“All I Want This Hearth’s Warming…”
Hearth's Warming Wishes
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The morning light shined through the ice-covered window, waking the sleeping changeling from his dream. It was a strange one, where he and a certain Princess of the Night discussed what desserts would be best to serve at the Hearth’s Warming Ball in Canterlot. A strange dream, but nothing more than that the changeling assumed. He sat up in bed, stretching out his wings and forelegs, and giving a rather large yawn. After he had woken himself up enough to notice, he smelled a sweet fragrance coming from downstairs…
“Mmmm… Something smells good, I didn’t know Cherry and Thunderlane were gonna fix breakfast before they left.” The changeling stated, donning his disguise and making his way to the door.
Opening the door, he could smell pancakes and hot syrup, which was unexpected. It smelled like the food was still cooking, or had just been finished. Making his way down the stairs, he was surprised to see Cherry standing at the sink, washing a batter bowl and a whisk. Thunderlane was in the living room, setting up the coffee table, like they were waiting for him to wake up. The changeling walked over to his friends, intending to ask what they were still doing in his home...
“Good morning Hidden, sleep well?” Cherry asked, catching him by surprise.
“Uh, yes, I slept well, um, what are you guys still doing here? I thought you each had stuff to do?” Hidden asked.
Thunderlane finished up at the table, and walked over to him, gesturing for Hidden to sit in one of the chairs. Hidden blinked in confusion, but walked over anyway, taking a seat. Cherry put away the dishes and walked into the living room with breakfast, and the two ponies took their places across from Hidden. The changeling could sense something was up, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. Cherry and Thunderlane looked at each other, and nodded in some sort of agreement, then turned back to Hidden. The ponies took a deep breath...
“We know.” The two ponies said in unison.
Hidden just stared at them, not getting what they meant. The ponies looked towards each other again, Cherry shrugging. Thunderlane sighed, then faced Hidden on his own.
“We know about you… Th-the real you, that is…” Thunderlane said cautiously
This got a reaction from the unicorn, causing his eyes to widen for a brief moment, before he attempted to regain his composure.
“Th-the real me? What do you mean?”
Hidden spoke with a shaky voice, causing Thunderlane to press on, knowing he was onto something with the changeling.
“We know about you, how you’re not really a pony.” He said more assuredly.
This made Hidden start to visibly shake, realizing that he was in a dangerous situation, or so he thought. He started to stand up from the chair, looking towards the door.
“I, don’t know what you’re talking about. H-how could I not be a pony?” He stammered.
Seeing the situation going bad, Cherry stood up and quickly walked over to the journal they had hidden underneath the tablecloth. She held it up to Hidden, trying to get him to see the title.
“Hey! Don’t panic, don’t panic. We read out of here, we know that-” Cherry started to say, before Hidden suddenly jumped out of his chair, making a beeline towards the door.
Thunderlane jumped to block their friend’s way, but he slipped past him and pushed up against the door trying to open it, but to no avail. The door had been locked, the two ponies knowing that Hidden might try to run when they confronted him. Hidden looked back at the ponies with panic in his eyes, not realizing that they were trying to talk with him and not attack him. He tried to make his way back to his room, but Cherry was already blocking the stairs…
“Wait! Hidden, just stop, listen to us for a minute!” Thunderlane said, moving behind the changeling.
“No! I-I’m not going to be taken away! I know you’re just stalling me! Why else would you be trying to keep me locked in my own house!?” The changeling said in a panicked voice.
Cherry walked towards Hidden cautiously, still holding the journal. His eyes fell on the book, taking in what it actually was.
“Look, we found this last night… We know that you’re a changeling, but more importantly, we know you want to explain yourself.” Cherry said slowly.
The changeling seemed to lose some of his tension, but it quickly returned when his disbelief took hold of him.
“Yeah, that’ so true, why do you want me to talk about it? I’d think that had any pony found out that their ‘friend’ was a changeling, they’d have turned to the Royal Guard to turn them in…” Hidden said in a harsh and questioning tone.
