“I wouldn’t have expected another royal gathering anytime soon.”
“Me neither but it makes sense, this is so exciting!”
The entire changeling population had gathered below the hive ruins in a large, illuminated cavern, chittering and chatting. At the far end a makeshift wooden stage had been set up with lanterns hanging from vines above to create a spotlight.
Hidden behind the stage, Thorax sat on a stool in front of a vanity mirror. He was surrounded by a group of colorful changelings, one of which brought out a robe and put it over his back. The robe was dark green with a soft white fuzz along the edge and golden pins in seemingly random spots.
“What’s this?” Thorax wrinkled his nose at the musty smell. “How old is this thing?”
The pink changeling who had brought the robe smiled. “It’s from Queen Chrysalis’ belongings. We thought it would be fitting. It’s not meant to be a royal robe but according to some older ‘lings it was awarded to heroes of the hive long ago.”
“Well, I’m not really a hero, all I did was stand up against Chrysalis. And I had help from my friends, too.”
“I’d call that a hero.” The other changeling winked at Thorax and trotted off.
Thorax looked at his reflection in the mirror and sighed. Even though he had decided to accept the title, the last few days had been exhausting.
“Cheer up! It’s your big day, King Thorax!”
“Starlight?” asked Thorax as he pushed himself off the vanity to spin the stool around. Sure enough at the corner of the stage there was Starlight, waving her hoof.
“I hope it’s okay that I interrupt your preparations.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m pretty much ready, just a little nervous, you know?”
“About your speech or the idea of becoming the new ‘Queen’ of the changelings?” Starlight asked with a giggle.
“Between the speech and being made King I am having trouble which to be more worried about.” Thorax answered before waving off another changeling who approached with more makeup.
Starlight walked over and brushed a hoof over the green robe he was wearing. “Perhaps a little, but I generally have no issue with talking in front of a crowd. Besides, it’s just a title we’re talking about, right?”
“Just a title, yes.” Thorax agreed and looked down to his hooves. “I’m mostly doing it for the hive.”
“Oh?” Starlight tilted her head a little. “It doesn’t sound like you actually want to do it. Maybe you should pass on it? If you don’t think it’d make you happy.”
“But I already said yes. Look at the crowd, every changeling of the hive out there today expecting me to accept.”
“Well you have to do what you have to do, I guess…” A moment of awkward silence passed before Starlight suddenly spoke up again, remembering. “Oh, hey! This is for you.”
When Thorax looked up he saw a little doll floating in Starlight’s magic aura. It wasn’t just any old doll. It was his doll. Similar to the ones he and Pharynx had found the other day. But this one belonged to him.
“W-where did you get that!?” Thorax cried and grabbed the doll with both hooves.
“I met Pharynx on the way in, he wanted me to give it to you. He said that he had saved it from the ‘reassignment of your bunk’ when you hadn’t returned to the hive. Dunno… something like that.” Starlight shrugged then lidded her eyes and put on a smug smile. “Is this an emotionally important object to help you with your stage performance today?”
Thorax didn't take his eyes off the small figurine of the drone in his hoof and slowly nodded. “So that’s where it was... thank you, Starlight.”
“Well! Good luck then! I’ll go mingle. Everypony is here: Trixie, Twilight, we’ve decided to bring Ocellus’ entire class along because they wouldn’t have a teacher available to them anyway, so perhaps I should have said ‘every-creature’.”
“Thank you again, Starlight. I’ll also have to thank Pharynx, later. Where is he anyway?”
“I met him at the entrance, so he’ll probably be watching from there.”
“Ah, yes… makes sense. He’s the captain of the guard after all,” Thorax murmured mostly to himself.
When Starlight left, he was alone with the doll and his thoughts. Why would Pharynx save his doll? Especially at a time after Thorax left the hive. It couldn't have been because Pharynx wanted to play with dolls. He made fun of Thorax about them constantly when they were younger. Did... Pharynx just want something of his after he left?
Eventually, one of the changelings shook him out of it with a tug on the robe.
“We’re all ready to start! How about you?” It was Aellyth, holding a notepad to her chest and smiling at Thorax. She went over a bunch of checked entries on her notes. “Did you need a reminder of how the coronation is supposed to go down?”
