...just don't hug me too hard, I don't actually squeak.
Trotting along with a spring in his step, Calor felt as if he was gliding on air.
The Crystal Empire stretched out before him as an endless suburb of shimmering houses, all of them decorated with trimmed hedges and neatly framed doorsteps. Crystal ponies cast him warm hellos and glances as he passed by, and he mirrored them perfectly. The warm stone walkway coaxed his hooves to embrace it, begging him to gallop along with it at full speed, while a cooling breeze wrapped around his body like a blanket. Most of all, his cheeks ached in a widened grin, his senses numbed by waves of love that seemed to pulse from every corner of the kingdom.
It was an experience right out of one of Thorax's gushy personal stories. A quaint, welcoming utopia sat perfectly amidst a winter tundra. Not even the hive's subterranean hot springs could compare to the sense of calm he felt here.
His tongue poked between his teeth, and Calor's smile threatened to bisect his face. There was only one thing that could make this experience better, and it came in the form of modest gold lettering sat atop a small, emerald building.
'Scy's Plushies', the sign read. A crude but adorable trio of animals had been crafted from crystal and placed by the sign's edge.
As Calor approached the building, his trot became a series of prances in place. The paradise of soft felt and stuffing that laid beyond that door caused his heart to flutter. Moreover, he was now only dozens, perhaps tens of feet away from his sought treasure. Chirping in excitement, he made his way up the doorsteps, eagerly pushing open the door to the soft chime of an unseen bell.
"...oh! U-um, hello! Welcome in!"
The words twitched his ears, but Calor's gaze had already been claimed. He stood in the midst of a large circular room, featuring a rich red carpet and pleasantly dim lighting. At the opposite end of the room stood a symmetrical doorway matching the one in which he stood, and covering every inch of the walls in-between were shelves upon shelves of plushies, stuffed animals, and other crafted creatures of fluff and fuzz.
A high-pitched squeak besieged the shop as Calor fell back on his flank, ogling his surroundings with frantic interest. Large, elaborate plushies sat in tiny hammocks hung around the ceiling, while others gently dangled from strands of wire. Next to these, on the topmost shelves were plushies nearly as big as he was, ones he could comfortably nap on for days, or perhaps sandwich himself between. Below them were plushies small enough to ride on his head as he trotted around the hive, and below them, ones just large enough to hug in times of stress.
Calor bit his lip in a futile effort to stop his incessant chirping.
"...Um...are you gonna be okay?"
This time the words drew his eyes as well as his ears. Calor turned his focus to the back of the room, where a modest sales desk housed a sewing machine station, a tiny cash register, and...a changeling.
"...o-oh, I'm sorry. This place is just... breathtaking! Are you, are you Scy?" Calor asked, perking upright and eyeing the changeling more closely. He was coal black in color, having not yet gone through a metamorphosis, and had light green eyes. The more Calor watched him, the more the drone seemed to fidget from behind his desk.
"Yeah, that's me," Scy replied with a forced chuckle, rubbing the back of his head-fin. "Shop owner and only employee. I take it this is your first time in a plushie shop?"
Averting his gaze to a particularly cozy-looking bugbear plush, Calor adopted a nearly identical nervous laugh.
"I guess I made that one pretty obvious," he giggled, walking over to the trim oak desk and disarming his company with a warm smile. "The hive has a lot of artisan crafts and things now, but I don't think we have any other changelings who make plushies. I always have to get mine from shops and vendors in Equestrian towns. This shop, though, it's beyond anything I've ever seen!"
The blueberry changeling motioned his hoof in a wide arc about the room, and Scy's lime eyes followed.
"But I don't understand," Calor continued, returning his attention to the modest shop keeper. "I've never seen you around the hive before. Have you been here in the Crystal Empire the whole time? I wish I'd known you were so close; I definitely would have bought something from you sooner!"
Scy fiddled with a weathered dragonfly plush slumped against the backside of his cash register. For as long as he gave it his focus, he smiled, lost in some faraway place.
