//------------------------------//
// Family 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

"What's going on, Blue Alarm?" Humerus asked. "I think you're going to reveal something very important!"
Red Noise shoved Humerus to the side as he walked in. "You're the one holding him up!"
"How are you two so sure Blue Alarm is going to tell all of us something close to him?" Neon Guard spoke.
The four changelings were all huddled in a small cold space in the hive where some rocky beds were laid out. There was not much of a ceiling. The ground was smoothened but not completely flat—and there were patches of snow scattered about though a snow shovel was laid near the passageway out. Plants abounded at the walls—moss, vines, flowers, bushes.
Blue Alarm sat on his bed. "All of these years, and yet I can't really articulate it—at least, I don't think I can right now."
"Just spit it out already!" Red Noise chided.
Neon Guard glared at him.
"Alright, alright! I concede!" And he raised his front hooves up in surrender.
Humerus was giddy with joy—a wide smile was on his face as he flew to Blue Alarm. "Come on, Blue Alarm! You have to tell us! I know that you're gonna tell us something!"
"You know because I told you."
"Oh." Humerus laughed. "That's me!"
Neon Guard smiled, too, though shaking his head about. Then, turning to Blue Alarm: "So, what is it about?"
His three friends were now in front of him as he sat on his bed.
"I've been talking to several ponies lately," Blue Alarm said.
"Uh-huh!" Humerus exclaimed, nodding rapidly.
"We know that," Red Noise muttered as he moved his head.
"And, I saw that some ponies have...have..."
"They have candy!" Humerus guessed, shooting his hoof up to the air.
"Well, some did have candy, but that's not what I'm talking about."
"I'm still right, right?"
Blue Alarm sighed and smiled. "Yes, Humerus. You're right."
"Cool!"
Red Noise groaned as he took a step away from his happy friend.
"Those ponies had something a lot of us don't have," Blue Alarm went on. "OK, maybe some of us, but a lot of us don't have...don't have..."
Humerus and Neon Guard leaned closer.
Red Noise watched those two and moaned.
"They don't have a...family."
Humerus blinked. "What?"
Red Noise gasped. "Hold on! I know where you're going with this!" He pointed at him. "You want to have a family of your own, don't you?!"
Blue Alarm looked at him.
A few seconds of silence passed.
He nodded.
"That's a big change when it does arrive!" Neon Guard expressed, smiling. "I...I honestly had no idea you had it in you!"
"Congratulations!" Red Noise shouted, shaking Blue Alarm's hoof. "I was hoping that it was something else because having a family is, uh, something tough from what I've heard!"
"And you're going to have a wife!" Humerus yelled, bumping Red Noise out of the way and being the next friend to shake his hoof. "And then, you'll have grub of your own! Let me be the one to take the family photo!"
Blue Alarm smiled. "Thank you, guys. I myself didn't know how you would react to the news." He inhaled, opened his mouth—and, a long sigh as he rested his head on a hoof that rested on his hind leg. "I'm...speechless. Speechless for myself."
"Uh, don't you need love?" Humerus asked.
"Of course, of course," he replied, wagging his hoof at him. "That means I need to love someone here—some female changeling out there, whoever she may be. I've never strayed from you guys, so this is going to be a difficult quest."
"What about Sunny Perky?" Humerus suggested.
Red Noise groaned again as he grabbed his friend's head and pulled him closer. "She calls herself Cicada these days, remember?"
Humerus swatted his friend's hoof away. "Why do we even have an official naming commission, anyway?"
Neon Guard shook his head. "You were sleeping when Thorax introduced it to all of us last week, didn't you?"
"I wasn't sleeping, sir!" Humerus said, rising up with his wings. "I was...uh, storing up energy. Yeah. Hibernating. Because it's winter. And it's cold."
"We have bonfires for that," Red Noise said.
Blue Alarm smiled.
Neon Guard caught sight of that. "Oh, sorry for interrupting this significant moment of your life."
"I'm not really there yet," he answered, standing up on the snow-laden ground, feeling the crisp crunch of the snow with all his hooves. "I love the prospect of having a family—settling down, spending time with my wife and our own offspring."
"Watch it," Red Noise said, growling. "You're gonna make me all sappy and mushy if you go too far with this."
Blue Alarm smirked.
"But, does that mean we won't get to hang out with you anymore?" Humerus asked—whimpering coming on. His eyes were shaky, jittering about.
"We'll still go out together, exploring Equestria—this enormous tract of land. And the seas, too—we haven't really gotten to riding boats and coasting the coast, have we?"
"No, we haven't," Neon Guard said.
Blue Alarm nodded.
"You still haven't decided on who to marry," Red Noise pointed out. "Are you sure you're treating this family thing right?"
"I think I am," he said. "Give me time to think about it—it will come to me naturally sooner or later."
"I have a list of suggestions, if you want!" Humerus offered, drawing up a big scroll.
