Hive Mind
With the bowtie back in his possession, Spike promptly put it on and at the end of his lunchbreak, returned to work with his more usual enthusiasm. Thorax did likewise, feeling pleased he was able to help. Nonetheless, the nature of how they had located and recovered the bowtie left the two reflecting and trying to sort out the experience, Spike especially as he had no previous experience in the mental link Thorax had used. It had left something of an awkward rift between the two, feeling uncomfortable every time the two went to speak to each other, to the point that the usually two open-going and approachable friends were being oddly quiet to and around each other, unknowing what, if anything, they should say to address the lingering awkwardness between them the link, brief as it was, had created. It seemed to only get more pronounced as time went by, especially as Spike let his mind wander on the affair more and began to realize implications he hadn’t thought of before that left him more…uncertain. But unsure he wanted to let himself face such implications directly, he kept silent, further increasing the desire to avoid speaking directly to Thorax.
Naturally by the end of the workday, Fly Leaf had noticed it for long enough to feel obligated to bring it up. “You two have been oddly quiet today,” she noted aloud as they worked to close the shop for the evening.
Spike and Thorax exchanged glances. “Just…have had a bit to think about, I suppose,” Spike reasoned aloud, but didn’t elaborate.
Fly raised an eyebrow as she studied the pair, but instead changed the subject. “I noticed you found your bowtie, Spark,” she said with a nod.
Spike’s claws went to the garment and fingered it briefly. “Yes,” he said. “Thora—I mean—bleh,” he pulled a face as he momentarily stumbled over his words then started again. “Thornton helped me find it.”
“That was nice of him.”
Spike glanced in the direction of the disguised changeling and smiled slightly. “Yes it was.” Thorax returned the smile.
“So where was it?” Fly asked as she moved to adjust a shop display.
“Remember when you asked me to fetch you a bottle of glitter glue from in back? I had been in the middle of taking it off and accidentally left in the box.”
“Ah, you see? I told you it’d turn up again, safe and unharmed.” Fly gave the two a wink and walked off. “All is well that ends well, right?”
“Yeah,” Thorax agreed but with a warble of uncertainty and again he and Spike exchanged glances, aware that the matter wasn’t settled just yet, neither of them just were quite prepared to address it.
That changed the moment the both of them returned to their room before dinner. “Thorax, we need to talk about what happened,” Spike blurted out the second he closed the door behind them.
Thorax sighed, nodding as he let his disguise drop. “I figured you’d have questions,” he said, locking his solid blue eyes on his friend. “A mental link invariably always does bring such things up, making one wonder about their existence and relations with others, especially those they link with. I had many of my own the first time I underwent a mental link, to demonstrate to my superiors that I could do so if needed.”
“And see, that’s what gets me!” Spike said, thrusting his claws at the changeling. “You talk about it like it’s so deeply ingrained into your life and culture as a changeling…but you never even hinted you had anything even coming close to that kind of ability to me or anyone since I met you even once until now!”
“And that bothers you.”
“Only because it feels like you’ve been keeping secrets from me, Thorax.” There was a tone of regret in Spike’s confession. “And now I’m left wondering why, and…I don’t like some of the possibilities I’m coming up with.”
Thorax slowly trotted up to the dragon and put an assuring hoof on his shoulder. “Like what?” he asked seriously. “Tell me.”
Spike fidgeted uncomfortably, not wanting to think about his doubts in what he still felt was his only remaining friend and ally since following the changeling into banishment. “Back in the Crystal Empire,” he began slowly, “when I was trying to convince the others you could be trusted…a popular theory the others had to explain, in their heads at least, why I was siding with you was that you had done some sort of mind manipulation trick on me. I had argued against that, of course, on the assumption that you had no ability to even try such a thing. But now I find you actually can, and now…I’m…” he trailed off, hanging his head in shame for even having had considered the idea about Thorax.
But Thorax saw what he was getting at. “…that you’re wondering if they might have actually been right after all,” he said solemnly. When Spike nodded, Thorax sighed and took on a faraway look. It seemed he had already considered this topic might come up. “Spike, you know that I would do absolutely nothing to hurt you at any time, right?”
