Pharynx was drowning. In snow. Drowning in snow.
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It was below freezing outside, and Pharynx was stuck in a snowball fight with the monarchs of the crystal empire, Spike... and his brother. Now don't think he doesn't care for his little brother, but that's just the issue. The word brother. Transgenderism was no new concept, but you'd think for a race that's entirely based around change, change in gender would be a less abhorred. But it wasn't. And with that final thoughts his thoughts were interrupted by a snowball in the face. The cold shocked him the most, the follow-up blindness caused him to stumble before sinking into the 6 inches of snow beneath him. He almost went into shock from the below freezing temperature. The hard ground providing no comfort. Considering the fact that his ears were blocked by snow, the 4 voices calling out to him barely registered.

"Leave me here to die." His muffled voice called out from beneath the white powder that was slowly beginning to harden from the sheer cold. “Tell Emerald Shard I've had a crush on her since I met her!”

“You're not dying, I just got you back. Now, I will take you up on telling Emerald Shard.” Now that got Pharynx’s attention. He shot up from the snow with a horrified expression on his face.

“You wouldn't dare!” Thorax smirked, an expression that looked much more sinister than it had any right to.

“Wouldn't I? You've embarrassed me plenty of times. Maybe it's time for a taste of your own medicine.” Maybe his brother had toughened up after all. The old Thorax would've never held a grudge. Still though, he wouldn't be intimidated by his little brother. He walked up to him, calm as ever. Slowly balling snow in his hoof without Thorax noticing. And as soon as he got within hugging distance
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He nailed him from point blank range. Thorax stumbled back, surprised for a second, before striking back and reinitiating the snowball fight. Eventually, citizens wandered out of the empire, wondering what the commotion was, before getting caught up in the fight and joining in. Soon a full scale snowball war broke out between the two halves of the crystal empire, before they eventually had to stop as it started snowing again, seemingly to replenish all the snow used up in the fight.

“Well that was fun.” Spike’s usual cheerful grin had never left his face throughout the whole ordeal. Thorax snorted before a shiver overtook him.

“Easy for you to say. You have basically have an internal heater, the rest of us are freezing.” Thorax spoke through gritted teeth. Ah well, he never was good with the cold. Spike rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before grabbing a candle off the wall and igniting it with significantly warmer flames and handing it to Thorax.

“Hey, don't I get one?” Pharynx exclaimed. Spike pondered for a minute before speaking.

“I’ll do you one better.” He barely had time to question Spike’s intention before he was picked up and tossed onto the drake’s back. The heat the dragon produced felt amazing, but he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Was Thorax… jealous? Well, he was definitely the colder of the two, but something told him it ran deeper than that.

“Say, Thorax, wanna trade me. Maker knows you could use the warmth with your thin chitin.” The look of gratitude didn't escape him, but it was quickly replaced by false offence.

“Hey! My chitin isn't thin. I just get cold easily.” He growled the phrase, but it was pretty detectable as false. The two switched places before Pharynx continued speaking.

“Whatever you say Blue-slides.” Thorax looked almost ostracized at the comment.

“How dare you!”

“Hold up, what's happening?” Cadence, bless her soul looked almost entirely befuddled at their conversation. Shining Armor was too busy playing with Flurry Heart to look their way.

Thorax shook his head. “It's a rarely used insult. See, Changelings have almost no internal structure, besides heart and lungs, our organs and blood mostly float in this blue goo inside our bodies. Our chitin is actually transparent, it just becomes opaque in layers. Thin chitin usually means you can see the blue goo inside.” He smirked before continuing. “He mostly means it as a joke. The condition had a name, but I completely forgot it. People basically only referred to it as Blue-sides, sinde that's where the chitin is weakest.”

She nodded in understanding before looking at the clock on the wall. “It's almost lunchtime. We should change out of these snow clothes.” They all went to their separate rooms, and didn't even notice that they were being trailed. A familiar blue tail swished as the “pony” it belonged to walked through the halls.

“Soon.”

Author's Note

Tada!