This entire Chapter focuses on what happens to Thorax after the Battle of Champagne solely. The next few Chapters of this Arc will be the same for each major character in the story

Thorax went in and out of continuousness. He remembered when he first hatched out of the brood. Awakened to a new world as a parasite to bring fear and pain to the Pony's. A species with enough love to sustain the hive for thousands of years. Ever Pony could feed 100 Changelings. That was just a regular pony. Celestia and Luna could supposedly sustain the hive for 1 thousand years alone if captured and cocooned.

Yet their attempts to conquer and cocooned the Pony's always failed. Celestia was a god like being as well as her sister. They were stopped at every turn by them. The Ponies were a species that could never truly fight back on their own if it wasn't for their god. They weren't designed for war. Thorax once looked up to the Pony's. They represented a better future. One where the Changelings could coexist peacefully and follow the value of friendship. That is until the 9th failed attempt to take Canterlot. It started with the Queen impersonating one of the princesses at a wedding, yet it soon spiraled out of control. They nearly won until once again the Ponys utilized the power of "Love and Friendship to defeat them." Well 2 actually. Without Celestia it became clear at that moment that they would have collapsed completely hadn't a certain purple unicorn rescued the original princess of love, and the rest is history.

They were once again sent back flying. Quiet literally in this case. Thorax was at this point convinced to defect to the Pony's even though the chances of them accepting him in were impossible. However, the tides of history changed that winter. Using all her strength the Queen opened a gateway to another dimension. One where they could find a new species to feed off. Where they could solve all their problems.

Going back, they were unprepared. The Creatures of Equestria never really managed to stand up to the Changelings on their own without the help of some divine or powerful being. The invasion force went in with this thought. They underestimated the fighting potential of the common soldier of the dimension they were invading. For the first time in history his species was halted and fought off by common soldiers.

Well thorax would only discover the last part much later. Right now, he was still stuck in the body of a Bipedal and was laying half dead and like an idiot in a military hospital.

Wake up

Thorax opened his eyes. A Biped nurse with long hair curled up into a bun and with blood splattered on her face and bloodshot eyes looked down at him. "Merci. Il est vivant." The nurse said to one of the other nurses behind her in the Bipeds strange lanaguage. The nurse next to the nurse that had spoken had blond hair that was also tied to a bun. They were wearing a sort of hat with a red cross symbol on it.

"Il semble qu'il souffrait simplement de déshydratation et d'épuisement. C'était à peu près tout." The blond Biped nurse said back to her coworker before gesturing her to follow. The Biped nurse laid her eyes on Thorax one more time before departing. Other than being able to tell the Bipeds were nurses because of their uniforms which semi resembled those of Pony's, he was able to identify their gender. At least he thought he did by... The more expressive sexual features the Biped females seemed to have. Thorax scolded himself for thinking so lewdly.

However, as his thoughts drifted off, he was able to grasp the full situation and area around him. He was in a large, very large and rough medical facility. The roof was several tens of feet above him. It was supported by several large wooden pillars that were laid about in rows of five across the entire facility as he looked around. The worst sight was that of the patients. He could now see on full display the destructiveness of his kinds magic on the Bipeds instead of for short chaotic bursts like during fighting.

The Biped to his left had his legs and one of his arms missing. He awoke every so often as he mumbled to himself before fading off into continuousness. In the bed ahead of him a man was screaming in agony as 3 of the nurses held him down while a man who was a surgeon of sorts was cutting off one of his legs with a large saw.

The surgeon was screaming at the nurses in the Biped language "L'un de vous reçoit du chloroforme, nous devons l'assommer, il se bat beaucoup!" The surgeon yelled. Whatever that meant. Thorax couldn't make heads or tails of what the biped language meant. As curious as he was learning about it wasn't the time.

The man to his right was begging in his own language saying "de l'eau, de l'eau s'il te plaît." His face had been absolutely mutilated by his kind's acid blast. Most of it was covered in bandages while the part that stuck out had horrific burn marks. Another man just behind thorax was crying tears of blood as the fabric placed on his eyes was soaked in blood.

As Thorax gagged and tried to grasp what he was truly seeing, a familiar face greeted him. "Hey buddy, how are you doing." A dark-skinned Biped spoke to him in perfect Equish. He remembered the Biped perfectly. He was one of the ones that ran up to him when he wandered into that ruined town half dead.

"Can you stand." The dark-skinned Biped asked in a concerned voice.

