Hearth's Warming Eve
“So Lieutenant Ember, tell me more about where you come from. Are you the dominant species on your world? What are your people like?” Luna asked curiously as they sat on cushions around a small round table.
The Lieutenant took a sip of her glass of water, “My species of Angels are actually quite the minority. Humans are the dominant species across the galaxy; we aren’t bound to a single world.”
“Oh, so your species can travel between worlds? If only we had that ability… What about these Humans you mentioned, what do they look like?”
Ember shrugged, “Nothing special, extremely similar to us, but they don’t have wings, enhanced strength, and glowing eyes. But… they can use magic which is quite the advantage.”
“Magic? Can they all use it or just a few?”
“The latter, only a few can use it- but a powerful Mage is quite a formidable foe.”
Luna sipped a cup of her tea, “I wish we could accurately compare our magic abilities.”
“As far as I can tell, Fiery’s magic is similar to ours, but to be fair I haven’t seen much of unicorn magic outside the teleportation and you levitating your cup.”
Luna put down her cup as if embarrassed, “Well- we have many uses, mostly harmless, but some are offensive spells that can cause damage. But we don’t typically teach nonmilitary unicorns them.”
“Understandable, from what I understand your world seems to be a lot more peaceful. Outside, you know.”
The Princess nodded, “Yes. Most go through their entire lives without ever witnessing violence. However history isn’t full of peace, you will learn that once you see the Hearths Warming Eve play.”
“Then I look forward to it,” she spoke as she took another sip of water.
Once the Princess finished her tea she stood from her cushion, “I must take my leave; I hope you have enjoyed your day in Canterlot.”
“Night Princess,” Ember spoke and bowed as the Princess turned and left the chamber leaving the soldier alone. It was the end of her first day in Canterlot not including the night before. She had to admit, it was nice. Training with the Royal Guard was a new experience and she began to learn about this new culture- while they consider her an alien, she considers herself surrounded by aliens. It was strange because why they were ponies, they acted very Human. While one could argue that Angels do act Human, and people would agree, when it came to non-humanoid races a lot of the time they acted a lot different.
Their morals are blue and orange instead of black and white. Strange and unpredictable to Humans and Angels, what were perceive as normal they consider strange and outlandish. But not these ponies, no they were very familiar and not foreign at all. Various social cues still work, implying socially they developed in some ways very similar. It was curious. Although to be fair, Humans developed on various planets but when they reached space travel were many ways similar to each other, languages and all.
Had she fallen on any other world with a non-humanoid species, she would have been damned without an AI or Artificial Intelligence, to translate the language, if they even spoke as Humans do at all. It could have been telekinesis or something along those lines. She had tried to learn other languages but it just didn’t turn out well, she could barely remember any of the phrases or words she was taught. Typically if they found someone who didn’t speak English she just had Drew translate as he was taught many different languages.
She stood up from her cushion and hopped into bed and fell asleep.
***************************
The days passed by quickly, Ember and Luna continued their talks in the night while during the day she hung out with the Royal Guard and continued to train with them. Some of them were cautious but slowly began to warm up to the bipedal alien among them. She didn’t see much of Fiery as he opted to stay with his parents through the days leading up to Hearths Warming Eve. Ember noticed that as they got closer to the day, the citizens began to get a lot more cheery. She had to admit that even she was getting into the festivities as if it was contagious.
One of the days she went to Fiery’s home and met his parents who were very welcoming. She could tell they were sad that their son was going off once again but Ember stressed that she would protect him which gave them some ease. Fiery embarrassed Ember when he asked when she was going to make a change of clothing. In truth she had washed them since they arrived but she hadn’t even thought of getting new clothing. More so she doubted any ponies were proficient in making clothing for a bipedal creature.
Fiery did get his parents a bit worried when he blurted out how she was an omnivore and therefore eat meat regularly. They got all stiff and only were slightly relieved when she revealed that they didn’t eat ponies but the idea that she ate cows and such still was a bit strange. They know their Griffon neighbors eat meat but they rarely interacted with them.
