Thorax’s stomach audibly growled, echoing throughout the Warrior’s Nest. A few of the other drones in the chamber cast him agitated glares as if offended. Of course, many of them were offended. Annoyed by his mere presence, by his continued life, by his crimes. None of them hid their disdain, and unlike before, Pharynx did nothing to stop them, save for any displays of violence. They mocked him, they insulted him, they threatened him from afar, and he wasn’t allowed to run from any of it.
It was horrible. It was Tartarus. Thorax didn’t even know what Tartarus was like, but when Twilight had told him that it was the eternal prison for evil spirits and monsters, he imagined it was a very unpleasant place.
He was currently seated with his back against one of the walls, his ears down and his shoulder slumped. Pharynx wasn’t far ahead of him, keeping a watchful eye on a large group of drones in the middle of going through a rigorous set of exercises. He watched them like a hawk, never taking his eyes off them. But Thorax knew that his elder brother was keenly aware of everything he was doing. He had been called out enough times for that to be clear.
Thorax’s attention was drawn away from his self-pitying ruminations by a series of excited chitters and squeals from above. Looking up, he saw a collection of drones flying in with green cocoons held in their hooves. It was feeding time. Instinct kicked in, his stomach roaring with hunger, and he rose to his hooves.
“Sit.”
Thorax froze the moment Pharynx’s stern command reached his ears. He looked to his brother and opened his mouth to protest, but the harsh glare from Pharynx immediately silenced anything he had to say.
A beat passed before Pharynx scowled. He lit his horn with magic. “Did I stutter? Sit down.”
Thorax gave off an undignified yelp when he was tugged roughly back to the hard stone floor by his tail, sending a crack of pain through his hips. He groaned and whimpered, closing his eyes.
This was one of the worst parts. He wasn’t even allowed to feed himself anymore. It was always Pharynx who came back with his portion of rations. It was degrading and humiliating, but he honestly couldn’t find it in himself to complain about it. He had brought this on himself, after all. He had stolen from the hive; he was a criminal.
He deserved all of this.
“I just wish it didn’t have to mean leaving Twilight…”
His thoughts turned to the unicorn, and his already somber mood soured to the point of grief. His face screwed up as he tried desperately to keep himself from breaking down then and there. Guilt and remorse clawed away at his heart. Was she alright? Was she scared for him? Or was she mad because he had seemingly abandoned her? What was going through her mind right now? What if she caught stomach rot again?
Scenario after heart-piercing scenario flooded his mind even as the sounds of other drones ravenously devouring their meal reached his ears. Hungry hisses and snarls reverberated in the chamber, bleeding together so he couldn’t tell where one ended and another began.
“Eyes up,” Pharynx’s voice came over the ruckus. Thorax looked up just in time for a small green shell to slap into his muzzle. He grunted and pulled it away with his hooves, finding a small field mouse ensnared within the cocoon. Pharynx gestured. “Eat.”
Thorax looked back up to Pharynx, then sighed. He opened his mouth and lit his horn. Inside the cocoon, the mouse stirred. A stream of thin, wispy pink light came from its chest. It flowed through the outer shell of the cocoon to swim down Thorax’s throat. He drank up as much as he could, scraping up every last dreg he possibly could before Pharynx’s magic snatched it away.
“That’s enough,” came the simple decision. Thorax was unable to stifle a disappointed whining sound. He immediately regretted it when Pharynx leaned in to get right in his face and lowering his voice to a hostile hiss. “Don’t make that noise with me! This was already more than I’m supposed to give you. So you shut up and be thankful that I let you eat that much!”
Thorax whimpered and shied back against the wall. He was only able to offer up a small, timid nod to show his acknowledgment. Pharynx snorted and pulled back, finishing off what scraps of love were left in the mouse before chucking it lazily back into the pile. Thorax watched it go, his heart going out to the small animal. Unlike some of the larger ones they had cocooned, that mouse was probably not going to live through the day as it got passed from nest to nest.
“Pharynx, sir!” a new voice called out. Pharynx looked up as another drone, female, came to a landing in front of him.
“What is it?” he asked bluntly.
“Returning from patrol, sir.”
“Ah. I see. Report, then,” he ordered matter of factly.
The drone hesitated, her eyes darting to Thorax. “...Sir… Protocol…” she ventured carefully.
Thorax’s ears drooped. She must have found something interesting if she was clamming up now. It was standard procedure to not give off any meaningful reports within earshot of a drone on punishment.
Pharynx stiffened, his brow furrowing with frustration. “Oh, for the love of…” he turned and pointed a hoof at a drone that was just departing the food pile. “You! Watch him until I return!” he barked out.