“Nah,” Thorax replied coolly, and waved a hoof at her. “First I get on stage. I wait until everyone is quiet and thank a few changelings and ponies. Then I hold a speech before the oldest changelings of the hive. They crown me the new King and lastly, I guess I’ll do a question and answer thing about the future of the hive.”
Aellyth nodded and hugged her notepad. “You’re ready!”
When Thorax finally climbed up the stairs to the stage, the crowd fell quiet for a moment only to start cheering even louder for their leader. He winced, it was almost too loud for him to think on what to say.
After some meandering steps, he found what he thought was the middle of the stage and sat down. In one hoof, hidden to his chest. he still held the doll while with the other he waved. Eventually, he gestured for the changelings to quiet down so he could begin.
“H-Hey, everyone... ahem... It’s great to see you all in such a good mood and I’m happy to be here today with all of you!”
Now it was quiet, except for a single cough from somewhere in the back. Thorax looked around and when his gaze fell upon Starlight she waved back at him. She stood with Trixie and Pharynx near the entrance.
“First of all, I want to thank you all for being here and— wait did I say that already?” A few chuckles drifted from the crowd as Thorax went over the script in his mind. “Err… A-anyway, thank you all and especially my brother Pharynx for supporting me and the hive. Without him we’d have serious security problems. I also want to thank our pony friends!” Thorax pointed towards the entrance of the cavern where his pony friends stood, well, Rainbow Dash hovered above the others and waved a hoof when the spotlight fell upon them. The other mares offered smiles and waves as well and were met with cheering and stomping hooves from the changeling crowd.
“That was… yeah, oh, right, my speech!” Thorax said, drawing the crowd’s attention back to the stage. “Only a few years ago, I was nothing but a rogue changeling. ‘No one misses you.’, ‘The hive is better off without you.’ and ‘Don’t expect us to take you back!’ were only some of the things I heard from changelings I happened to meet on occasion after I left the hive. The bad behavior, negative attitude and hateful tone among changelings were the reasons I left and when I returned a few years later, I returned with my new friends, to bring back friendship to the hive.
We tried to reason with Queen Chrysalis despite her past actions against ponies, but in her world there was no room for friendship, to her it was a disease.” Thorax paused for a moment, going over his script once more. “Yes, she had to be defeated and we did it.”
Everyone patiently waited as Thorax started to struggle with his words, his head felt hot and tiny pearls of sweat formed on his forehead. As he looked around he noticed Ocellus and her classmates in the middle of the crowd, apart from the ponies. They met his gaze with curious expressions. Thorax then looked down. His little changeling doll had fallen out of his hooves at some point and laid face down on the floor.
“She was… the root of our hatred… but we followed her. And most of us didn’t question her. So, we are to blame as well for all the bad we have also done. It’s not all on her. At first I was worried when you wanted me to become your new King. What if everything would just repeat? Not necessarily the evil, but what if changelings stopped thinking for themselves again just to follow a new King or Queen? I know now that we’ve all learned from the past and I doubt that something like that could happen again. But digging into the idea of becoming a King led me to think about our former Queen a lot more. While under her rule a lot was worse, not everything was terrible, right? Changelings have been surviving for hundreds of years because of her and I’m sure everyone has at least one nice memory of her, too.”
Thorax finally picked up the doll with his magic and showed it to the crowd.
“Chrysalis made this for me. It’s just a doll… she’s made a bunch of them for me and I have no idea why she would have done that if she didn’t care for me. Sure, she has made dolls for others, too. But we’ve only ever found a few. The few hours I’ve spent with her as youngling are some of the happiest memories I have. If someone were to ask me what it feels like to have a mother, I’d say that was the feeling.”
Thorax waffled slightly and looked around, trying to find the right words. His eyes landed on Starlight, Trixie and Pharynx. “It’s...like… a kind of warmth, similar to what I feel now when I’m with my friends. Sadly, with Chrysalis I’ve never had any further positive experiences with her. But with so many children she couldn’t have spent a lot of time with every one of us. I’ve often asked myself when she had stopped caring. But maybe she hasn’t? She’s just in a very dark place. Alone.”
It didn’t seem like the crowd were able to follow Thorax’s train of thought. There were some confused mumbling amongst the changelings about this strange turn in his speech.
