//------------------------------//
// Hearth's Warming Eve 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

Some days later

It was nighttime.
Back in the middle of the hive, in that large bonfire area, Thorax and Pharynx stood in front of that heap of flammables—wood and paper mostly. It was not burning yet though a changeling held a box of matches, watching the two brothers as he slowly took out a match.
The lights that were sprawled all over the rocky walls and formations lit up the place in so many colors, and more than a  few changelings were still amazed by it as they looked at it and neared it.
"Is everything ready?" Thorax asked the match changeling.
He nodded.
Thorax smiled. "Then, let's get this party started, guys!"
And the changeling lit the match and threw it to the heap.
Fire.
A great big fire grew, blowing upward, emanating its heat in all directions.
At the sight and sound and feel of it, many of the changelings looked up.
Swarmed into the area, their buzzes flooding the air.
Restless—they were moving around here and there, flying and talking to each other, only a few willing to sit down and stay still, their fellow changeling friends going everywhere they could in the area.
Bells ringing and jingling from the hallways.
Most of the changelings looked at those hallways.
"We have presents!" a changeling announced.
And several changelings, all pulling carriages of boxes and other containers wrapped in colorful wrappings, floated their way to the trees that adorned the walls of the area.
Many changelings hurried to those carriages and destroyed the wrapping and opened the boxes, revealing so many gifts: toys, dolls, books, candies, chocolates, postcards, pictures, paint, art materials, cups, pairs of glasses, hats, sweaters, shirts, colognes and perfumes, lightbulbs, chairs, tables, bits, guitars, pianos, violins, drums, cameras, microphones, recorders, clocks, hourglasses, tape measures, chemicals, more boxes—and more.
The changelings were quick to show off their new finds and items to their friends and the conversation steered there. Almost everyone was in the middle of some kind of chat—if it wasn't about a cool gift or present they got, it was about the bonfire; if it wasn't about the bonfire, it was about Hearth's Warming and how they felt during this precious time; and if it wasn't that, it was the general pleasantries of "How are you?" or "What've you been up to?"
Near the bonfire, Thorax and Pharynx exchanged a few gifts with each other.
"Here, Pharynx," Thorax said, hoofing him an elongated pouch holding something. "I'm...not so good at gift wrappers. But, I did my best." He made an awkward smile.
Pharynx grabbed it and opened it. He pulled whatever it was out.
It was an oval-framed picture of the two brothers, smiling—well, Thorax was smiling; Pharynx made the most muted of facial expressions that resembled a tangible smile.
"They say that pictures lock up memories!" Thorax said, giddy as he shook his hooves, watching his brother examine the picture. "What better memory to have on our hooves than the memory of our time together?"
Pharynx said nothing as he held the picture and rotated it, twirling it around with his hoof. "Uh, OK?"
Now, it was his turn to give a gift.
Pharynx placed the picture slowly back into the pouch before pulling out a box covered in wrapper. "And, here's one for you, Thorax."
"Ooh! What could it be?" Thorax grabbed it and shook it close to his ears, sticking out his tongue as he racked his brains over the question. Then, he shook the box again.
"Try opening it," Pharynx said in a deadpan tone.
Then, Thorax opened it.
He gasped.
It was a lightbulb in the shape of Thorax.
"Wh-wha-what?!"
He stretched his hoof out, letting the lightbulb go far away. Then, he held it close to his eyes.
"It's like...a small me! But it can glow!"
He flicked the switch.
And it glowed—mostly green.
"Ooh! So pretty!"
Pharynx smiled. "Always the distracted one, aren't you, Thorax?"
"I'm sorry, but I just can't help myself when it comes to these lights!" Thorax said. "They're so...innovative?"
Pharynx slapped his brother on the head. "Admit it, brother: You still can't resist bright lights."
Thorax smiled back. "It's not a bad thing every time, right?"



Among the many changelings in attendance at the bonfire area were those four changelings. Blue Alarm, Red Noise, Humerus, and Neon Guard got some gifts from the gift carts and carriages and wagons and, huddled together at a relatively quiet spot—away from the noisiest of the noise and a good distance from the beautiful yet destructive bonfire—they laid their gifts out in a messy way.
"So, which one's mine?" Red Noise said, standing up first. "How can I tell?"
"Just pick," Neon Guard said, pointing to the pile of gifts of mostly green and red and white wrapping and cover. "It doesn't matter—as long as you're happy, we're happy."
"What if we all get boring gifts?" Red Noise asked.
"There's nothing boring to me if it's a gift!" Humerus said.
"So, what if you get a box of water?" Red Noise proposed.
"Someone was so thoughtful that I would get parched and weak if I did not get water!" Humerus answered, remaining optimistic in his voice. "He or she cared about me so much that my health and my existence mattered more than just giving me a smile on my face!"
Blue Alarm smiled at that. "I'm glad you're our friend, Humerus."
Humerus yanked him and pulled him closer to the pile of gifts. "You, too!" Then, swooping a gift up and breaking it open, he saw it and gasped.
It was a pot. A cooking pot.
"It's...beautiful!" Humerus exclaimed as he raised it high, letting the light of the fire shine on it. "I've never seen anything like it!"
"You've seen it in a kitchen," Red Noise said. "This is getting ridiculous pretty fast."
Then, he put it on his head. "I'm your leader now! Obey me! Or, you'll face the blunt force of my cooking pot!"
Neon Guard had a quiet laugh as he picked a few small presents for himself but placed it behind himself.
Blue Alarm, being the closest to the pile, chose one box—a small box, too—and immediately opened it.
It was a dictionary.
"Aww, it's perfect for you!" Humerus exclaimed as he flew over to his side to behold it with him. "Big—does it have all the words ever?"
"Well, there are new words made every so often," Blue Alarm said.
Then, he flipped the book open.
It was par for the course for an ordinary dictionary. Lists of words, both common and not, alongside their definitions.
Blue Alarm closed the book. "I'm sure it will be useful as a reference, especially when there's so many things that I still can't fathom about Equestrian society yet."
Neon Guard opened one of his presents and got a fancy bronze watch.
"That's cool," Blue Alarm commented as he saw the watch—before Humerus zipped over and stood beside it.
"How accurate is it?" Humerus asked. "How precise? Does it tell the day and the month and the year? Miliseconds, microseconds, micro-microseconds?"
"Who needs something that precise?" Neon Guard asked. "I'm not going to be using such miniscule measurements."
"What if you need it in a pinch?" Humerus suggested. "What if you were given a task and you could only do it by checking the micro-microseconds of something?"
"Who's gonna do that?"
"Not me," Red Noise said as he tore open one of his gifts.
A megaphone.
"Alright, guys!" the red changeling proclaimed, brandishing his newfound device. "We're going to have some fun!"
Neon Guard flew over, grabbed the megaphone, and placed it back inside the box, all while facing him with a glare.
"Aww! We haven't even started and you ruined it!"
And the other three changelings laughed, their noise mingling with the noise around them as the changelings' Hearth's Warming Eve went on around the huge bonfire.