-<>~--*--~<>-<

Aurelic sits in the ruins of the old castle, contemplating as he works. The past month had been relatively uneventful, the lack of a major Equestrian holiday in November being one of those reasons. Aside from a few more spell study sessions with Twilight, and one trip to the doctor after Spike sprained his claw from trying to punch one of the stone pillars, and the snow eventually beginning to fall, the days seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

Aurelic finishes enchanting the second of two matching little devices, both circular with a differently colored jewel button in the center of each. "Perfect, another bit of preparation work done." He thinks, pridefully looking at the orange and blue jeweled buttons. "Exactly what I need if things in the Crystal Empire go south. I think that's everything now... At least, for a while." He thinks, looking over a small collection of small trinkets. Among them are vials of liquids, one silvery, a whole lot of pink vials, and a few red. Aurelic looks over to his makeshift chemistry station, some of the pink substance dripping into another vial, and a second station where the liquid of the vial is turned into little pink pills of sorts, also stored in vials.

Once he has a vial of pills shifted to the inside of his left foreleg, Aurelic picks up a bundle of wrapped gifts, changing into Forge. "Now, time for some Hearth's Warming Eve. I wonder if the other smiths are at the grounds yet." He thinks with a smile as he teleports.

As soon as Forge is gone, Wasp flies down to inspect the vials. Changing back to her normal form, she picks up a pink vial, inspecting it. In the complete silence, the sound of a pill clinking into a vial was startlingly loud, causing Wasp to whip around to assume a battle stance, something her training drilled into her. Unfortunately for her, the glass of the vial was quite smooth, and with her focus no longer on the vial, it slips easily, shattering on the ground with a resounding crash. A single whiff of the concentrated pink substance inside sends her mind reeling. The sensory overload brought on by the substance causes her to drop to the ground unceremoniously. Spasming uncontrollably, her entire body feeling unbearably hot and itchy, feminine fluids leaking copiously from her. Yet somehow, it all feels amazing, the pleasure, the need, the satiation, the lust for more, and the increasing amount of the scent wafting to her snout furthering her feelings. Her mind unable to process everything happening to her all at once, she passes out, twitching on the ground.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge was half-asleep after the play was over. "No wonder the show went the route they did, and that was supposed to be the best Hearth'swarming plays? Despite their VAs, those ponies act just as wooden as the stage they were standing on. And you'd think the special effects would be better than that considering actual magic exists." He laments, mentally complaining about the time he'd never get back.

On their way back to the castle, Forge kept mostly silent on the way back to the castle, giving the occasional short response as the Mane Six kept talking on and on about the play.

"And then I was like 'WHAPOW!' and broke those storm clouds like it was nothing!" Rainbow boasts, making punching motions with her forehooves to emphasize her point.

"I'm pretty sure you weren't supposed to actually break those cloud props Rainbow." Twilight says, rolling her eyes at Rainbow's antics.

"Th-that part was... Pretty scary." Fluttershy admits, hiding behind her mane a bit.

"Well, they should have told me that then. How was I supposed to know not to break the storm clouds?" Rainbow huffs.

As Forge continues walking, he stops listening to the conversation, following the group as they walked as if he were on autopilot. He ruminates on what his next steps should be.

"It's near the end of December now, and the next major event in the form of the Royal Wedding/Changeling Invasion isn't until at least the beginning of summer, most likely June. I'll know for sure nearer to the date, but I have a long while before then. The question is, what do I do about it? Should I attempt to stop it early, or let it play out? Would that love wave thing blast me away too since I'm also a changeling? Most importantly of all, should I reveal my true form to the entire public before, or after? If I do it before, they might be more willing to accept me. After... There's two ways. One, I do it after the wedding and before the reformation. Two, I wait until after the reformation. Thorax revealed himself before the reformation and he was fine..."

An orange hoof waving in front of Forge's face snaps him out of his trance. "What?" He asks meekly, feeling embarrassed.

"We're here. You all right sugarcube?" Applejack asks.

"Yeah, just had some things on my mind is all." Forge replies, following the group past the gate.

Pinkie starts up. "What kind of things? Like what's the best kind of Hearth's Warming treat? I personally like the gingerbread houses! There's a lot of variety in those and they're sooooooooooooooooo good it just makes you-"

"No, nothing like that Pinkie, just... Thoughts." Forge interrupts.

