An Aita Hearth's Warming

by AizakkuHorooee

Chapter III

Chrysalis and I are back to flashing back to the collective memory we were telling Aita.

Around the same time, I was an adolescent who regularly visited Equestria. Everything Mother ever knew about Hearth’s Warming came from me. In Dodge, I was one of the only changelings if not THE only changeling that wasn’t immediately shunned.

“Princess Areola,” my mother called. I responded and flew up to the throne room. “Can you help this nymph make the little pageant you told me about?”

“W-wait. You want me to do what? I thought we didn’t celebrate Hearth’s Warming, Mother.”

“My peers keep hazing me,” Chrysalis explained. “And the queen is starting to get sick of it. I-I don’t blame her.”

“But how would a Hearth’s Warming pageant help with that? That’s not going to make her problems go away, right Mother?”

“Maybe not right away Areola, but what is the pageant supposed to teach the participants? Silk, Stinger and Pigment in particular seem to be missing the message the both of us got. I suggest you personally enlist them, Chrysalis. If you aspire to take my place one day, you will need to assert yourself as much as you can. It’s the only way changelings will pay you any respect.”

Because Chrysalis and I were the only ones whose minds weren’t poisoned by the mentality the rest of the hive followed, we were the only ones honestly cut out to assemble a Hearth’s Warming pageant.

At Chrysalis’ nestrooom, I broke off a regenerative stalactite and formed it into several pieces of paper and a quill.

“So Chrysalis, did you ever hear of Hearth’s Warming before you told on those bullies?”

Chrysalis shook her head. “N-no, princess.”

“Please, I’m only an adolescent. Areola is fine. No need to be formal… All you need to know is that there are eight main roles behind the scenes. You will be our director.”

I floated the quill and quickly wrote a quick a dirty script, then copied it with a spell I memorized from Canterlot. I then passed one of the eight resulting scripts to Chrysalis.

“Director? Wouldn’t that be you?” Chrysalis asked.

“You want to practice assertion, don’t you?”

“But a director needs to pick apart the script before they have any idea how something needs to be delivered.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate yourself, Chrysalis. Give it a whirl.”

“Ugh, fine. Give me the scripts.”

So yeah, I made a pretty rushed script, but Chrysalis managed to gather her peers while I rounded up my three sisters. Three more volunteered, so we gave them a secret role.

So there I was with Chrysalis right next to me. The youngest of my sisters played music in the background while the rest of the recruits danced along.

“Alright Areola, besides all the typos, grammar, and sloppy hornwriting, I got a sense of what this script is about.”

“Sure, let’s make some corrections then.”

So, I used my horn to change the text to fix all the errors so that the scripts were more presentable.

“Okay, try it now, Chrysalis.”

“Well, it’s much easier to read.”

Chrysalis directed her attention to the recruits, who stopped dancing and playing the music to pay attention.

“Okay! Quiet everyone! Well, it’s real good seeing you all here. As you know, we’re going to put on a Hearth’s Warming pageant. Due to the shortage of time, we’ll get right down to work. One of the first things to ensure a good performance is unbridled attention to the director. I’ll keep my directions simple. The forehoof lifted indicates the side of stage to exit. Slashing the neck means the scene is cut short. Buzzing wings mean to pick up the tempo. Slumped wings mean to implement retesur. It’s the spirit of the changeling that counts, the interest they show in the director. Am I right?”

Everyone started dancing to my youngest sister’s music again.

“Tahot!” Chrysalis shouted, prompting everyone to stop again. “Alright now, we will perform this pageant, and it will be by the script! Areola, take the scripts and pass them out.”

---

Aita snaps me back to reality as he starts commenting. “Wait a minute. Why is all of this starting to sound familiar? A bunch of kids reenacting the origin story of a holiday? Didn’t I use to watch something like that?” As I look around, Chrysalis looks like she’s fuming.

Chrysalis pulls me muzzle to muzzle with her hoof, about to say something to me, only to realize Aita’s in the room. She then teleports me outside the hive so that Aita doesn’t hear us. “Areola! What do you think you’re doing?!? The pageant never started out that way! I never gave a long-winded speech to the recruits! There was never any music going on! And I certainly never gave out pointers our peers already knew!”

I throw the end of my hoof forward. “Oh, pff, this is a child, Chrysalis. As long as the main idea is intact, we can be liberal with the finer details.”

Chrysalis shakes me with her magic. “But that child is Aita! He’s more like myself when I was small than you realize! I was able to analyze that play we did, so why can’t Aita do the same with our memories of it?!?”

“I know that, but during my visits with Carina, she told me our story was similar to a special she and Aita watched. If we got his imagination flowing, he’d get the-”

“Areola, listen to me. I know you were my old teacher, but I’ve been around Aita longer than you have, and he comes to solid conclusions pretty efficiently. If you want to contribute to the story, by all means, but please keep it truthful.”

“Fine! I hope you’re happy. Goodbye Chrysalis.” I turn away from Chrysalis and start heading to Equetria.

“Wait, what?!?”

I look back at Chrysalis. “If YOU want to tell the story yourself, go ahead and tell him. I won’t get in your way.”

“Areola, I-”

“The fact we had to teleport out says it all.”

And so, I take off the ground and start flying.