Pharynx wondered, sometimes, just how viable it'd be to stuff his brother in a box and ship him off to live with the Equestrians.

"Okay, I'm heading out now, Pharynx. I'm not really sure how long I'll be gone, but I'll definitely be back by sunset. Well, I mean, unless I'm held up. It really depends how long things take, honestly, because Spike's game could take a while depending on the rolls."

Surely it couldn't be that hard. Sure, those huge antlers would make positioning a nightmare, and Thorax would probably complain about leg cramps the whole time, but with a big enough box, a few breathing holes and a bunch of those little foam peanuts he'd heard about, they'd be in business. With any luck the ponies would adopt Thorax as one of their own right away, and Pharynx wouldn't even have to deal with return shipping labels.

"Um, would it be be okay if I ended up staying the night there? I wouldn't want to leave you with too much on your hooves, but Twilight made it sound like Spike is really eager to hang out, again, and I haven't seen him in a while, either. I thought it might be easiest to stay there 'till morning."

Pharynx furrowed his brow and adjusted his laying hooves. Would he have to pay extra for a 'live animal' sticker? Maybe Thorax could shapeshift into a rock, or a sentimental gift from someone's grandmare. Definitely enough to fool the average post office pony, and twice as cheap.

The beta changeling cracked a smile, relishing the thought.

"Spike's game aside, the discussions could end up taking a while, too. I don't know how they'll turn out, so, better safe than sorry, you know?"

Thorax's voice trailed off to some corner of the room, and the space fell quiet.

Though wrapped up in his own thoughts, Pharynx couldn't help but notice the sudden absence of white noise flowing from his brother's mouth. Casting a curious glance, he found Thorax staring off into space, his attention on the azure sky perfectly framed by the open ceiling. The changeling king lightly bobbed to and fro, autonomously rubbing his foreleg whilst his ears twitched, as if disturbed by some high frequency sound.

The longer Pharynx watched the thinner his mouth grew.

"Thorax, calm down and stop fidgeting," he said sternly. He waited, until, like a spooked deer Thorax returned his gaze, frozen in place. "Don't tell me you're still worrying about Princess Twilight's offhanded letter. I spent fifteen minutes trying to piece you back together from your little episode, this morning."

Thorax's ears sprouted. He drifted from his older brother's eyes with a meek little smile.

Laboring a sigh, Pharynx rolled those eyes and his head in a synced arc. "Peachy, another pep talk gone to waste. For Hive's sake, Thorax, I've never known another changeling who frets so much about nothing. I'm starting to think you might be a pony we adopted and painted green."

Retorting with a sigh of his own, Thorax spread his wings from his carapace in one swift motion. Taking to the air, he ascended to the open ceiling and bathed himself in the afternoon light. He paused a moment, allowing the warmth and light to numb his senses, numb his thoughts from his brother's typical attitude. When next he broke the surface, he turned to his brother with a hopeful smile.

"Your pep talks don't go to waste, Pharynx," he said softly. "You know how much it means to me that you try and cheer me up. The fact that you care enough to try at all makes a difference. This is just something I'm gonna need to work out with Twilight, myself, before I start to feel any better."

Once more detaching himself from his brother's ramblings, Pharynx shifted his position, curling his ruby tail about himself. His sour mood was a blight to Thorax's taste buds, but it didn't stop the young monarch from raising a mischievous brow.

"Of course, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be up for a comforting hug when I get back, should things not turn out so well."

Pharynx's head rose to attention like an alert cat. With a piercing glare he feigned a jolting motion, as if to charge at the younger changeling. Thorax jumped in response, and fell into a benign fit of laughter.

"Alright, alright, I'm going!", Thorax chuckled, his blurred wings carrying him once more towards the clouds. "I'll talk to the guards and get the teams set up for you before I go, okay? Maybe you can make up some of the sleep you missed, this afternoon. Send word if you need anything, Pharynx!"

The beta changeling watched his brother's form like a hawk, until Thorax's shimmering tail vanished beyond the hive's rocky outcropping.

If he was lucky, the alicorn princess would be gracious enough to play host to his brother for the better part of the day.

