//------------------------------//
// Lamp 
// Story: Thorax is Phototactic 
// by Deergenerate 
//------------------------------//

Thorax was currently sitting in his room. The cool air of the empire chilled him to the bone, causing him to shiver uncontrollably. Changelings were cold blooded after all.  

He was trying to read a book that Shining Armor and Cadance had given him. On the cover was an image of two pony foals in winter cloths having a snowball fight, in the back ground was the unmistakable sight of the Spire of the Crystal Empire's palace. Written on the cover was; "Making Friends in the Crystal Empire."

Emphasis on trying however, as it was currently too dark for him to see. The sun had just set and no longer bathed his room in light through the rooms window, and unlike unicorns, Changelings couldn't cast illumination spells. They also couldn't cast really impressive spells, or teleport, or do a load of other cool stuff Unicorns could. Well, Chrysalis could do all those things, but she was a special case.

It was a book meant for younger ponies, that much was obvious to him, but he would accept anything he could get. Friends were something he hoped to have in abundance. What made him upset right now was the fact that he couldn't read it right now.

He couldn't help but loudly groan. He set the book down on the small desk, that had been put into his room, and put his hooves to his face. If he couldn't even finish this little foals book in one day, how was he supposed to make friends? That was a rhetorical question of course, for he already knew the answer.

"Argh I'm hopeless!" He shouted before he let his head hit the desk with a loud thud. 

There was a knock on his door. "Hey Thorax, you doing ok there buddy? Can I come in?" Came the calm and fatherly voice of Shining Armor from the other side. 

"No and Yes..." Thorax slowly replied to the questions as he turned his head, which was still on the desk, to the Door. 

Shining Armor opened the door and entered. "What's the matter Thorax? You were making loud noises as I was walking by." 

"Well..." Thorax started as he kept his head to his desk. "How am I supposed to learn about friendship here in the empire if I can't even read a foals book about friendship."

Thorax raised his head again and spread his forelegs out in the air in hopelessness. "What the heck should I do?"

"That is horrible, but I guess I expected as much." The Unicorn said, crossing his arms. Thorax lowered his hooves and looked at Shining Armor with a face showing pure betrayal and hurt. Shining expected him to fail?

Shining Armor slowly closed his eyes and hummed for a second. "They never taught you how to read back in your hive did they? Don't worry, lots of creatures your age still have trouble reading. Spike for one couldn't actually read proper books until he was 15, that's why he loves comics so much." 

Thorax cocked an eyebrow in response. "What? No, I can read. Pretty well actually. The last books I read before this was Lord of the Bracelets."

Shining's face then went red and he coughed a little. "Erm… never mind, then."

He then cleared his throat and turned back the Thorax. "If you can read Lord of the Bracelets, why are you having so much trouble with this book?" 

Thorax then lowered his head again in sadness. "It's too dark. I can't see the word. How am I supposed to read it if I can't see the words." 

Shining was quiet for a second before he desperately tried to stifle a laugh. He put a hoof to his mouth and his cheeks puffed up a bit. 

"Is that it?" Shining said after a couple minutes of intense struggle. "Phew, you had me worried for a minute there bud."

Shining Armor pulled himself up and walked over to Thorax's desk. Sitting on top, off towards the side, was a sphere like object sitting on top of a metal stick. 

"Here, this is a lamp." Shining said as he pointed to it. "These things produce light." 

Thorax cocked his head to the side in response. "They do? I though that was some kind of decoration..."

"I mean, they can be." Shining said as he raised a hoof. "Anyway, you just have to push this button to turn it on."

Shining pressed the button and the lamp turned on and the room was brightened to a more acceptable level. 

"Oh my gosh thank you." Thorax said as relief spread across his face. 

Shining yawned and stretched his back a little.

"Whelp, there you are Thorax," Shining replied. "You just gotta press the button to turn it off again. Don't stay up too late, I'm going to bed." 

"Goodnight Shining." Thorax said happily as can be. 

Shining waved goodnight and left the room. "Goodnight Thorax." He said with another yawn. 

Thorax turned back around, picked up the book again and started reading. He had finished in record time, the remaining 30 pages being read in 10 minutes. 

A look of pride and bliss spread across his face and he let out a content sigh. All the stress he had felt earlier had been lifted off his shoulder by this one magical device. 

