Beginnings
Standing at their front door, Twilight and Spike looked to it with increasing nervousness and concern. After a while, it was Spike who broke the silence between them. "So...what do you think she's coming over for?"
Twilight shook her head. "I can't say, Spike. There was no explanation in her letter. Only a statement that she was on her way."
Spike again looked to the door. "I just hope we're not in any trouble."
Looking down to him, Twilight's more protective instincts kicked in, and she put on a smile for him before patting him gently on the shoulder. "I know her, Spike. We both do. If there was any trouble, she would have told us."
Spike seemed to accept that explanation, at least for the time being, but their shared nervousness reared its ugly head again when, in that very moment, there was a firm knocking on the door. Both sets of eyes were locked onto it and Twilight, after taking a deep breath, stepped forward to turn the knob. With the door now open, they looked upon the tall and regal figure who stood beyond. Luna, Princess of the Night, who greeted them both with a bow of her head. "Good morning to you both. I apologise for arriving at such short notice."
Recognising that the meeting was a lot more cordial she'd she'd feared, Twilight gave an honest smile to her visitor. "It's no trouble, Princess. A surprise, maybe, but not one I'm unhappy about." She glanced over her shoulder, towards her kitchen. "Would you...care for some tea?"
Luna raised a hoof. "I thank you for your offer, but I already had my breakfast, complete with tea. Celestia insisted I have something before setting off for Ponyville."
Looking back to her, Twilight seemed surprised. "Huh, I don't think I've ever heard of your sister actually making a meal before."
Luna grimaced as she looked to the side. "She...certainly tried to."
Spike stifled a laugh. "Okay, message received and understood, your Highness."
Luna smiled to the young dragon, patting him on the head before entering the Library in earnest. As Twilight closed the door behind her, she again looked to the younger royal sister with slight concern. "So...to what do we owe the pleasure?"
Looking back to her, Luna's expression was more serious than it had been thus far. "I believe you already suspect that it is not you I am here to speak to."
Twilight had indeed guessed that, and so let out a sigh. "Alright, Thorax. It's okay."
Luna turned as a sudden green flame to her side caught her notice. What she'd assumed was a mere chair was now a Changeling drone, though one that bore no sign of aggression towards her. "Princess Luna," Thorax said to her in greeting.
The princess studied him for a moment before speaking back. "Thorax."
The tone had been calm, though somewhat clinical. Thorax, for his part, wasn't much different when he got down to business. "There was something you needed from me?"
A small nod from the blue mare. "Indeed. Ever since the attack on Canterlot by your people, and especially since your subsequent oath of fealty to Twilight, my sister and I have been doing all we can to learn about you and your kind." She gestured to Twilight. "Twilight's letters to us have been most informative, but there are still a number of questions that need answering. And unfortunately, my usual method of intelligence-gathering has so far proved unhelpful in our case."
Spike looked to her with curiosity. "What, do you have spies or something?"
Twilight looked to him with shock over so direct a question, but Luna, by contrast, seemed perfectly fine with the remark, even amused. "There is no need, young Spike. For my ways are to simply look into dreams."
Looking to her in silence for a while, Spike eventually turned around and whispered to himself. "Okay, add that to the list of things that are terrifying about her."
Luna, despite having heard him, seemed pleased with his reaction, though her smile faded as she looked to Thorax once more. "With you, however, I have been unable to glimpse into any such images."
Thorax himself did not answer, as Twilight elected to do so in his stead. "He...that is, his people, don't sleep."
Luna accepted the answer, nodding briefly. "Ah, so no dreams then. Understandable." She gestured to one of the actual chairs nearby, and as she sat upon it Thorax followed suit with another. "Then I will ask the most pressing question directly. From where do your people originate? My sister and I have reigned over Equestria, looking out from its borders, for many centuries. Yet in all that time we never once encountered your kind."
Thorax nodded. "Remaining hidden and unknown was a vital part of my people's ways, Princess. And it was only recently that we began to draw close to your nation's territory." He turned, his gaze falling upon the many books Twilight had on her shelves. "As for our origins, that too is difficult to answer. Mine are not a literate people. We never never kept a record of our history, so the question of where we come from will likely remain an unknown."
Twilight gasped. "You mean...you can't read or write?!"