"Does it have to do with your visions?" Twilight inquires, quirking a brow.

"More like, how to act on them. It's not always clear what I should do, if anything sometimes." Forge explains. "How many more years am I going to have to lie to them about the visions? I watched the show, and I remember what's supposed to happen normally. I'd feel safer if I knew what was going to happen before it does like now, but what if I also want to make a major decision that changes the course off the beaten path? None of the bad futures from Starlight's time travel can come to pass because we're already past the point where Rainbow did her first sonic rainboom, and I know all of the villains we'd be facing regardless... but then what?" Forge mulls as they enter the main hall.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge sat at a table with both of his friend groups, laughing along with them as they exchanged various stories with one-another.

"I've never had a Christmas, or equivalent holiday with friends before. Sure, nuclear family is nice and all, but even then I'd never had friends over. Let alone at a party like this." Forge thought, his merriment dwindling at a nagging thought. "Family..."

"HEY! This is supposed to be Hearth's Warming Eve! You're not allowed to be sad today!" Pinkie practically yells in Forge's face, startling the disguised pony out of his wits.

"Somethin' really is botherin' you. Do you wanna talk about it?" Applejack asks.

"Yes darling, please do. It's difficult not knowing if you can or can't do anything to help." Rarity agrees.

Forge looks between all eleven pairs of eyes at the table, the Mane Six and Spike, as well as the four Royal Smiths. He sighs. "Well, this is my first Chr- Hearth's Warming, without my family... It's, complicated. For me, anyway. I don't think anything can be done about it, considering..." Forge glances towards the Mane Six, hoping they get the hint.

Hearth Aspis and Solid Weld loom to each-other, then back at Forge. "We, never really did ask about your family, did we?" Solid ponders aloud.

"You talk about it like you can't see them again..." Hearth says, giving Forge a sympathetic look.

"Let's not get into it any further right now, I don't want to spoil our holiday." Forge says, trying to divert the topic.

"So... Read any good books lately?" Twilight asks, diverting the topic.

"Oh! Did I tell you about the time I chased Rainbow Dash all over Ponyville?" Pinkie interjected.

The rest of the night carried on with more merriment, and eventually, gift exchanges.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Once evryone went back home, Forge teleported back to his bedroom in the castle, grabbing a dark blue box with white ribbon, and a gold box with white ribbon. He silently trots through the castle, leaving the gift boxes in front of each of the princesses' respective doors. That task done, Forge only has one last thing to do for the night.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge teleports back into the old castle, dropping his disguise. He checks on the now full vial of pills, and the empty vial of concentrated dopamine. He puts an empty vial in place of the full pill vial, and goes to retrieve a new vial of concentrate, only to spot the unconscious Wasp next to a shattered vial. Sealing his olfactory senses immediately, he teleports briefly to the dungeons in Canterlot Castle, borrowing an inhibitor ring, and some chain length. The materials gathered, he teleports back into the old castle.

First, Aurelic goes to float the inhibitor ring onto Wasp's horn, finding it only nullified his magic. Groaning, he uses his hooves to place the ring over Wasp's horn. Next, he binds her in the chains. Tight enough to keep her bound, even weaving through her leg holes in some areas, but not so tight that it would cause her undue pain.

Aurelic cleans up the spilled dopamine and vial, putting both into a bag before exiting the castle, tossing the bag into the nearby ravine where he'd dumped the majority of anger bile. He walks over to a vial of the stuff he'd saved, bringing it over to his pill-maker. Shortly after cleaning it up for the new substance, he sets it up to make anger pills. Once a single pill drops into the waiting vial, he seals the dropper, removes the pill, brings it over to Wasp, and cracks it in front of her nose. As soon as the smell from the anger pill hits Wasp's nostrils, she startles awake, coughing and gagging. Aurelic puts the half pills back into their vial, corking it shut.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE!?"

Author's Note

Here's the Christmas Special. In July. Last day of July... So, I'm alive. Moving and writer's block is just so much fun :D. Anyway, I'm going to try to work on this more now. I had planned to make art for both stands from the previous chapter, but I only have one of the two done, and will update the chapter with the art later on. Now the wasp is caught, I wonder how this'll go... ehehehehehehahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHA!