It turned out, that preparing a festival like for Hearts Warming Eve was more complex than Ember thought! Just decorating the whole hive was a ton of work, but there was more to do, the music, the cleaning, and the food. Of course, Changelings don't need regular food, their special bodies survive on the energy they get from love, but they can still eat for fun and pure enjoyment.
Thorax asked Ember to help them, it was her celebration as well and he told her not to hold back on her wishes and ideas. She had a good idea where she wanted to start with, the music.
"We already have an orchestra," Thorax told her.
"A what?"
"An orchestra, like an organized group of musicians."
"That's good, I have a suggestion. There are a few traditional dragon songs and I could sing them."
"S-sing?" Thorax nearly freaked out.
"Yes. I am a very good singer!"
"No doubts, no doubts, it's just. Um... you see." Thorax tried not to freak out completely.
"Come on, it can't be that bad. I can even teach dragon songs."
"It's not that," Thorax told her.
"What is it, then? Come on, don't tell me Changelings can't sing."
"Oh no, we can. It's just..."
"What is it!?"
"You are a female."
"And?"
"We, males, are not supposed to listen to a female's singing."
"Why?"
Thorax blushed hard "It's the way the queen calls for" he tried to sweeten the truth "a male when she needs a very intimate time."
"Like a mating call?"
Thorax blushed even more.
"Oooh, that makes sense. So, it's okay for me to sing?"
"Um, yes, f-for me, but maybe not for the whole hive unless you... well..."
"Ouh! oh! Ummm... r-right... the whole hive might be not a good idea."
Both were blushing.
"B-but it's okay, really, for me, the others won't get that mad. I mean, there will be more important things going on."
"Okay, what else could I do?"
"How about a feast?"
"That's easy, I can hunt and cook an animal."
"We don't need any meat, we can't eat it anyway, but we can enjoy some spices and flavors, especially nectar and other sweets, mostly plant-based meals."
"Okay, I am not a big fan of flowers and such, but I can try my best."
"I come with you, to help. The flowers we need are growing in an underground cave, it is a bit dangerous out there, and the wildlife is aggressive around that time of the year."
"I am not afraid of some wildlife. But what about the egg?"
"Pharnyx will take care of her," said Thoray and nodded. "My brother was born to protect the queen... littery, he is a soldier drone, a fighter. I trust him, ever since we lost our Mother, the queen, he seemed so lost, without any purpose, but since the egg is here I can feel his spirit rising, he is full of hope again."
Both oft hem looked over to Pharnyx, who was sitting next to the egg and gently rubbed it with some glowing mushrooms, special mushrooms that gave out a nice warmth to the egg.
“I think that okay.” Said Ember with a smile.
So Ember and Thorax left and walked outsite to the near by caves. The magic of the hive has changed the nature in this area, or maybe the hive was build here because of that magical plant here? No one could tell.
The two of them soon walked toward a cave that was all green, moss and small flowers were growing around the entrance.
Ember looked at the flowers, they were dripping!
“Is that the stuff we are looking for?” She asked as she got a drop on her claw and sniffled it… very sweet!
“Indeed, but the flowers outside of the cave are way to small, we have to go inside.”
They entered the cave.
Ember had been in a lot of caves, but this one was different. There was no sun light but still a lot of plants, in fact far more plants than around the cave. The only light here came from small glowing gems inside the caves walls, it was a warm pulsating live and gave Ember the impression that they walked inside a giant animals insides and it was breathing through that light!
This was like one of these dreams, in which her father ate her in one bite and she had to wander through his insides until she starved to death… not a very pleasant dream for sure. Just thinking about that made her heart beat faster and some sweat rolled over her forehead.
Of course Thorax noticed how her behaviour changed. He looked over to her while they walked over the moss covered ground.
“Ember? Is something wrong?”
“Hm? What? No, no, everything fine… definitely not reminded of a nightmare down here.” She said and gulped, he could see how she was shivering.
