“They what?!”
“I’m just telling you what Menace overheard the Canterlot Royal Guards talk about!” Locust flinched. “It wouldn’t be impossible, considering they failed to report as scheduled three times in a row as of today!”
“But Glutton and Killer are capable infiltrators and have been in Tall Tale and Salt Lick City for years! How did they mess up now? And both on the same day at that?”
“I have a theory, Sir, but you won’t like it.”
“More than I don’t like the fact that we’ve lost three infiltrators in a week?”
“Well, yes, it kind of does involve Coxa. I think she must have told them when they captured her. Whether it’s some new interrogation technique we don’t know about or if she succumbed to the temptation of whatever they promised her in exchange for cooperation, I don’t know, but she did know about them and could tell the ponies. Glutton was her mentor and she knew Killer from an assignment they were sent on together. It would also explain an oddly-phrased remark that Menace overheard as part of that guards’ conversation. He relayed it verbatim and admitted that he didn’t understand what it meant.”
I groaned and rubbed my temple. Coxa’s record had been spotless until her failed infiltration of Trottingham! It had been hard enough to believe the report of her capture, and now this! If Locust’s theory turned out to be true, she’d be in even bigger trouble in Chrysalis’ eyes than she was now! And I might, too; after all, I had been the one to recommend her for the assignment! Could I have predicted this?
“Does Chrysalis know?”
He winced.
“Yes. I was going to come to you first, but she intercepted me. She said to find you and tell you to select replacement infiltrators, and to be careful not to mess it up this time. It’s due tomorrow morning.”
“Where is she now?”
“I saw her head to the hatchery.”
“But she already completed the inspection earlier today!”
Locust looked away.
“I didn’t get the impression that she was on the way there before I ran into her,” he said. “She might have gone to find Coxa’s eggs. You know, the ones she laid a week before deployment?”
I’d forgotten about that! Of course Chrysalis would go smash the eggs! If getting captured hadn’t been proof enough of her unworthiness to produce the next generation of warriors, betraying her comrades certainly was!
I nodded.
“If there’s nothing else to report on, you may return to your duties.”
“Yes, Sir!” He saluted and left.
I trotted off in another direction. I had a scheduled armory inspection to attend to, but with this unforeseen complication, I would have to get there earlier than I’d planned if I wanted to do it properly before moving onto the task Chrysalis had just given me through Locust. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any more delays!
But things weren’t working in my favor. Halfway to the armory, I heard a splash and a startled yelp coming from one of the passages up ahead, followed by a clang of metal, and then laughter. I went to investigate, cursing inwardly. This better not be what I thought it was!
My hopes sank as soon as I heard the familiar feeble voice.
“What have I ever done to you? Please leave me alone!”
Not again, I thought in frustration as I approached the passage the sounds were coming from.
Sure enough, two dawdling drones were bothering the local wimp. Again.
“Don’t you two have readiness drills to work on?” I shouted at them.
They snapped to attention.
“We’re already done, Sir!”
“Then do them again!” Maybe some useful work could get your minds off of pestering my brother, I thought. Or at least it would keep you too busy.
They hesitated.
Obviously they needed plenty more of those drills they’d claimed to have completed; otherwise they would have responded instantly. And I was in the mood for proving a point!
A burst of my magic transformed me into an oversized-spider-like monster, a form I preferred when an extra dose of intimidation and display of dominance was required. The looks on their faces made it clear that they realized they weren’t going to like what was coming.
And I had no intention to disappoint.
I swung a tentacle and launched them into a wall with a single strike. An easy move; I’d done it plenty of times, both in combat and in dealing with insubordinate rookies!
“Are you deaf?” I roared at them for good measure.
Whether through the power of my voice or their brains finally kicking in, they were gone, leaving only plumes of dust in their wake.
Satisfied with the result, I restored my own form and turned to my brother, who was by now cowering in a corner with his broom, soaking wet.
“A word with you,” I gestured him to follow.
He set the broom aside and trotted along as I led him to our sleeping burrow. A considerable detour from my duties, yes, but I didn’t want anyling interfering. By now, I’d come to terms with possibly having to cut the armory inspection short to make time for selecting new infiltrators; another delay to get rid of any drones too stupid to know not to interfere in personal matters was the last thing I needed!
Once we were there, I motioned Thorax to enter the burrow, cast a glance around to make sure we were alone, and joined him.
“What is wrong with you?” I lashed out, my patience running thin.
“What do you mean?” he asked back, voice quivering.