"I take it you're from the hive that King Thorax is in charge of?" the coal changeling asked, picking up his stuffed dragonfly and meeting Calor's curious look. "I've never met him, but I know of him through the love princess. I'm actually from a different hive."
"A different hive?" Calor parroted, placing a hoof to his chin and venturing the depths of his company's irises. "...I didn't even know there were other hives. Where is yours, then? Is it outside of Equestria?"
"It's southwest from here," Scy replied, nodding his head to the left. Igniting his horn, stray strands of string and empty spindles levitated from his work station before tossing themselves in a wastebasket. "I think Equestria calls it the 'Undiscovered West', or at least that's what Princess Cadance called it. My hive is underground, so we don't bother with socializing very much...probably why nobody is aware of us, actually."
Straightening his posture and resuming his business-esque demeanor, Scy planted his hooves on the countertop. "Enough about me, though. Can I help you find something? A gift for someone else? A new friend for you, perhaps? Or were you just browsing?"
Calor's jaw unhinged. His very reason for seeking the shop out in the first place came rushing back to him as an array of tummy butterflies. A gleaming grin claimed his face, and the azure changeling clapped his hooves together in zest. Like a nymph tantalized by the scent of sugar sap, he peered around at the surrounding shelves and around Scy's work station in search of his sought treasure.
"Wow, I'm so scattered today—I can't believe I almost forgot," he breathed. "My name is Calor, and it's great to meet you, Scy! I don't know if you remember but, we conversed via letters a few weeks back. I'm the one who commissioned you for a plushie of-"
"King Thorax," Scy finished, reflecting his guest's energy and tapping a hoof to the base of his horn. "I can't believe I didn't put two and two together, before - of course Thorax was going to be for a changeling. Let me go grab him for you!"
Calor's mounting glee had reached a boiling point. As Scy stepped through a deep lavender curtain separating the back room from the sales floor, Calor's hooves threatened to flare sparks, grinding together obsessively. His bright blue eyes did their best to pierce behind the lavender veil, and the young changeling's ears perked to the faint, muffled thuds of Scy rummaging around the back room.
"Sorry, I tripped over a trunk of mine. I found him!"
Calor's heart skipped a beat, possibly several.
Fully aware of the drama surrounding the reveal, Scy stepped only partially through the curtain. Upon spotting his enraptured audience member sitting back on his flank, hooves to his mouth in suspense, the coal changeling bit his lip.
"Okay, are you ready to meet your new friend?"
"Yes!"
"He's kinda shy, but I know he really loves hugs."
"Yes!"
"I should know. I stitched him to withstand all manner of hugs!"
"YES!"
Scy's horn ignited in an emerald aura, and out from above his head, a plush King Thorax emerged. Featuring big, magenta eyes and a welcoming smile, he mirrored the many hug-sized plushies lining the store walls.
"He was fun to make," Scy commented, arresting his aura when Calor's outstretched hooves claimed their prize. At once, Calor pressed it tightly to his carapace, cuddling the toy with care. "He's able to stand on his own, and his stuffing is 100% commercial-grade Forever Fluff. No matter how he might get squished or squeezed, his shape will always bounce back! Just try and keep him dry. I sacrificed water resistance for additional softness. But you can always get him enchanted to be stain and waterproof if you know any knowledgeable unicorns."
"He's perfect!" Calor cooed, cradling the plush like a newborn kitten. In a fit of inspiration, he laid it across his shell and trotted about the room, eyeing it carefully in his peripheral to judge how many rodeos it could withstand. "He's so sturdy, but somehow soft, too! Aww, his head sometimes bobs, too! I can't even take it!"
The quaint little shop was filled with genuine joy, presented through laughter, prancing, and erratic chirps.
Retiring his professional demeanor entirely, Scy stepped out from behind his desk, planting his flank by a proudly stacked pile of mythological creature plushies. He could do nothing, wanted nothing but to watch his guest revel in his newfound friendship. A friendship he, himself, had the honor of orchestrating.
