Patrilineality: Making Up For Time We Lost

by Melody Song

Chapter 21: Hearth’s Warming Merriment

The next day, Metamorphosis woke up, and took a still asleep Apex to the cafeteria, where he found Thorax, Pharynx, Ember, and Tempest at his son’s usual table. He smiled and joined them, as Ocellus and Smolder sat down with them.

“Good morning everycreature.” Metamorphosis smiled.

“Morning dad.” Thorax greeted, as the food arrived. He took Apex and nuzzled him. “Morning sweetie.”

“Heheh… Papa Thorax…” Apex nuzzled into him, yawning.

“Yum! Gems!” Smolder said, reaching for a bowl of them.

Ember growled playfully and swatted her away, the scepter clutched in the elder dragon’s claw gleaming slightly. Smolder backed away, letting Ember grab the gems she wanted first. Ocellus giggled softly as Smolder at last was able to get some gems.

“So, what do we do first?” Metamorphosis asked

“And does it have anything to do with that upside-down tree in the throne room?” Tempest asked with a teasing glint in her eye. Pharynx blushed.

“Aheh… we may have misread Twilight’s list of instructions…” Thorax chuckled sheepishly. “I gave it to Ocellus for her family to test out, an assignment as my student. I figured trying it out with a family would be a good test run on it before revealing it to the rest of the Hive.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I know Ocellus is not a dumb changeling by any standard, so if she was unable to comprehend the instructions then the blame may fall on Twilight being vague.” Tempest replied. “Still, I’m interested to see where the giant punch bowl comes in.”

“I’m assuming it’s like our traditional lava diving?” Ember asked

“Sort of.” Ocellus replied

“Lava diving would be more fun though…” Pharynx muttered, and Thorax nudged him.

“Well, I can’t wait to see all these traditions.” Metamorphosis said

“I can’t wait to see how badly Twilight screwed up with this list she apparently sent.” Tempest snorted in amusement.

“I thought you only called her ‘princess’?” Ember accused teasingly, jabbing a gemstone in Tempest’s direction

“I’m on break, the princess has consented to me only calling her by her name and not title when I’m off duty.” Tempest replied

“Eh, fair enough.” Ember ate the gemstone. “So what first?”

“Please say punch-diving.” Smolder mumbled

“Heh, that actually is the thing we can do immediately, the other stuff happens at night, and we need to wait while the chefs prepare the feast for lunch.” Thorax said

“Had me at feast, let’s go.” Smolder said, making some of them laugh.

The group had fun taking turns with other changelings in diving into the punch. Metamorphosis did notice it clung to his mane though, and saw Tempest having similar concerns. Her mane was now hanging down around her face, and Pharynx seemed to be affectionately teasing her about it. Soon, it was lunchtime, and Thorax gathered them in the cafeteria for the feast.

Metamorphosis sat between his sons at their usual table, each one’s respective girlfriend on their other side. He ate happily as he watched Ocellus and Smolder eat heartily, giggling and talking. Metamorphosis also smiled fondly at seeing his sons talk with their partners.

While Metamorphosis was happy to see the young love as it blossomed, in the back of his mind, he was dimly reminded of his first few years of love with Chrysalis. He hoped these relationships lasted longer and were stronger than theirs had been. His sons were good and kind, they did not deserve these relationships broken.

Soon after the feast was done, Thorax led them to the throne room for the next thing. Building a fire.

“Let me guess, instead of just setting fire to a bunch of logs… you’re going to-” Tempest broke off as she noticed some changelings with hammers and nails. “...Simultaneously exactly what I expected and yet did not predict at all.”

Thorax gave another sheepish chuckle. After the fires were ‘built’ and Tempest had had more than one laugh about the way they’d interpreted this part of Twilight’s list, the next step began. They gathered all the firefly lanterns from the hallways, with some extra so there were enough for everyone.

“Okay, this is pretty cool.” Smolder said, examining her lantern.

“And for the carols?” Tempest asked

“We’ve, uh, fixed that part.” Thorax said, helping Apex balance the lantern in his hooves. “We were originally just singing the word ‘carols’ but it got old pretty fast, so we came up with an original song.”

Tempest nodded in understanding. The group held their lanterns, the changelings around other fires doing the same. The changelings began to sing as one, only Pharynx not joining in. Metamorphosis had learned the words, and nudged his eldest son to sing along. Pharynx huffed and stayed silent.

“It's holiday time
A most special season
So we all gather round
To remember the reason
For it's not the gifts
Food or decorations
But the Spirit of Love
That marks this celebration!

So come stand by me
Sing along, soon you'll see
That on this holiday
We let love, light the way
You’ll need nothing more
Than those you adore
For on this holiday
We let love, light the way”

Tempest, Ember, and Smolder seemed to be getting the beat quickly. Ocellus moved closer to Smolder, carrying the next verse.

“We all have ways
Of observing this winter evening
But still each of us shares
Something that we all believe in
And what makes this one night
Outshine all others
Is sharing our joy with our sisters and our brothers!”

Thorax pulled Pharynx closer at this, and he grunted, but with looks from his father and brother, sighed and sang along in the next verse.

“Come sing with me
And all together we'll be
For on this holiday
We let love light the way
And in every hall,
We see friends in one and all
So on this holiday
We’ll let love light our way.”

Tempest, Ember, and Smolder finally joined in.

Every winter,
While we honor all traditions
We are good to remember
It's not a big competition
And let love be our mission

This night outshines all others
When we stand with our sisters and our brothers

So come stand by me
Sing along, soon you'll see
That on this holiday
We let love light our way
As we stand around the fire
All together we are
For on this holiday
We let love light our way.”

Thorax and Pharynx then went to their girlfriends, while Ocellus leaned against Smolder. Metamorphosis picked up Apex, who smiled and clutched his lantern closer.

“And we need nothing more, than those we adore
On this holiday
We let love
We let love
We let love
We let love
We let love light our way.”

The song finished, and the changelings all cheered, launching into a pony holiday carol. Thorax and Pharynx began nuzzling their partners, and Metamorphosis chuckled. He then saw Ocellus and Smolder talking by the light from their lanterns.

“Alright, come on, let’s go exchange gifts.” Thorax said

Comments

[Xanderfox]

I imagine many of the Changeling Misinterpreted tradtions to become Changeling specific ones instead.

[Melody Song]

10653342
Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened, it's actually probably how some holiday traditions started

[Xanderfox]

10653345
For a lot of traditions they when "stolen" from older holidays when peasants were forced to change religions and refused to give up old festivals, the new religion had to alter the tradition to fit the new religion but still give the peasants what they wanted.
Some modern traditions are born from marketing campaigns, like the Japanese traction of Kentucky Fried Chicken as Xmas dinner.

[Melody Song]

10653354
Ah