"Whelp, time for bed." He said as he looked over to the lamp to try and turn it off.

As he looked at it he suddenly felt the world grow dark around him, and the only thing he could seemingly focus on was the light bulb of the lamp. 

"Wha-?" He started but he couldn't finish. As he stared he couldn't help but feel everything else fade into nothingness. The sounds of crickets outside, the slow footsteps of patrolling guards in the hallways, even the sound of his own breathing became muted to him. The cold he had felt earlier was completely chased away as he stared at the lightbulb.

He felt himself start to slowly drool. "Pretty." He stated as he slowly inched his head closer to the lamp until his snout had been firmly pressed against it.





The morning light spread into the Crystal Empire like always. Nothing was more inevitable it seems, then the sun rise.

Cadance and Shining Armor were currently sitting at the table in the Castle's dinning room eating their meals. A quick serving of a pancake, coffee and cereal, nothing big. 

Sunburst stood off to the side, slowly and absent mindedly spoon feeding Flurry Heart her daily breakfast of oatmeal. Sunburst was also using his levitation to drink some teas and read the newspaper. He then raised an eyebrow and lowered his newspaper.

"Don't you think it's really quiet today?" He said.

Cadance and Shining looked at each other and nodded. 

"Yeah, it seems like we are missing someone." Cadance said before she took a bite of an orange slice. Then she looked over at the meal that had been set out for Thorax, which had been completely untouched. 

"Hmm, that's weird." She said. "Usually Thorax has completely cleaned his plate by now, and he is always here before us..." 

She slowly took a sip of coffee as the gears in her head started to turn. She suddenly spurted out her coffee all over the table when she finally realized what was going on. 

"THORAX!" She suddenly shouted, bringing her hooves to the side of her head. "He is always here for breakfast before us! He must be in trouble!" 

Shining rose from his seat too. "Oh no! Your right!" he shouted. "Sunburst! Watch the baby!" 

Sunburst nodded as the two ran off. He then brought the Newspaper back to his face the moment they were out of eyeshot. 

Flurry crooned in her chair in confusion. "Don't worry Flurry, that's just Mommy and Daddy over reacting, like always." 





Shining Armor was the first one to arrive at the door to Thorax's room. He quickly jumped back and threw his shoulder against the door. It didn't budge and he only succeeded in bruising his shoulder. 

"The door's made of crystal Shining." He said to himself with a grunt. 

Cadance looked at him for a second before she reached over and turned the nob with her hoof. "Did you even try to open it regularly?" She asked. 

"No." Shining said as his face went red again.

Cadance opened to door fully, allowing the two to peer into the room.

Thorax was currently sitting at his desk, exactly where Shining had let him, with snout pressed firmly against the lamp's light bulb. His eyes were completely glazed over, and a veritable puddle of drool had been formed on top of the desk. 

"Thorax?" Cadance asked walking up to him. She stood right next to him and clapped her hooves to try to get his attention. "Hey Thorax? You ok?"

Nothing. 

"Hey Thorax." Shining Armor said as he walked over. "Flurry said she wanted you to make funny faces for her." 

Still nothing.

"This is weird..." Cadance said as she put her hoof on Thorax's shoulder and shook him a little. The only response she ended up getting was Thorax turned his head in tune with the shake so that his eyes were still locked with the light.

Thorax giggled a little. "Shiny." He stated, almost mindlessly.

"What the hay?" Shining said as he looked at the lamp too. "It's just a lamp Thorax wake up."

"Maybe we should just turn it off?" Cadance said reaching over to turn it off.

"Why didn't we turn it off sooner?" Shining replied. Candance quickly responded with a shrug. 

Cadance pressed the off button on the lamp. As soon as she did Thorax blinked a couple times and pulled his head back. 

He looked around for a couple seconds. "What the heck?" He asked rubbing the back of his head. "It's day time already?"

"What do you mean by that?" Shining asked raising an eyebrow. "Were you staring at this thing all night?"

"No, I could have sworn it was only for a couple seconds, honest." Thorax said rubbing the back of his head. "It was just so... pretty... and shiny..."

"Uh huh..." Cadance said. "Well uh... breakfast is ready." 

Thorax nodded and gulped. He pulled himself out of his chair. "Ok, let's go."

He smiled as he walked out of the room to go to the dining room, leaving Cadance and Shining in the room, incredibly confused.