The Light Within Us

by theOwtcast

Holidays

A couple of days later, I took a moment of freedom from royal duties that needed immediate attention to relax a little; I needed it! An arts-and-crafts session happened to be in progress and they welcomed me without a second thought. I found myself a nice corner, set up a canvas and watercolors, and looked around. What to paint? It had been a while… Had I painted anything since my return to the hive? Probably not, not even a sketch… I hadn’t had the time, and truth be told, my creativity had been needed elsewhere during these last few months: though our bodies had received a complete overhaul, our home and social structure had remained in dire need of one too, but the matter had been largely settled by now, and with no emergencies looming, I could finally spare a moment to indulge myself with an old hobby.

That hobby had quickly evolved to portray my vision of a better life for changelings, back when such a life was only an unlikely dream. I had endeavoured to put that dream on paper, canvas, or whichever other medium was available, in order to help others realize it was possible, even if I hadn’t considered it likely for many years in the future. But now that the most unlikely outcome had happened, now that I’d brought my dream into reality, was there still any need for further paintings with the same theme?

Nevermind, I decided. I was going to continue! My art may not have needed to provoke thought anymore, so why wouldn’t it instead celebrate what we had become? Like the drones around me, for example; who would have thought they’d be not only painting and sculpting one day, but genuinely enjoying it? That deserved to be immortalized!

I’d just barely finished the outline of the scene when the mailmare from Ponyville trotted in and approached me with a letter.

Dear Thorax,

Congratulations on your alliance with the dragons! I had no idea Ember was interested; I actually expected you’d have to be the one to ask her and to be insistent about it! But be careful, will ya? You’re forging alliances so quickly that there won’t be any more alliances to forge by this time next year! What will you do then?

To answer your question, no, I’m afraid I don’t know for sure when I’ll be able to visit you next. We hardly even got to spend any time together at your coronation and I hoped we would! Not your fault - I know you were busy with too many things, and I should have taken it into consideration and talked Twilight into getting there a day or two sooner - but it’s getting embarrassing! I mean, how many times has it been now? Add to it that Twilight and I have been invited to spend Hearth’s Warming with Cadance and Shining in the Crystal Empire… I don’t suppose you could spare a few days off to join us? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you! Okay, you’re probably busy, I understand if you can’t be there.

Speaking of holidays, do changelings celebrate anything at this time of year? I hope you’ll have fun if you do!

Your friend,

Spike

P.S. Twilight happens to be in the room while I’m writing this and now she wants to know EVERYTHING about changeling holidays! (Send help!)

I trotted to my bedchamber where I knew I had some writing paper and envelopes, then sat down to write a reply.

Dear Spike,

Thank you! I don’t know how nitpicky you want to get, but I kind of did offer an alliance to Ember first. I say ‘kind of’ because it was part of a letter that I sent out to all leaders in the world just after overthrowing Chrysalis. Granted, I didn’t expect much to come of that offer, but the main idea of the letter was to announce that we weren’t a threat anymore, and any diplomatic ties would have been a bonus. She never mentioned that letter as something that influenced her decision, though, so I’m not sure if she even read it or if she remembers what it said, unless she assumed I was offering more than I’d care to uphold. I didn’t ask. Now that we’re allies, what does it matter who made the first step, anyway?

Twilight is going to be disappointed. Aside from celebrating war victories, which isn’t done anymore for obvious reasons, changelings don’t have any holidays at any time of year, or at least we didn’t in the old days, as Chrysalis thought they would be a distraction from our duties with no benefits to the hive. I wouldn’t mind changing that, though! Sunburst told me a little about Hearth’s Warming, but we both thought I’d still be living in the Crystal Empire by the time it came around, and he decided that teaching me about it in detail could wait until the holiday since we had plenty of other things that I needed to know sooner. How is it celebrated? Maybe we can adopt it for ourselves! If ponies don’t mind, of course…

I wish I could join you for the holiday, but Cadance and Shining will probably have their hooves full enough as it is, so I won’t burden them unless they invite me personally. You go on and have fun, though! I’m sure we’ll get to spend some time together eventually too, hopefully soon!