But the longer Calor toured the shop in his merriment, the more Scy felt a tinted blush flush his cheeks. His lofty expression fortified, and his eyes dilated with a newfound focus.
The saturation of love coming off the blue changeling was unreal. Where the occasional crystal pony filly or young adult shopper would blanket him in a sense of warmth upon discovering a new friend, this was an all-consuming wave. Scy shivered and breathed a gasp, caught off guard by the profound emotion washing over him.
"...oh, wow," the coal changeling murmured, regaining his bearings just in time to see Calor stand atop his back legs and toss the tiny Thorax into the air. Thin beams of sunlight pierced through the store windows, which caught the toy in its motion and highlighted it in a dimmed spotlight.
Scy's former smile returned to him. This was no mere friendship he'd contributed to.
"Scy, thank you so so so so so much! I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough!"
Scy found himself quite suddenly gulping cool air once again. A pair of strong hooves wrapped about his torso and locked into place, while a sea of azure invasively filled his view. The distraught drone went rigid as a toothy grin propped up those blue eyes.
"Oh, um, well, you're very welcome, of course!" Scy mumbled. "As I said, it was my pleasure to make him. I've never made a plush of him before, let alone any new-age changeling, so it was an exciting experience."
"You should make more changelings! I bet crystal ponies would find them really cute as plushies, especially since we visit the empire on the regular, now!"
"You really think so?"
"Oh, of course!" Calor squeezed his new, new plush friend even tighter, and Scy gave a tolerant grunt of discomfort. "Me and a few other changelings are here on business for Thorax right now, actually. He likes to say that Princess Cadance and her husband are kinda like his adoptive aunt and uncle. Because of their relationship, our hive is super close to the empire, and so we have little visits to learn about their culture and things like that."
"Oh wow, I didn't know that." Pancaked by a cerulean cheek, Scy's own cheek struggled to obey his whims, but still, he managed a mutual display of his pearly whites. As a bonus, he kept his fang from poking his friend in the chin. "Changelings and crystal ponies both use love magic, so that definitely makes sense."
Calor adopted a pensive look, not gone unnoticed by the coal drone.
"Speaking of love magic," Calor began, scrutinizing his own hug with an analytic sweep of his eyes. "Do you...feel anything from this, Scy?"
"Do I feel anything?"
"Yeah, like, maybe a warm tingling, or a warm feeling in your chest."
Scy's ears folded, and that same blush came flowing back. "Oh, um...I'm flattered Calor, really, but I-"
"No, not like that!" Pulling their cheeks apart, Calor furrowed his brow in thought. As he did, his carapace flexed, allowing his wings to buzz sporadically. "All changelings can feel and taste love when it's offered to them, but my hive has learned how to make physical love restorative."
Scy continued to cosplay a pomegranate. "...this still sounds an awful lot like-"
"Affection, like giving your friends a hug, cuddling, or taking a nap together with them, things like that!" Calor urgently clarified, his own face now infected by the same rose tint. "When we share love nearby each other, we regain energy and heal ourselves. I saw you have sparkly wings, so I thought maybe you'd be able to feel love magic like I can, even if you're not fully transformed yet."
The plush shop suffered an uncomfortable silence. It was brought to an end when, all at once, Scy's demeanor grew melancholic, his wings, ears, and eyes all falling dejectedly. Calor bit his lip.
"Oh, shoot, I'm sorry!" he blurted, desperately working to salvage the situation by hugging his friend even tighter. "I wasn't going to bring it up. I just wanted to see if you could feel something or if something triggered...I didn't know it was a sensitive topic."
The patient gazes of plushies watched them by the hundreds as a stillness befell the little shop. When Scy's head raised at last, he showed a weak little smile, one that tried to hide the twitch plaguing his lip.
