Who am I? Why, I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider... Got it memorized?
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Weeks after Chrysalis's failed attempt to take over Equestria and the subsequent transformation of the changeling race, Thorax is caught off guard by an unexpected visitor to the hive. As the two talk, they learn more about one another, and possibly resolve some bad blood between them.
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You should do another story.
Nice idea to say, what happend then they were kidnappe.
It's a warm and lovely story, well done!
Nice story you have here, author. It was an enjoyable fanfic to read while I was waiting for my animation project to load up ready to work on. I'll add this to my library. It was worth the five minutes indeed. Also, congrats on getting featured, good sir or madam!
I love it! Great heart-to-heart, there. And I've been looking for stories that deal with the aftermath of the latest episode, and how Thorax deals.
151st Story in my Library.
Heheheh.
This is a nicely sweet story.
You
alwaysnever go 'Full Twilight'.Considering all that Chrysalis left behind for them to clean up, figuratively and literally speaking, it may as well be an axe. Thanks, Chryssie.
Good read, man.
Ah... a refreshingly fresh tale!
Coming back to the hive he had swore never to return to, facing off against Chrysalis and his subsequent transformation into his new form, along with the transformation of every changeling in the hive into their new and more colourful forms.
There's a contradiction there. You see, when he became friends with Spike, he intended to one day return to show friendship to other changelings. However, intending to and wanting to aren't necessarily the same. Knowing it's the right thing to do, and not liking having to do it, seems to fit his comment in the finale of never wanting to have to see it again. But, swearing off going back? That doesn't fit.
Anyways, back to reading for me. Despite the nitpick, the writing looks good quality, and it no doubt got front page for a reason.^^
You know, not to poke holes, but at the end of "The Times, They Are A Changeling," when Thorax is being accepted as a friend into the Crystal Empire, Thorax does express the hope and desire to be able to one day take what he learns about friendship from the ponies back to his fellow changelings and be able to sway them to and teach them on the merits of such friendships. That would imply a need to return to the hive in some fashion in order to carry out that goal in any practical manner, since it's strongly implied that the hive is where all the changelings live...unless Thorax's plan was to catch outlier changelings away from the hive carrying out missions in disguise, building a more gradual following to oppose Chrysalis with from outside the hive that way.
Other than that, absolutely no complaints about anything in this story, it's really wonderfully written. Like, seriously. I wouldn't change a thing.
Indeed, I'm a little jealous that it wasn't me that had the joy of conceiving and writing it (it's certainly the sort of idea that would greatly appeal to me write)...but them's the breaks, ain't it? 
Yes, Shining! Bring Thorax to the Geek Side!
7704461
I'm sure he did try to bring that lesson to the Hive between "The Time, They Are A Changeling" and "To Where And Back Again". He mentioned that he was exiled from the hive as a result, and it made him fearful of ever meeting Chrysalis again. Certainly, Chrysalis had guessed that Thorax had to be involved for Starlight Glimmer and Discord to have manage to infiltrate the hive so deeply.
Actually, this story is quite well written. And this would be such a perfect followup episode that Hasbro would be remiss not to make this an actual story early in Season 7.
Yeah, I can somehow see a pen-pal game of O&O between Shiny, some of his guards, Thorax and some of the Hive.
So, it was once again "the nobles" who were total jerks while not a single guard was ever jealous or felt slighted by Shining's promotion?
It's amazing how often they have to play the bad guys in these kinds of stories.
You know, I've never thought about what kind of insecurities Shining Armor might struggle with concerning his connections and position. It's an interesting idea.
7704736
While that would potentially explain it, the show doesn't support that. Thorax explicitly states he voluntarily left the hive by his own choice because he could not bear to live among his fellow changelings while they chose to aggressively attack and steal rather than share and create, not because he was exiled and forced from the hive. Chrysalis then later backs this up when speaking of Thorax, explicitly stating herself that Thorax left of his own free will and that she did not approve of him leaving the hive, calling him a fool to do so. If Thorax is really an exile, then he's a self-exile, as the choice to leave the hive was all his.
