//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Forever and Always // Story: Pride and Joy // by Melody Song //------------------------------// Apex sat on the cliff overlooking the Hive, watching his fellow changelings flitting around as the sun set. The ten year old sighed and gazed out aimlessly. The sound of hoofsteps made his ears prick, and he used his Uncle’s training to see who it was. Soft, tentative steps. Slow and rhythmic. The scent of mangos. Thorax. His Papa Thorax. Thorax sat down beside Apex and looked over at him. “Been looking for you. I know you only come up here when you’re sad. What’s wrong sweetie?” Apex wiped his eyes. “You an’ Emmie don’ ha’e time for me an’more… you’e too busy with the new baby.” he mumbled Thorax sighed and put his hoof around Apex, pulling him close. Apex instinctively pressed against him. “I’m sorry you felt that way Apex. You know I still love you, Night Bloom just needs extra special care right now. She’s the first dragon-changeling hybrid ever, and we need to be really vigilant around her because we don’t know if she’ll be okay.” Apex’s eyes widened and he looked up at him. “She… she migh’ die?” “N-No, nothing that serious, sweetie. But she might be a very different child. We don’t know yet.” Thorax turned and nuzzled him. “But what I do know is that no matter what, she is never going to replace you, Apex.” Apex sniffled and looked away. Thorax regained his attention with a boop on the nose and a small smile. As Apex giggled, he began to speak. “You are always going to be my little hyper sprite. The one who sucked on my hoof when he was just a tiny little nymph only five to six years old, and who still does now when he’s scared.” Apex blushed, but let Thorax continue. “The one who’s always made me smile with his adorably spunky and rambunctious personality… who cuddles his favorite bear when we snuggle and lets me tell him stories he’s probably too old for…” He giggled and nuzzled against Thorax, who’d begun to tear up. His voice cracked as he spoke. “Who can’t fit on my head anymore but rides on my back instead… who I let tackle me to the ground when he and his Uncle Pharynx play ‘tackle the bug king’ because I know how happy it makes him.” Apex smiled at the memories. “Who I take to Ponyville for ‘special trips’ just so he can spend time with his friends because I love to see that big beautiful smile on his face… who’s going to ‘look after me and Pharynx when we’re old and broken’ because he’ll be the ‘King-General’ and succeed us both.” Apex giggled as he remembered the promise he made so many years ago that he still intended to keep. “Because he’s going to fulfill his wildest dreams and make his Papa so, so proud. Who, no matter how big he gets…” Thorax wrapped his hooves around Apex and lifted him up in front of him, so they were looking at each other eye-to-eye. “Is always, always, going to be my little baby boy.” Thorax touched noses with the nymph, smiling through the tears falling down his face. “My darling son… my pride and joy… the Prince of the Changelings…” “P-Papa Thorax…” Apex wrapped his hooves around Thorax’s neck and hugged him. He hugged back, still smiling as tears fell on the nymph. “Who I love with all my heart… and will never, ever make me hate him. Because he’s my baby. My little one. My favorite nymph.” Thorax held him tight, they were both crying now. “And when it’s time to say goodbye-” “N-No, Papa Thorax…” “Which won’t be for a long, long time… he will cry the hardest… but I will tell him to keep smiling and be the leader the Hive needs. And he will smile and hug me tight… and he will visit me every day… and he’ll sit by my resting place and leave gifts and talk to me.” Apex sobbed and buried his head in Thorax’s shoulder. “He’ll tell me everything that’s happening. He’ll do all this because he loves me…” Thorax kissed Apex’s forehead, making him look up. “And because I was able to love him back. Because I will always be there for him. And when his time comes… he’ll lay beside me… and I’ll be there again… to lead him up to our home in the skies… where we’ll remain, father and son, young again… to play and frolic forever more.” “P-Papa Thorax!” Apex cuddled against him, crying. Thorax rubbed his back as he cried. “Because he and I will always be together. Not rain, or wind, by hoof or claw, could anything ever tear us apart. Because I love my little hyper sprite… my darling baby boy…” Thorax lifted Apex’s chin. “Because I hate to see him sad… because I know sometimes I have to let him be sad… and it causes me so much pain…” he rocked the nymph as though he was still five. “And I love him, and I won’t ever let anything take him away. Not Chrysalis-” Apex sobbed aloud again. Thorax soothed him with a stroking motion down his forehead and across his muzzle that hadn’t been used since he was very young. “Not Elysium. Not anything. I love him so much… more than I could ever put into words.” “I love you too Papa Thorax…” Apex cuddled against him. “‘M sorry I though’ tha’ stuff, ‘m sorry! I’ll never le’ you go ei’er, I p’omise!” “There’s nothing to be sorry for sweetie.” Thorax wiped his eyes, though that did nothing to stop his tears. “I’m sorry I had to say all that… I just needed to…” Apex nuzzled him, smiling through his tears. “I-I love you Papa Thorax.” “I love you too, my baby boy.” Thorax whispered “Tha’s all?” Apex asked, and Thorax nuzzled him. “That’s everything.” Then, Thorax stood up, and Apex laid on his back, resting his head on the back of the alpha changeling’s neck. Thorax smiled as tears fell down his face. He headed down the slope, towards the Hive and the sunset behind it. No more words were exchanged between the two changelings. Everything they had needed to say had been spoken. ~Fin~