Neon Guard stepped back from Humerus. "Uh, where did you get that?"
"It was with me all this time."
"You prepared for this very moment?"
"Not really—it's blank."
Blue Alarm snickered.



More changelings were moving across the hive to wherever they were going. The main area (or main hall or main room or main place, whichever name a changeling would give to it) consisted of a bonfire even larger than before—stacks of wood and timber of various kinds all joining together to burn brightly for the benefit of the shivering changelings who were still suffering from the biting cold of winter despite the amount of clothes they put on themselves. The roasting aroma of burnt wood wafted from there and throughout the rest of the hive.
Dotting the hallways and the auxiliary rooms (such as the dedicated craft time room where several changelings still materialized their artistic visions although crudely, the research and science room where some other changelings wore white coats and goggles as they poured specialized containers of specialized chemicals down to other specialized containers of other specialized chemicals, and the record-keeping room where a few brave changelings took on the strenous task of listing who's who in the hive) were Hearth's Warming trees: those pine trees with lights and many colors. Real and plastic trees mixed together—and the plastic trees had unrealistic colors like silver, pink, and blue for their leaves. Vinyl players, too, were scattered about in the hive, with a changeling stationed at each player, moving it about when he heard music from another so that his music would not blend in and cause a grating sound.
Troupes of changeling carollers, jingling bells and singing songs, hovered over the ground, spreading and sharing the joy they had as their voices soared to marvelous heights and descended to bass-like lows. There was one troupe that took a step further—an entire band of changelings being moved on a platform with wheels. Complete with drums, guitars, keyboard, and saxophones, the band toured their way through all the hive (or at least the parts of the hive where they could fit), adding a new perspective to the familiar Hearth's Warming carols of old.
As Blue Alarm sat near a wall, sitting on some white snow, he saw it all being done and more. All the changelings there were having a good time—smiling, laughing, chatting while never taking the grins off of their faces as they clinked their mugs of cocoa.
"A family," Blue Alarm muttered. "A...family. What would we end up like?"
Then, a hoof to his chin. The hoof moved to his head.
"Symphyla is a good changeling," he said. "She's always on the lookout for what's best for the hive. She's involved with the guard, she's very active when it comes to being outspoken about her ideas, and she has a tender heart, especially with the younger ones." A pause. "Does that mean she is well-skilled in handling grubs?"
A smile was plastered wide across his face.
"Heh. Listen to me talk. I used to be touted as a skilled observer invaluable to the service of Chrysalis. I've collected much information about ponies and Equestria as a whole without having to ask beforehoof because I have a keen eye for the smallest of details. Yet, when it comes to raising a family—even choosing who would be my lifetime partner to love and to hold..." and trailed off, looking yonder. "Listen to me. I have almost nothing to count on when it comes to a family." He shook his head, his hoof still there. "This isn't a trifle. This isn't trivial. I've got to think this through."
A few seconds.
"I don't know. Symphyla isn't the only choice. There's Diplura. There's Parane. Lots more. All different, yet all endearing to me when I think about who they are."
Then, he looked up.
"Huh. Why was Symphyla my first choice? Was it just random? Was it that thing those romance ponies were writing about and singing about on the streets and on the stage? Or, was it just a 'top of my head' kind of guess?"
A groan.
"I know having a family isn't going to be easy, but I didn't expect the very first step to be that hard! Then, when I'm done with choosing who, I still have to—what? Date? Court? How long will that have to last? A month or two? A year? How long do ponies date? Wow—I've been in Equestria for a long time but I haven't obtained any data about a pony's average romance life other than the basics! Not anything more! I can't go out right now—that would be awkward for the ponies who are dating and, I guess, for those who aren't. Then, after the date—how do I propose? Engage? Wedding rings are expensive. I don't even have half of a wedding ring's worth of bits!"
He let his hoof go of his head.
"Then, the wedding! How does a normal pony marry another? I know there are binding contracts, there are laws stipulating a good amount of freedoms and regulations. Is there a proper place to marry? Then, how should I take care of my own grub, my own children? Are pacifiers there? I don't see them cry, so I don't see the market for pacifiers here. What about baby bottles? Then, that means I have to send them to school, and then after school's done, send him off to do work and—"
And he checked himself by breathing in and out, calming down.
Sweat was pouring down on his face.
"Being a father...it's not terrifying, isn't it? Or, maybe I'm just overloading my brain with too much thought to the future." A pause, then a slow nod. "Yes, yes. I'm thinking too much about what's ahead when I should be concerned about how I'm going to get Sympyla!"
A few changelings passing by looked at him odd.
Blue Alarm covered his mouth. "I'm going crazy," he muttered as he stood up.



Several changelings hovered over the hive, looking here and there as they observed the harsh conditions.
A winter storm was brewing in the distance.
An agitated changeling was talking with a pegasus. Hooves were moving about as they conversed—the changeling switching from irritation to panic to pleas. The pegasus replied with flowing motions of his hoof and assuring words, ending it with a head hung low.
