Author's Note - This portion of the story will be told from Thorax's perspective.
The Changeling Hive
One Year After The Failed Invasion...
The hive was in low spirits. At first glance, a pony would think that the creatures inside were very aggressive and should be avoided at all costs. While that statement was true enough on its own, it didn't summarize the situation well at all.
The changelings, despite outward appearance, were afraid.
With the failed invasion of Canterlot during Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Guard Captain Shining Armor's wedding, the changeling race as a whole was exposed to Equestria and the greater world. Now suddenly out in the open, many infiltrators abandoned their posts, fearful that they would be revealed and subject to harm through either outright torture from the guard or prisoners they'd be forced to share cells that would want to enact revenge upon them for past slights they may or may not have endured because of changelings.
With this massive upheaval, Queen Chrysalis doubled down on the already iron tight grip she held over the hive. She ordered rations cut, more intense training, and ordered the focus of love gathering to be directed at the more unconventional sources, if only for the fact that they would be less likely to associate the term changeling with something malevolent.
The worst of all was a moratorium on new eggs. Changelings that wished to have a brood were not permitted, told to wait until there was a need for new changelings to serve as either a new batch of infiltrators, or potentially as the first wave of soldiers for another invasion.
That was the first three months. When the fourth month rolled around, the queen then ordered infiltrators to begin returning to Equestria, only gathering enough love to sustain themselves as needed. Their role now was to conduct espionage on the most powerful ponies in Equestria. Once they had enough information, they would return and report back to the queen what they had learned.
When the infiltrators got news of this, there were many volunteers. Drones that had been eager to help exact revenge against the ponies that had snatched away their meal ticket, and in the case of some, the right to have progeny to call their own.
In my case, the orders presented me with an opportunity. I had seen what friendship could do, and I knew I wanted it for myself. The problem would be obtaining it, and I knew I couldn't get it from the hive.
I had tried many times already, and each to no avail. I would be hit, made fun of, or in the worst cases, drained and left to lay where I fell in the halls of the hive.
Being drained was the worst. To have all of the energy sapped from you and end up in such a malaise state that you don't even care if you lived or died. Feeling that for the first time instantly made me regret anytime I ever needed to feed on another creature. It was the last piece of evidence I needed to show me that the ways that changelings lived were wrong, and someling needed to fix that.
Of course, convincing the other changelings would be a whole other matter.
"Stop hitting yourself, Thorax!"
I again felt the repeated barrage of my own hoof drilling into my face while it was enveloped in a green glow. Scizza, one of the larger drones in the hive, was sitting on my chest with his hooves crossed over his barrel, a wicked grin on his muzzle.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" I cried with each strike, my attempt to force myself to stop overpowered by Scizza's much stronger magical grip.
"C'mon weakling!" he taunted me. "If you really wanna stop me, then stop me!"
I redoubled my efforts to break free, but again, I was met with the constant barrage of my own hoof striking my face. The only thing I could do to protect myself was close my eyes, but even then, I would probably have a bruise from the abuse.
"You're pathetic" Scizza chided me as he released my hoof, now bored of the mindless torture. "You're even weaker than the grubs in the nursery hive. It's a disgrace!"
The larger changeling rose up and pressed a hoof hard into my barrel, and I could swear he adjusted his form to take the shape of rows and rows of sharp points because I could feel an almost burning sensation from where his hoof was pushing me down.
"I don't know why the queen bothered to let you live" he continues. "I'd say she felt sorry for you, but you know our queen has no pity!"
He pressed down into me as he said the last part, and I could feel some kind of liquid on my chest. I didn't look, but I'm almost dead certain it was my blood that had seeped out of the wound Scizza almost surely made.
"Why did the queen bother to save you?" he asked me, malice still present in his voice but more diminished. "I don't understand it. You don't go out and forage for love, nor do you train to fight, dig in the tunnels or build any walls. You don't even help care for the grubs! So why did she save you if you're nothing but a boil on the collective changeling flank?!"
He let up and I took a lungful of air in. My only reply was "I'm not allowed to care-"
Scizza cut me off. "I know you're not allowed to care for grubs! You also know why that is!"
His hoof returns to my chest, the apparent spines having lengthened and dug deeper, making my discomfort so much I can barely keep the noise down to the level of a whisper.
"I hope you're proud of yourself for what you did to Ocellus!" he sneers at me. "The queen is considering disposing of her. Do you have any idea how hard Scorpion and Ovi worked to have that brood and only one nymph out of four to survive?! You should have your head staked on a rock outside the hive on general principle!"
Scizza removes his hoof from my chest and positions it at my head. I look him in the eyes and I realize that his gesture is not an idle threat. The look there is one devoid of any compassion or mercy. They're the eyes of a real monster.
"You know, the queen will probably exile me or something for this, but I'm gonna do what she should've done with you to begin with!"
With that remark, he raises his hoof with the full intention of literally driving it through my skull...
...only for a blast of green magic to send him flying into a wall.
"Scizza!" a familiar voice calls out. "What in the queen's name are you doing?!"
Scizza recovers and glares at the newcomer. "What the queen and you both should've done, Pharynx."
My brother stands in the hallway with a glare fixed to Scizza, his horn a steady flame of green magic. "If you don't desist and move on," Pharynx warns, "then I'll have to finish this job, plus my own AND yours, and what remains of you when I'm finished will have to go to the queen and explain this whole mess. Do you understand me, Scizza?"
Scizza frowns at Pharynx, but offers no other resistance. "Whatever" he says as he walks away, clearly not wanting a well to do fight while the queen is in a rather irritable state.
Once he leaves, I sit up and look at Pharynx, who looks at me with disappointment. "I know" is all I can reply.
"And yet I still have to come keep you from being turned into a smear on the walls or floor" he adds as he shakes his head. "I don't know what happened to your egg to make it turn out like that, but I hope it never happens again for as long as Queen Chrysalis lives. She's still not sure what to do with Ocellus, you know?"
I hang my head, unable to look at him. "I already said I'm sorry."
A hoof strikes me across the muzzle.
"THAT RIGHT THERE, THORAX!" Pharynx yells at me as he delivers another blow to my face. "No changeling apologizes to another changeling, or apologizes for another changeling!"
"You're too soft and too sentimental, Thorax!" Pharynx spits as he buzzes his wings and takes off. "Either get with the program, or get out of the way!"
Get with the program...
...or get out of the way.
I don't think it was Pharynx had intended, but in that moment, he put things into perspective for me.
I had a choice to make. Either I would have to deny everything I had come to believe and conform to the same system that every changeling before me adhered to, or I would have to abandon that system altogether in hopes of finding the answers I was looking for.
I think it's pretty obvious what my choice was.