She ended up eating dinner with them and then leaving afterwards, Fiery told her that he would meet back up with her after the Hearths Warming Eve play.
***************************
The day of Hearths Warming Eve arrived and Ember awoke early to see the snow slowly falling. Checking the time it was 7 AM, earliest she had woken up since she arrived on this world. Getting into the shower and then exiting she put on her armor as she was letting her clothing dry after giving them a wash. Not exactly the best outfit to wear on a holiday, but she found it comfortable. After getting everything she needed for the day she exited her room.
“Morning,” she heard a voice speak behind her and she turned to see Sky Hook, but not in his armor revealing his blue fur and short silver and black mane.
She faced him, “Morning to you Sky, how’s your going thus far?”
He shrugged, “The best it could be. Happy I got the day off; I know some guards are still on duty. I pity them.”
“Pity the fools?” she said with a smile. “Are you going to the Hearths Warming Eve play?”
Sky laughed, “Your question should be, who isn’t? But yes, I am going. Actually going with my sisters.”
Ember folded her arms, “Your sisters? They would be interesting to meet. Considering your competitive nature I can only assume they’re similar.”
“Nah, they’re quite calm and collective compared to myself. I am the second youngest, my eldest sister, Raven is actually in the Night Corps like yourself. My youngest sister, Nighty Cloud, is still a filly.”
“How about your parents?” she asked curiously.
Sky looked away and lowered his voice, “I rather not talk about them.”
Not probing for any more information she let it slide, “Anyway what are you about to do now?”
“I am actually going to go meet with my sisters, you’re welcome to come if you want,” he replied and asked.
“Well I got nothing else to do, so if you don’t mind.”
He shook his head, “Not at all. Also I forgot to ask, how is your morning thus far?”
“Nothing to write home about,” she said and they left the castle.
***************************
Compared to the days before, there were more ornaments and holiday decorations up, from trees to giant candy canes everything was on fully display. “Not the best attire to be walking in the city,” she spoke as they walked.
He quickly glanced at her armor, “Looks like your about to take somepony out. But at least your helmet is down so not all is lost.”
“What is that? I’m going to poke it!” They heard a cheery mare yell out. Suddenly she felt a hoof poke her leg and she turned to see a pink mare with a fluffy pink mane.
“Pinkie!” a lavender mare called out from across the street. ‘Pinkie’ looked up at the bipedal creature with awe, no fear in her eyes. Ember looked around and then back at Pinkie.
“Hello?” Only she didn’t realize that she would be bombarded after.
“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie! Who are you? What are you? Do you like cupcakes? Do you like to party? Can we friends? Are you nice? What are things you like? Is that your skin? Are you an alien? Tell me tell me tell me!” Pinkie spoke swiftly at Ember as she hopped up and down.
She was taken aback by this, “Um… well I am Ember-”
“Wait, you’re an Ember? You don’t look like one, are you fooling with me?”
Sky almost laughed but held it back as Ember shot him a glare, “No my name is Ember.”
“Well then Ember, not an Ember but is named after it, what are you and do like to party?”
She glanced at Sky and then back towards the group of mares that the lavender mare was part of. They hadn’t walked over yet, just watching from a distance. “I am an Angel and I guess I like to party…”
“An Angel? That’s silly, that’s the name of a bunny! Do you like being named after things? You’re strange.”
Sky couldn’t contain it and started to laugh and Ember just sighed, “No, I am not named after a bunny. If anything he is named after us but I doubt that… Anyway, is there something you need?
”
“Nope!” she spoke showing her teeth but then looked at her friends. “I need to go! This was fun!” She turned and began to hop away towards her friends.
The two of them watched as the group walked away and then Sky spoke, “That was certainly interesting, but we should probably get going.”
“Right.”
They arrived at Sky’s modest home sometime later, a simple two-story building with three rooms. The two entered the house and could hear two voices in the living room. Both turned the corner and saw a dark purple mare with a long silver and blue mane and blue filly with a red mane, Raven and Nighty Cloud, both Pegasi. “Sky!” the filly spoke and ran over to her brother ignoring Ember.