“…I do,” Spike said, again nodding. He gazed up slightly at Thorax. “You wouldn’t have done everything you have since we were banished if you didn’t. It’s just…” again he averted his gaze in shame. “…I can’t help but wonder now if the reason I trusted you so much when we first met was because…you had done something to sort of…give it a nudge.”
Thorax actually smiled at this. “I’m flattered you think so highly of me, Spike.”
“No, no,” Spike objected, shaking his head in immediate disagreement, thinking his friend misunderstood. “It’s horrible that I’m thinking this! I don’t like the idea that our friendship might not be genuine for any reason, or that I might have cause to distrust you! Not after everything we’ve been through!”
“And yet, instead of assuming the absolute worst, you instead resorted to the solution that presents me as acting positively, that I used this ability not to cause you harm, but instead used it to promote and encourage a positive friendship between us,” Thorax argued back with a knowing grin. He tapped Spike on the nose with one hoof. “That right there gives you your answer. If our friendship was really as false as all of that, you wouldn’t be so quick to not just assume that, but defend it too.” He turned serious again. “The mind isn’t a simple thing to fool, Spike. It’s easy for it to doubt even the reality of its own existence. If it has reason to doubt a lie for any reason, it will do so. It takes someone of great skill and determination to be able to pass a lie off to someone like that on such a deep level as one’s mental scape for as long as this…skill I utterly lack, and such skills are not even commonly taught among changelings. Our mental abilities are not powerful enough to do it anyway. Most would resort to more effective magical spells to do the work for them rather than do it through a mental link, spells I have no knowledge of then or now, and I have made no attempt to, nor have any interest in, learning them in the future. Further, to do what you’re describing would necessitate a direct mental link between you and me, which would have required the same sort of physical contact we did for the link this afternoon…and if we had done that, you would remember doing it.”
“Suppose you had removed that memory?”
“I know of no way to do that, nor do I know any changeling who does. Memories are more engrained into one’s mental scape than you think.” He looked the dragon straight in the eye. “At any rate Spike, I swear to you, on the name of the all-knowing acorns and the great Informis Una herself, that you were right to believe I have done no mind manipulation of any sort to you, never had the ability to do so, and that your choice to befriend me was entirely your own and the only influence I had in that, if anything, was to urge and advise you to not to for your own safety.” Thorax smirked. “Advice which, I might add, you were quick to ignore.”
Spike couldn’t help but return the smirk as Thorax’s words soothed his fears and restored his trust in him entirely. “It was the right thing to do, Thorax. You needed a friend.”
“And I’m glad to have one as good as you, Spike,” Thorax said as he pulled the dragon in for a friendly hug.
“But then I still don’t understand,” Spike continued, turning puzzled. “If it wasn’t for all of that, then why haven’t you mentioned your mental abilities before now?”
Thorax sighed, but this time it was a weary exhale. “That’s an entirely different tale,” he admitted. “But basically, our mental abilities are something of a closely guarded secret among changelings, because those mental abilities have previously proven to be a great weakness in the right circumstances.”
Spike’s brow furrowed slightly with concern and nudged a little closer, starting to catch on to where this was all going. “What happened?”
“Well…many generations ago,” Thorax began to explain, “changelings used their telepathic abilities more freely, to the point that we were all…melded…together in a perpetual network of minds at all times. Every thought any changeling had was shared with all the others and enacted upon however seen fit through the rule of the agreeing majority.”
“Wait, wait, Twilight was talking to me about something like this once,” Spike remarked, thinking back. “Immediately after your hive attempted to invade Canterlot, she and a number other brainy ponies got together to assess what happened during the invasion and to devise a number of ways to better defend Equestria in case the changelings attempted to invade like that again. One of the things they discussed was how they noticed during the invasion that changelings could…I don’t know…react and move as one group at a moment’s notice without much of any verbal communication between each other. To explain it, Twilight had this theory that maybe you guys all operated on a sort of hive mind…much like what you’re describing to me now.”
Thorax chuckled. “Well, she’s not entirely wrong,” he admitted. “Changelings do have that capability and as I said, had done so in the ancient past…but not anymore, and certainly not during the Canterlot invasion. We were just…well-coordinated enough to move around like that without need of a, as you put it, hive mind, I suppose.”