Your friend,

Thorax

The mailmare was still here, having developed a habit of sticking around to pick up any outgoing mail that might get written in reply to the letters she brought in, and I gave her the letter. She didn’t leave right away, instead continuing to chat with the nearby drones. Was she waiting for more letters to be brought to her? It would be so wonderful to find out that my subjects had found some penpals in Equestria! Was the time coming to establish our own postal service?

I returned to my painting.

---

The painting was nearly finished by the time Spike’s next letter arrived.

Dear Thorax,

Gee, I forgot about those letters! Must have assumed the one Twilight received was a formality, heh… but yeah, it wasn’t really a formality, was it? At least when it comes to other lands… Nice to see someone taking it seriously! Any more alliance offers by any chance?

Twilight is mildly disappointed that you don’t have any holidays to tell her about, but she admits that it’s hardly surprising, given what Chrysalis was like. If you really want to adopt Hearth’s Warming, she’s super excited to teach you all about it! In fact, she’s writing you the basic instructions about the holiday right now and I’ll include them with my letter. (Please don’t ask for anything more detailed - she could write a book about it and, from the looks of it, has already almost filled the entire piece of paper that I limited her to for your convenience! You DO NOT want to be around when she goes into full teacher mode!)

Sorry if the letter is short. Nothing much happened since the last one, and we’ve got a train to catch. If Twilight finishes writing first…

Happy Hearth’s Warming!

Your friend,

Spike

Dear Thorax,

I’m so excited that you want to incorporate pony holidays into changeling culture! If I may say so, Hearth’s Warming is the perfect holiday to begin with and it fits you so well! In case Sunburst hasn’t told you that much already, it commemorates the acts of three ponies, one from each tribe, to convince their tribes’ leaders to overcome the division and hatred that was so deeply ingrained into each tribe that it attracted the windigoes, the ancient spirits that feed on hatred and spread eternal winter, and to bring peace to their tribes, which was the first step in the founding of Equestria. The core values that they established are the foundations on which Equestria stands today. I can actually draw a lot of parallels between their work and what you did with the changelings! But I have to admit I’m not sure how you’ve been unaware of the holiday until Sunburst told you about it, considering how many changelings were infiltrated long-term into Equestria at any given moment. I’d expect you to be more familiar with it, if for no other reason, then to maintain disguise credibility! Do you lack the knowledge due to how you struggled in basic training? Or maybe you’re trying to clear up any misconceptions and/or to fill the gaps in the knowledge that the infiltrators never managed or bothered to fill?

Now, Spike made me promise I wouldn’t write a book on the subject and only gave me this paper for reference as to how detailed I should allow myself to get in order to avoid overwhelming you, and I’ve already used up a better portion of it (how can anypony hope to explain Hearth’s Warming properly on a piece of paper this small?), so I’m left with no choice but to cover the barest of the basics. Forgive me if you already know all of this!

How is Hearth’s Warming celebrated, you ask? There can be some variations that reflect a family’s unique traditions, but some things are generally the same in every family, so I’ll describe those. Families start the holiday by putting the tree up on Hearth’s Warming Eve. The meals at Heart’s Warming are richer and more elaborate than on a normal day, and if thirsty, there’s often a punch bowl to dive into. Everypony exchanges gifts; some families do it in the morning and some families in the evening before the big day. Lastly, to complete the festive environment, you can build a fire, light it up, and sing carols. By the way, did you know that your coronation anthem was based on one of the most popular Hearth’s Warming carols?

Hope this helps! I tried to be short, so sorry if I forgot something, but we can get into greater detail later if you’re interested! Now I have a train to catch! I’ll say hi to Cadance and Sunburst for you!

Happy Hearth’s Warming!

Twilight

I put together a quick thank-you-and-have-fun letter for them, knowing they wouldn’t get it until after they returned from the Crystal Empire, and the mailmare made off with it. Then, I had just about enough time to add the final touches to my painting before heading out to the feelings forum. They had by now gotten in the habit of being held regularly regardless of whether or not anyling needed to discuss a problem, and if none of them needed help on any particular day, the drones would just sit around and talk about anything. Today, assuming there weren’t more pressing matters, I intended to bring up the suggestion to celebrate Hearth’s Warming.