As for his being fearful of Chrysalis's wrath and Chrysalis guessing he was aiding Starlight and the others in infiltrating the hive, those are gimmies regardless; Chrysalis has demonstrated that she has a very short temper, and it doesn't take a genius to see that the best defense against it is to stay on her good side, and Thorax knew that leaving the hive against her wishes would not do that (yet he voluntarily confronts her again himself posing as Starlight so to buy Starlight time to try and destroy the throne). And as Thorax himself stated, only a changeling could navigate the hive effectively enough to be able to both get to the throne room in a timely manner and avoid detection and capture for as long as they did; Chrysalis would've known this because obviously the intruders could only have gotten as far as they did if they had a changeling aiding them--there was no other way they could--and Thorax was the only changeling traitorous to her cause she knew of in a position to do it. Even then, though, she doesn't say a word about Thorax until Thorax himself (posing as Starlight) mentions himself by name, and she still doesn't talk about Thorax's personal involvement in the scheme until after it's well obvious to all he was helping the Equestrians. The point of all this being is that neither really supports the idea that Thorax had returned to the hive at anytime during the interlude between his acceptance into the Crystal Empire and Chrysalis enacting her new plan, or even that Thorax had even returned to the hive before he was accepted into the Crystal Empire.
Regardless, I will say again that was my only quibble about this whole story, and it's a very minor quibble at that, as it's more a personal disagreement on how it's phrased. The rest of the story is perfectly solid and I wouldn't change a single thing else about it. I want to make that abundantly clear.
7705091
People of nobility, historically speaking, tend to get a little butthurt when commoners climb higher than them on the social ladder. Even though not all nobles possess such an attitude, the ones that do are still plentiful and have very loud voices.
Additionally, a guard's primary duties are keeping people safe and with peace of mind. Although the guards might be feeling pretty jealous, voicing it too loudly could increase civilian distress - which can lead to all sorts of things. Since this is magic pony land, most guards probably place their duty before their desires.
7705091 In real life they kind of are the real villains in the world. They have all the power in the world and most of them abuse their power to benefit themselves
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/677/856/a68.png
...am I the only one shipping Thorax and Aphid after this story?
7705091
Because historically speaking many of them were?
If you believed that bloodlines and birth and breeding decided status (and that status was everything), and anyone who got somewhere with 'dirty blood', or on their own merits managed to climb to a position that was of any particular worth and glory rather than having it be attributed to a Noble house, you would quite likely be upset, if not personally offended.
Especially if some noble's second son was being angled up the ranks to take the chair, competing with other second and third sons from other houses. Then all of a sudden this commoner just hops up into the big seat. You would be insulted, it would be an outrage! The fine things in life belong to you or at least people LIKE you! Prestige for the prestigious!
And that's why a 'good' noble is the diamond-in-the-rough kind of hero, because so many of them are taught to be like the first example, that one who's very reasonable and legitimately kind is a rarity. Especially if we consider that in most settings and even historically speaking, noble houses were very cutthroat - both within their own houses and competing against others for accolades, prestige, and wealth. Someone who is legitimately kind needs to be equally ruthless or else they will be outmaneuvered, stabbed in the back, and taken for everything they're worth. This kind of life breeds people who are duplicitous by nature, and too hard to care about more than their political survival. Anyone who can't play The Game is barely worth considering a person.
Thus are they villains to the virtuous and kind-hearted, because they are selfish, shallow, and tend to be clinging to very outmoded traditions that they believe make them better than others - but actually tends to just qualify them as classist bigots.
7705425
7706210
Somehow, the same rule doesn't apply to "the nobles". Why, though? Don't they live in magic pony land too? The Canterlot elite we saw so far has been idle, self-indulgent, and overly obsessed with status, sure—but they were never shown to be truly malicious.
I will give you this, talking smack, I could see them do, sure. But it's tiring how often the "nobles are bad" trope is trotted out as if that is its own explanation. It's not. Remember what they did: Charity auctions, gallery openings, dinner parties... Wow, so evil!
So yeah, that is a pet peeve of mine. To me, it feels like a lack of effort in many cases. Again, at least this story at least keeps it relatively low-level and therefore more believable.
Not perfect, that's for sure. But I do love it, really suits Shining.
7705091
Ahem. While I like the discussion going on, if I can chime in as well?
In the story, I said that one of the big reasons Shining was made Captain was because his fellow Guards respected him so much. Any Guard that didn't respect him were a very small group who would have likely kept their mouths shut to avoid pissing off people who did respect Shining Armor. The nobles, however, have been shown on more than one occasion to be smug, self-absorbed jerks, and I'm not just talking about Blueblood here.
However, said nobles are likely huge hypocrites as well, cause while I don't doubt they would be guilty of multiple counts of nepotism, having someone like Shining granted the title of Captain would have really pissed them off, since then it couldn't go to someone more "deserving" (aka, them and their families). As such, they instantly assumed that the only reason he was chosen while they were passed over was because of his sister's relationship with Celestia, thus also assuming that he must also be unqualified to boot.
7707283
All well and good, but it doesn't quite address the point I was trying to get across.