“But why? What caused changelings to stop forming a hive mind?”
“Because it proved to be too abusive to our way of life in the end. With our minds all linked together like that, we were perfectly united and one…but it robbed us of our individuality, our ability to think uniquely and independently, instead keeping us restricted to the habits and traditions of old because the majority rule dictated it, subjugating us to its whims, right or wrong. Any thoughts breaking away from the majority within the hive mind were quickly suppressed, on the grounds of it being a danger to changeling kind, but in reality it hindered our ability to continue to develop as a society, disallowing our ability to grow, adapt and evolve. The only reason changelings aren’t already at least as advanced as the ponies of Equestria is because the confines of the hive mind didn’t permit it. Any gifted minds that could’ve dared think of something outside the norm never had the chance to express themselves. Indeed, changelings got to the point that they were heavily reliant on the hive mind, to the point that a changeling was nearly helpless if ever cut from it, unable to act or choose for themselves because they didn’t know how.” Thorax frowned at the thought. “We were, in a way, too addicted to the hive mind to see beyond its confines and narrow-minded way of doing things.”
Spike winced, seeing Thorax’s point. “So how did the changelings break free from it?”
Here, Thorax grinned. “The last hive mind collapsed thanks to a select few changelings who had managed to be severed from the hive mind for one reason or another and, dreaming of a better changeling society, started something of an underground resistance that eventually resulted in that hive mind’s collapse. Since then, changelings everywhere realized the hive mind’s great limitations, and the modern way of changeling life we’re more familiar with now arose from it, originally as several separate hives, then altogether as one great hive when Queen Chrysalis’s great-grandmother drew them all under her sole leadership. No changeling has ever wanted to go back to the hive mind since the last one collapsed, and it is strictly illegal for the rare few that do to even try to recreate it. Under Queen Chrysalis’s reign, such an act is punishable by death even.”
Spike’s eyebrows went up. “Even Queen Chrysalis is against a hive mind?” he declared in surprise.
Thorax nodded. “The impact of it all left quite a mark on our race, to the point that we are all taught now to use our mental abilities with far more conservation,” he said. His grin turned wistful. “But the collapse of that final hive mind is actually one of my favorite tales from our history. At the time, the hive mind was so engrained into our way of life that it seemed hard to think it could ever be removed. But a few who dared to see beyond it managed to pull it off, and helped pave the way for a better life.” He glanced back at Spike. “It’s sort of like what I hope to do in seeking to befriend ponies. Resume what those revolutionaries of old had started, and continue to try and help point changelings everywhere to a better life.”
Spike shared Thorax’s grin. “It’s an admirable goal to have, Thorax,” he agreed. He gazed out at their room for a moment, reflecting back on the tale he had been told. “Still,” he remarked. “I get why changelings would avoid your telepathy abilities, but it’s sort of a pity it all had to end that way. Hive mind or not, it’d be a waste to not use them for at least something.”
“And we do for a few select things still,” Thorax assured. “Like I said, we have healers that use telepathy to help changelings with mental problems, usually with a good rate of success. I’ve also heard it be used among the hive’s legionaries that defend the hive to quickly convey a thought or idea that can’t be as quickly shared by word of mouth. Other changelings I’ve heard have used their telepathy for simply sharing personal memories with each other.”
“Kinda like what we did this afternoon.”
“And that was a very special circumstance, just to help out a friend,” Thorax reminded cheerfully. “Know that it’s something I wouldn’t have done for just anybody.”
Spike fingered the bowtie still about his neck. “Then…why do it at all?” he asked. “I mean…it is just a bowtie. If worse came to worse and I never found it again…it wouldn’t really be the end of the world.”
“Because the bowtie is more than just a bowtie to you, Spike,” Thorax explained. “It’s a reminder of something you hold very special to you. And to have lost that would have forever left a sad mark on you…” he lowered his gaze slightly, but kept smiling. “…and I didn’t like seeing you upset like that.”
Spike grinned. “You’re a good friend, Thorax,” he said, patting the changeling on the back. “I’m glad that out of all the creatures of Equestria I could’ve been stuck spending banishment with…it was you. You are what makes it all a bit more…bearable.”