The attendance was high but none of the attendees presented a problem for discussion, so I took my chance. I tried to present the matter in the most positive light I could, hoping it would work, but despite the trends being favorable, the long years of shunning and ridiculing my ideas still cast shadows that sometimes made it hard to expect approval. Like now, for example.

“So,” I asked in the end, “what do you think?”

Half the drones nodded, smiled, or murmured eagerly, apparently liking the idea, or at least finding it interesting enough to give it a try. The others murmured among themselves.

“Why would we have to do that?” one of them asked.

“Well, like I said, to relax and spend time with your friends and families and-”

“Yes, I heard you the first time. What I mean is, don’t you think we’re doing plenty of that already?”

“Compared to what it was like in the old days, yes, you’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have days dedicated to relaxing and socializing!”

“And what are we supposed to gain from it?”

“...you’ll be happier?”

The guy snorted.

“I wouldn’t mind,” another drone said. “At least to give it a try. Maybe it’ll surprise you.”

“You of all people?!” the first one exclaimed. “You were one of Chrysalis’ best infiltrators, for hive’s sake!”

“Yes, I was. No point denying that I spent fourteen years in Canterlot. I never liked ponies much, but you know what? I liked Hearth’s Warming. I had no idea what it was about exactly and didn’t care, but I did care about all that intensified aura that always happened around that time. Best guess is that the holiday had something to do with it, and I was as hungry as the rest of you, so…” He shrugged. “Maybe the ponies were doing something right and maybe it’s time to accept that. If I learned anything as an infiltrator, it’s that there’s always something new to learn about things and people. Sometimes you’ll like what you learn and sometimes you won’t, but the thing you learn about doesn’t care how you feel about it being the way it is, and most of the time, you can’t make it change to fit your liking, so it’s best to accept it and move on. We may not be starving anymore, and we may not need a holiday to supply us with love, but I sure as heck won’t turn it away if it does. For all we know, a holiday of some sort could be responsible for the chain of events that led Thorax to learn how to end starvation, and a holiday of some sort could be what’s keeping our love supplies from running dry even if we haven’t realized it yet.”

“Okay, fine, that makes sense,” another drone said. “But why do we have to celebrate a pony thing? Why not something of our own?”

“We don’t have anything of our own, Dagger,” Sleuth said.

“Sure we do! We’ve had war victories and-”

“War victories are a thing of the past and we’re no longer proud of them,” Grim reminded him.

“Then let’s invent something!”

“We’re sure to have our own achievements to celebrate in due course,” I said. “In the meantime, we can celebrate the same things our friends and allies celebrate. Besides, don’t you think there could be an indirect reason for us to celebrate Hearth’s Warming?”

“Really? What?” a voice grumbled from near the entrance.

“Oh, hi, Pharynx! I didn’t see you there! When did you arrive?”

“I didn’t. I was just passing by and heard you trying to sweeten up the hive even more than it already is. I’m wondering what excuse you’ll cook up this time!”

A few drones snickered.

“If the ponies hadn’t learned to overcome their differences and stop hating the tribes other than their own, the windigoes would have consumed their lands, we’d have been left without our main source of food for centuries no matter how I personally feel about the way we used to obtain that food, and even if we’d somehow survived to this day under such conditions, there’s no telling if any of us would have been able to figure out a way to end starvation,” I said. “Instead, the ponies learned to share love, and the love they shared among themselves not only kept them safe from the windigoes, but it kept us alive through the centuries, and its legacy is the reason why we’ve eventually bettered ourselves.”

“Hm. Good save.”

“Wait, you support him?!” Rascal asked Pharynx.

“It’s hard to argue with his logic, but that still doesn’t mean I want everything insufferably cute like I’m sure it’s supposed to get, given where the holiday is coming from.”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled to myself. Typical Pharynx…

“What’s wrong with things being cute?” Antenna protested.

“Don’t you have enough flowers already?”

Everyling started talking at once. I tried to restore some order, but it was no use! Eventually, Feisty hit the gong, which helped somewhat.

“Arguing will get us nowhere,” she said. “Why don’t we try to find a compromise?”

“Yes, thank you,” I said. “Twilight said in her letter that families can have their own traditions in addition to what’s generally done everywhere, so it’s not like there’s just one correct way to celebrate! I’d be fine with letting each of you choose for yourselves how involved you want to be in celebrating if some aspects don’t suit you.”