“it’s a bit easier when we are deeper in the cave, wait, I have an idea!” Said Thorax and used his magic, the magical flames enlighten the surrounding for a second and then he had transformed into a big grizzly bear! He knew Ember liked that form, because it was not just big and strong, but also cozy and fluffy. He moved in and grabbed the Dragon Lord by her hip to put her on his big fluffy back.
“Hey what are you doing!?”
“You might close your eyes for a while.”
“I told you everything is fine! I am not scared or such a thing!” He felt her claws she was holding to his fur like her life was depending on it, he could feel her fear and her pride, very strong emotions and he knew it was not easily to handle.
“Come on Ember, its me. I know you are the strongest and bravest person. You don’t have to act like you are strong… and you deserve to feel comfortable.” His voice was rough and deep in this form, it felt like a warm comfy hug for the ears. “I want you to be up there and close your eyes, for me.”
Ember hesitate for a moment, but with every new pulse of glowing light she felt more and more like she was swallowed by a giant monster. She hold tight to the fluffy fur and pushed her face into his back. “okay, but just for you and because it I Hearts Warming Eve.” She said while inhaling his scent. With closed eyes there was no pulsating light, but it felt like she still could hear it, a sound without any volume, that sunk deeper and deeper into her mind.
Thorax walked slowly, carefully not to drop Ember form his back, but then, after a few minutes, she shouted out “For the sake of all Dragons! Say something!”
“Something?” He asked back confused.
“Anything, please.”
“Okay, okay. Well, we could speak about the egg?”
“Hope.”
“What?”
“I think that’s a nice name for her, you called her that before.”
“Indeed” he said with a chuckle “so, lets talk about Hope. She is your first egg?”
“Yes, well, Dragons lay eggs from a certain age, but only if the egg get fertiled, or else our body will just reabsorb it. After the egg is out we usual put them together with the others, is easier to protect a huge pile of egg than a hundred scattered over the whole dragon lands. I should have put Hope to the others, but something… a feeling… told me not to do it and to keep it close.”
“Wont she have a special position during the dragons? I mean you are the Dragon Lord.”
“And your mother was the Queen of Changelings, still you had no special position.”
“Well, yes, but all of us are children of Chrysalis.”
“The Dragon Lord usual lives and reigns for hundreds and thousand of years, when his time comes to an end he choose a hire for the dragon staff, it don’t has to be one of the Lords children. My father was had beaten all other dragons in a fight about the sceptre and won it with brutal force. I only have it because Spike gave it to me, don’t get me wrong, I would have kicked every dragons butt that day with ease, but it turned out that the Pony Way lead to the win instead of the way of brutal force. I might think of a new way to choose the next Dragon Lord, maybe Spike and his pony Friends will help me with that.”
“I think you make a real good Dragon Lord, you are not just strong and brave, you also are smart… and beautiful.”
“Hey, don’t think you can get me so easily just because we are alone and in a cave.”
Both of them had to chuckle.
“Okay, we are here, you can open your eyes again.” Said Thorax after a while.
Ember opened her eyes and gasped, Thorax had carried her into a huge cage and there was a giant golden Krystall glowing bright like a small sun right under the roof of the cave. The Cave looked like a forest that had emerged around a lake. Ember saw a lot of small animals living here, some insects flying between all the different colourful flowers. Also she could see they target, a small Island in the middle of the lake and on that island grew some real big flowers, dripping the sweet nectar they were looking for.
“Ha, that was easy.” Said Ember and spread her wings, ready to fly over to the Island.
“No so fast! You remember what I told you about the wildlife?” Thorax picked up leave form the ground and gave it a gentle blow so it levitated over the water and all of a sudden something came out of the water! Ember could only see it for a second, but it looked like a giant worm covered with horns and claws! It was around the same size as her father was, or even taller, considering the idea that most of his body was still under water.
“What the frigg!?” She said and gasped
“The Krystall Worm.” Said Thorax “Usual it is digging through the ground, but around this time of the year it lives in lakes like this, laying its eggs, that’s why it is very aggressive and attacks everything that comes close to the lake. It would take a hundred changelings to overpower the worm.”