Hurriedly, Thorax continued, “What I’m trying to say is that I think she needs help and even if she refuses to accept our friendship now, I really hope that she will one day see all the good we changelings can do for each other. I want her to see it and come back to us and ask us to help her. Because I think —no, I know—she cares about us in her own way and she needs our help, should she ever return.”
Thorax took a breath. “...and that’s why I can’t accept the crown.”
There was no cheering, only shocked faces, and the growing murmur of the crowd. It felt like they became louder with every passing moment.
Two changelings who were half-way up the stairs to the stage stopped and looked at each other in disbelief. They were supposed to crown Thorax after his speech and carried a big, green pillow with a golden crown seated in the middle.
Thorax bit his lip and felt rising panic, he’d expected the changelings to accept his reasoning.
“Everyone!” Thorax said to calm the crowd once more. “Listen. That doesn’t mean I won’t accept every responsibility that would come with the title. I want to be your leader, just like a King, I do, but I don’t want to replace someone who belongs in our family and someone who is important to the hive. I want the best for all of us. Queen Chrysalis may never return or even show herself again, and I would never let her destroy what we have achieved... but I will do whatever I can to help her and make her understand that our way of living is better now than ever before!”
Silence. After a short while, however, a voice from the back of the crowd echoed through the cavern.
“Who needs a Queen or a King? Leader Thorax sounds better anyway!” It was Pharynx, hovering above the entrance for everyone to see. His comment sparked another round of chatter through the crowd.
“Leader Thorax… sounds quite nice, actually.”
“Yeah, leader has a nice ring to it.”
“King, Leader, it’s all the same anyway!”
Starlight and Trixie exchanged determined looks and began to stomp their hooves. “Make noise for Leader Thorax!” Starlight shouted.
At first only the changelings around them joined in but soon the entire crowd was cheering and stomping.
Thorax stared in disbelief at the reaction. It seemed almost silly how the word ‘King’ was such a big deal when ‘Leader’ wasn’t much of a difference. His entire speech seemed to have gone over their heads.
“Uh… leader Thorax?” It was one of the pair of elderly changelings, trying to get his attention.
Thorax felt awkward for having them bring a crown to a coronation that wasn’t even going to happen anymore. “Ah, the crown… Sorry about that…” Thorax said, rubbing the back of his neck. “You know what? I’ll wear it if you don’t mind, just for today.” Thorax turned back to the crowd and lowered his head so the smaller changeling to his left could put the crown on his head.
Visible confusion on the watching changelings, but Pharynx quickly resolved it by shouting, “All hail Leader Thorax!” And once more the cavern was filled with cheers.
Ocellus levitated a book over to Thorax who hovered a few feet above her, he took it and placed it in a mostly empty shelf that was large enough for hundreds more. All around the spacious room changelings were busy filling bookshelves of the hive’s new library.
“I was wondering about something…” Ocellus asked.
Thorax looked down with a smile. “About what?”
“Do you really think she will come back one day? There’ve been rumors that she’s still in Equestria.”
Thorax let out a sigh and starting to collect the books he was given instead of shelving them as his attention shifted from the task to the question. “You mean Queen Chrysalis.”
Ocellus simply nodded floating another book up to him.
“I doubt she will come back anytime soon. But you don’t have to be scared of her. We’re hundreds against her should she threaten us and we have our pony friends on our side as well.”
“Yeah… I guess. You really want her to come back, though, don’t you? Why is that?”
“Chrysalis is our mother. All the bad things she has done in the past, in her head, she probably did them for us. There are no bad ponies or changelings, not really, just ponies and changelings who do bad things for bad reasons.” Thorax finally pushed the ten books in his magical grasp into the shelf.
“She’s so mean and scary… I’ve never really thought of her as a mother,” Ocellus murmured and her eyes dropped and she shuffled on her hooves. “But if you really think there’s a chance for her to change then maybe there is…” She made a small smile. “I still much prefer you as our leader, though.”
Thorax smiled at that and lowered himself to Ocellus’ level. “I won’t stop doing what I can for the hive, even if she returns. And she’d have to accept our way of living, anyway.” He reached a hoof around Ocellus and gave her a gentle hug she returned with a big smile. “The new library’s coming along quite nicely!” He said as his gaze wandered over the bookshelves. “Let’s take a little break.”
“Okay! I’m gonna write a letter. Professor Pinkie Pie said she could organize a bunch of beanbags for the library. They are so comfy!”