Hearth's Warming Surprise

by AniMun

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Changelings, Original Character
Length: 2580

A new alliance between ponies and changelings have brought the two races together in harmony and friendship. Now, on Hearth's Warming Eve, a changeling drone is preparing a big surprise for her coltfriend.

After years of conflict, ponies and changelings finally came together in harmony and friendship. Now, a couple of years since the new alliance, drone CD-042 or Mending Heart is preparing her house for the most important Hearth's Warming Eve of her entire life, when she would make a surprise for her coltfriend.

Little did she knew that her coltfriend, Ancient Scroll, also had a surprise planned for her.

Author's Note:
Written for the Categoricalgrant's cuddlefic contest!
Cover art from Lattynskit
Now with a reading by Skijarama! You can find it here!

Published 2017-11-21 16:00:05 UTC
Last updated 2017-11-21 16:00:05 UTC

The most intimate snuggle

It was a calm, snowy day at the capital city of Canterlot, the streets were filled with ponies striding to and fro with friends and family, enjoying their Hearth’s Warming. The dim sunlight seeping through the soft curtain of clouds, coupled with the happy ringing of bells and carolling ponies, made this cold morning beautiful indeed.

But it wasn’t an ordinary Hearth’s Warming morning, it was also the seventh Pony-Changeling alliance anniversary! The two races had been enemies for years, but after long negotiations and treaties, the two kingdoms finally came together in peace and harmony on this winter day, giving the biggest present their people could ever receive.

To celebrate such a wonderful day, the changelings built beautiful arches around the city, mistletoe hanging on top of each and every one of them. And right in the center of the city, an enormous Hearth’s Warming tree was decorated with colorful lights made by the ponies and enchanted glowing gems by the changelings, a sign of the mixed traditions and unity of the two races.

In the residential district of the city, Ancient Scroll, the librarian of the Canterlot Archives, ran frantically around his house, checking if everything was in order before he left to spend the day with his marefriend.

The light grey unicorn trotted through his kitchen and laundry room, locking the doors with the dark purple aura of his magic. Locks, checked. Leaving the laundry room, he went to the living room to check at his white dove pet cage. “Hey there Archimedes, do you have enough food and water for the day, buddy?” he asked, looking at the small bird. Making a big, happy splash at his little bathtub, the dove tweeted in confirmation. Good.

Climbing the stairs to his room, Scroll gave one last brush to his coat and styled his violet mane. Once satisfied, he walked to his bed and sat next to a tiny present box that was laying on it. Levitating it to meet his gaze, he let out a heavy sigh and thought, I hope she will like it…

With the box in hooves, he got out of bed, grabbed his keys and left his home.

At the opposite side of the residential district, a changeling drone was making the final adjustments to her house decorations before her coltfriend’s visit. Her body shivered in the chilly weather as she hanged the last Hearth’s Warming lights around her living room. Being creatures accustomed to the high temperatures of the Badlands, changelings had a pretty hard time keeping up with the cold of winter. Finishing her job, drone CD-042, or Mending Heart, grabbed a piece of firewood and fed it to the flames in the fireplace. By the Queen Mother, it’s cold today… she thought, shivering again.

Now a bit warmer, Heart finished placing all her decorations and sat on the sofa to wait for her coltfriend. She took a quick glance at the corridor leading to her room, where she had prepared a surprise for Ancient Scroll. I hope he will like it… she thought in worry.

A couple of minutes had passed while Heart waited for her coltfriend. She was doing one last check-up of the ‘surprise’ in her room when she heard the doorbell ring. She shot out of her room and went straight for the door, eager to see what the evening with her coltfriend had in store for her. She opened the door with her emerald magic, revealing her coltfriend, Scroll, holding a giant bouquet of red roses in front of him. A thin sheet of snow covering his coat and scarf, he gave her a large and a little frozen grin. “Hey Honey! Happy Hearth’s Warming!“

With the biggest smile, she took the bouquet with her magic and kissed her coltfriend on the cheek, eliciting a bright blush on his face. “Aww, thanks, Scrolly! These will be a great dessert for the soup I made. Please come in!” She beckoned him inside with a hoof.

Ancient Scroll walked inside, closing the door behind him and shaking off the snow, using his scarf as a towel to dry the excess water from his fur.

“How was your day at the inn, Honey? Had many customers?” he asked, putting his now soaked scarf on the hanger by the door.

