//------------------------------//
// Epilogue II: There are Many Bug Ponies, but This One is Mine 
// Story: The King of Love Bugs 
// by NavelColt 
//------------------------------//

"Gwrraa! I am the maulwurf, Papa Thorax, and I’m back for revenge! I’m gonna eat all your vegetables!"

A lime nymph leaped upon a boulder and reared up on his hind legs before a changeling nearly quadruple his size. The changeling cowered and desperately clutched his hooves over his head.

"Oh no, not all my vegetables!" Thorax cried. With a muffled thud, he fell to the floor. "You're so intimidating, maulwurf! Please leave us be! I'll give you some lettuce if you go home!"

Thorax held up a head of lettuce. Apex promptly swatted it away.

"I refuse!" The not-maulwurf jumped onto Thorax's back and proudly strutted around atop it. "I will have all of the vegetables, and then I will be the fullest maulwurf in all the land!"

"We are the mighty changelings. Fear us," Pharynx monotoned. The beta changeling examined the day's mail scrolls wearily from beside his brother's throne. He rubbed the space between his antlers with a hoof. He could never have imagined that peacetime would give him a greater headache than wartime.

"The mighty changelings are no match for the mightier maulwurf!" Apex proclaimed, now jumping up and down with reckless abandon. His euphoria masked the grunts coming from his conquered opponent. "I only left last time because Uncle Pharynx was super smart and outsmarted me! But he's not here to help you now, Papa Thorax. He's too distracted! Now give me all your vegetables!"

The bouncing continued. Thorax smiled, and with a flicker of his aura, caught his brother's eye.

"Somehow I don't think the maulwurf would even eat the vegetables once he gets them. How about it, Uncle Pharynx? Care to lend a hoof?"

Pharynx put on a smug grin as he continued to read. "Nope. Maulwurf is right. You're on your own over there. You let it come back, you deal with it."

"Yeah, Uncle Pharynx won't help, and neither will anyling else!" Apex blew a raspberry. The bouncing became more aggressive. "I have changed my mind. I want all your vegetables and that extra lettuce! I need lots of greens so I can sleep through the wintertime!"

"You'll also need something to keep you warm, maulwurf. You don't seem to have your usual layers of fat to keep you warm during the winter."

"You're right. Burrows get cold underground, Papa Thorax. You can ask the princess ponies for blankets, and I shall take those too!"

"Quit while you're ahead, Thorax," Pharynx said lazily. "We don't negotiate with intruders. I really shouldn't be letting you negotiate at all."

Apex's head pivoted.

"Do not meddle with maulwurf affairs, Uncle Pharynx! You’re supposed to be distracted!"

Pharynx blinked. He looked up at the nymph, but his attention had already returned to tormenting Thorax.

"Guess I must’ve forgotten my place there for a second. My apologies, gnatwurf. Hey, Thorax, quit messing around and step up. Toss this intruder out on his flank already. This is embarrassing."

"Just trying to breathe right now," Thorax growled. The assailing hooves pegged his head as Apex's brutal massage branched out in range.

"This one is tough. I won't get any blankets or vegetables at this rate," Apex narrated aloud. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be, Papa Thorax!"

"Ouch! Okay-ow! Alright, that's enough of that, maulwurf."

Teal magic seized the nymph’s hooves and playfully pulled him out from under himself, causing him to wriggle in the air. His protests drew giggling from Pharynx's guard changelings stationed at the throne room’s entrance. They watched as their alpha arched his back and turned to his captured intruder with a ready smile.

"Apex, I think you're starting to get too big for stunts like that." Thorax pressed a tiny nose and received a huff. "Playing aside, it's starting to hurt my back, okay? Let's do something else."

"If he'd turned into an actual maulwurf, you wouldn't have a back left to complain about," Pharynx mumbled. The guards snickered once more.

"And I’m not too big!" Apex added. "Don't call me fat, Papa Thorax! That's mean."

Thorax chuckled. He trailed his hoof upwards to poke the nymph’s deep red carapace.

"I'm not saying you're fat, you goofball. I'm saying you're growing, as you should be. You're only a little smaller than Ocellus now, and she's a pre-adolescent."

Apex crossed his hooves. His struggling had stopped, but the momentum he’d built up from it had him slowly spinning in place. The nymph was helpless to do anything but petulantly buzz his wings against the self-imposed gravity of Thorax's magic. With every rotation, a new goofy expression from Thorax awaited him, and with each one, a crack appeared in his grumpy demeanor until giggling finally shone through in all its joy.

"Have you tired yourself out yet?" Thorax asked. He already knew the answer.