The pegasus flew away.
Blue Alarm, from below, watched the scene unfold.
"Looks like the weather won't be letting up," Blue Alarm said.
He saw the platform where the big Hearth's Warming band had played on. Some were fixing the wheels, replacing them with newer ones while friends of the band members gathered around and took pictures with them, reveling in their laughter. All the while, a changeling shouted, "Happy Hearth's Warming!"
"It's not even Hearth's Warming Eve!" another changeling shouted back.
"Does it matter?!"
"It does!"
"Don't be sticking too much to the rules!"
"Do you want a proper Hearth's Warming party?!"
"I do!"
"Then, don't argue!"
A sigh from the first changeling.
Blue Alarm passed by that, walking on through the hollow hallway of Hearth's Warming decorations in lights and trees.
Then, Red Noise landed beside him.
"Oh! You came as a surprise to me!"
"I'm still surprised about the news," Red Noise said.
"You mean...that?"
Red Noise rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that!"
"Are you bothered, by any chance?"
"About your decision to have a family?" Red Noise asked as they floated above the rocky floor. "That depends."
"You don't have anything against families, do you, Red Noise?"
"I don't," he said, adding an angry glare to his face. "What I'm bothered about, Blue Alarm, is that it was all of a sudden. You didn't drop any hints to us! If you weren't so good at seeing things we didn't see, I would be next in line to take your place and I would have spotted any suspicious moves from you. But, you're...adept at hiding even that, you know? And, what?" He spread his hooves out. "Are you trying to avoid us? You think we couldn't handle information like that?"
"I think you can, I know you can."
"Yeah, your words say so, but your actions speak otherwise."
"Well, the idea came on a whim, while I was away in Ponyville," Blue Alarm reasoned. "I could not contact you instantly. It's not like there's some means of communication that goes in and out in a second."
"That dragon assistant of the Princess," Red Noise countered. "Spike? Does that ring any bells?"
"I don't think she would let Spike go that low and become the go-to magical mailbox of the town."
Red Noise rubbed his chin. "You're right." Then, he exclaimed, "That's not enough to excuse you from being very annoying—hiding and keeping secrets from us."
Blue Alarm lifted a hoof. "It was only a secret because I was not able to talk to you! I didn't want to fly all the way to the hive just to tell you something that sparked in my head."
"What was that?" Red Noise said, turning his ear toward his friend in flight. "You didn't want to fly all the way here to tell us that? That you wanted a family? I thought having a family was a huge responsibility, Blue Alarm. Surely, you would be able to risk the freezing temperatures and the painstaking distances to tell us something that huge, right? Or, what, a letter?" A groan. "That's right. A letter, Blue Alarm. It wouldn't have been instant, but at least we would've gotten the memo, eh?"
"It's much more than just that! It's not right to just blurt it out to you on a letter. I had to be there—personally, face-to-face, right there with the three of you!"
Red Noise grunted and landed on the ground.
Blue Alarm did so, too.
Silence.
"Do you know what a family is?" Blue Alarm asked, staring at his friend with piercing eyes.
"A mom, a dad, and at least one foal," Red Noise responded. "There. Happy?"
"Don't you get it?" A step forward. "When I stopped to think about it—when I took the time to consider what a family was—it...made sense to me."
"What sense?"
"I don't know about you, Red Noise, but I believe that having a family—there's...there's..."
"Not this again," Red Noise cut in. "Spill the beans!"
Blue Alarm snapped his mouth open.
Then, stopped.
He looked around him.
Several changelings were watching the scene unfold. A few, noticing he saw them, flew away in shame and decency as they hurried out.
Then, holding his head high, he said: "Sharing love, Red Noise."
Some gasps from the remaining audience.
The red changeling tilted his head at the answer.
"I knew the ordinary reasons why we chose tight-knit families as our prime targets on a normal mission. There was great potential from them—so much love to be gained from them. But, when I walked in Ponyville just days ago and saw some families again, I saw an innocent reason why a family would have so much love."
"They're with you for life, I get it," Red Noise said.
"That's true," Blue Alarm said. "But, that's it. The compassion, the kindness, the love—they're your...family. Why wouldn't you share your love freely with them? And, if I'm going to share love as a fellow changeling, then a family is the best path for me!"
And he placed his hoof firmly on the ground.
Red Noise took a step back. "Woah. You've changed over the months."
Blue Alarm smirked.
"OK, OK!" He raised his hooves up, conceding and surrendering as he flapped his wings. "You win! You had a compelling speech there—emotional, alright? But, we're still f-friends, right? Right?"
Blue Alarm walked closer. "You're still my friend. You're all still my friends and being a husband and a father won't change that."
Red Noise was speechless—his eyes ran to many places.
Then, a hug.
"Uh...that's...nice?" Red Noise said.
The audience that was still there all said "Aww!"