With that, Pharynx turned and followed the other drone through a new hole in the wall that closed up behind them. Thorax swallowed heavily, suddenly feeling far more vulnerable than before. Dozens of the drones in the chamber sent him anticipatory leers and glares as if they were all wanting to dig into him next. And with Pharynx gone, there was no one to stop them. No one who would, at least. It was probably only the fear of incurring Pharynx’s wrath that held most of them back.
The drone that Pharynx had pointed to scoffed as he came up, but didn’t say anything. Thorax tried to give him a friendly smile, but that only earned him a slap to the face. He fell to one side, crumpling to the ground with a pained gasp. “Don’t look at me, thief,” the drone snarled. “You shouldn’t even be alive right now.”
Thorax closed his eyes and held perfectly still. Time seemed to drag on and on, and his weary mind slowly began to taper off. His thoughts drifted lazily to Twilight, and he absently wondered if she would try to leave without him. She was a smart mare. She could probably figure out a way home that wouldn’t get her killed in the badlands…
A hoof driving itself into the side of his barrel snapped him from his daydreaming. Gasping, Thorax snapped open his eyes and looked up. He whimpered pitifully at the sight of Mandible and Scorpion standing over him. It had been Scorpion that kicked him.
Thorax looked desperately to the drone watching him, but he didn’t seem to even be paying attention. In fact, it was like he was deliberately ignoring what Scorpion and Mandible were up to. Letting them have their fun.
“You’re a lucky little maggot, aren’t you?” Scorpion growled, leaning down and baring his fangs in Thorax’s face. “You’re supposed to be dead right now.”
Thorax swallowed heavily. “I… I…”
Scorpion slapped him, harder than the other drone had. “I didn’t say you could talk! Thieve’s don’t get to talk!”
Thorax covered his head, trembling in fear.
Mandible gave off a snort of his own. “I honestly do not understand what the Queen was thinking, letting you live. I can think of no other thief in our history who was given such leniency.”
“Oh, I understand,” Scorpion replied. He pressed his hoof into Thorax’s head and twisted, griding his face into the cold hard ground and filling his skull with increasingly hot bouts of pain. Thorax grunted and gasped, starting to squirm in a desperate attempt to free himself.
Scorpion continued, effortlessly pinning him down. “The Queen spared your life because she likes Pharynx…”
“Ah, yes. Pharynx,” Mandible noted, an audible grimace in his voice. “The head of patrol is one of her favorites, isn’t he…?”
“Useful, efficient, and professional,” Scorpion added, applying more pressure to Thorax’s head. “But he’s got one weakness. You. Pharynx has an infuriating soft spot for you, doesn’t he? He likes you, for some stupid reason. And Chrysalis likes him.”
“She kills you, she loses him,” Mandible clarified slowly.
Thorax whimpered, giving up his feeble attempts at resistance and just putting up with it.
There was a sudden scraping of stone, followed by an angered shout. “Scorpion, Mandible! That’s enough!”
Thorax’s heart briefly soared with hope at the sound of his brother’s voice. The pressure on his skull decreased, and for a brief, wonderful second, he felt like he was about to get some respite.
Then Scorpion snarled into his ear. “That brother of yours won’t be around to watch your worthless shell forever…”
With that, Scorpion and Mandible turned and flew off to disappear higher into the Warrior’s Nest. Thorax held perfectly still, his eyes wide. He felt cold and heavy, as if he had been petrified. The world tunneled ahead of him as the weight of Scorpion’s insinuation dawned on him. A tiny, horrified squeak slipped past his lips, and he involuntarily curled up, clutching his hooves to his belly to defend his innards. A fear unlike anything he had ever felt before pumped through his veins with every beat of his frantically hammering heart.
A few seconds passed before he felt a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, Thorax. Get up,” Pharynx’s voice echoed in his ears, but Thorax could barely hear it through the high-pitched ringing flooding his thoughts. “Thorax!”
A few seconds passed. Thorax gasped when he was suddenly and forcefully hauled up to a standing position by Pharynx’s firm grip. The stronger drone looked into his eyes for a second, then to the side of his head. The intensity in Pharynx’s glare faded somewhat, and he sighed. “For the love of… those two have a death wish, I swear,” he grumbled before turning for the wall. A hole opened up in it, expanding out into a small, empty chamber. “Come on, get in.”
“Huh?”
“Just move it.”
Thorax staggered numbly into the room. The wall closed up behind him, plunging the chamber into relative darkness. He slumped against the wall and took a deep breath, vaguely aware of a dim light emerging from Pharynx’s horn.
“Look at me.”
Thorax didn’t comply at first. Pharynx didn’t have the patience to ask again, though. He reached out and turned Thorax’s chin so they were eye to eye. The fire in Pharynx’s gaze had faded, and he held a hoof up to the side of Thorax’s face that had been pressed into the floor. Thorax hissed at the touch. It burned fiercely, and he knew he was bruised and swelling there.
