//------------------------------// // Ch. 8: Wilds Beat Kings And Queens // Story: Her Next Life As a Bug's Big Brother // by TundraStanza //------------------------------// She went through a haze. It was difficult for her to concentrate on anything. What was her name? For some reason, a bowl of Pho briefly crossed her mind. But she slowly shook it off. Maybe it didn't matter. What was she? It was a strange question to cross her cloud of thoughts. There were holes that went through her hands? Hooves? It was so hard to focus. Both couldn't be right, yet she couldn't decide which was actually right. She went her entire life as an only child. No, wait... that wasn't entirely true. She had a little brother. How was he doing? The bigger guys shouldn't be messing with him, if they didn't want to face her rage. Briefly, it crossed her mind that she could have died. How exactly did she die? The hive fell off a bridge. No, her bus caught fire. No, she wasn't ready for release yet! She needed to stop Cantrip! ... Cantrip? What was that? Some kind of weird name for a fantasy power? She was too tired to keep her thoughts together. She wanted to rest. --- In the place between long teleports, Luna's hoof went to her head. "The dead do not have dreams. How is that possible?" "Luna, what's wrong?" Celestia held out a wing. "All physical signs showed that the changeling known as Pharynx has passed on." Luna scrunched her brow. "Yet, I was able to access his dreams as any other living sleeper. This makes little sense." Celestia looked toward the exit point. "We can speak more of this later. We are approaching Twilight's castle now." --- A force of multiple ponies, a draconequus, and a select few changelings appeared in a flash. They landed right on the doorstep of the Castle of Friendship. Out of habit, Starlight trotted up to the front door and tried to open it. It didn't budge to her magical pull. She tried the door-knocker. A small slot opened near the center of the door. "What do you w-" The fake dragon's eyes opened wide at the sight of the literal army at the door. "Uh... um... No solicitors!" He slammed the slot closed. Through the door, his voice could be heard, shouting, "Pony princesses at the door!" "I don't have time for this." Discord sulked and snapped his claws. The big door got up on two chaos-crafted legs and stepped out of the way. Discord launched out his paw like it was rubber, snatched up the fleeing fake dragon, and pulled it close. "Where's Fluttershy?" Discord hissed with fire coming out of his ears. "F-Fluttershy?" The fake dragon surrounded himself in green fire to resemble the light yellow pegasus with a pink mane. "Y-You mean some pony that looks like this?" Then, it shape-shifted back into its dragon disguise. "Never met her!" "Then you're useless." Discord opened his mouth as big as a blue whale, armed with several rows of mismatched fangs and chompers. Fake Spike yelled in fear and covered his eyes. "The ponies we captured are in the basement with the spiders and centipedes so that curious ponies would be put off and not go looking for them! Please let me go!" "There." Discord patted the area under the fake dragon's tail. "Was that so difficult?" He tossed the changeling behind him. It landed on the grass and shifted back to its standard drone shape. The changeling curled up into a fetal position and shivered. Shining Armor and his guards went to work scavenging every room, checking for potential changeling traps. The changelings that had volunteered to come with them checked the ceilings. Now that there was an idea of where she needed to go, Starlight was able to activate her teleport directly into the basement. Sure enough, several spiderwebs and centipedes marked the way. Celestia flashed a ray of sunlight into the dark halls, convincing the arachnids and the multi-legs to crawl away in fright. Luna cast some dancing lights to follow the team around. It helped those without night-vision to see in the dark corners that weren't already lit. Unicorn horns fizzled out when they rounded a corner. Seven cocoons were trapped to the ceiling. What stood in the way was a little unnerving. Six sets of colored eyes glowed in the darkness. Thorax cast a glow to his horn and wings to light up the basement room. The giggling was coming from six changelings. Every single one of them looked large enough to have Chrysalis proportions. Each of these royal changelings was holding a glowing stone, which looked identical in color to Chrysalis's throne. "Cantrip!" Thorax called out. "Well, if it isn't the little doll-player." Cantrip chuckled. "You may have brought help in the form of pony princesses. But now, their magic is completely useless. Can you beat six hive royals all by yourself?" "Funny thing about making friends." Thorax smirked. "I'm never by myself." He motioned behind himself. Cadance's horn lit up. She magically pulled all six of the absorption stones to the room's center. Then, she trapped the spheres in a giant, blue crystal. Another cast crushed the crystal and its contents. "That's not possible!" Cantrip exclaimed. "How can a pony use magic against something that pony magic doesn't work against?" "Your hive's princess was kind enough to gift me a guest pass." Cadance brimmed with confidence. The other ponies readied action spells and their horns lit up. Discord surrounded his upper limbs with a red aura, just for kicks. "Ocellus..." Cantrip hissed. "Well, it doesn't matter! We've been gathering love from Ponyville's residents long before Chrysalis started her invasion plan properly. We're invincible changeling kings and queens!" Thorax looked at Cadance with gratitude. "Thank you for defeating Chrysalis. But I think Discord and I have some steam to uncover. Mind taking a breather?" Cadance blinked twice. "Are you sure?" "I've seen enough badassery from you to last a lifetime." Thorax smiled. His wings glinted teal, violet, and back to teal. "Alright, Klutzy Draconequus. You take the three royals on the right. I'll take the three