"Yes." Thorax said softly and timidly.

"Good to hear. Us Americans got to stick together man. Names Edward Bulliard by the way." The Man said giving him a grin as he extended his hand over to Thorax. Thorax using his new Biped appendages shook the man's hand giving him a weak smile in return.

"Command wants you to show them the scene of where your unit was ambushed and wants your report. You know the whole how many died, were wounded, or were cocooned." The Biped, who now identified as Edward Bulliard said nonchalantly.

Thorax was amazed at how relaxed this Biped was when surrounded by all the cries and suffering of his own kind in the room. Thorax slowly nodded his head as he got up. He wasn't wearing the Biped blue uniform or helmet he realized. He was wearing some sort of white shirt and pants.

"My uniform?" Thorax asked quietly.

"Oh here. You're getting a new one because yours was caked in mud, blood, and ticks. The French care about having style. They can't have wounded soldiers going back into their old muddy uniforms can't they." Edward joked as he grinned. So that's what the Bipeds who didn't speak Equish were called. French. Interesting. Thorax took notes of this. He needed to find a library when he could. One with hopefully books in Equish or English as the Bipeds called it. The Bipeds who spoke Equish were called Americans. Thorax decided to stick with it as his alibi. He doubted they'd believe him if he told them he was actually the same changelings they'd been fighting.

"So never got your name sport. What is it." Edward asked as he guided Thorax to the dressing room and passed the suffering wounded Bipeds.

"My name is Thorax" Thorax said instinctually. I'm an idiot he said internally. Did the Bipeds even have names like Changeling names. He might have exposed himself.

"Weird name."

That was all Edward said. While Thorax as he entered the dressing room hurriedly saw Edward slightly laughing at Thorax name.

Thorax quickly got into his new uniform. Well as quickly as he could. He was still trying to get fully used to his new Biped limbs.

Thorax after a painstaking 7 or so minutes got his full uniform on before exiting.

"Oh, by the way Thorax I forgot to tell you we won. We kicked those fucking hell spawn back to they came from. Vive la France and God bless America!" Edward said the minute Thorax got out of the dressing room. His grin had gotten larger while Thorax tried to process what he just heard.

Thoraxs POV/ Boucanville/ Town hall/ 2 days later

"And this is where it all happened." Thorax said as he gestured at the rotting, partially melted, and mutilated bodies of the Bipeds he'd made a stand within the town hall of a town he'd learned name was Boucanville.

"They got the guys on the top floor first. Well, most of them before blasting a hole in the wall. Well, multiple as you can see." Thorax continued. The battle replayed in his head over and over again. This was where he'd fully taken a step of no return. He'd killed his own siblings in a fit of rage with without thinking. He would never forgive himself for this but what was there to do now. He'd come a long way from the scared Changeling boy from the brood. He'd been hardened slightly. He felt it in his blood.

"The captain was killed here. Then one of my Friends was killed here. I couldn't find the body of my other friend. We will probably find it among the other bodies. He had a golden beard and an eyepatch." Thorax showed the bodies to Edward and the other Americans in what he had learned a day ago were part of the French Foreign legion. The only Biped that wasn't an American was an old man. Most Generals in the Changeling and Pony armies a matter of fact where in their prime. The Biped Generals much to Thorax Shock though he hid it followed the opposite structure. Most were old men and young Generals was a bygone tradition. The Biped General had a dark black beard, a mustache of the same color, wore a red cap with a blue streak across it imbedded with a golden patter of sorts, had one arm, on his one arm he had what he learned was a watch that to his surprise wasn't powered like magic like the Pony ones, and finally a dark blue uniform and red pants.

"I wish I could have done more you know. I was so scared at the time I just killed a few of them before running off as the building was overrun. Looking back now I wish I had stayed longer. Maybe I would have been able to rescue or drag some of the wounded out of the building. Maybe I could have escaped together with other sol-" As Thorax lamented out loud in a semi depressing rant the One-armed General cut him off and spoke in a heavily accented Equish.

"No. Don't talk like that young man. If the report, I received was correct and by your own account you were just a new recruit. I would have done the same in your position. You were in an untenantable position fighting creatures from God knows where. You saw a chance to escape, and you took it. Had it not been for you surviving we would have never gotten the full account of how these men died and their heroic stand. France needs heroes yes... But it also needed survivors such as yourself to tell such tales of heroism."