“Hey, I have an idea,” Elytra exclaimed. “If ponies can have a certain way of celebrating, why don’t we invent our own? We can base it on what ponies do but who says we have to do the exact same thing as them?”

“Do you have anything specific in mind?”

“I might,” she said cryptically.

“Well?” Rascal and Dagger pressed.

“I’m thinking something along the lines of free interpretation of what ponies do. That way it won’t be too different from their thing, and everyling will have a chance to add a personal touch, something they’ll like about the holiday. Could be fun!”

Most drones nodded or murmured in agreement. A few smirked miscievously, and I hoped they hadn’t just invented a way to destroy the holiday for everyling else! What worried me most was that Pharynx was smirking…

“Okay, so I take it that you’ve agreed to do it? We’ve got a little time left until Hearth’s Warming, so get ready!”

---

The next morning found me in the arts-and-crafts section again. The part of Hearth’s Warming that I looked forward to the most was gift-giving, and I had an idea for something that Pharynx might like that I was pretty sure I could finish in time. As for everything else that Twilight had described, it sounded interesting and I might have attempted to partake in preparing everything, but there was going to be no time; Hearth’s Warming Eve was tonight and I could only do one thing at such short notice! If only I’d inquired about the holiday sooner, then we wouldn’t be in such a rush to prepare everything in one day and we could all do a little bit of everything! Unless there was a rule that forbade doing anything in advance? I’d have to ask the ponies about it!

Luckily, no urgent royal business came up and I was at least able to work on the gift in peace. A few other drones were around too, apparently making their own gifts, and though I was too busy making my own gift to pay much attention to them, I got the impression they were all done in much less time than I expected to. Were they simply taking turns in crafting a single gift? But why would they do that? It was possible that a gift required assistance of a drone skilled in a particular thing, but surely that wouldn’t be the case with all gifts, would it? And judging by what I’d seen when sporadically glancing at their work, none of it seemed complicated at all; in fact, most were just little boxes of different colors! Had they bought finished gifts that only needed to get wrapped up? Or maybe found something worthy of gifting? Surely they wouldn’t have stolen anything… right?

Oh well, I could always ask about it later. For all I knew, someling may have anticipated my idea of introducing Hearth’s Warming into the hive, or maybe they thought they’d need gifts for something sooner or later, and had stockpiled in advance. Just because I’d never seen any potential gifts lying around didn’t mean there hadn’t been any!

The sun had glided almost all the way to the west by the time I finished Pharynx’s gift and wrapped it up. In this whole time, I hadn’t left the arts-and-crafts section even to stretch my legs, and everyling else was long finished. Had they already started celebrating? I wasn’t hearing any singing, but the love aura was bright and warm, so maybe it was just out of earshot! Itching to see what they’d done, I took the gift into my bedchamber and went for a stroll around the hive.

The first out-of-the-ordinary thing I noticed was an oak tree hanging upside-down in one of the larger caverns.

“What the-” I muttered, dumbfounded by the sight.

“Don’t worry, Thorax, it’s just our Hearth’s Warming tree!” Blade said.

“But- what- how-”

He and the drone who had first defended Hearth’s Warming at the feelings forum chuckled.

“...okay… you hung a tree… wow… Is that what ponies do?”

“No,” Blade admitted. “They use a pine or spruce and prop it up right-side-up, or sometimes they use a living tree in a planter, and they decorate it with ornaments. But not many pines grow here and we don’t have the traditional ornaments, though we could improvise something less traditional in a pinch or maybe get enough drones to become ornaments for the day, but you agreed to have us use our own interpretation of Twilight’s instructions, so Menace suggested this instead.”

“The idea popped in my head randomly a few years ago, as a ‘let’s-mess-with-ponies-on-their-holiday’ kind of mischief that we liked to do in the old days, but that would have killed the extra love and likely compromised my disguise, so I held back,” he said. “But now there aren’t such risks so I figured I might as well see what it would look like.”

“Oh… okay…”

“You sound disappointed?”