"I have a birth defect," Scy replied softly, giving an emphatic flare of his wings. "I've tried before, but I can't transform. The sparkly wings are as far as I can get. And, no, I'm afraid I don't feel anything out of the ordinary."
Calor's heart plummeted to the depths of his abdomen. His oceanic eyes scanned his friend's face, and in doing so, morphed to reflect its somber state.
"...oh, I'm," he began, finding his hooves to hesitate, to nearly unlock from his hug. He maintained it, perhaps out of some glimmer of hope, even if it was just a gesture and nothing more.
"I didn't...I-"
"It's okay. There's no way you would have known, at least not for sure," Scy passed off, giving a subtle sniff before resuming his glowing look. "I really, really appreciate the gesture anyway. Truth be told, I haven't gotten to interact with any changelings in a long time, and that alone has felt really good."
Calor nodded, his face growing despondent. But his ears flicked in surprise when his back gave a twitch to two hooves wrapping around it.
"I might not be able to regain energy from a hug, but that doesn't mean I can't tell how much you care," Scy reassured, laying against the blue bug pony. His attention now turned to the forgotten Thorax doll, patiently snoozing by Calor's tail. Igniting his horn, the toy came to life, its hooves carrying it forward just enough to bonk into his friend's flank repeatedly.
The embrace broke as Calor excitedly addressed the plush, and for a second time that day, Scy relished in his guest's glee. Scooping Thorax up with fervor, Calor embraced him as genuinely as he would any changeling.
A comparison that Scy could now personally vouch for.
"Thanks for stopping by today, Calor," Scy said suddenly, drawing the changeling's attention. His look was distant, almost distracted, but the toothy smile practically glowed. "I was going to mail Thorax to you in the next couple of days, and I might have never met you if I had. I hate mailing plushies, honestly. Getting to see, to feel the reactions of customers getting a new plush friend is...well, it's an indescribable experience, especially for a changeling."
Calor beamed, forgoing Thorax just long enough to watch the coal drone a moment. Scy didn't have a reflective shell, vibrant gossamer wings, or a body without holes, but even so, he was content. He had found his own way to share love, independent of transformation, and it could be shared with any creature under the sun.
"I'm so glad I stopped by, too. I'm going to show him off to the rest of the hive," Calor said decisively, dotting his thought by flailing plush Thorax's front legs about. "I'll show the nymphs - Thorax plays with them so they'll all want one, for sure. And all the other drones who come to the empire regularly will probably love something, too. You'll have a shop full of changelings before you know it!"
Venturing the bouncy red carpet, Scy chuckled as he addressed the front door with a nod of his head. "I definitely look forward to it. But Calor, you said you were here on a mission for Thorax, right? You're welcome to stay, of course, but I don't want your friends to start wondering where you went. Maybe you should check up with them?"
The epiphany hit Calor as a short gasp, and the changeling sprouted from his spot on command.
"I swear I'm not usually this scattered!"
Gently resting the toy across his shell, he trotted after his friend, nodding graciously as the door opened before him.
A shower of light washed over him, and Calor squinted at the sting of tears. It was dimmer in the shop than he'd realized, and now he'd have to pay for it while he searched out his friends.
But even blinded, the oceanic drone managed to snipe a final embrace.
"Thanks again, Scy. It's so inspiring what you're able to do with your craft! I know you're making a lot of creatures happy," he commented, pulling back and raising a hoof to shade his own face. "And hey, if you'd ever like to get away from the empire sometime, you'd be more than welcome at my hive. You'll fit right in with all the arts and crafts changelings!"
Scy chuckled, stepping back into the shade of his doorway and casting the departing bug pony a wave of his hoof. As Calor leaped the series of front steps in a single bound, Thorax flopped about on the changeling's back, seemingly waving a hoof in return.
"Remember, you have my address, Calor!" Scy called, watching the blue drone merge into the bustling canvas of the empire's afternoon. "I'd love to hear all about his reception, especially from Thorax!"