Raven looked up at Ember, “Lieutenant Ember, I heard about you from my superiors.”
“And you must be Raven,” Ember said.
The filly looked away from her brother and saw Ember and then in a quick rush ran behind the couch and looked out shakily. “S-Sky! W-What s that..!?”
Ember looked at Sky, “I thought you said they were calm and collective.”
“That would be me,” Raven spoke as she walked towards Sky and Ember. “Nighty is still quite… cowardly.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. She is still quite young Raven,” Sky interjected.
Raven let out an “humph,” and looked over at Nighty who was still hiding, “She will learn. Anyway,” she said turning back to Ember. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person. In fact I don’t know if the Princess mentioned to you already but I will be going with you and Fiery Slate on your first assignment.”
“That’s news to me,” Ember said and Sky nodded in surprise. Sky went over to Nighty and explained what Ember was and that she wasn’t bad. Slowly but surely the filly began to come out from hiding and got closer to Ember. The bipedal creature bent down and held out a hand towards the filly. Nighty looked at the hand and then up at Ember and then back again. Ember could still see her shaking but eventually she held up her hoof and placed it on her hand and shook.
Ember smiled and the filly smiled back. The shaking stopped and Nighty could see that Ember wasn’t going to harm her. “Well she has overcome one fear,” Raven said and Nighty looked up with a proud expression.
“Have you two eaten breakfast yet?” Sky asked.
Both shook their heads, “Nope, mind making something? I want to talk with Ember here in private,” Raven spoke.
“Sure, come along Nighty,” he said as he left the living room and the filly followed him to the kitchen leaving the angel and mare alone.
They both took a seat in the living room. “So here we’re,” began Raven.
“Yes… So do you know what the mission is?”
Raven nodded, “We have got some reports near Neighagra Falls about ponies going missing. There’s a small village nearby that we’re going to check out. Luckily no one from the village of Hollow Shades has reported anyone missing.”
“What about Santa Mane? Is anyone being sent to go investigate that? Sure we got attacked but we didn’t get the whole story,” Ember questioned.
“A couple of agents have already been sent there. You need not mind what happens there and instead just focus on what is coming up.”
Ember sighed at that, she wasn’t exactly pleased with the answer but she knew there wasn’t anything she could do. “When we get to the village near Neighagra Falls is there a specific lead we will be following or we’re going in blind and just improvise.”
Raven smiled, “A bit of both. We don’t have any ponies we’re going to talk to but instead just go to the area that relatives of the missing ponies said that they went to.”
“Well that is sort of a lead, let’s just hope there is something to find there,” she said just as Sky came back in.
“Ladies- food is ready; may you accompany me to the dining room?” he announced.
Ember stood, “My, such a gentle… colt?”
Raven snickered at that, “What do you say? Clearly gentlecolt is not normal for you.”
“We say gentleman,” she explained. “Since we say man, not colt.”
“Interesting sometime you must tell me more about your culture,” Raven said as she got off her seat.
Ember thought back to Luna, “Been talking to Princess Luna about just that each night.” She revealed to the mare and she looked interested in hearing what the Princess had been told. Together they followed Sky into the dining room and ate breakfast together. She stayed with the family until the sun was starting to go down and the orange skies of the late afternoon showed. Then it was time to go to the play, lucky for them, Celestia made sure to secure front row seats for them. Only to her surprise there was no seats, everyone just stood. However since the angel towers over them she had to sit on the ground so the ponies behind her could see, Sky got a good laugh out of it.
As they sat down Ember spotted Fiery and his parents standing just a bit down the row. They waved at them but then watched the stage as the lights began to dim. The spotlight went to the center of the red draping which then moved away to reveal a fire place and a small purple dragon with an old times outfit- it was silent for a moment but then he began to speak.
“Once upon a time, long before the peaceful rule of Celestia, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony. It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart... by hatred!”
Just as Luna said, honestly it’s not surprising. If a species has full sentience, they will no doubt have dark points in their history. It’s unavoidable unless you took control of the species very early on and removed all free will. But that itself would be a dark point. So unavoidable.