“No, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting something like this… and I kind of feel sorry for the tree…”

“I thought you might,” Blade said, “so I copied a trick I saw from you in the Crystal Empire and cocooned the roots.”

I flew up and, sure enough, there was a cocoon around the other end of the tree! I couldn’t believe it! They’d actually started doing that too!

“We’ll replant it when the holiday’s over,” Menace said. “If you see a pair of discolored maulwurfs or something carrying a tree across the wasteland a few days from now, that’s probably us.”

“Okay! Well, have fun, and happy Hearth’s Warming!” I said and continued my stroll.

A little further, I caught a glimpse of a group of drones sitting in a circle and exchanging gifts. I’d have thought nothing of it except for the way they were doing it: instead of giving a gift to a drone who then opened it and kept whatever was inside, they had a bunch of fancily-wrapped boxes that they rotated among themselves! Well, that at least explained how they’d been done making the said ‘gifts’ so quickly earlier today…

I continued on. A peculiar scent attracted me to the kitchen, where I found a dozen drones in the process of baking something that resembled heart-shaped cookies but was made of, or covered in, a shiny, vibrant-red substance and decorated with elaborate, colorful swirls.

“They’re not actually edible,” one of the drones told me as I stared at the finished products. “Not in the sense that you’ll get poisoned - all the ingredients are non-toxic - but they don’t taste good and you could break a tooth if you bite into them.”

“What are they?”

“We’ve been calling them gingerbread hearts. The recipe is based on that for gingerbread houses the ponies make and modified for durability rather than edibility. We’ve been wondering if imbuing them with live aura could produce a sort of Hearth’s Warming-like meal that we could get nutrition from. If it fails, at least we’ll use the hearts as decorations.”

“I like the idea! Have you tried it yet?”

“No, we want to finish baking and icing the hearts first. We’ll tell you how it goes!”

I thanked them and left them to their work. Further along the stroll, I saw some more trees hung upside-down and a few more groups exchanging faux-gifts. Nothing wrong with any of it, but I had to admit I’d expected a little more variety over what they chose to do and how they chose to do it, even if some ended up adhering exactly to the pony way of celebrating the holiday due to either deliberate choice or a lack of ideas for anything different, or maybe both in some cases. Had they all spent the rest of that feelings forum setting up standards that everyling was supposed to follow?

Singing voices interrupted that train of thought and I followed them down a hallway. My ears led me to what appeared to be the cluster of bedchambers belonging to Banshee, Spiracle, and their three nymphs. They were all gathered in the central space, around a pile of wooden planks cut, painted, and hammered together to resemble a fire, and each of them was holding a firefly lantern and singing the words ‘carols, carols, carols, carols, carols!’ over and over again.

The eldest nymph was the first to notice me; she yelped and recoiled so hard that she crashed into the ‘fire’ and nearly knocked it over, dropping the lantern and turning into a rock in the process.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” I said quickly, taking her in my hooves. “Please relax! I was only passing by and happened to hear you sing!”

“It’s okay, Ocellus,” her mother said. “You can shift back! Sorry, Thorax! She’s shy.”

After a moment of hesitation, the rock returned to her insectoid form and withdrew behind her parents.

“It’s alright. Hi, Ocellus! I’m Thorax. Pleased to meet you!”

She nodded slowly.

“Don’t mind our silly singing,” Spiracle said. “We’ve been singing the usual pony carols all day and got bored eventually.”

“Why would I mind? I said everyling was free to make their own traditions, and if your is to sing one word all over again, who am I to forbid it?”

Ocellus looked at her parents as if she wanted to point out a flaw in my logic, but didn’t say anything, and they didn’t seem to notice. I asked her about it.

“Uh, y-y-you’re the k-king,” she stammered. “You can f-forbid a-a-a-anything, can’t you?”

“I guess I could, but why would I do it if you’re enjoying yourselves and no one’s getting hurt?”

“Yeah,” Banshee chuckled. “Forbidding stuff would be more in Pharynx’s style!”

Oh dear, I’d forgotten about Pharynx, and it was getting pretty dark!

“Um, excuse me, I just remembered something,” I said. “Gotta go! And enjoy the holiday!”

