“Great Feelings Forum today, guys!” King Thorax encouraged his citizens as they exited their latest session. “I’m glad that you’re all becoming more open with expressing negative feelings.” Smiling, he glanced at the yellow changeling with blue eyes standing next to him. “What’s next, Notebug?”
Notebug, his royal adviser, scrunched her brow in thought. They were working on getting writing materials from Equestria, but until they did, they had to commit things such as schedules and lists to memory. With her sharp recall ability, Notebug made a perfect assistant for Thorax.
“Well, next there’s-,”
“King Thorax!” One of the watch changelings flew over to the pair. “King Thorax, there’s a pony here to see you.”
Thorax gave a flick of his hoof in acknowledgement. “Thanks, Keen Eye! We’ll be right there.” After the watch changeling gave a sharp nod of his head, he flew off to continue his duties. “We better see who it is. Maybe Twilight, Starlight, or one of the others came to visit.”
“What about this week’s art gallery spotlight?” Notebug asked.
“We’ll get to it,” Thorax answered. “If it looks like this meeting will run long, we can put it off for later. Come on.” Taking flight, the king flew to the throne area with his adviser trailing behind.
The stallion bowed a foreleg in respectful greeting. “King Thorax, it’s an honor to meet you. Thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I’m not sure what the procedure is for getting meetings around here.”
“Neither are we, to be honest,” Thorax admitted, sitting on his throne and sharing a glance with Notebug. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out soon, though. Please, rise. What can the changelings help you with today? What’s your name?”
“Odd Wonder,” the stallion said, standing upright on all four hooves again. Odd Wonder was an Earth pony with a sky blue coat, purple eyes that matched his short, jagged mane and tail. His cutie mark consisted of a shiny green gem and a boomerang.
“Odd Wonder, huh?” Notebug raised an eyebrow. “How does that match up with your cutie mark?”
“My special talent, or I guess my passion is the right way to put it, is collecting lots of random stuff that I think looks cool but everypony else thinks is bizarre.”
“Oh, like if us changelings find something in Equestria interesting, but the ponies there don’t get why we’re so fascinated by it?” Thorax guessed.
Odd grinned at him. “Exactly! And, actually, that’s kind of why I’m here.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how before you guys transformed by sharing love, you trapped creatures in cocoons so you could feed off their love?”
Thorax and Notebug exchanged a confused look before turning back to Odd. “Yeah, what about it?”
“Do you still make them? The cocoons, or did you lose that ability when you changed?” Awkwardly, Odd glanced down at his hooves and rubbed at one. “I heard stories, and while most ponies don’t like to think about them since they might’ve been captured in the past, I’m kinda intrigued. Maybe we could arrange something where I could take a little one back home for my collection?” He offered a small smile, hoping they wouldn’t be offended. “That is, if you can still make them and all.”
Once again, Thorax and Notebug communicated silently through their looks. Notebug lifted a hoof in uncertainty, and shrugged at her king. It was his call.
After thinking it over for a minute, Thorax nodded his consent. “I think we can do that. And, I’ll do you one better.”
Odd raised an eyebrow. “Better how?”
“Hey, bro!” The Earth pony nearly jumped at the gruff tone, and whirled around to see Thorax’s darker-looking, shorter brother arriving in the throne area. “You going to attend that art gallery thing, or what? Those artsy-feely changelings down there are getting worried that you’re not gonna show.”
Thorax grinned upon seeing his brother. “Pharynx, just who I wanted to see.” He faced Odd, and gestured to Pharynx. “Odd, this is my brother. His name’s Pharynx.” Then he addressed his brother, motioning at Odd with his hoof. “Pharynx, this is Odd.” By way of explanation, he told their guest, “Pharynx is our general. He commands our guards, and is the best changeling around to ask about the cocoons.”
Pharynx leveled a confused look at his brother. “Uh, what did I just walk into?”
“Our guest here, Odd, was looking to learn about cocoons. I was just about to send for you, actually,” explained Thorax.