Thorax looked to his new leader. "Only queens had the mental capacity to do so." Slowly, he looked down to the floor. "Or...at least that is what Chrysalis always told us, since such skills were never required for our duties within the hive."
Twilight, upon hearing that, frowned. "Well, if she were still here you'd better believe I'd give her a piece of my mind about that!"
Luna quietly considered all she'd heard from the drone, then leaned in closer. "So you have no inkling as to where your people might have come from? Anything about your history at all?"
To that, Thorax narrowed his eyes slightly. "Do ponies know their exact origins?"
After a moment of silence, Luna actually smiled. "A fair point."
Being the empathic creature that he was, Thorax could sense the disappointment in the two ponies over his inability to paint a clearer picture of his people's past. And so, after thinking hard on the matter, he eventually spoke up again. "The only thing I can offer is...the Tale of the Tree."
Twilight stepped forward. "What tree?"
"Where we might have begun," Thorax explained. "As I said, we have no written history. But in spite of that there were always...whispers. A story passed through generations of drones over where we may have come from. It is...well, in your tongue the closest word would be myth. So I will warn you now that what I am about to say may be nothing but pure fiction."
Luna looked to him carefully. "Be that as it may, any information would be appreciated."
Thorax, looking to his audience of three, took a moment to get his wording together before finally starting this old tale. "Long ago, how far back I cannot say, there was a kingdom. A land whose name and people have been lost to the ages. A paradise of plenty, where those who lived there never wanted for anything."
Sitting on the floor, Spike took on a concerned look. "And then things turned bad, right?"
Thorax nodded solemnly to him. "Indeed. For the people who dwelt in that kingdom possessed a fatal flaw. Hunger. An insatiable need for more. More food, more wealth, more of everything. And in their search, they neglected one another, growing cold and distant to their friends, their family, their countrymen. Love dwindled, eventually replaced altogether by that unquenchable desire. In the end, their kingdom fell to that flaw, consumed by itself because of this hole in their hearts that could never be filled." He paused for a moment, frowning, though at what they could not tell. "In the end, what was once a green and prosperous land had become lifeless, barren, devoid of all life. But, amidst that wasteland, there stood one thing. A tree. Long dead and withered by the doom that had preceded it. The land itself had become infested with the hunger and lovelessness that had brought its people low, and through that tree, those feelings...manifested."
"...Into Changelings," Twilight finished for him.
Again, Thorax nodded. "A race without love, who would spend all eternity roaming the world to satiate their own ravenousness. Forever serving that accursed hunger."
A silence had fallen over the rest of the room, and even when they knew he'd finished his story, it was hard for them to take in all that they had learned. However, after a while, it fell to Spike to just come out and say what was on their mind. "Okay, there's gloomy origin stories, and then there's that!"
"Indeed," Luna concurred. "A cautionary tale if ever there was one."
Twilight, if only for a moment, was at a loss for words. "I...I...I can't even imagine what life must have been like if that was where I thought I'd come from."
"If it makes you feel any better, my Queen, we Changelings do not feel such things," Thorax remarked in a clear attempt to reassure her.
Twilight smiled to him, though only a little, and before long Luna looked to him with renewed interest. "Tell me...what can you say of the rulers of your people? The queens?"
"I have never met any besides my own," Thorax replied.
"I assume you must have at least some knowledge of where they come from within your race?" Luna pressed.
"Only the basics," Thorax admitted. "They are born just as we drones are. The only difference is that the likelihood of such a birth is far less likely. I'd say, even at the highest odds, the chance of a queen bringing forth another female is one in ten thousand."
Instantly, Twilight took on a grim look to her. "Thorax...you told me before that your hive numbered roughly ten thousand, right?"
Thorax nodded. "I did, and I know what it is you wish to ask of me. Unfortunately, I cannot answer. For while the possibility does indeed exist that Chrysalis had a daughter, it would have been in a clutch prior to mine, as no other queens were present in the hive by the time of our invasion of Canterlot. Queens are expected to leave their birth-hives prior to reaching full maturity." He paused for a second. "Though since my older step-brothers never mentioned anything on the subject, it would be pure guesswork on my part to say if I have a sister out there somewhere."