Tossing another log to the fire to ward off the cold, Mending Heart replied, “Not really, the inn was pretty empty. Most of my changeling friends had returned to the hive to pass the winter, so I took the opportunity to make inventory for next year. And you? How was the library today?”

“Eh, it was pretty empty, as usual. I spent most of the time writing some new spells. Sometimes I miss Miss Sparkle, she gave me a lot of work, but at least she kept the library alive...” Scroll replied, following Heart to the kitchen to help her prepare the table for lunch.

The two continued chatting as they brought more and more food to the dining table, but something seemed off to Ancient Scroll. Mending Heart was avoiding making eye contact with him and her wings would buzz from time to time. “You okay, Heart?” he asked, worry clear in his voice.

“W--what do you mean?” she responded, her wings buzzing once more.

“You’re nervous about something,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“What? N--no I’m not, Why would I be?” she blurted out, forcing a laugh. Even a baby changeling larva could fake a laugh better than her.

Not buying it for a second, Scroll decided to finish her off. “Your wings are buzzing.”

At that point, her wings were buzzing so much that she was almost hovering above the ground. Stopping her translucent appendages, Mending Heart took a deep breath and confessed with a sigh, “I… I wanted to ask you something…”

Noticing a small shiver running down Heart’s body, Scroll remembered the difficulties changelings had in the cold. Giving her a smug grin, he offered, “Oh, you want to snuggle to keep off the cold like we used to do?”

A bright green blush rushed to her cheeks at the suggestion. Yes, she liked to snuggle, maybe a bit more than what doctors might call healthy, but that wasn’t the case! Well, at least not fully… “Y--yes, I’d like to… But that’s not it. I--I have a surprise for you…”

Scroll tilted his head to the side in confusion, a little “Oh?” escaping his mouth. “Follow me, please.” Hearth beckoned him with a hoof.

Leading him to her bedroom, Mending Heart opened the door to reveal all the furniture pushed aside, making space for two arcane circles connected to each other in the middle of the room. Ancient Scroll was amazed, the spell’s complexity seemed way higher than the average teleportation or transmutation spell, but it had some similar glyphs to them.
“Amazing, what spell is it?” he asked, his gaze glued to the runes as he tried to decipher them.

“Well, you see, back in the hive, all changelings share what you ponies call ‘The Hivemind’, a simple connection between changelings. We use it to communicate and coordinate our collective efforts. But there is another level to it. The more intimate couples would use this spell to synchronize with each other, sharing not only their thoughts, but also their emotions and feelings,” Heart explained, pawing at her fluffy carpet with a hoof.

“Incredible…” Ancient Scroll whispered in awe.

Heart raised his head with a hoof so they could make eye contact. “I’ve always said how I can see how much you love me, being a changeling I experience love in a lot of different ways. And I want to share it with you.”

Scroll’s eyes went wide in realization. She wants to synchronize with me?!

Noticing his surprise, Heart asked in worry, “Y--you don’t want to?”

Shaking his head wildly, Scroll quickly answered, “Y--yes! Yes, I’d love to!”

A huge weight was lifted from her shoulders, her worries flying away, replaced with pure happiness. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Heart gave him a big hug, kissing him again and again, covering his face in quick pecks. Calming herself, she proceeded to explain the spell. “Alright, so, the spell is actually pretty simple, the hardest part was finding a good glyph that could translate my changeling magic to your unicorn magic. All you have to do is to stand in that circle and light up your horn. I’ll do the rest.”

Nodding, Ancient Scroll went to his designated location and did as he was told. The glyphs surrounding him powered up with his magic, projecting an ethereal copy of themselves. The projections began to spin around him faster and faster, creating a small vortex. Mending Heart’s horn lit with her emerald aura as it fed into her arcane circle, a small stream of her magic turning into Scroll’s purple aura as it passed through the vortex and seeped into him. A few seconds later, the glyphs went out and the spell was complete.

Feeling no change at all, Scroll said, “Uhm, I feel normal…”

The spell takes some time to sync all the senses, but if it worked, you should now hear my thoughts, Heart’s voice echoed in his head. Scroll’s eyes went wide a second time at that. The spell worked!

This is so awesome! he exclaimed in his mind. But now that the spell was done, what should they do? So, how long does it take for the spell to be complete?

Only a few minutes, why don’t we eat dinner while we wait? Heart offered, her stomach giving a low grumble.

Their dinner was nice and silent. Not a single word left their lips, but their thoughts soared a mile away in conversation. After finishing dinner and enjoying some nice roses as the dessert, the two lay together on the sofa as the spell’s effects began to show.