Thorax’s grin grew, taking on a hint of pride. “Glad to be of service, Spike.”
Any further conversation was cut off when they heard Fly Leaf call them down for dinner, causing the two to turn and look in the direction of the shout. Pulling away from Spike, Thorax then rose and with a flash of cyan, restored his disguise as Thornton. “Well,” he said. “We’ll have to talk about this more later.” He headed for the door, Spike moving to follow him. “I imagine you’re hungry by now anyway, Spike.”
“What makes you so sure of that?” Spike asked teasingly. “Sensed my hunger among my other emotions?”
Thorax took it in stride. “No, I could just hear your tummy rumbling.”
Laughing, the two headed on downstairs side by side for dinner, the apprehension of before gone again.
Fanon has long and often portrayed changelings as operating on and/or ruled by a hive mind, and over the years I've seen fans do some pretty neat things with that idea. But canon is increasingly pushing further and further away from the hive mind mentality idea, suggesting nothing of the such exists in canon, and I've always had some misgivings about the idea of my own, some of which I bring up here in the chapter. Above all...I was interested in trying to pick a more original route, something I hadn't seen others do at least nearly as often.
So I went with the best of both worlds approach. 
As a reminder, the next chapter after this will address a few final loose ends this incident has brought up, so we're not done with the subject just yet still.
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bowties are cool.
Huh. Nice explanation over the hive mind. I like this way of doing this, much more different then the usual, 'they're just bugs' sort of thing.
ingrained
Nice chapter, I enjoyed the head cannon.
....... great guys. Way to let Spike down and allow him to leave WHEN HE HAS THE AUTHORITY TO SUMMON DRAGONS AND FUCK EVERYONE OVER.
7985563 Which he gave up to Ember.
Might want to watch the show a bit more.
7985785 And he's friends with Ember so yeah he can still do it even if by proxy. I watch the show.
7985787 Even if he could just summon them on a whim, do you realize how much bad attention that would cause?
7985821 They basically banished him so why should he care? His own family left him behind.
7985824 There's the fact that it would only serve to heighten fears of dragons if a sudden throng starts to trash things. Metaphorically tossing a brick at something isn't the best way to solve things in the slightest.
7985922 And here's an idea. Keep it at The Crystal Empire. Don't go too overboard. Trash things enough that they get the message.
7985466
"Engrained" is an acceptable alternate spelling of "ingrained," especially in the states, so I'm not going to worry too much about correcting it in this instance, but I'll work to keep it in mind while writing future chapters and work to favor the "ingrained" variant more.
Glad you enjoyed the chapter.
I'm a bit surprised that it and the chapter before it haven't stirred more chatter among readers though... 
Oh well, just so long as y'all are still enjoying the story, that's more important to me.
7986556 Which will still cause problems.
And people will be fearing Spike. Not respecting him as a trustworthy friend. There's quite a difference.
7986864 Why should he care? They didn't give a damn about his opinion and clearly see him as a lesser anyways.
Another good chapter.
Changelings don't have a hive mind; they obviously communicate with their fellows through interpretive dance, like honeybees.
I may have joked about it before, but now I am seriously shipping them. SpikeXThorax OTP
7987888
Now I'm envisioning a trio of changelings break dancing.
7984546
Indeed. It seems my question is answered now.
Interesting head-canon by the way.
7988827 And then going "Whoop!" when they bump into each other.
7990401
Well, what can ya say? They really know how to raise the roof.
The Hive-Mind idea had little traction even in the episode first featuring the Changelings. If they had one of those, they wouldn't have been fooled by both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, now would they?
7990472
Ha, ha, a fair point, but it's easy for most to miss the significance of a little thing like that. I admit I had.
That was an interesting bit of Changeling lore.
You have raised a point about a hive mind that I've never considered: how it can lead to stagnation. It's interesting to think about, at least.
"Been there, done that, got the t-shirt" certainly is a novel approach to the whole hive-mind concept. It's really funny to see a changeling be all "yeah, we did that, until we realized it's a really stupid idea, so we stopped" about it. I like that little twist.
Interesting twist on the whole fanon aspect of the Changelings having a hive mind.
Nice scene
.