I vaguely remembered Pharynx mentioning something about finishing the soldiers’ drills early due to holiday preparations. I didn’t know whether or not he’d actually meant it, but even if it wasn’t like him to choose anything over battle-related stuff, I hoped he’d have at least made an effort! But where to find him?

A quick glance through one of the openings overlooking the training grounds revealed that either he’d dismissed them or that they were practicing environment-mimicking disguises. I chose to assume the former was the case, but that didn’t help much to figure out Pharynx’s current whereabouts. He wasn’t in either of our bedchambers, and I’d already checked the training grounds, if only from an altitude; the armory and the training gear storage area were other possibilities, but what would he be doing there now? In the end, I went to the throne room on the off-chance that Psycho was still there and could tell me something useful.

I didn’t get to Psycho. There was no need; in the middle of the plateau sat a large trough, a head taller than me and probably wide enough to fit a fully-grown timberwolf, and as I was trying to wrap my mind around its unexpected presence and unclear purpose, Pharynx flew over and emptied a bag into it. Something clattered inside.

“Where have you been all day?” he asked.

“Around, doing the preparations and stuff,” I said vaguely, then pointed at the trough. “What’s this?”

“Punch bowl.”

Really? It didn’t look like what I’d expect of a punch bowl… Eyeing it curiously, I flew up and looked inside. There was no liquid, but the bottom was covered in probably every weapon known to the world: spears, daggers, halberds, crossbows, and an insane amount of whips, clubs, hammers, and maces; there were even some things I didn’t recognize! I cast a bewildered look at my brother.

“What’s all this doing here?!”

“You wanted us to come up with our own interpretation of the things from that letter, didn’t you? Well this is mine.”

“But-”

“What did you expect? That I’d mix up loads of the drink to swim in like Grim and Gossamer did?”

“That would have been better…”

“Well deal with it.”

“At least you could have set it up somewhere other than the throne room!” I picked up one of the unfamiliar objects. “What is all this, anyway?”

“Those are brass knuckles. I stole them from a griffon thug a while back.” He transformed into a griffon, took the thing from me, and slipped it onto his talons. “They’re designed to do heavier damage than a bare claw when you hit someone. Do it right and you can break your opponent’s beak off their face, then they can’t peck at you and will be visibly disgraced and ridiculed until they buy a prosthetic beak.”

I cringed at that. “What if they don’t have the money?”

“Tough luck, then. They should have thought of that before picking a fight.”

I decided not to ask further. “So, why is all this here?”

“Because apparently it’s Hearth’s Warming and I wanted something to enjoy. I don’t get to beat up people much now that the hive’s under new management.”

“You’re still mad about that sparring session with Ember? I’m sorry you lost-”

“I didn’t lose, you interrupted it! I would have easily dodged that fire, and I intend to prove it to you as soon as she can get back and continue where we left off!” He took off the brass knuckles and returned to his own form. “Wanna play referee?”

“Didn’t you just complain about me stopping the fight?”

“I don’t mean with Ember! She’s too busy in the Dragon Lands right now!”

“Then what did you mean?”

“I thought I might involve you in my Hearth’s Warming celebration. Unless you want to fight?”

“No thanks- wait, who’s fighting if not you and Ember?”

“Some of your precious reformed renegades were plotting a little arson so I signed them up for the punch bowl instead. Hornet should be bringing them anytime now!”

“I don’t know, Pharynx…”

“C’mon, it won’t be hard. All you have to do is yell ‘Pharynx wins!’ every time I kill one of them.”

“What?!”

“What?”

“Why would you kill them?!”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine, whenever I knock one of them out. Killjoy…”

“...what if they knock you out?”

“You think a First Commander can’t handle a few lousy recruits?!”

“I know you can, but that doesn’t mean you have to-”

“Well finally!” he exclaimed; I turned around to see Hornet bringing in about two dozen grumpy drones. “What took you so long?”

“Sorry.”

“Okay, who’s first?”

Noling volunteered so Pharynx picked one out at random and dragged him into the punch bowl. The fight was over while I still debated with myself whether to command him to stop the brutality or to allow him to discipline his subordinates as he saw fit… within reasonable limits, whatever counted as ‘reasonable’ in the context… The unconscious former renegade was taken out of the punch bowl and dumped aside, and Pharynx picked the next victim, who quickly fared about as unwell as the first one, and so on until they were all through and Hornet piled them up on a trolley to drag them to the infirmary.