“I could definitely try to overpower it, I am a fire breathing Dragon Lord!” Said Ember with a smirk and hit her fist inside the palm of her hand. But then she had to think of what they just talked about and what happened through the last year “but there might be another way.”
Ember and Thorax made a plan and went into position.
Ember made her way on a tree to get a higher position and spread her legs. She made a huge jump and start gliding. She flew in circles around the leg to get some speed before she dashed down like an arrow! Straight into the water! She could see the worms under water, at least three of this giant monsters and they spotted her immediately and darted toward her! These worms were surprisingly fast, but Ember was fast too. She waited for them to get closer before she turned just enough to grab one of they horns. The worm shoot out of the water with her and she let go of the horn, she spread her wings and the wind grabbed her and threw her up in the air, but the worms still got after her! She could fly out of they reach, but she dashed down again, between them. As she already had thought, the worms couldn’t move freely as long as they were so many so close to each other. They were blocking each other and Ember had more than enough chances to dodge. Once she landed on one worms head and grabbed one of the big horns again to have hold. It was exhausting to fly around like that, making so many turns and her wings needed a small break. She thought of how easy it would bee to rib that horn out of the worm and use it as a weapon, or just fry them good with her flames, but this was no option!
She jumped off the the worm when the others attacked her and all three crashed together and when they fall back into the water with full weight water splashed everywhere and Ember couldn’t see for a few second.
These few seconds were enough for one of the worms to get up again and dart straight to her, she looked around in time to see the beasts giant mouth and all its teeth. It bite and dashed back into the water! Ember had grabbed two teeth with her hand claws and two other teeth with her feed claws and hold that big mouth open with her pure muscles strength while the beast had her under water and grinded her through the ground of the lake! Oxygen was lacking, lungs burning with pain, she had to act quick! It would be too easy to kill it with fire right now, but she couldn’t. She decided to break out one of the teeth! The sudden pain made the monster scream and it sling Ember up in the air and out of the water. The Dragon Lady had just a second time to catch some breath before all three worms gout out of the water again!
But then finally, there was the signal, Thorax had turned into an owl and his call was what she had waited for.
Ember spit out a huge Fireball right under her into the water, not hot enough to boil the worms, but hot enough to make a big steam explosion, covering her cunning escape while the worms were blinded.
She landed next to Thorax who just turned back and looked back at the three worms, looking around confused and slowly retracted.
“Wow, this was amazing.” Said Thorax “and it seems like they had your cornered for a while.”
“Nah, not really.” Ember said “could have cooked them in the lake any time.”
“Okay… than why did you pulled that stunt?”
“There were so many eggs, I cant kill these creatures just because they are protecting they eggs, I would do the same to every creatures that is a threat to Hope.”
After that she looked behind Thorax, the changeling had used the distraction Ember had caused to get on the island, change into a giant mole to dig out one of the plants, than change into a big carrying fish to bring it over the river and then place it here. “We can take it to the hive for the festival and afterward bring it back and place it here again to it can regrow it roots.”
Thorax transformed into a bear again and Ember hold the plant while Thorax walked back through the pulsating tunnel.
“Hey, I am impressed by your skills, I knew you are a great warrior, but I had no Idea how strong you really are!” He said while he could feel Ember on his back, she had pushed her face back into his fur. Her warm breath was stroking over his body and he enjoyed that feeling. “You know, my mother was also really strong, she had a lot of actual good attributes, she was not just the monster we had to fight at the end. She was strong, had an iron will, she knew what she wanted and was really intelligent, ummmm, and I think you have these qualities too, Ember.”
“And what about the bad things?” She asked a few seconds later “Being selfish for example? I didn’t told you about Holly because I was afraid of sharing her.”