"I'm never tired," Apex lied with a yawn. His stubborn frown and buzzing returned when Thorax adopted a smug look. "The maulwurf is saving his energy! Once you let him go, he'll be ready to fight!"

"All this third-party referencing is giving me flashbacks," Pharynx moaned, casting aside his finished scrolls to Thorax's throne. "Next thing we know, he'll start calling himself the ‘Great and Powerful Maulwurf’."

Thorax laughed. This time, his brother smiled for a change.

"Hmm, I dunno. If the maulwurf is tired out, it sounds like it might be cuddle time. I bet that would calm him down. Maybe then we can negotiate about blankets and lettuce a little more kindly."

Apex's brooding seemed to peel right off of him. Acute horror took its place.

"Maulwurfs do not cuddle! We are tough hunters of the underground! You cannot make me!"

"Don't give me that." Thorax watched as small hooves harmlessly grazed by his nose. Thorax taunted those hooves in turn by repeatedly extending his snout just within their reach before withdrawing it. "You need a nap today, anyway. I should know. Someling kept me up last night; asking about stars, what they're made of, how they work, and how likely it is they'll fall on us while we sleep."

"They’re blinkie, and I don’t trust them!" Apex defended. Even the slightest rose tint was a blemish on his evergreen cheeks, and Thorax's grinning clued the nymph into them. He desperately tried to cover his cheeks with his hooves, making his best impression of a hiss when Thorax showed signs of advancing.

His ploy was unsuccessful. He was quickly beset by hugging hooves.

"Uncle Pharynx, Papa Thorax is cheating!"

Thorax giggled.

"Is he?" asked Pharynx.

"Yeah, help! This is not a fair way to fight a maulwurf!"

"Sorry. Wish I could, but I seem to be very distracted." Pharynx lounged on the vacant throne for comic effect. The guards had finally lost their composure, and their legs bent under the weight of their chittering. "Should’ve been practicing your transformations more often like I told you to, gnat. You could get away from Thorax's sap more easily. That's what I'd do."

Apex could feel his defiance draining away as he was held fast to a wall of thrumming green chitin. Being so tiny, there was no room for rebellion when love magic came knocking. It flowed through him like a great wave, drowning and numbing his focus. But even still, he bit his lip and pushed against Thorax with everything he had.

"No! The maulwurf will not relent! Silly hugs will not defeat him!"

Thorax cocked a crafty brow while watching the attempt with amusement. "Give in to the hugs, Apex. Naps are your destiny. Mine too, actually. I could definitely use one about now, myself. Also, with all the other nymphs and changelings wanting my attention all the time, you hardly ever get me to yourself. Here I thought you'd jump at the chance to have my undivided attention. Don't you want to spend time with me? I want to spend time with you."

Apex stopped struggling, and with large, bulbous red eyes, he stared at Thorax for a moment without expression. Thorax readily stared back, relaxing his grip so that he might use one hoof to flick at the nymph's ears playfully.

Suddenly, Apex hugged Thorax. His body, too tiny to wrap around the large changeling, merely flattened itself against the larger carapace. Thorax made a sound that was weak and adoring, and he squeezed the nymph back. In doing so, he permeated the room with the miracle of love magic.

The guards sighed and shivered in content, overtaken by their alpha's aptitude for broadcasting energy through love. It was a blanket to enshroud them, a tropical wave to engulf them. Pharynx also shivered, although he looked far less comfortable.

"Hive's sake, Thorax," he grumbled. "Warn a changeling when you're about to gush all over the place. You're ten times more powerful than anyone else with that. It’s like getting smacked in the face with a few tons of sugar."

At the epicenter, Apex allowed the hug to go on without end. He was long used to it, being the trigger for such unrelenting love, but seldom did he slow down to think about it. He had, however, grown to learn that the more Thorax talked, the more he should consider granting the large changeling his desired hugs.

It always seemed to make him happy.

"How come we're playing alone in the throne room today, Papa Thorax? We usually play with the other nymphs in the nursery hive."

Thorax beamed. "Surprised it took you this long to ask. Well, today is sort of special, so I wanted to spend time with just the two of us. Well, you, me, and Pharynx. He's protective and gets moody if I tell him to go away."

A glare burrowed through the back of Thorax's head.

Apex giggled and anchored his chin against Thorax's carapace, to look up and meet his gaze.

"Is it my hatchday?"

Thorax chuckled. "No, you know your hatchday, Apex. I know you do. We celebrated it a few weeks ago. It'll be a while before your next one."

"Is it your hatchday?"