There's a tendency among writers of MLP fiction to paint "the nobles" as walking talking roadblocks to everything good and wholesome. In fact, it's most often assumed that of course any noble other than Fancy Pants (if he is one) is a vile individual, usually opposed to whatever policies the princesses (any of them) want to put in place because they're solely ruled by spite and greed and can't stand the thought of other ponies being happy. Instead of them likely worshipping the ground Celestia trods, like pretty much any other pony alive.
Let's look at it this way: If stories assumed all of Ponyville is deeply racist or all Manehattanites are rude assholes over and over, wouldn't you at some point find it at least odd?
7706262
Just like the modern 'ruling class', that's only done for political benefit to themselves. I'm sorry Derps, but this is a very unrealistic pet peeve to have. You have to shut your eyes real tight and plug your ears in the face of the majority of every country's feudal eras, even to today's 1%/99% divide, in order to complain about this. Having 'good nobles' be the majority is just not how it works. Power not earned through laborious hard work backed with good intentions, wealth handed down as an expectation, so stuck to ancient tradition that would best be left in the past and is completely socially regressive, marrying for station and almost never for love (also usually incestuous at some points), all of this because other nobles would fuck you sideways and take all your House's prestige for themselves: All of this comes together to create people who think they're better than everyone else and have the clout to throw around to make things happen the way THEY want. Schemers, plotters, backstabbers, liars one and all, power-abusers, bigots, each and every one self-serving, nothing done purely for kindness and charity.
These are the actual hallmarks of most of nobility throughout history. The same could be said of ANY society with a peerage system. Wealth, laziness, and a life steeped in deceit and pride will corrupt almost anyone. THAT is why we celebrate 'good' nobles and cast them in a good light, because they are so rare. That's why in MLP, we adore Fancypants in almost every story, because he's canonically the only upper echelon (assumedly born into) who isn't wearing a crown that wasn't an asshole and a snob, so we know it's pretty much canon to MLP, too.
If you want more proof of the class divide, look at Spoiled Rich and what horrible things she did to Diamond Tiara, and what Diamond Tiara inflicted on others. That was par for the course. And they aren't even blooded nobles as far as we know, just staggeringly loaded and making their way into high society.
7707566
I have to disagree.
Look, are you really saying what the show presents isn't important when writing fanfiction? This discussion is going nowhere like this. You disagree with my position, I disagree with yours. Perhaps there's no middle ground here. Or perhaps I'm not making my case very well.
Addendum: Historically, there weren't that many immortal, morally pure, widely worshipped princesses about who might have an interest in not fostering a total snake pit in their capital either. Most writers don't even attempt to explain how she ended up with it.
That was a nice story of friendship and reconciliation. Liked.
A few errors, though:
You're missing words: "So taken aback was Thorax that he just narrowly avoided walking into a pillar...
Spelling error: "you still led them along"
The W in "Was" should be lowercase
The B in "but" should be lowercase
As written, this implies that the changelings wouldn't wake up. You're missing a word: "and she wouldn't wake up."
You need a comma before "I guess"
This is usually how clop fictions start.
It's just a prank, bro.
7707686
By not consistently manipulating and micro-managing the various bloodlines generation-by-generation when she has an entire country to run (they're supposed to be the ones helping her to begin with), is generally how it's explained. You really can't argue against how that lifestyle and setting would create a majority of corrupt individuals. Which is why we celebrate the righteous ones all across history and nearly all forms of fiction. It's not a trope or preference, it's just how things were and are. It's easier to understand 'the corrupt politician has shady dealings going on' since everyone knows this to be the way of things, than have to completely fly in the face of everything everyone knows to create 'all the guys with power dumped on their laps are decent individuals who care about helping the people around them', which... to make in any way believable, would require extensive exposition and world-building centering just on that in order to not come off as glaringly counter-intuitive, author mouthpiece, or writer fiat just to be contrary.
I have seen maybe... two stories, that manage to have a majority of decent nobility in it and it was a major part of both, not just an off-hand thing to reference. It was surprising, to say the least, but it can be very unwieldy and unnecessary.
That said, I respect you have a certain way you want to see things. I am not able to agree due to experience and information, but I can agree you are more than entitled to any viewpoint you wish. If I cannot persuade you to look at things differently, then that is perfectly acceptable and I bear you no ill will.
7706262
It's a really safe way to portray nobility in fiction, though, so I find it hard to be frustrated with. It is a concept that people are familiar with, and it introduces some minor conflict (or major, in some works). Unless you are going into in-depth characterization of the nobility, a general vibe of negative stereotypes is easily accepted by most readers. It is a useful plot component when it fits in well.
excellent work!
7708137
I can see your point as well. I'm approaching this more on a narrative and show-driven level than real world history, and it's frustrating how few authors make at least a small attempt to adapt the trope to Equestria's overall situation.