“You know all too well what I mean! You don’t even try to defend yourself from bullies anymore, and how long did it take me to get you to even stop apologizing to them? Who in their right mind tries to be polite to someone who attacked them? It took me forever to get you to realize that looking for friends was a futile pursuit for a changeling and turn you into a marginally passable fighter, and just when I finally began to think we’re making enough progress to give you a worthy assignment so you can start being useful to the hive, you throw it all away again! Do you have any idea how much persuading it took to convince Chrysalis to let me include you in the Canterlot invasion force? I was hoping the problem was that all the training drills were too hypothetical for you and that real action is what you needed to awaken your bloodthirst and get you on the right path, but no! My sweet little brother had to goof around and get distracted by a friendly encounter between some pathetic ponies and relapse into stupidity!”
“Pharynx, I told you-”
“I know what you told me! Look, I get it that first encounter with a different nation can leave you confused, but the invasion happened well over a year ago! Get a hold of yourself, Thorax! You’ve had plenty of time already to snap out of it and resume combat training, yet you keep refusing to act like a changeling and insisting on this fool’s errand! You’ll never get out of janitor duty like this, let alone gain respect and stop being picked on! Why do you think Chrysalis is so eager to punish you for every smallest mistake that she might ignore if it were any other changeling? In fact, the only reason she’s even letting you live after all you’ve done is because you’re my brother!”
“Pharynx-”
“Don’t interrupt me! I know what you’ll say, that I don’t have to do this, but I can’t stand idly by while my brother disgraces both of us by rejecting everything that changelings have ever been! Do you think anyling in this hive will ever start trusting you if you keep goofing around like this much longer? And while you’ve sunk so low that you don’t feel like there’s anything left to lose, do you really expect Chrysalis to keep trusting me much longer after I’ve failed to snap you out of it by now? Who do you think will protect you if I lose my rank?”
“I’m sorry,” he sighed, hanging his head.
“Well prove it then, and do it quick, because I’m running out of ideas how to keep convincing Chrysalis to give you one more chance!” I sighed. “I’m not one to give up easily, but you’re really starting to seem like a lost cause.”
Having vented my recently-accumulated frustrations, I left him there and hurried back to my duties.
Several hours later, I was still sitting in the records-and-archive section of the hive, reviewing soldier records, trying to find appropriate drones to replace the captives. I’d started out diligently, but after a while, I realized I couldn’t stop thinking about Thorax.
Why was he such a pitiful fighter? It made no sense! The rest of our brood hadn’t had such a problem; even if they had died on duty, they’d served the hive devotedly and honorably! Why couldn’t Thorax do the same? I’d spilled my guts to get him to accept the changeling ways, and though I could see no effect for years, my persistence had finally paid off just in time for the invasion of Canterlot, and even then only marginally! If I’d known sending him there would undo all that progress, I would have left him in the hive until I could see some solid results! But knowing it had happened, would I really have been right to trust him to hold on to his training if I’d postponed his first mission?
Could I have made the same mistake with Coxa? Had I failed to recognize that she hadn’t been ready to deal with capture?
Was I losing my edge?
Enough of that, Pharynx, I told myself. I was one of the best fighters in Chrysalis’ army, and I hadn’t become First Commander by being an incompetent fool! After all, we didn’t even know for sure what had happened yet; getting all worked up on Locust’s theories wouldn’t do the hive any good.
I got back to the scrolls.
A while later, I realized I couldn’t remember anything I’d read in the last few dozen soldier records. I wasn’t even sure whose records I’d reviewed! Morpheus, Banshee, Ripper, Shadow, Predator, Poison… Grim, Rascal, Trickster… all the names had blurred together, and I couldn’t reliably recall even one point from any of their records! How was I supposed to recommend the best candidates to Chrysalis in the morning at this rate?
At least the armory inspection hadn’t produced any complications. If it had, I had no idea how I would handle all that in a single afternoon all by myself!
Reluctantly, I decided to take a break and rise early to finish the selection. If I were still a drill instructor, I might have come up with a few candidates from memory, but it had been too long, and most of the drones I’d trained who hadn’t died on duty were already deployed somewhere or assigned to various duties in the hive, and the hivebound ones capable enough to undertake an infiltration mission had duties that couldn’t be trusted to many other drones and would therefore have to remain here. I had to rely on service records for this! If all else failed, I could find one of the current drill instructors and ask for recommendations, but that would not look good for my reputation! Commanders were supposed to give orders to their subordinates, not ask them for advice!
Thorax was already in our sleeping burrow when I got there, crying again. I didn’t bother asking what was wrong this time; most likely it would have been those bullies from earlier today, or maybe some other ones that I hadn’t been around to chase away. I didn’t feel sorry for him; if anything, it annoyed me to see him like that. Maybe if I let him have a few punches from time to time, he would finally toughen up!
Who was I fooling? He wouldn’t! My brother was the living proof that, even in the changeling hive, some things never changed, no matter what!