The General spoke in a calming manner as he gently placed his one arm on Thorax's shoulder, calming him. Thorax was on the verge of tears by this point and the General gave him a sympathetic look.

"General Gourad is right. You probably wouldn't have made it out of there at all had you nit escaped when you had the chance. You also took some of them down with you during that escaped so it counts for something." Edward chirped up.

Their little words of comfort did little to help Thorax. He had watched Bipeds die, he had killed at least 2 when he was still a Changeling, and he had murdered his siblings in cold blood. Life wasn't Bucking fair.

"Give him some space." Gourad said silently as the other Americans nodded.

3 Days later

"Due to the 4th Africanus and the 42nd Infantry battalion going above the line of duty and heroically making their stand at Boucanville they gave the soldiers in Cernay and Ripoint the time they needed to finish setting up the proper defenses, trenches, and fortifications for their section of the 3rd line. These heroic actions have earned every single one of them, the Posthumous Croix De Guerre as well as the one survivor of the battle Thorax Scotch. May Thorax Scotch walked forward." General Petain said calmly.

Thorax Nervously walked up the steps and onto the podium were General Petain who had gray hair and a blond mustache as well as a light blue uniform and cap pulled out the Metal Thorax learned name was Croix De Guerre. This was supposedly the highest metal of Merit a soldier could receive in the Biped army. Thorax was beyond nervous as he tried to contain himself from skittering. The Elderly General gave him a kind smile and placed the Metal on him. The Medal showed a cross which at its center was the face of a Biped woman with a Helmet that resembled that of a soldier of the Pony royal guard might wear. It also had two swords that crossed with the cross. Beside Thorax were the Coffins of 76 of the 88 soldiers who had fought beside Thorax. The rest of the bodies had not been found so they were each given a plaque with their names inscribed on them.

"You may now step down." Petain said gently as Thorax snapped back to attention before giving a salute before walking off the stage.

After that 1 metal was placed on each of the coffins and plaques. Followed by those 15 soldiers wearing a dark blue coat, red trousers, and blue cap walked forward and stood behind the coffins and facing the crowd. An officer walked beside them before yelling in their language.

"Préparez-vous!"

They loaded the small projectiles the Bipeds used in their projectile shooters which Thorax learned were called rifles.

"Présent!"

The soldiers raised their rifles aiming at the sky.

"Feu!"

Several loud bangs echoed throughout the town where the ceremony was taking place. The soldiers then waited for another set of Coffins to be moved in, soldiers of other units who had fought with valor to be given their metals before the process was once again repeated.

Now you may wonder where Thorax's last name came from. Well, he had been in the barracks with the foreign legion he was now a part of and heard one of the men talking a brand of something called whiskey (Whatever that was) called Scotch. The name stuck with Thorax, so he decided to add that as his last name. He was never given one as a Changeling anyways, so he made it up on the fly.

This process went on for 11 whole hours. As night began to fall, and the cold kicked in General Petain addressed Thorax and the Thousands, upon thousands of soldiers in the assembly. They probably outnumbered the Changeling army and Pony army combined.

"On December 29th, 1916, France came under attack by an enemy not of this plane of exitance. Its soldiers however were ready to prove themselves. After 2 painful and bloody weeks of humiliation, bloodshed, death, mud, and tears we the soldiers of France drove them back as well as our German enemies. Right now, is the time to heal. We cannot see the Germans as our enemies unless our government has spoken otherwise. The situation still remains uncertain. We do not know if the creatures will be coming back. For now, we will stand at the ready to defend France. Not from the Germans but from the creatures from hell. You are all Heroes. You have all stood up to a truly evil and horrific enemy and drove them back. 12,000 of Frances's sons died in these 2 weeks. 16,000 where wounded and lay in suffering and pain. 37,000 are reported to be in the creatures clutched as they were cocooned. That number is most likely higher. You have suffered a great deal. You have lost friends, fathers, and brothers. However, they shall not go unnoticed. One way or another France will Avenge her sons. It is my sole promise as a General of France to ensure that you receive the retribution you all deserve. France will Avenge her sons and you all shall have your vengeance. Vive la France!"

As Petain's speech ended Thorax heard thousands upon thousands of unified Vive La France. While he couldn't understand what Petain said due to the language barrier as he made the speech in his native language Edward who was next to him would whisper into his ear what he was saying.

Thorax came to the slow realization his species had awake one if not multiple sleeping giants.

His species was screwed.