//------------------------------//
// Family 
// Story: Droning On 
// by James Pwyll 
//------------------------------//

"Applejack, for the last time, it's not a big deal!" Rainbow declared.

Applejack, walking beside her, frowned. "An' ah say it is! Ya need ta do more than what you've done fer a day like this, Rainbow!"

Rainbow sighed and facehoofed herself as they continued walking through Ponyville together. "AJ, come on! You know how things are!"

"Ah know, ah know," Applejack admitted. "But that changes nothin' an' ya know it!"

The aspiring Wonderbolt groaned. "Uuuuuugh! And why exactly do we need to bring Twilight in on this?"

Applejack pointed ahead of them, to their destination, the Golden Oak Library. "If ya won't listen ta me, maybe you'll listen ta the smartest mare in town!"

And so, on they went, their back-and-forth staying pretty much the same until they finally reached Twilight's doors. After clearing her throat, Applejack knocked, and it was only a moment later when they heard the expected voice on the other side. "Door's open. Come on in."

Opening it, both mares entered the library, and were greeted immediately by the sight of Spike, sitting at the main table of the entrance room and reading one of his comics. As soon as he saw the two of them however, he stopped, smiling to them. "Hey there. Wasn't expecting to see you two here today."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting to be here today!" Rainbow added bitterly, staring daggers at Applejack.

The latter rolled her eyes before addressing Spike again. "Is Twilight here?"

Spike didn't even need to answer, he just gestured to the side, and both mares looked on to see, and only now realising, that Twilight had been there the whole time. She'd just been doing some re-shelving of a nearby bookshelf, and as soon as she saw their eyes on her, she smirked slightly. "I was wondering how long it'd take you to notice me here. How are things?"

Before Applejack could get the first word in, Rainbow beat her to it. "Twilight, I want you to tell AJ here that I am well within my rights to give whatever gift I want to my family, okay?"

"Er...what?" Twilight justifiably asked.

Here, Applejack added her voice to the matter. "No, Rainbow. Twilight needs to tell you that gift-givin' is somethin' special, an' that it needs proper choices an'..."

Before this argument could get any worse, Twilight put her hoof into her mouth and whistled, gaining everypony's attention. Once things were quiet, she sighed. "Okay...walk me through this," she asked with clear and obvious exasperation.

After casting each other another irritated look, Rainbow started her side of things. "Okay, see...it's my Dad's birthday in a few days, so I needed to get him something. So, I went to the store and got him a card. When I left it, I ran into AJ, who asked me what I was doing, so I told her. And then she just goes off and tells me I need to do more!" She turned and narrowed her eyes to the offending mare. "Which I don't!"

Twilight tapped her chin. "Huh, I don't think I've ever heard you talk about your parents before, Rainbow."

Rainbow sighed. "Well, if you knew them, you'd know why this is no problem. Ever since the day I was born they've treated me like I was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everything I do is seen as this great, awesome accomplishment." Again, she looked to Applejack, pointing to her. "So believe me when I say that, even if I get my Dad the cheapest, chintziest gift ever, he'll still look at it like I gave him solid gold encrusted with jewels!"

Twilight considered that, then looked over to Applejack. The latter said nothing, but Twilight could already tell what she was going to say. She knew how much family mattered to her, so a move like Rainbow's, regardless of the rationale behind it, was always going to rub her the wrong way. Understanding this, Twilight again looked to her pegasus friend. "Regardless of what his reaction is going to be, I think you might need to get him something else. Maybe...something you made yourself?"

Rainbow, realising she was now on the losing side, grumbled under her breath, then glanced around the room, as if looking for a further ally to back her up on this. Spike, seeing the cyan mare's eyes on him, buried his face in his comic, making it abundantly clear that he wasn't getting involved in this. Then, remembering that there was more than just these two in the library these days, Rainbow's eyes darted all over, until she finally saw him. Thorax, standing at one of the far windows and looking out. "Hey! You!"

Slowly, the drone turned to face her. "Yes?"

"What about you? I mean, how do Changelings feel about birthday gifts to their dads?"

"We...do not celebrate birthdays," Thorax replied.

Rainbow, in response, slumped her shoulders. "Dude...that sucks." Then, she chuckled. "Make sure you never say that around Pinkie. She'd call it blasphemy or something."

Applejack, now curious, turned her own attention to the newest resident of the library. "So...y'all never do anythin' fer yer pa?"

Thorax shrugged his shoulders. "I never knew him. Nor did any of my step-siblings know theirs."

Immediately, all eyes were on him, and Twilight's were practically filled with sparkles as this glimpse of previously-unknown information was offered to her. Spike, seeing her this way, sighed. "Okay, and out comes the quill an paper."

The following moments proved him right, as Twilight ignited her horn and levitated those exact items over to her, before rushing forward and looking to Thorax with renewed excitement. "Okay, explanation, now!" Using her magic again, she levitated Thorax over to a chair and sat him down on it, much to his slight surprise, before again speaking up. "So my previous assumption was wrong then. I knew Chrysalis, and by extension all other queens, were the mothers of all the drones of their respective hives. But you're now telling me they required partners for that purpose?"