Thorax shook his head. Limitless patience poured from his being. "Nope, not my hatchday, either. It's a special day today because, a year ago, this was the day the changelings changed. Do you remember that, Apex?"

Apex nodded.

"Do you remember what else happened that day?"

Apex's tongue peeked out of his mouth.

"I changed."

Thorax nodded.

"That's right. You got your colors, too. That's the day almost everyling embraced a better way of life and a safer, friendlier hive. But that day was important to me for another reason. Can you guess what it was?"

The answer eluded the nymph, who continued to wear his adorable sleuthing efforts on his face. Thorax smiled ever brighter because of it.

"Is it because you became a king changeling?"

"You'd think so, but becoming the hive's leader wasn't very exciting for me at the time. I didn't enjoy it until I was able to make a difference in everyling's lives. See, on the day we changed, I met someling. Someling who ended up meaning a lot to me. I'll always remember the day we met."

The self-imposed mystery had outlived its purpose, so Thorax threw subtlety to the wind and pressed that tiny nose once more. Red eyes crossed as it happened.

"It's you, Apex."

"Me?" Apex repeated curiously. The hoof on his nose began to playfully rub his head, but he endeavored to lean past it to continue his stare.

"Of course, you." Thorax turned to his sibling, his soft composure shifting as he did. "Pharynx, I think I'm gonna try and get that nap in, now. We'll see how it goes with him. You can head downhive if you want to help everyling else with the project there. I know Tarsus and Tibia would appreciate it."

Pharynx silently mulled over the idea for a moment. "Yeah, alright." Stretching from his lackadaisical spread, he cast a stern eye to his guardlings. Their stances grew rigid. "You hear that, Palpilla? Haltere? Stay here with Thorax. Watch the gnat. If things even think about going south, find me."

Haltere saluted his prince. "Of course, Pharynx. Where will you be?"

"As Thorax said, downhive. We'll be repurposing those sections all week, and I should check in with the progress. You might see some communal guest rooms for visitors by the week's end. Definitely more storage."

Pharynx fluttered off towards the doorway. "If anyone tries to touch my brooding space, though, we'll have issues. See you later, Thorax. Gnat."

Pharynx departed, and all traces of a sour aura left with him. With his leave, the guards saluted their king in turn, and Thorax offered another wave of energy with nothing but an appreciative look.

"Today is special because of me?"

Thorax returned to the topic at hoof. Apex still regarded him with intrigue, waiting for clarification. All he got in return was that mystifying, unwavering smile he'd come to know so well.

"Today is special because of you."

Thorax laid upon the cool stone floor and placed Apex in the fold of his form. The world, in all its trials and tribulations, became irrelevant around the nymph. His anxieties shriveled in the greater purpose he found in looking after him. He was a miracle all his own, and even as Apex protested his placement in the sudden cuddle pile with unimpressed eyes, Thorax had nothing to offer but love.

I think it’s really great that you care so much about us, Thorax.

The monarch sniffed. It wouldn't do much good to worry his guards with waterworks, nor any other drones within empathy-shot, for that matter. He really did have a bad habit of crying too easily.

To me, it makes you seem like a...like a papa changeling. I mean, we’ve never, ever had one before, but...I think this is what it’d be like to have one. And that makes me really happy too because I think it’d be nice to have a papa changeling.

Thorax looked towards the sun and closed his eyes. Perhaps the warmth would dry his tears. Then again, maybe a king of magical empaths shouldn't be sorry for crying so much.

Thorax, do you think if I called you ‘Papa Thorax’ that other changelings would start to as well?

"...Papa Thorax? What are you looking at?"

Thorax smiled. The sun had heeded his wish.

"Nothing, Apex. Will you sit quietly with me for a while, even if you don't feel like sleeping? I'd like to take a nap, and I'd enjoy it more if you're with me."

Apex thought to protest. He did want to protest. Sitting still was boring, downright evil, even. But there was something in Thorax's voice and his eyes that made the nymph reconsider. Thorax could maybe hide his tears, but he couldn’t hide his emotions, especially not from this distance. A strange mix of excitement, affection, and melancholy had come together to baffle the nymph. It left him too few tools to respond with, save the one offered to him.

And so Apex pressed himself against Thorax and closed his eyes. Whatever was going on, he supposed he would have to stay put to find out what. With these thoughts in tow, sleep came to him quickly.

As his consciousness faded away, a voice seemed to reach out to him. It wasn’t urgent, but gentle, like a hoof waving a temporary farewell. It brought him comfort as he fell into a world of thought and make-believe.

"I'll see you soon, my rambunctious bedbug. I love you."