Pharynx snorted. Of course, he knew better than to actually get his hopes up. He'd have to take advantage of every minute. Before he knew it, Thorax would be back, and once again he'd have to contend with his little brother's unyielding barrage of sappiness and insecurities. Proper rest was non-negotiable.

The encroaching shroud of silence radiating from the empty chamber drew a pleasurable groan from the beta changeling. Stretching his hooves out with a satisfying pop, he embraced the afternoon with a rekindled sense of peace. A rare moment indeed it was for him to relax, so often intertwined with his guard's relentless patrol and grounds upkeep shifts. But after losing sleep at the hooves of his sibling, he was determined to make the most of it.

The warm rays of sun heated his shell, but politely left his head alone. He drank in the cool summer air and closed his eyes, allowing himself to merely exist. He couldn't sleep here, lest he break his own rules, but he could spare a moment to rest. He'd simply relocate once the motivation presented itself.

But just then the general's ear twitched. A curious sound teased him from the long, twisting hallways leading from the room, and from inside this veil of silence it was absolutely deafening.

A growl rumbled from deep within his chest. The echoing sounds were growing louder.

"'Pharynx, there you are'," Pharynx muttered under his breath, turning his dark eyes to the still empty corridor. "'Thorax just gave us orders in your stead, but he's a huge dork and doesn't know how our routes work. Can you come downhive and give us your real orders?'"

Pharynx shifted his body to follow suit with his head. He watched in anticipation, waiting for the turn of the hallway to reveal a scheme of colors, reveal which of his guard unit had sought him out.

But nothing came, and soon enough the sound of frantic hoofsteps ceased entirely. Pharynx furrowed his brow.

"...who's there?"

The very silence he had taken comfort in now caused him unrest, and so Pharynx got to his hooves. Surveying the room, he found nothing, but there was no mistaking the sour taste of anticipation on his tongue.

"Trying to ambush changelings requires total suppression of your emotions," Pharynx projected to the room, the shadow of a smirk playing around his mouth. Perhaps some of his recruits had taken to playing a trick on him. It wouldn't be the first time. Ever since his metamorphosis, the drones had been building up the courage to play around more often, having lost their fear of him. "I thought I taught you all that during the first week of training. Maybe somebody needs a refresher of the basics."

The chamber's continued silence only served to convince him more. Someone was here, and now it was only a matter of time before he found out who.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Pharynx taunted, lowering his head to the ground and stalking the edges of the room like a tiger. "You may as well give it up, there's no way you're going to get the better of-"

"Boo, Uncle Pharynx!"

His fortress of confidence crumbled in an instant, and Pharynx leapt at the abrasive sound. Wheeling around mid-air, he cast out his wings and held himself aloft, his de-fanged teeth bared on instinct. But what awaited him on the hive floor was far worse than any potential adversary, devious guard changeling, or even his sentimental brother.

It was a nymph, and its extravagant grin made his stomach churn.

"Whoa, that was really cool!", the nymph exclaimed, raising his butt in the air and wagging his gossamer tail in an effort to mimic the elder changeling's menacing posture. "I did get you though, didn't I, Uncle Pharynx! You never saw me coming, did you!?"

His hooves lightly touched rock again, and Pharynx tucked his wings beneath his shell. Cold eyes scanned the tiny bug pony up and down, noting the red highlights that nearly matched his own, and widened abruptly when the nymph began to weave and dart through his legs. The sudden play was accompanied by a series of lively giggles.

There was no mistaking that hyperactivity. A voice in the back of Pharynx's mind began to scream.

"...you're the nymph Thorax is always fussing over - 'Apex', right?", he asked, noticing the drone come to a full stop upon his brother's mentioned name. "What do you think you're doing, running around the hive unsupervised? You should be on the lower levels, if not in the nursery hive, itself."

The nymph's enthusiasm deflated. He challenged a staring contest with the imposing co-monarch, puffing his cheeks defiantly.

"No, I'm a big changeling, now," Apex declared, stomping his tiny hoof. "I can go where I want in the hive as long as there's someling else around. Papa Thorax said so."

Pharynx's investment in the situation was draining away at an alarming rate. With a lazy flick of his eyes the beta changeling returned to the comfortable position he once held, ignoring the nymph in his body language. Though he could see his peaceful afternoon burning away, that didn't mean he had to give it up quietly.