“No way,” Pharynx snarled, making the guest feel like taking a step back out of the general’s grabbing range. “I have stuff to do, and none of that includes entertaining guests.”
“Come on,” Thorax groaned at his brother being difficult as usual. “The cocoons are part of the old changeling ways; I thought you took pride in those.”
Pharynx snapped, “I do! I just don’t care about playing nice with guests that aren’t important.”
“Ouch…” Odd remarked, a little hurt.
Hearing Odd comment, the changeling king flicked his head in the pony’s direction before fluttering over to his brother. “Look, he came all this way, and he’s one of very few creatures outside the hive interested in our culture. All I’m asking is for you to show him your stuff and explain it for five minutes, then you can send him back to me.”
“And I should do this because…” Pharynx drawled.
Rolling his eyes, Thorax prodded him in the chest. “Five minutes. Bump it up to ten, and you can make up some embarrassing story about me to the nymphs. Deal?”
While the general/prince didn’t care for playing host, he did enjoy telling tales about his brother in their youth.
“…Fine.” Turning away from his brother, Pharynx pointed at the Earth pony, who flinched at the action. “You! Come with me. I’ll tell you about the cocoons.”
“My name is Odd,” the pony tried to tell him.
“Don’t care. Move it.”
Realizing his chance to learn about changeling cocoons might be slipping away, Odd Wonder trotted inside the hive after his new guide.
The hive, Odd decided, was a lot creepier on his second walk through. He reasoned it had to do with Pharynx. Not even the watch changeling that had guided him to the throne area was this cold. The general kept on marching down corridor after corridor, keeping the pony accompanying him at hoof’s length away.
They passed some other changelings on the way, but it seemed from a distance that so much as the sight of Pharynx made everycreature go stiff.
Yep, Pharynx had an intimidating presence in the hive. And he was supposed to be Thorax’s brother? Odd couldn’t see the resemblance.
“We’re here,” Pharynx declared after a long walk of silence.
Odd became aware as they stepped into a cavern filled with glowing lights of all colors, like the strings of Hearth’s Warming lights Odd put up around his house during the holiday season. Most of them were hung from the ceiling, and a few small ones were strewn around the cavern floor, but they weren’t as big as the ones above.
“What is this?” Odd inquired, staring.
Pharynx strode further into the cavern. “This is where my troops, myself, and any other changeling who wishes practice making cocoons. We haven’t had need for them since Chrysalis left, but I refuse to let the skill fade from the hive’s memory.”
“Those are the cocoons?” Odd looked up at the lights again, taking in their round shape. “They look really neat.”
The general snorted. “You should’ve seen them before we all changed. They were all the same stupid green color. Personally, I would’ve had them all black. Ever since the change, they’ve started taking on color schemes that match the changeling who made them. See those?” He pointed a hoof at a cluster of cocoons that were glowing grayish black. “Those are mine.”
There was a smugness in Pharynx’s tone during the last comment, but his guest was too awestruck by the goal of his visit to really care.
“Whoa, now I really want to take a small one home. One would make my room glow pretty awesome.”
“Eh, we’ll see.”
“So, how do they work?” Odd asked.
Pharynx stared at him sharply. “And I’m going to tell you that because…”
“Because someone’s going to learn eventually?” Odd pointed out. “If they haven’t already and published it in a book. I wouldn’t know since I’m not much of a researcher.” Odd took a seat on the floor, ignoring the cold against his flank. “Besides, I’d rather hear about them from one of the creatures that make them.” He smiled encouragingly at the changeling prince. “So, fire away.”
His guide narrowed his eyes momentarily, and then sighed. “Fine, but don’t interrupt.” Looking upward at the topic of conversation, he began to explain. “The cocoons are designed to preserve the occupants. They contain a special goo inside that creates a warm environment for the dweller, and lulls them into a half-conscious and half-unconscious state so they don’t muster the energy to escape. As for the outside, it’s made of a mesh similar to the goo, but it hardens over time and is strong enough to suspend from the ceiling without allowing gravity to pull occupants out. Despite the hardened shell, it’s thin enough to allow oxygen inside so dwellers don’t suffocate.”