Pharynx sighed and shook his head. “I wish I could feel sorry for you, brother. Really, I do,” he admitted softly before backing up a step. “But I can’t blame them… I honestly wanted to beat you senseless myself. If I wasn’t in charge of watching over you right now, I would have.”
Thorax cringed and looked away. “...I’m sorry I disappointed you,” he mumbled.
A heavy silence fell over the two. Pharynx gave off a growl of frustration and dropped to his haunches. “Guh! You were doing so well, Thorax! You were making such good progress, and then you had to go and throw it all away! I was starting to feel proud of you for a change, and now…”
Thorax flinched under every word. Pharynx buried his face in his hooves and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. “...You are lucky. You really are…” he finally said.
Thorax nodded. “I know… Scorpion and Mandible talked about it…”
Pharynx sighed before standing up and coming up to his little brother’s side. “Try not to listen to them. They’re lucky they’ve managed to slip by as long as they have without getting slapped with something major,” he said before sitting down in front of Thorax. “What matters is that you’re alive, and that means you have an opportunity to make up for your mistakes.”
Thorax blinked, confused. “Wha… huh?”
Pharynx looked down. “I’m not exactly a consort, but I know Chrysalis likes me. If you behave yourself, I might see if I can convince her to lessen your sentence somewhat…”
Thorax’s eyes widened. “But… wouldn’t that bring your motives into question? Wouldn’t that make everyone else mad at you, too? For… for looking out for me?”
“Let them be mad,” Pharynx spat. “I couldn’t care less what petty nonsense they choose to get upset over. They can laugh, mock, insult, and jeer at me all they want. It doesn’t matter to me. What does, however, is my brother.”
Thorax’s eyes widened. “Pharynx… n-no, I… I can’t ask you to do that for me,” he stammered out, unable to put any strength into his words. “I stole from the hive. I deserve this… Just let it happen.”
Pharynx’s nostrils flared. He suddenly rose to his hooves. “Do you think I’m enjoying this, Thorax?!” he shouted, causing the smaller drone to jump. Pharynx slammed a hoof into the wall hard enough to knock a few chips loose. “Of course I don’t! You are all I have in this blasted wasteland! Do you have any idea how hard it is on me to sit by and watch while you suffer like this?!”
Thorax shrank back, his eyes flying wide as his brother went on with his sudden tirade. “Yes, you stole from the hive, and yes, you deserve to be punished. But I stopped caring about what you deserve a long time ago! You. Are. My. Brother! The only family I have, Thorax! Do you understand that?! My small, weak, frightened, gentle, and only brother! If it means making your life just a little easier until you can stand on your own hooves, than I will happily weather any backlash I may incur from trying to help you!”
Thorax stared at Pharynx in complete and utter shock. Never once in all of the time they had known one another had the elder brother opened up so intensely. Thorax couldn’t even think of a single time where Pharynx had come close. He had always been cold, blunt, and harsh on him.
He swallowed heavily. “But… y-you just said that you would have beaten me up for what I did if you could…” he pointed out.
Pharynx slapped him upside the head. “And I meant it, you buffoon. Life is hard here, and stupid mistakes can’t be tolerated, and this is by far the biggest stupid mistake you have ever made.”
Thorax managed a tiny smile, despite the added layer of throbbing in his skull. “Heh… even the time I found that drawing rock?”
Pharynx narrowed his eyes. “Go ahead, Thorax. Keep talking. See how long my sympathy lasts when you bring that up.”
Thorax didn’t say another word. He did, however, manage a small laugh. He looked at Pharynx after a moment, his smile fading and his mind kicking into overdrive.
Pharynx had never been so open with his devotion before. If he was serious, and he meant to go to the Queen to try and ease his punishment, even if only a little bit… He was taking a huge risk to do that. If he said one thing wrong, his loyalty would be called into question, and he could be punished, too.
To go to such lengths…
Thorax’s thoughts drifted to Twilight again, and he began to consider opening up to Pharynx about why he had really been stealing from the hive. Pharynx would probably not understand. He’d probably get even angrier. But if he was willing to go this far for his sake, then maybe, just maybe, Thorax could trust him to know about her? Let her know what happened?
Before he could speak, though, Pharynx turned, and the wall peeled open. “...Now come on. I still have work to do, and you don’t get to be alone. Just…”
He turned back to Thorax, his eyes softening considerably. “Behave. Please.”
Thorax blinked. “Did Pharynx just say… please?”
Without another word, Pharynx turned and stepped back out into the Warrior’s Nest. Thorax followed after him a moment later, the chamber sealing shut behind them.