you mean 'not entirely decided'? They disgraced the name of changelings everywhere, and now they flaunt about colorfully hugging each other and giving therapy to the food." She spat at the notion. "I want them wiped from existence. DAMNED any who get in our way!"

"But that's EXACTLY what SHE thought," Pronotum gestured to Chrysalis. "and look what happened."

Chrysalis grumbled but otherwise remained silent as she laid on the floor. "Getting tired of them using me as an example," she thought to herself. "Not like I didn't have everything planned just right." Thoughts of Twilight flew into her mind. "Every time, there's ONE that ruins everything."

"It doesn't matter!" Clypeus retorted. "They're a lost cause. There's no way to return them to normal. They taint the name of changelings everywhere." She gulped loudly. "And it's only a matter of time before the red hive hears of it." She regained her composure and put on an air of determination. "We NEED to wipe them out before that happens."

"And then what?" Pronotum asked. She approached the yellow queen and stretched her foreleg out to the side. "It's an entire HIVE. There's NO way we can eliminate them discreetly." Clypeus was about to say something but was stopped by the blue-purple queen. "And don't say 'full assault'. We don't know the extent of their relationship to the other races."

One of the scouts spoke up, breaking up the fighting. "Well, we discovered this thing called a 'school of friendship', and many creatures from the other races go there to learn about...friendship. That's the best place to learn about the relationships no?"

The queens -Chrysalis excluded- nodded to each other. 

"That's not a bad idea," the elder queen mused. "Do you know where it is?" The scout shook his head. "Then go look for it. Meanwhile, I have a plan for it." She grinned. "I will transform into a changeling of the lost brood and shuffle in as new student."

Chrysalis groaned loudly. "It's a school!" she spoke loudly. "They won't let you sign up without someone attending you."

The elder queen tapped her chin pensively. "You're right." She pointed to Clypeus. "You know your way around someone's mind. I want you to transform into their king and come to my aid should I be unable to convince them to let me sign up."

The yellow queen reluctantly agreed to the plan. "I hope you know how to approach these things, Elder. We don't need them discovering more of us, let alone the existence of our elder queens."

The elder laughed heartily. "You needn't worry about that, young one." She pinch the queen's cheek. "I know my way around a dead end or two."



Pharynx was bashing his head against the table in a constant, almost rhythmic fashion. "I can't find anything."

"But those mentions were found--" Twilight started.

"Just rumors that don't hold up to what we do," he waved the notion off then turned his head over to face the alicorn. "Most of them can just be monsters in the forests. "He chuckled to himself. "I know quite a few."

"But--"

"Look, Twilight. I know you really want to find others, but the truth is that there ARE no others!" he stated dryly. "You won't find any other changeling hives because we're the only ones." He calmed himself and explained more logically. "If you want me to help you anymore, get some new books that you think could be CONCRETE proof of their existence."

The lavender alicorn pondered the thought then nodded. "Fine. I'll see what I can scrounge up. Thanks for the help you gave me, anyways."

The changeling nodded then flew away through the halls of the crystal castle. When the buzzing of his wings mellowed into silence, Twilight turned to her bookshelves and frowned. "I wonder if I'll be able to find Starswirl," she thought aloud. "He must know about other changeling hives, if ever there were any." She tapped her head angrily. "There HAS to have been others. Chrysalis' hive can't have been the only one to ever exist. That's not how nature works," she mumbled to herself.