"Oh, is that what he said?"

"Mhmm," Apex hummed cheerily, trotting along and inserting himself before the elder changeling's face. "I told Tarsus where I was going, and he said to make sure I stayed put with you once I found you. Now that I'm here I just have to stay with you!"

"How lucky for me," Pharynx murmured, sliding his chin along the ground and away from the small bug pony. Clearly, Tarsus was due for a reprimand. "And what did I do to deserve this? Surely there are other nymphs, other changelings to entertain you in more lively parts of the hive."

"Papa Thorax had promised to play with me today, but he said he had polo ticks to deal with," Apex began, crouching down and gripping one of Pharynx's resting forelegs. "So I was playing truth or dare with my friend Tergite, and I picked dare. He dared me to come find you and see if I could get you to play with me, instead! Everyling else laughed at his idea but I knew I could do it! After all, Papa Thorax got you to play with us before! Everyling loved it when you turned into those really big lizards, remember?"

Ah yes, there it went, up in flames. Pharynx mourned it as it drifted into the wind, his afternoon off. His brother's face entered his head, and Pharynx's lip curled. Even by leaving, the changeling had managed to set off further detriments, for now he wasn't around to shepherd his flock.

"Well aren't you a bold one," Pharynx replied at last, dragging his hoof away only for Apex to seize it again like a prompted cat. "I take it you're the ringleader of the nursery hive, then."

"Papa Thorax says I'm his rambunkshious bedbug," Apex proclaimed with pride, puffing out his carapace, lifting his hoof and raising his snout to the ceiling. "I have no idea what that means, but he only says it to me so it must be special."

"Well that settles it then," Pharynx replied curtly, sarcasm saturating his tone. "If my brother says it then it must be true."

Promptly flopping over to his other side, Pharynx exhaled and sent a thin veil of dust flowing along the hive floor. When the nymph's face failed to reenter his view, he relished a moment of relief, but a prickly, tickling feeling of tiny hooves climbing up his side caused him to squirm. He shot an agitated eye down his body, where a small face watched him curiously from over the curve of his abdomen.

"I think 'gnat' would have been far more fitting," Pharynx mumbled, too low for the excitable nymph to hear.

"Uncle Pharynx?"

"Yeah, what?"

Apex began to speak, but gasped upon losing his grip of the elder changeling's carapace. After a brief display of frantic flailing, he re-anchored himself, but not before Pharynx gave another jolt in discomfort.

"You've got feathers for legs, nymph, sit still or get off," he growled, holding the small bug pony hostage with a cool stare. "My brother is right about one thing, you are rambunctious. Thorax might enjoy being tickled and turned into a jungle gym but I do not."

Apex's eyes grew large. His head sharply sunk over the horizon of Pharynx's side, his front hooves framing his snout.

"...I'm sorry," came a weak voice.

Another sigh, and Pharynx's head hit stone. Stellar, making himself the bad guy would surely solve his plight. He could already hear the grating sound of his brother's voice, scolding him for scaring nymphs.

Well the joke would be on him. There would only be one bad guy, today.

Pharynx's antlers ignited in a crimson display, and Apex was gently lifted into the air. While the super sized gnat was up and out of the way, Pharynx readjusted himself, laying back down again on his front. Once curled to his liking, he dissipated his aura, and plopped the young drone atop his shell.

"You can be a pain all you want, up there," the beta changeling challenged, offering a calmer tone. "Can't be poked and prodded through my wing case."

His ears flicking to the change in Pharynx's demeanor, Apex regained his former zest. It was clear the bigger changeling didn't want to play, but then, spending time together wasn't exactly playing. Venturing along the ridge of Pharynx's crimson shell, Apex came to rest just below his neck, laying down as a miniature sphinx.

"Your shell is cold, Uncle Pharynx."

"Like my heart," Pharynx quipped dryly. "What's your point?"

Apex gently knocked his hoof against the extra firm chitin. "It's not very comfy."

"How astute of you. It's to keep our fragile wings safe, not make us feel warm and fuzzy."

"Papa Thorax always lets me curl up next to him, instead," Apex explained, his face lighting up at the mere mention of the absent changeling. "Sometimes he lets me lay on his belly, too. It's really warm, there. He gets ticklish but I think he likes that his laughs make me laugh."