Thorax nodded. "Correct, my Queen. We are not an asexual species. Queens require mates to build up or replenish their ranks of drones."

Twilight, writing all that down, kept her eyes on him. "But you mentioned step-siblings. So I take it Chrysalis had more than one?"

Again, Thorax nodded. "She did."

Walking over to him, Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Why? Couldn't she, I dunno, just use the same one over and over?" Then, she shuddered. "Okay, I might have needed to rephrase that, because that just put a really bad image in my head!"

Everybody else, also grimacing from that mental picture, instead tried focusing on Thorax, who finally answered Rainbow's question. "Chrysalis never used the same mate twice. After every coupling she saw fit to terminate them."

Naturally, all were horrified by that news, with Applejack being the one to voice their collective shock. "She...she killed yer pa?!"

"Yes," Thorax answered with his usual emotionlessness. "As she did with the father of every other clutch of eggs she had."

"But...but why?!" Spike asked, clearly dismayed with this revelation.

"To maintain her authority. Chrysalis wanted absolute control over her hive and her drones. To have the second parent still living would present the possibility of having one within the hive whom the drones might listen to instead of her. So, she removed that possibility."

All of a sudden, even Twilight, with her famous thirst for knowledge, was feeling less than happy with the prospect of learning more about this. Unfortunately for her, it seemed that Rainbow had allowed her own curiosity to step up on that count. "So...er...how many did your mom...you know...?"

Thorax turned, looking out of the window. "Our hive numbered roughly ten thousand by the time we attacked your capital. Since coupling usually resulted in a clutch of a hundred, I have to assume her mates also numbered at one hundred."

Rainbow, despite the grim mood from earlier, actually broke out into a smirk. "Heh, well she certainly seems popular."

Looking back to her, Thorax shook his head. "It is simply instinct. One a drone becomes too old to fight or perform duties of hive maintenance, they set out in search of new hives to join, almost exclusively for the purpose of becoming a mate to their resident queen. And since there was small chance of them knowing Chrysalis' nature prior to arriving at her hive, they had little reason to foresee their fate."

Twilight, who'd actually managed to regain some of her earlier willingness to ask questions, finally did so. "I wonder, Thorax. Do other queens treat their mates as brutally as Chrysalis did?"

There was a pause as the done considered the enquiry. "Difficult to say. Queens, by default, must maintain strong authority within their hives. Though, as I've already told you, I never encountered other Changelings that much, aside from the occasional border skirmish over territory. And even then, their queens never took to the field. Maybe they were more lenient on their mates, but it would be pure speculation on my part."

Twilight thought on that, again cursing the fact that her awareness of other hives was limited by the short leash Chrysalis had kept on drones like Thorax. But while she pondered that, Rainbow walked over to her, looking rather mischievous. "So, drones going to other hives can get frisky with the queens there, eh? Maybe Thorax here could keep you company on the long, cold winter nights?"

Understandably, Twilight blushed fiercely, and Spike and Applejack had to stifle a laugh over the reaction. As for Thorax, who'd apparently heard her remark, he just shook his head again. "Unlikely. I am not yet at the age where mating would be possible. And it would be a fruitless endeavour if I were to do so. Changelings and ponies are incapable of crossbreeding."

All looked to him, the humour of the moment long gone. "You say that with...some certainty," Twilight said, looking to him warily.

"It is not unheard of," Thorax answered. "Canterlot was not the first time Chrysalis attempted to infiltrate a society. And during long periods of manipulation she would occasionally resort to...intimate tactics to get close to her targets." He gestured to himself. "In those instances, she never bore children, confirming that Changelings can only do so with each other."

Twilight appeared hesitant, then stepped forward, her voice quiet. "Did she...and my brother...?"

Everypony knew what she was asking, and a collective sense of concern was felt by all. Fortunately, it was short-lived, thanks to Thorax's answer. "No. Apparently it was deemed among you ponies, royalty especially, that such things were to be reserved for your 'wedding nights' I believe. Hence, Chrysalis was never in a position to do so."

All breathed a sigh of relief, with Applejack walking over and placing her hoof upon Twilight's shoulder. "Phew! Dodged that bullet!"

Rainbow, who had been quiet for some time now, stared down at the ground for a bit before taking a deep breath and exhaling. She turned, heading for the door, catching the attention of Spike. "Rainbow? Where are you going?"

Stopping at said door, she sighed again before looking to her friends. "I'm...gonna go visit my folks."

Applejack was taken aback by that. "Wait? Really? You? Why?"

In response, Rainbow pointed straight at Thorax. "Because I want as much distance between my family relationships and theirs as possible!"

And with that, she stretched out her wings, launching herself out into the sky at great speed, all while the others just stared at the still-open door for a while. "Well...that's one way to get her to put more effort into her dad's birthday I guess," Spike mused.

As for Twilight, she again turned to Thorax before, in a move that stunned the latter, moving towards him and wrapping her forehooves around him, holding him in an embrace. Thorax, for his part, was uncertain as to what this meant. "Er...my Queen? What are you doing?"

"I'm hugging you, Thorax."

"...Why?"

"Because after hearing all that, I think it's high time that somepony did!"