Thunderlane took this as his que to explain…
“Yes, we read that part too, how you’re afraid that we would do the same thing, that we would just throw you away, but we want to give you a chance! A chance to talk this out and explain yourself…” Thunderlane said in a stressed tone.
“Yes, we want to give you a chance… Give our friend a chance to explain himself…” Cherry added.
Their words seemed to make the changeling ease up, starting to calm himself down. He was starting to see the situation, and looked to both of the ponies who he called his friends, waiting for him to talk, tell them who he was… Who he really was…
“Oh… OK… I-I see. I, I just didn’t think that-” Hidden began to say, before being shushed and gestured towards the still uneaten pancakes.
Hidden looked towards the setup, seeing that they were trying to make him comfortable before bringing up the big question, and he calmed down further.
‘If they were trying to stall me,’ he thought, ‘why would they make a full-fledged breakfast, even I wouldn’t go that far…’
The three made their way back to their seats, the ponies patiently, yet eagerly, waited for their changeling friend to start his story. He looked like he was trying to find something to say, to open up the conversation with, but before he could start, Cherry asked if he could remove his disguise, as he didn’t need it anymore, unless, that was, he felt more comfortable explaining it as a unicorn, to which he shook his head. He stood back up and backed away from the two ponies, giving himself enough room to change back to himself. Just like the night before, Hidden was encompassed in bright green flames, and the sound of air whooshed about the room. Once the magic died down, the two ponies each gave a small gasp seeing the changeling fully revealed in front of them.
The changeling opened his eyes, seeing the two gaping ponies staring back at him. He cringed a little, half expecting them to ask if he could put his disguise back on, before they caught themselves staring, and asked him to sit back down. He obliged, taking a deep breath and starting what might just be the most important conversation of his life.
“OK… So, uh, h-how far into my journal did you two read?” The changeling asked.
“We, skimmed through a bit to be honest,” said Cherry, “We, didn’t really know what we were looking for when we opened it up...”
Thunderlane chimed in, continuing Cherry’s thought.
“We read a little of the beginning, and skipped a bit into the middle, where it said that you had made your own pony disguise so you didn’t have to impersonate somepony else. Then, we skipped again, and ended where you said that you wanted to come clean…” Thunderlane said.
The changeling nodded, taking a deep breath and thinking for a few more moments, before looking back up to his friends.
“So, where should I start then?” He asked.
“Start with why you’re here, originally.” Cherry said.
The changeling thought for a moment, before nodding and telling the ponies about an old idea to fully integrate changelings into pony society, before the original invasion. How due to The Hive’s low stock in emotions, Chrysalis was given the idea of integration. This, however, was only put into effect a few months before she decided that plan would take too much time to show any growth. Even after a dozen or so changelings had been sent out, she decided to go with the invasion plan.
He said that many of the changelings he was sent with were just as surprised to see Canterlot being shielded as the ponies, before they could sense the swarm gathering around the city. They could feel the huge growing amount of energy and love being radiated from Canterlot, before they watched in horror as their entire nation was thrown from the skies and back into the badlands. After the event, many ponies took the time to be grateful that the threat was gone, and the changelings took time to think about how fortunate they were to have not been part of the invasion.
“Of course we were sad, and scared, but we really only had two choices after that…” Hidden said, finishing his story.
“Either we found some way to fake our own disappearance to return to our hive, or we continue to live in our Equestrian homes. I chose to stay, as you can clearly see.” He finished, gesturing to himself and his house.
The ponies nodded, seeing a whole new side of the past event. Cherry walked over to the changeling, patting his shoulder. He shrugged her off, saying that it wasn’t a big deal anymore, that he was over it. She nodded, and returned to her seat beside Thunderlane.
“So, if you decided to stay, did any others…?” Thunderlane asked.