Pharynx's eyes took a lap in his sockets.

"You and the other nymphs really do have my brother wrapped around your hooves, don't you," he droned, laying his chin in the indent of his crossed legs. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but I don't do cute. You wanted a perch, I gave you one, take it or leave it. As soon as Thorax gets back I'm sure you'll be able to drop him with a look and stake your claim with him again, anyway."

In a relative moment of silence, Pharynx closed his eyes. The subtle scent of earth and flowers filled his nostrils as it floated in through the open ceiling. The afternoon sun had reached its peak, and it bathed him in heat from hoof to tail in his newfound position. Even the subtle weight of Apex laying atop his back became an expected comfort, as it highlighed the rise and fall of his own breaths.

By the time the nymph's voice reached out to him again, Pharynx found himself awakening from a groggy state of half sleep.

"Uncle Pharynx, how come you're not a cuddlebug but Papa Thorax is?"

The co-monarch opened his violet eyes and surveyed the room. Assortments of clouds had begun to lazily float overhead, casting random pockets of shade along the hive floor. He adjusted his chin and sealed his vision again, giving a snort.

"Thorax may be my brother but that doesn't mean we share a lot in common," Pharynx stated flatly. "Thorax has always been touchy feely and socially inclined, whereas I keep to myself and prioritize hive safety and strength. I've never been interested in broadcasting my feelings."

"But I've seen you give Papa Thorax hugs sometimes," Apex pointed out, careening himself out and over the edge of Pharynx's carapace in an effort to draw his gaze. "He's always so happy when you do, I've seen it. And when he visits the nursery to play with us he talks about you a lot."

Pharynx's chilled heart rose a few degrees. He scrunched his face to smother a reflexive smile.

"Well he is my brother, it's not like I don't care about him," Pharynx elaborated, his sentence falling to a murmur by the tail end. "I put up with his need for physical attachment more than I ever used to, but that doesn't mean I'm about to start skipping through fields of flowers, attending his silly activities or being known as a 'cuddlebug'."

The point was emphasized with a disgusted flare, but Apex wore an unseen grin all the same.

"Papa Thorax always seems happiest when he's playing with us in the nursery," Apex shifted, cautiously maneuvering himself up to the elder changeling's head. When no hooves reached out for him, he laid down between the curved antlers, his snout pressing into the base of the general's horn. "He even tells the nursery adults to take a break, if they want. We play all sorts of games, and then after everyling is tired we take a nap together. He loves that part, too."

Pharynx glanced up to his bestowed hat.

"You realize he's tiring you out on purpose, right?", he asked rhetorically, raising his head and readjusting his hooves. "By playing with you all 'till exhaustion, Thorax makes the nursery drone's job easier, since they're supposed to ensure you all get enough sleep. Of course, he's doing it for his own enjoyment, too."

A flash of faded scenes played in his mind, and Pharynx observed the ground with a detached stare. Each one featured himself, standing over a weak, scared drone with watery blue eyes. Scenes of bullying succeeded each other, sometimes from others, other times from himself. Scenes of attempted interaction, brushed off by his own lack of empathy. Scenes of a nymph crying alone, clutching his makeshift collection of dolls.

"Thorax had no friends when he was a nymph," Pharynx muttered solemnly. "Not even I gave him the time of day, unless I was trying to toughen him up or protect him from bullies out of obligation. On some level he's probably enjoying the nymphhood he never got to have, when he plays with all of you every day."

A bittersweet aftertaste. Pharynx felt the shape atop his head slump over.

"...aww, poor Papa Thorax. I hope he isn't gone too long, today, I need to give him the biggest hug, now."

The familiar silence soon crept in from all sides, but Pharynx did not welcome it. Neither the danger of falling asleep here, nor the prospect of suffering this conversation any further appealed to him. Standing up abruptly, a gasp tickled his ear, and he promptly made his way from the chamber, bug pony hat intact.

"Where are you going, Uncle Pharynx?"

"Before I was gifted with your presence, I was trying to take a nap," the elder dismissed, rounding a bend and descending through a morphing corridor. "While Thorax is gone today that is exactly what I plan to do. If you insist on tagging along then I must insist that you don't disturb me, or I will dump you off with the first adult drones I can find."