“But you came here, you even want to stay here just for her, you fought three giant worms just to help my people with the celebration and you risk your life just to spare the giant worms eggs! I don’t know what Ember you know, but the Ember I know is anything else than selfish.” Thorax mad a small break, standing for a few seconds and thinking before he continued to walk and spoke again “She is one of the best persons I have ever met and I would even reconsider to say, that I love her.”
He could feel how Ember got even warmer all of a sudden. “Don’t say such a thing!”
“No, no really Ember.” He turned back as they left the cave and put Ember in front of him “I really love you.”
He could see Ember turning bright red in an instant. “Thorax, I…” She couldn’t speak right now.
“It’s okay, you don’t need to say anything, I know you are a dragon and that things get complicated and we” He couldn’t end his sentence because Ember put her claw on his lips.
“I am not good with words.” She said and just stepped closer to put her forehead to thorax, she closed her eyes and for the first time in her life she just let go of her feelings.
Thorax, the changeling who feed on love and can sense the feelings around him, could feel it all of a sudden. His wings were busing and his body start glowing from all the emotions he was feeding right now.
Thorax smiled and a tears dripping over his cheeks and as he opened his eyes he could see there was a single tear on Embers cheek too.
What she felt right now was beyond her verbal skills, but right now she was glad that Thorax was an changeling and no words were needed right now.
They looked at each other for a moment, the bright red had became a cute girlish blush on Embers cheeks, almost as cute as the blush on Thorax face. They meet in a warm and embracing hug and kissed deeply.
As they came back to the hive they could see a crowd in front of Thorax chamber. Pharnyx was holding against around twenty other changelings who wanted to enter the chamber and see the egg that hold the hope of the hive. There was a lot of shatter and all of the changelings were talking a once.
“Calm down friends” said Pharnyx “You have to wait for Thorax and Ember! It’s an egg and no tourist attraction!”
“What’s going on here!?” Shouted Ember and dragon voice made every changeling go silent. Pharnyx looked at Ember that moment, so strong, towering all of them, it was hard ot keep his excitement for himself that moment, his wings wanted to buzz. It was the first time in his life he felt really jealous, because Ember, the Queen, was his brothers mate. “Pharnyx!” She shouted is name and his heart wanted to jump out of his chest, he wanted to kneel before her and kiss her feed claws! “Pharnyx, what about the egg!?”
“My” he wanted to call her his queen, but that wouldn’t be right, at least not when his brother was there too “Ember, I think its hatching, it started to glow and move a few minutes ago.”
Thorax gasped, that was when he and Ember shared that moment of pure intimate love! The egg, they daughter Hope, she had felt it! Thorax and Ember run through the crowd, all the Changelings had made more than enough space for the two of them.
They entered the room and saw the egg, it indeed moving like it wanted to hatch!
“W-what are we supposed to do?” Asked Ember and looked at Thorax “A dragons egg can be cracked with pure claws at this point.”
“Well, I would politely ask you not to do so.” Said Thorax “After all I learned, the best we can do is this.” He took her hand claw with his hoof and walked over to the egg, he put her hand on the egg as well as his hoof “And now just think of our daughter, let the love flow.”
And so she did, thinking of the little wonder. Ember was not good with words, but her feelings were still true and again she was very happy, that her made was able to feel her feelings without words, as well as her daughter would do.
All changelings could feel the love at that moment and they gathered around the chamber, it was in fact so much love that they start glowing.
And then the egg shell cracked and a big piece of shell just fell to the ground. Thorax and Ember looked at the whole and could see something moving inside, a blinking eye! Hope could see them!
“Go ahead little one.” Said Ember and used her free hand to hold to Thorax “We are waiting here for you and what ever happens, we will love you.”
And while the egg cracked more and more and the little one inside worked its way outside, it might have been a coincidence, that this day, when ponies celebrate how they united and that they love gave them a new home, that at this day Hope was given to the changelings, to the dragons and all of the world.
And regardless what happened to this girl, what ever adventures and friends and enemies and Test it has to face, this day Hope was born,
It was indeed a merry Hearts Warming Eve.