Wow… Scroll thought, as a he felt a small jab in his head. The headache was promptly ignored as he noticed a second feeling of the same headache, but it felt... far, like it wasn’t his own.

Heart noticed a tiny hint of green in Scroll’s usually light blue eyes. I think the spell is complete, she said to him, pinching her holed leg with her magic. Scroll recoiled at the pinch, confirming that the spell was indeed complete.

Throwing one more piece of firewood into the hearth, Mending Heart mused, So, about that snuggle you offered earlier…

Grinning, Ancient Scroll sat up straight on the sofa and opened his hooves, offering her a hug.

Mending Heart sat on his lap and buried herself in his arms, resting her head on the crook of his neck. Her wings fluttered in happiness and her eyes closed in blissful peace. Through her heavy eyelids, she could see the projection of Scroll’s vision as he admired her wings, the soft last rays of sunlight dividing into a whole rainbow of colors spread through the chitinous membranes.

Scroll could feel the scent of his own cologne as Heart took a deep sniff on his chest, his mind filling with her thoughts as for how much she loved his perfume. He tightened the hug, feeling her carapace giving away to his caress. A fact that surprised him when they first snuggled. He learned that the otherwise hard changeling chitinous plating softened when a changeling felt more relaxed and comfortable, making them the softest snuggle buggies. The silly pet name earned him a chuckle from Heart.

Heart lowered her head even more, her ears caressing his chest as she could hear his heartbeat, such a melodious song. The beats echoed in his own ears as his heart slowed down a bit to beat at her heart’s pace.

As their hearts danced together, he could feel a sweet taste at the back of his tongue, getting stronger and stronger. Raising his head so he could see what it was, his eyes widened as he saw a strong pink aura surrounding Heart. Noticing his reaction, she drew back a little, allowing him to see what she wanted to show him for such a long time. The pink aura danced around them like the northern stars as a small bridge connected her aura with his own.

He needed no explanation of what it was for he knew exactly what it meant. It was the love they shared with each other. Such an amazing and beautiful sight made him wonder about his own surprise he had in store for her. It’s gonna be hard to match this…

“What?” Mending Heart asked outloud, tilting her head to the side quizzically.

Oh crap! Ancient Scroll forgot she could hear his thoughts. He recoiled against the sofa’s back, almost flipping the whole thing over.

“What do you mean, ‘It’s gonna be hard to match this.’?” Heart asked again, pinning his body against the sofa so he wouldn’t get away.

There was no point in hiding it now, not that he could, connected like that…

“Well… I--I actually also have a surprise for you…” Scroll replied in defeat, reaching into a hidden pocket in his scarf with his magic and bringing forth the small present box.

“Y--you see, we’ve spent almost five years together now. I’ve never been happier and now I know for certain that you are too, so…” Scroll tried to explain, his words getting stuck in his throat.

Mending Heart tore through the fancy white and golden wrapping paper. She opened the tiny box, only to freeze at what she found inside.

“W--w--would you marry me?” he finally managed to ask.

The box contained a black gold engagement ring. Its shiny surface was encrusted with tiny emeralds, accompanying a big amethyst at its top. Its serpentine design made it look like it had tiny holes on the rim. It was the union between the fancy and shiny design that ponies loved so much and the simpler, more discreet design the changelings grew accustomed to.

Mending Heart stood there in shock, a whole palette of colors emanating from her aura. It went from red to orange, from yellow to green, from blue to purple as her emotions boiled within her. Then finally it landed on pink. The aura shone brighter and brighter, shining more than a full moon in a clear night sky as a single tear ran down Heart’s cheek.

She lunged herself into Scroll’s chest, her hug so tight that he could swear he broke a rib.

“YES! Yesyesyesyesyes!” Mending Heart rambled on and on. Before Scroll could even react, his lips were sealed in a deep kiss. Their auras joined together as well, turning almost into a beacon so every changeling in town could see and celebrate the new couple.

The tears ran freely from her eyes as Heart broke the kiss and gave him another loving hug. “I love you Scroll.”

“I love you too, Heart.” Ancient Scroll hugged her back, shedding a tear of his own. There were no more words that needed to be said.

Author's Note

Hello everybody!

So, this was my first time trying to write a cuddlefic... I hope I didn't butchered everything up :twilightsheepish:

Hope you like it!

As always, please let me know of ways I can improve! Your feedback is my life and blood :pinkiecrazy:

Bye! :yay:

-T.M.W.D. :trollestia:

Chapter edited by: EverfreePony