Odd blinked at the last bit of information. “Huh. I wondered about that, because ponies I know that were trapped were still alive when they were free-.”
“I thought I told you not to interrupt!”
“Sorry,” Odd apologized sheepishly, averting his gaze to his hooves.
“Now, are there any questions your pony mind has?” Pharynx grumbled once the guest was sufficiently frightened.
“But didn’t you just-?”
“Do you have questions, or not?”
“Yeah,” Odd scrambled, “how long did you keep creatures in them usually?”
Pharynx shrugged. “A few days, give or take. It usually took several days to feed off all the love they currently had. Once we figured they were empty, we sent them back to where they were from so they could gather more love while we took new captures. I think at one point before I hatched there were times where the hive had a schedule of who they fed off of when and who was getting more love.”
“What about food and water? Creatures like ponies can’t go more than three days without water.”
“Remember the goo inside the cocoons? How it prevents the dweller from building enough energy to escape? It slows energy expenditure too.” The changeling lifted a hoof to his chin. “I’m not entirely sure on the exact numbers, but ponies could easily go weeks inside a cocoon.”
Stunned, Odd blinked a second time since the lecture ended. “Okay. About these practice cocoons, do you have volunteer changelings inside them, or some other creature, or are they empty?”
“Empty. Noling has volunteered since I started this training exercise, and Thorax said it’d be cruel to wild animals to use them like that.” Pharynx rolled his eyes at the mention of his brother’s gentle nature. “I suppose if we really wanted to, we could use rocks or something to occupy them, but I didn’t really think of that before now.”
“Huh,” Odd murmured thoughtfully, taking the information in. He glanced up at the colorful cocoons, imagining how Pharynx had described them before the change and how they compared to now. With the variety of color, they probably looked better than before. But since Pharynx seemed to be a fan of the old ways, he didn’t voice that opinion. He lowered his gaze to the smaller cocoons on the cavern floor, and pictured one in his room at home.
Yeah, that would look nice. But what if…
The changeling prince noticed his pony guest was drifting into thoughts, and frowned. He hated when Thorax or another changeling did that. Dreamers, always thinking of something pointless. When he made that look, it was always productive thinking on how to improve the hive’s security.
“What’s with that look?” Pharynx prodded, snapping Odd out of his thoughts. “You’re making that same dumb face my brother does.”
“Um,” Odd started to say something, but was unsure if he should voice the question on his tongue. “I was wondering… if you really wanted to, would you like to stick me in a cocoon?”
Okay, Pharynx was not expecting that to come out of the pony’s mouth.
“What?” He uttered, unable to say anything else without context.
“Well, at first I just wanted to get a small cocoon in a jar or something for my room, but after hearing all the stuff you said about them, I kinda want to try being in one,” explained Odd. “Just for an hour or two.”
The general gawked at him. “Why would you want to be in a cocoon willingly? That’s-.”
“Weird for a pony? Yeah, but what might be strange for other ponies is par the course for me.” Odd brushed a foreleg through his purple mane. “I like weird things. Like, I’m the only pony in town I know that would make a watermelon and peanut butter sandwich, or I’m the only pony in town that collects lost diamond dog teeth.” He glanced at his cutie mark- the symbol of who he was, then looked back at Pharynx. “As crazy as it sounds, I want to feel that sticky goo. I want to feel that warm environment you mentioned. I also want to sleep on the ceiling like a bat, but that’s a lesser point.”
Pharynx stared at Odd in disbelief. Nocreature has ever wanted to get inside a cocoon before, and now this pony is here asking for it.
“And, you get a little bit of cocooning practice too. So, we both win by doing this. What do you think?”
At the mention of cocooning practice, Pharynx allowed himself to grin.
“Kid, that’s the best thing you’ve said this whole time.” His horn began to glow.
“You cocooned him!”