royals on the left." "Oh, feathers to that!" Discord cracked his knuckles. "I'm taking five of them!" Thorax tilted his head, then shrugged. "Have it your way." The atrocities inflicted by the draconequus upon his victims were not suitable for a written record. Meanwhile, the reformed changeling was facing off with Cantrip herself. She seemed completely unmoved by what happened to her colleagues. Thorax covered himself in battering fire and flew toward the last enemy. Cantrip smiled crookedly and lit up her horn. Her aura surrounded Thorax and smothered his fiery attack. She magically tossed him against a sidewall, the floor, and then the ceiling. Conveniently, the impact knocked one of the cocoons loose. Discord caught the cocoon, squeezed tight, and popped it open. A drowsy Fluttershy suddenly found a familiar set of limbs hugging her. She coughed up some of the green gunk from the cocoon. Thorax took a moment to shape-shift. A paper plane zipped through the air. Cantrip tried magically grabbing the tiny aircraft, but she kept hitting random spots in the architecture instead. Once the paper plane got right in front of the royal's face, Thorax shifted back to his default to perform a back-flip kick. Celestia, Luna, and Starlight went to work freeing the rest of the ponies and Spike from their respective cocoons. While they were doing that, Cantrip started spraying spells wildly in an attempt to catch Thorax. Cadance threw a shield spell like a net to keep the stray blasts off the rest of the basement's current visitors. "What's... going on?" Twilight Sparkle rubbed her head and some goo off. "You remember Spike's changeling friend Thorax?" Starlight pointed over at the fight going on. "Well, he's currently battling the last big, bad changeling. The rest have either surrendered or turned a new leaf." "Or have been squashed," added Trixie. Starlight sighed. "Right, some were squashed." Thorax was zipping around his enemy's spells. A stray thought went to a time when he was barely older than a hatchling. His brother had taken a habit of grabbing Thorax's hoof and slapping it against his face. Back in the present, he got an idea and looped around. He landed all four hooves on Cantrip's back. "What the-? Get off!" She swung at him with her hoof. Thorax jumped off just in time to watch her break one of her own wings. She hissed in pain. "Why are you hitting yourself?" Thorax grinned as he zipped under the royal's abdomen. Cantrip magically grabbed a stone shard and launched it toward her foe. He crawled around, dodging the shard, leaving it to jam right through the royal's shell at her belly. She cried out at the impact. "Why are you hitting yourself?" Thorax spun around and kicked against the wannabe queen's horn. Cantrip fell to her knees, trying and failing to grab her sources of pain. Thorax flew off and stood in front of his friends and allies. The remaining royal changeling heaved for breath, taking shaky steps forward. After about five steps, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on her side. "Meh." Discord jiggled his wrist. "That kind of beat down was too good for her." Spike ran over to Thorax. "Are... you okay?" Thorax hugged the young dragon. "That's my line." He shook and wept. "And no, I'm not." --- The next few days were a bit more hectic with a bit less action. Paperwork had stacked up and cases needed to be filed. Some bills needed to be backtracked since they had been signed by fake princesses instead of the real deal. The changeling hive's population had to collectively come to terms that their hunting and stealing days were over. While some agreed to reform and figured out how to share their love, others were more hesitant and decided to go hungry in silence. Chrysalis had been defeated and Cantrip had been sentenced to Tartarus imprisonment. As for who would lead the hive now, provisions were made to establish a co-rule between Princess Ocellus and Thorax as the provisional king. There were still some wrinkles to iron out, but those would come in due time. As the sun set one evening, Thorax sat in front of a flat piece of stone. It marked where Pharynx's remains had been buried. He didn't understand why someone had left flowers. He really didn't understand why they had left them in a bouquet with plastic wrap. It seemed like such a waste, almost disrespectful. Yet, all he could do in retaliation was sigh for the umpteenth time. "How long are you going to mope around, Little Brother?" "I don't know," admitted Thorax. "The pony books regarding funerals and grieving didn't specify a right time." Purple eyes rolled. "You can't keep blaming yourself. Chrysalis is the one who fried me, not you." Thorax tapped his hoof against his cheek. "And I wasn't strong enough to stop her." "Thorax, for real. Stop hitting yourself. You're part of the leadership for the future of changeling-kind." Thorax buried his face into the cloak he brought with him. "What good is a king if he can't keep watch over his subjects?" "You care enough to try. That's a billion times better than what the hive had before you came along." A flower petal went between fangs. "Blegh... daffodils. How do ponies stomach these things?" There was a cough. "Look, maybe I'm not the best creature to say this, but your ability to be kind and genuinely listen are your best strengths. If you don't trust yourself, then at least believe in what I'm telling you." "You always knew better." Thorax smiled sadly. "Even if you didn't always have the best tact." "Yeah, I'm kind of a jerk. But that's why it has to be you. You can be the leader. You can be the example others strive for." Thorax sniffed and wiped his face. After adjusting his cloak, he stood up and turned around. "Thank you, Pharynx. I should get going." "I'll be here feeding my pet worms." Pharynx saluted. Thorax chuckled but stopped himself. He looked back at the grave. As long as he remembered, his big brother would never truly die. After taking a deep breath and exhaling, Thorax began the flight back home. ---