“What, that’s it?” Pharynx said after she left with his unfortunate opponents.

“You didn’t have to be so brutal,” I told him.

“Brutal?” he snorted. “I was just warming up for the real thing!”

“Still, if you’ll want to do this next year, maybe ask for actual volunteers instead of disguising discipline measures as a fighting competition?”

“I thought you were gonna ban this for next year!”

“I want to, but that would mean taking away the only thing that makes my brother happy for a holiday.” It was true; his aura had gotten much brighter than usual! “Just promise me that participation will be entirely voluntary from now on?”

“Eh, whatever.”

“Now come, I have something for you.”

“What?”

“You’ll see!”

I took him to my bedchamber and gave him the gift. He eyed it suspiciously, sniffed it, examined it from all angles as if expecting a nasty prank, and then, not having found anything alarming, he tore up the wrapping and opened the box.

“It’s a blowpipe,” he said. “And darts. And a target thingy. And-” He raised an eyebrow. “-drawings of you, Chrysalis, Psycho, pony princesses, some more ponies, a random drone, and a maulwurf?”

“You slide the drawings into the target thingy.” I showed him. “Then you blow darts at it. It’s for when you’re angry at someone but don’t want to hurt them or they’re too far away or something.”

“And these empty papers?”

“They’re for when you need a face that I haven’t anticipated. You just draw them or ask someling else to do it for you.”

“Interesting.” He looked at the set a little longer, then smirked, put Chrysalis’ face into the target, propped it against the wall, and blew a dart across the room, hitting Chrysalis between the eyes. “Yeah, I could get used to this stuff!”

“Glad you like it!”

“But your picture?”

I shrugged. “I figured you might need it whenever I tell you not to kill someone…”

“Heh!”

He stood there for a moment, looking at the blowpipe, then said, “Didn’t that letter say something about exchanging gifts?”

“It did, why?”

“I didn’t make you anything.”

“It’s okay, I-”

“But maybe there’s something I can compensate with.”

“You don’t have to, really-”

“Shut up.” He put the blowpipe down and approached me. “I’m no good at this so don’t judge me.”

I was about to ask what he meant, but then he embraced me in an awkward hug. Was I dreaming? I couldn’t believe he’d actually done that! I’d always thought he’d sooner die a long and painful death than hug anyone!

“Awwwww…” I hugged him back.

“You’ve got two seconds.”

“Okay…” I felt a happy tear sliding down my face.

“Thorax?”

“Yes?”

“It’s been ten seconds.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Well stop it.”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t let go right now, I’ll pin that target on your face and test the brass knuckles on it!”

“Oh… okay… sorry...”

Author's Note:

A Hearth’s Warming chapter at this time of year? Unorthodox, maybe, but its turn came in in-universe time, so why not?

A bit of trivia:
The decorative hearts that the changelings are baking in this chapter are based on a type of traditional Christmas decoration from my country, typically heart-shaped, but other shapes can be found too. They’re often sold as souvenirs as well, in which case they may or may not be Christmas-related. They’re not actually gingerbread, though, and production takes much longer than the one day that the changelings here have at their disposal.

Comments

[RandomCommentor]

That last part was so cute!

You get the fabled double thumbs from me

👍👍

[DiscordantDisciple]

this chapter was so wholesome!
loved all the holiday stuff!

[LunaJack]

I love this chapter. You kept the Changelings from looking silly and foolish (like they did in the show). Also, which country are you from? These hearts look lovely!

[Screw]

We certainly would love to see more of Pharynx attempting fluff stuff!

I had already imagined that Thorax was going to do something like the painting he did at the Crystal Empire, but dedicated to Pharynx. Like how none of these would ever happened if little Pharynx didn't protect his little brother.

[theOwtcast]

11685071
Thanks! I'm from Croatia

11685230
Great idea! (Why didn't I think of that?) I'll see if I can squeeze it in somewhere

[Melody Song]

The huggggg also haha dart board is a perfect gift for Phar

[redmar]

Thorax did give his brother a good gift and the ending of the chapter was funny as well.