Everyone but a select few gasped at this prospect, the idea of hatred being the normal and violence in general was a frightening prospect. However for Ember the Angel, while she wasn’t a very hateful person, violence was the norm, it was to be expected in her line of work and if she wasn’t used to it, than she wouldn’t be a very good soldier now would she?
The purple dragon continued but quickly walked up to the front of the stage and put his claw over the side of his face as if to whisper, “I know. Can you believe it?” he spoke in what seemed his normal voice but then continued in his fake accent. “During this frightful age, each of the three tribes – the Pegasi,” just then Pegasi that were above were lit up “the unicorns,” and then the light shined upon three unicorns, “and the Earth ponies,” lastly the light was shined on the Earth ponies below, “– cared not for what befell the other tribes,” the ponies on stage all looked away from each other in disgust, “but only for their own welfare.”
Racism? She recalled Fiery’s brief explanation of the event days ago, it seemed to match up. It was similar to some Human planets; they discriminated against various skin colors of their own race. That racism has died out but interspecies racism is still seen in modern times.
The curtains closed, “In those troubled times, as now,” then the curtains opened to show to Pegasi, one shaking a cloud, “the Pegasi were the stewards of the weather,” the cloud went off the side and a sun appeared, the background changed from clouds to farm fields and two Earth ponies came out, “But they demanded something in return. Food that could only be grown by the Earth ponies.” The two Pegasi flew down and held out their hoofs and then the Earth ponies with untrusted eyes handed food over to the Pegasi and then flew off just as the Unicorns arrived from the opposite side of the stage.
“The unicorns demanded the same,” so the Earth Ponies handed them food as well and then the unicorns horn glowed and the sun was changed to the moon, “in return for magically bringing forth day and night.” Now the stage light was on the dragon and he was the center of attention, “And so, mistrust between the tribes festered, until one fateful day, it came to a boil. And what prompted the ponies to clash? 'Twas a mysterious blizzard that overtook the land, and toppled the tribes' precarious peace.”
Fake snow began to fall from the ceiling, and the background was night and it showed Earth Ponies trying to harvest food but it all died, “The normally industrious Earth ponies were unable to farm their land…”
Ember continued to watch the play happen; she was surprised when the group of ponies she had seen in town earlier was playing the major characters. Raven told her that they were actually the elements of harmony, very famous in Equestria for dispelling Nightmare Moon, who was Luna, and only months ago a being known as Discord. It was interesting and she wondered if they would play in any future events but Raven told her it was unlikely since none of them are part of the Night Corps.
When the play finished she found it interesting how it all ended happily. They founded Equestria and they made peace. If this had been other species it would have most likely ended in bloodshed and then eventually made a peaceful ending or no ending at all.
She had to admit, the singing at the end made her a bit uneasy and thus she didn’t take part in it and just listened. However she did see Fiery singing and when he noticed she saw him he sunk down and face turned red. After the song ended the curtains folded and the lights turned back on. Everyone began to chat and talk, Fiery began to hug his parents and she could see small tears going down their faces but a sense of pride in their facial expressions.
After that he rushed over to Ember and friends, Sky and Nighty said they were going to head back but Raven stayed telling the two of them that she needed to talk with them. She quickly brought Fiery up to date with what she told Ember earlier. “Tomorrow, early in the morning we leave for Neighagra Falls, we will meet at the station, there is no station in the village, but there is a dirt path leading to it. So that will take us a few hours.”
“I will be staying in the castle,” Fiery said.
“Good, cause I didn’t want to have to go fetch you. Ember will do that,” she spoke and directed her gaze at the Angel. “I also neglected to mention up to this point but we will be having one more joining us. A Unicorn, he’s a bit on the eccentric side and… W-Well you will see when you meet him.”
Ember wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that but she didn’t say anything. After that Ember and Fiery both left to go to their own rooms, compared to before Fiery didn’t seem as nervous, she assumed staying with his parents aided in relieving him of that tension.
Tomorrow they begin their first day of Night Corp work, she only hoped that those days wouldn’t last too long before she could get back home…