Roughly two hours later, Thorax followed Pharynx back into the cocooning cavern. Initially, Thorax had assumed that his brother and their guest had bonded since Pharynx hadn’t shoved Odd to his side after five minutes had passed. When he saw Pharynx show up alone, he dreaded that his brother had somehow driven Odd away. Even though he was positive that he wouldn’t like the answer, he asked anyway, and the answer was worse than he had thought.
“When I said for you to show him your stuff, I meant show him some cocoons. You weren’t supposed to actually cocoon him!” Thorax objected, stomping a hoof on the floor.
“He asked for it,” replied Pharynx, buzzing his wings to ascend up towards his cluster of cocoons. “Literally.”
“That doesn’t make this any better,” Thorax shot back, watching his brother peer over his cocoons before taking one in his hooves. “If anycreature finds out about this…”
“Then, we’ll tell them the truth. He literally asked for it,” Pharynx repeated, flying down and laying the cocoon before the king. With it retrieved, he smirked at his brother. “You want to do the honors, or should I?”
Huffing at the prince’s attempt to be courteous, Thorax lowered his horn to the cocoon, casting one of the few spells that changelings were taught- the spell that opened cocoon shells.
“Odd?” Thorax nudged the form lying inside the broken casing. “Odd, wake up.”
It took a few tries to open his eyes, but the Earth pony woke up to the changeling leader’s relief.
Yawning, he stretched his forelegs. “Wow, two hours up already?” Rubbing at his eyes, he took notice that there was not one, but two changelings surrounding him. “Oh. Hey, King Thorax.”
“You asked to be put in a cocoon? Why?” Thorax questioned, slowly coming down off his panic mode.
“I just wanted to see what it was like,” defended Odd as he got on all fours. After a moment, a blissful smile appeared on his muzzle. “And, it was great! It was like sleeping in a warm bed. The goo acted a bit like a blanket, and I think I had the best sleep I’ve had in months!” Noticing the goo still sticking to him, he started swiping it off. “Ooh, now my fur is really smooth too. Have you guys considered marketing these cocoonings as some sort of spa treatment or cocoon rest therapy, or something? Now that changelings are nice and aren’t cocooning creatures to feed off their love anymore, there shouldn’t be anything to be scared of.”
Thorax and Pharynx stared at him, bewildered by his lengthy answer.
Thorax was the firs to get his jaw back in working order. “…We actually haven’t considered that.”
Odd finished wiping the sticky goo away, and gave himself a once over. “You should, then. Once word would get out about great these are, you could make a beautiful bit.” Thinking of something, he asked, “You guys don’t have any sort of currency, do you?”
“Nope,” Pharynx said with a shake of his head, nearly hitting his brother in the neck with his antlers. “since we feed on love, we don’t have real need for buying stuff. There’s also the part where we’re re-establishing ourselves as a kingdom, and that probably plays a part.”
“Right. Makes sense.” Odd looked up at the cocoons once more before addressing the royal pair. “I should get going. Just think about my suggestion, okay?”
Thorax nodded in understanding. “We will.”
Pharynx raised a hoof. “Wait, almost forgot.” Reaching somewhere on his being, he pulled out a small jar with a little changeling cocoon inside it. “Took me a little bit after I cocooned you up, but I found something for you to keep that small cocoon you wanted inside of.”
“Great! Thanks! Should I call you general, or prince?” Odd accepted the souvenir.
“Either works, but since I don’t like being considered royalty, maybe go with general.”
“Then thanks, General Pharynx.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Pharynx waved off the gratitude. “Any time you want another cocoon session, come talk.”
Thorax gestured to the cavern’s exit. “Allow me to escort you out. Since I’ve been off doing other stuff for most of your visit, it’d be rude not to see you off.”
As Thorax and Pharynx both led Odd Wonder out of the hive, the pony started thinking about how he would tell the others back home of his experience, and maybe by sharing, he’d begin something amazing and new in Equestria.
That was the best thing about being weird- possibly coming up with a fresh idea that could revolutionize an industry.