Luna looked to him darkly. The prospect of some sort of heir of Chrysalis was an unnerving one. Though she knew it did little good to worry about things that were, at least for now, hypotheticals. Instead, she sighed, putting on a smile. "Thank you, Thorax. This has been a most informative meeting."
Thorax gave a slight bow of his head. "You are welcome, Princess." Then, his eyes turned to Twilight. "Highness, may I return to my shapeshifting practise?"
Twilight nodded to him. "Of course."
The two mares watched him get up. But, as soon as he'd done so, he buckled, grabbing onto the nearby table to keep himself from falling completely. Spike had rushed to his side as soon as it happened, but he raised a hoof, declining the silent help. "I am fine. I was just...a bit wobbly in the knees."
With understandable concern, Twilight and Luna watched as Thorax moved himself, with added care, to the other side of the room, where he then changed himself once more into a chair. Luna, looking to Twilight, leaned over and kept her voice as low and quiet as she could. "Twilight...how long has it been since he fed upon love?"
Twilight looked to her, speaking in as reassuring a tone as possible. "As far as I know, it was before the Canterlot attack." Then, she hastily spoke again. "Don't worry, he said he won't do so again unless I command him."
Luna's eyes narrowed slightly. "Will you command him? Ever?" Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only for the weight of that notion to truly sink in, after which she found she could no longer look Luna in the eye, a gesture that served to be all the answer the princess needed. "In that case, young Twilight, your command...is that he will starve."
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Of course, this assumes that any heir of Chrysalis's is automatically destined to follow in precisely her same hoofsteps and rule in the same cruel manner she had. But since Thorax and the other drones were capable of turning against Chrysalis, I can only assume any theoretical heir of hers had the same capability, and probably even more ability to carry it out than the drones had. Thus suggesting that any potential heir is NOT guaranteed to be Chrysalis 2.0.
But first you'd have to confirm whether or not such an heir even exists somewhere out there.
Fairly voluntarily at that, too, since it's already been demonstrated, as noted earlier, that just because he's been ordered to do something doesn't necessarily mean he'll follow it to the letter if he thinks there's need to refuse, so there is also the angle that he's following the command because he doesn't see need to refuse it.
I don't know what that exactly says about Thorax other than perhaps prove his loyalty to an excessive degree, but there it is anyway.
Another good chapter, but that last line... WOW
It’s interesting to read a story that was written before the lore from future seasons comes into the fold. I am curious and excited to see what comes next.
All right time to learn about how a Changeling feeds and if there's a way to do so without harming anyone... and you better do it soon Twilight or else I will be a very disappointed.
It's a Catch-22 for Twilight. She doesn't want anypony hurt, but she also doesn't want Thorax to starve. Makes me wonder if she'll sacrifice herself for his sake.
Am I the only one who read the origin story Thorax offered and immediately started drawing parallels with the Hollows of Bleach?
Twiggles, how did you not think about that?
I'm sure you will Twilight
Ohhhh that is a very interesting information about the changelings origin but they still haven't figured out like where they come from still and also very interesting that Luna very patient with him but thorax has been kind of feeling weak lately and what Twilight said he having ate since the attack of Canterlot and Luna wasn't too please what's going on with Twilight I just hope Twilight do the right thing well I guess we'll find out next time
Ohh yikes Twilight I hope you realize that he needs this
I'm surprised Luna isn't more shocked to see a being who cannot dream since her dream powers afford her incredible omniscience.
That gave me chills.
say what?
but he was reading at the start of Captor and Captive
uff.... Twilight uff
At that point Twilight ran of, searched Equestria and beyond for the hidden changeling hives and teaches everyling of the the magic of books.
The End.
Maybe a daughter of Chrysalis would try to finish what she started.
But just as likely she would try to correct her mothers mistakes.
We can't tell at this point.
I have a bad feeling about where this line of thought is going...
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
11493774
Did he?
For all we know he was merely holding the book and pretended to read to please his queen, as he might put it.
I mean that sounds like something Chrysalis would have expected her underlings to do.
11497503
He would appear to have been reading. He commented on what the book was about, although he only really said the title. In addition, two chapters ago he very specifically had this thing about never allowing the queen to be deceived, and he hasn't been afraid to tell Twilight bluntly that he can't do something in other cases.
Double words.