7712018
When it fits well. Often enough, the end result makes Celestia look incompetent and/or stupid.
7718323
I would completely agree with you on that front were it not that almost every 'elite' we've been shown has been, almost entirely, vacuous and snobby. With the near sole exception of Lord Pants So Fancy.
7719041
Yet there's a difference between "snobby" and "cartoonishly evil". We've never seen them close down an orphanage to line their own pockets, for example. We have seen them do charity drives. So why are they almost always shown in stories doing orphanage-closy-things and never any charities? For that matter, can you really see Cantelot's upper crust (even Upper Crust) fight Celestia so much and so viciously that the princess thinks they're worse than most of the villains? In a completely non-ironic way?
Most writers use them as cheap Hate Sinks, without putting in much thought or effort. And that's what's irritating me so much.
7719928
Granted, but again. With very few exceptions, the only reason you see rich people do charity drives is for publicity. It's not a selfless act out of the good of their hearts, it's that they realize people are suckers for 'doing good for the needy' and call them heroes for helping out. Gets them good PR. That is unilaterally evil in my mind, using the plight of the needy to manipulate others into increasing their influence and thus power. They always give just enough that it doesn't hurt them and is only enough to help a very few people, in a very public and visible way. (Very rare that this isn't the case.)
That said, it works. You may think it doesn't take much effort, but does it have to? If the story isn't about the villains do you need to spend time building them up for people to hate them? Especially when you have kooks like we have in this community who bitch and moan when a villain doesn't have a relatable backstory, and the moment they get even a little one suddenly they're crazy over the villain and start defending their actions and saying 'they're not that bad' and whatnot. It's a tangent from the story when the villains are part of the problem but not the actual focus of the writing, to have to go build up someone to hate. Sure, that puts the effort in, but it's no different from laborious exposition. It's not something that always needs to be IN a story, and oftentimes doesn't at all.
People choose nobility to be the 'shadowy badguy' because that's how the READER understands politicians and the wealthy, it gets the message across to the audience, and we have no proof that all nobles are good or evil canonically. So they can be used to be the shadowy badguy without specifically breaking canon in a way every reader understands without breaking stride to go 'Okay this is who they are, where they come from, here's two chapters about why they do bad things, another chapter about their thoughts and plans... and now they're drowning a sack of puppies in a pool of blood leftover from that orphanage they just murdered, and the backstory I gave you earlier says why.'
You get what I mean. Trust me, I understand your dislike for 'authority not shown to be evil is always evil', you've no doubt seen my rants over how this community abuses the fuck out of Celestia. I've only been doing it for four years here. But with the peerage, it at least makes sense because there's nothing proving them one way or the other, and canonically we at least know they're not NICE and selfless people. Meaning they can serve as antagonists very easily without shattering canonicity.
You know, this story reminds me of another fanfic involving a talk between Shining Armor and Thorax: A Talk with a Prince by Jay-The-Brony The main difference between these two stories is that Jay's story takes place right after "Times They Are a Changeling" and your story here takes place after the Season 6 finale.
Just like Jay's story, I think this was a nice "character interaction" story. You get a like and fave from me!
I have reviewed this HERE.
7707283
It sort of depends on whether Captain of the Guard is even a prestigious title or whether it's more like Chief Sewerworker Overseer. The Guards are glorified servants, after all, and even the head of them is more a receiver than a giver of orders.
Compare and contrast with something like being made a governor of a region or being granted the rights to mine a particular area. Something open-ended with opportunities to enrich themselves without Celestia's eye on them every single minute of the day. The Nobility are rent-seekers; they want positions that grant them a power base and source of income, like hereditary landed titles. The Captain of the Guard lives and works in the same building with all of Celestia's accountants and has to interact with them on a near-daily basis. How is anyone supposed to practice effective nepotism in a hostile work environment like that?
7700502
Hi, Unique!
8393595
Greetings, milady!
8394854
Greetings, dear sir! It is my pleasure to encounter such a coincidence to see you on Fimfic, as well as on Youtube yesterday! XD
8394977
On Youtube? Which channel name are you again, young madam?
Also, please PM me as it would be disrespectful to use this author's comment section as a conversation zone.
8395817
I think it was one of ScribblerProductions videos, the one with Scootaloo waking up Rainbow. Also, I know about my disrespect for the author's comment section. Don't worry, this is my last comment speaking to you on this page. :)
I love this story - it seems that Thorax and Shining could become great friends!
There should be a list: The Top 10 Fimfiction Quotes of All Time. Or maybe the list should have 100 quotes, given how many stories are on this site....
This was so well written, you really captured their voices beautifully.
I really like the idea of the hive changing constantly, that's very clever. n_n