“Maybe, maybe not, it’s not my right to say. I will say this though, I wasn’t the only changeling stationed here in Ponyville. We had at least two changelings in the major areas of Equestria, just to cover our bases, make it easier to reveal ourselves.” Hidden laughed at that thought. ”Yeah, after the failed invasion, ponies became fearful of our kind, more cautious. After the second invasion, ponies became apprehensive. It’s... It’s why I was so hesitant to tell you two what I really was. I was, I was afraid that you would just see me as a... A… A monster…”
As he finished his sentence, Hidden began to tear up. The two ponies moved to comfort their friend, wrapping their hooves and wings around him in a warm embrace. Hidden let a few tears escape his eyes, before hugging the two ponies back. His voice trembled as he spoke, and what he said brought the two ponies to tears.
“I… I was scared that you’d hate me… My friends I… I’m so sorry I didn’t just tell you…” Hidden’s voice broke as he spoke these last words.
“I love you guys so much…” He said.
The two ponies broke down with the changeling, their hearts going out to him. They had no idea the amount of stress and pain that was pent up inside their friend, and seeing him just break apart in front of them, it made their hearts ache. They sat there together, crying into each others shoulders, before Hidden broke the hug, wiping at his eyes. Thunderlane and Cherry did the same, giving the changeling a distraught look.
“I… I never knew you had so much held up inside you Hidden…” Cherry said, wiping away a stray tear. “I wish… I wish that you just told us. I know you were afraid but, you can trust us to have faith in you.”
“I know… I’m so sorry I didn’t just tell you guys. It might have been easier for me to tell you then for you to find out yourselves. I just, I didn’t know what I would even say, how I’d start…” Hidden said, regret in his voice.
Thunderlane and Cherry both hugged him again, letting him know that it was alright.
“Well, we know now, and you know what, we believe you.” Thunderlane said with a soft smile.
Hidden smiled back at his friends, a few more tears falling from his eyes. He wiped them aside, giving a small, pained laugh. The two ponies soon joined in, each of the three of them laughing and crying at the same time, trying to calm themselves in the midst of the mix of emotions. After a few more minutes of confused tears and laughs, Hidden stood up from his chair, looking to his friends.
“Guys… I just… I feel really lucky to have ponies like you in my life. If there was one thing that I would have asked for this Hearth’s Warming, it would have been what is happening right now.” Hidden beamed.
The two ponies smiled at the changeling, agreeing with that statement. Cherry suddenly had a strange thought, giving the changeling a quizzical look.
“So uh, Hidden... If you don’t mind me asking, is that your real name?” She asked.
The changeling paused, blinking in confusion. He stared out into space, thinking long and hard on the mare’s question. He furrowed his brow, but couldn’t seem to remember what his original name was. He hung his head.
“I… I don’t remember my first name… I’ve been so used to being called ‘Hidden’ that I guess I forgot…” He said, a little defeated in his tone.
Thunderlane quickly stifled the sadness in the changeling’s voice, “Well, if that’s true, why not just keep that as your name? I mean, think about it: ‘Hidden The Changeling’. Has a nice ring to it dont’cha think?”
Hidden blinked, then smiled and nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty good!”
“Well,” Cherry said, “I think that this is a pretty interesting start to the season!”
The pegasus and changeling nodded in agreement. Thunderlane sat back down, gesturing back towards the table.
“Well, I guess this settles it. You’re a changeling, and we’re cool with that. Now, how about we eat this food here before it gets any colder. I didn’t make this just to look pretty!” Thunderlane said in a semi-serious manner.
“You made it? I made this! All you did was fix the table!” Cherry responded defensively.
“Guys, guys! Lets just eat, we can figure out who did what to stall me later, OK?” Hidden said.
The two ponies shared a look, then agreed with their newly known changeling friend.
And on that final note, the trio did just that. They ate together at the table, enjoying the pancakes and each other's company, listening to more stories Hidden had from when he lived at the hive, and how he hoped that one day, if not on Hearth’s Warming, that all the changelings could reveal themselves without fear of capture or reformation.
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