“...and now that you know how it happened,” I said to the crowd gathered in front of me, “I want you to know that I’m sorry for acting the way I did. It was wrong of me to act without thinking things through and asking myself if what I’d been told really was the only way to go about it, and now that I’ve learned my lesson, I promise not to act like that again!”
They murmured among themselves and their auras quickly returned to their usual warm, bright state that I’d grown to admire and be proud of. Having restored their trust through my explanation and apology, I excused myself with the intention of checking how the rest of the hive was doing and seeing if anyling else needed apologizing for the mayhem I’d caused.
I didn’t get far. Pharynx intercepted me just past the gate into the hallway.
“Took you long enough to get back,” he stated.
I shrugged. “I’ve been given a lot to think about.”
“Was it any use?”
“Yes,” I said. “As a matter of fact, it was!”
“And you immediately felt the need to apologize to the whole hive,” he groaned. “What else did I expect?”
“They deserved an apology!”
“Well, if it gives you a second chance at courting them-”
“I won’t be courting them.”
“Okay, maybe not the drones over there who already rejected you with extreme prejudice, but the others-”
“I won’t be courting the others, either.”
“...what?”
“I said, I won’t be-”
“I know what you said, you idiot! I’m not deaf! What I mean is, how in the name of eggshells are you going to find yourself a queen if-”
“I won’t, Pharynx! I’m incapable of romance and won’t enter a loveless marriage just because you say I should!”
“I’m not saying that! It’s tradition!”
“Which tradition? The one you described is practiced in Yakyakistan, Abyssinia, and among the hippogriffs and the buffalo, and pony tribes practiced it too before the unification and the ascension of Celestia and Luna, and so did the griffons before the fall of their kingdom. But it’s not the only tradition in existence! Did you forget the dragons, who compete for the position of leadership every five hundred years, or the Kirin, whose leaders have to pass a series of tests to be eligible for leadership, or the diamond dogs and modern-day griffons, who don’t even have official leaders? Oh, and did you know there’s a parallel universe that Twilight told me about, where everyone in the country gathers up to elect their leader from a pool of willing candidates, something like how ponies elect their mayors?”
“I didn’t forget about those. I’m honestly surprised that you know of so many traditions all of a sudden!”
“That tends to happen when you spend a week in Twilight’s library.”
“...fair enough.”
“So what made you insist on that one tradition if there’s a number of different ones?”
“It’s what Chrysalis intended for the changelings.”
“Oh?”
“She told me about it once. I don’t remember how the topic came up or why she wanted to reveal it, but there it is. That tradition was the default setting for most countries at the time, pony lands and the Griffon Kingdom included, and Chrysalis kind of just rolled with it, until she outlived her children and the children of their children and eventually her whole bloodline. At some point she figured out she was immortal and gave up on the idea of bothering to lay another clutch of eggs and raising them to succeed her. It’s not like she wanted any of them; she just assumed she’d need a successor and preferred one that would be considered rightful by the standards of that time in order to avoid the chaos that would undoubtedly arise if the throne was left vacant and there was noling who could lay immediate and legitimate claim to it.”
“Instead, she got me.”
“Exactly the kind of successor she wanted to avoid.” He snickered. “I bet she’s furious that her plan failed and she lived to see it!”
“Okay, so she was going to implement that tradition, but thanks to her immortality, she never did, and I’m only the second leader of the changelings, which means we don’t really have a tradition of our own to follow-”
“-except that you became a king through a coup and I don’t want that to become our tradition! I’d rather have Chrysalis’ original plan!”
“And I already told you I don’t like what that plan entails, throne or no throne!”
“Yes, okay, so you can’t offer back the romantic flavor that your queen will give you.”
“Or a prince consort, or an unmarried lover, whatever. It’s just not fair to them! I’d never stop feeling guilty for robbing them of a chance to be with someling who loved them back!”
“What about your duty to the throne?”
“The successor, you mean?”
“Yes, the successor! That’s the whole point of it!”
“I’m thinking of choosing a drone, or several drones, that seem fitting and train them, and see which one of them is the best choice over time if there’s more of them, or even let the hive decide which one of them they like most. Right now, Ocellus seems like a good candidate. I’ll have to see how she feels about it, though…”
“So you’ve given up having nymphs of your own?”
“No, but I don’t think I can bring myself to sire them. Adoption seems more likely-”
“But you’re not considering them for the throne?”
“What is it with you and my nymphs? Just because they may have a king for a father doesn’t mean they’d be good leaders! Heck, I don’t think I’m an especially good leader! The hive deserves someling with talent for leadership! Training can only get you so far!”
“I’m not going to talk some sense into you, am I?”
“What do you mean?”
“A king needs a queen, Thorax-”
“Not necessarily!”
“What’s he without one?”
“In my case, happy.”