Apex lightly bounced around between the trio of antlers and horn, shaken by the rhythmic trotting motions. "But you almost fell asleep back in that other place, Uncle Pharynx, how come you got up?"

"Sleeping in open spaces isn't safe," the co-monarch replied firmly. "The Hive has rules in place for never falling asleep outside secure, closed off locations. All the adults are aware of this."

"How come I didn't know about that rule?"

"Because your age bracket is never allowed to sleep anywhere outside supervision, much less in open areas. The rule is redundant for you."

"You're a hive leader like Papa Thorax though, so why do you have to follow that rule?"

Pharynx's lavender eyes darted upwards. "You ask a lot of questions for a gnat. If a general can't follow his own rules, how can he expect his charge to?"

Together they traversed the many twisting passages acting as veins of the hive. Before long they were joined by others, changelings who passed by them in the hall, or filled the occasional sprawling chamber when it unfolded before them. More than once Apex nearly fell from his esteemed perch, waving desperately at nymphs he recognized from across a room.

But the denser the hive's populace grew, the more Pharynx felt the pressing stares of colorful, compound eyes on his carapace. A sickly sweet taste had begun to roll across his senses as changelings polluted the air with coos of adoration and hushed chatter, and he loathed every second of it.

"How did Apex ever manage that one?"

"Pharynx is really changing, isn't he?"

"Do you think Thorax's disposition is starting to rub off on him?"

Making no attempts to hide his disgust, Pharynx spat on the ground upon breaking through the edge of the crowd. When a handful of drones grimaced in response, he smirked.

"I preferred love magic when I had to go out and earn it," Pharynx remarked. "Now it just hits me like a pitched rock."

Apex giggled from atop his throne of red antlers, and Pharynx cast a deceptively crude smile, a spark coming to his once cold eyes.

"Oh, this is wonderful!"

"Said Pharynx, upon his brother finally shutting up."

"Did you, though? I mean did you really?"

"Did I what? End up spending the afternoon with a typhoon on legs because someone wasn't around to distract him? What do you think, Thorax?"

Thorax pancaked his own cheeks between his hooves, his violet eyes glinting like stars. Sat back on his flank, the royal changeling bit his lip in a display of elation, a bubbling heat filling his body. Despite the gruff, utterly fed up look consuming his brother's face, Thorax's pride knew no bounds.

"I can't believe you two spent time together while I was gone! Did you have fun?"

"No."

"Did Apex have fun?"

"Judging by how much he squirreled around, and how bad my headache was."

Thorax chuckled, doing so more upon his brother's irate look. "Did you guys do anything in-particular?"

"We played some games."

Thorax gasped. His hooves shot to his mouth. "You did?", he squeaked.

"Sure did," Pharynx monotoned. "We played, 'let's not take a nap', 'twenty questions in twenty seconds', and 'let's discuss Thorax'."

The ray of pride gave way to a tinted blush. Thorax flopped his ears. "Aww, you guys were talking about me?"

"Mostly him," Pharynx replied, darting a smirk. "I just chipped in when I was able to make fun of you."

Stretching his ligaments, Pharynx stood with an arch of his back, containing a chortle upon spotting his brother's unamused brow. "Look, this has been cute, but I have things to do, Thorax. Against all odds I got to take my nap, today, and now I have squads that need a firm hoof reorganizing them for tonight. If you need me, you know where I'll be."

He walked from the chamber with a hurried pace, but it wasn't quite quick enough. The pressing gaze he felt across his carapace became a hopeful voice, echoing around the now empty room.

"Did Apex take a nap with you? Pharynx, did...did you actually have a cluster nap with someling else?"

Silence filled the chamber, and Thorax felt his heart, his anticipation beat against his chest. Standing in the light of the doorway, his brother had become a still silhouette. When the curved antlers turned at last, only violet eyes stood out.

"He's a gnat, Thorax," the co-monarch replied simply. "He does what gnats do best - stick to you like glue, wherever you go."

Pharynx left the chamber, and Thorax filled it with a chirp of unbridled glee.

Author's Notes:

People have asked for this for quite some time. I do hope it was enjoyable.