Equestria’s own Fillydelphia was naturally heavily populated with ponies, though mostly unknown to those living outside was the thriving dragon population that made their home in their own section of the city. Many tourists would often turn their heads upon seeing a dragon casually strolling down the sidewalk.

Though today, what was turning heads from both tourist and resident alike were a pair of changelings, the royal brothers of the recently reformed changeling kingdom.

“This is so dumb,” Pharynx grumbled, shooting glares at anypony who passed by that gave him a weird look, which was all of them.

“You still agreed to it,” Thorax said, sporting a small smile as he walked ahead through the streets.

“Yeah, but it’s still dumb.”

Thorax turned his head back enough so that Pharynx could see the smirk on his face. “Well, you’re free to go all the way back to the hive if you want. I’m sure I can handle dating Ember and Mina at the same time…”

“Yeah, nice try,” Pharynx scoffed. “Besides, I don't think you can handle dating both of them at the same time. You can barely ask Ember out half the time.”

“I dunno, I’d probably handle it better than you can. I’d at least be willing to give it a shot, while you’d just immediately call it a waste of time or something,” Thorax teased. “I think dating both of them would go pretty well!”

Pharynx let out a laugh at Thorax’s bold claim. “Yeah? What are you gonna do, make them do your dumb arts and crafts?”

“Maybe! Mina would probably make some stuff for her cosplays, and Ember…would like eating the gemstones meant for decoration as a snack, at least!”

Pharynx wanted to make some snarky remark, but even he had to admit that Thorax wasn’t wrong on his assumption. And it just annoyed Pharynx more that he didn’t think of it first.

As the two continued their walk through the streets of Fillydelphia, Pharynx looked around, swearing that they were passing the same buildings from a while ago.

“How come we have to do all the traveling?” Pharynx griped. “They have wings, too, can’t one of them fly over to the hive for once?”

“They could,” Thorax mused. “But aside from arts and crafts, do you think Mina would enjoy a feelings forum?”

“...Can you shut up and stop making good points?”

After a few more minutes, Pharynx was definitely sure that they were walking in big confusing circles. “Thorax, are you lost?”

“N-No! Of course not!” Thorax immediately blurted out, looking frantically from side to side, trying to decide where to go. “C-C’mon, we’re almost there!” He said, decisively pointing in a direction before walking down the street.

Pharynx, however, stayed put, pointing his hoof in the opposite direction. “Pretty sure Dragon Town is that way.”

Thorax’s cheeks lit up with an embarrassed blush. “I…knew that!” he laughed nervously. “But why don’t you lead the way this time?”

Pharynx rolled his eyes, gesturing for his brother to follow before he started walking. “All this time and you still don’t know?”

“Give me a break, alright? I usually meet up with Ember over in the Dragon Lands or in Ponyville!”

“What would you do without me?” Pharynx chuckled. “Come on, if we aren’t late by now, we’re gonna be if you keep dragging your hooves.”

“It’s not my fault!” Thorax said, his tone reaching whining levels. “This city is so…confusing to navigate!”

Pharynx gave a half-hearted shrug. “Maybe at first. But it’s like the hive, eventually you figure out the fastest routes to get to places.”

“Spoken like someone who’s been through Fillydelphia’s streets plenty of times!” Thorax giggled.

“Shut up.”

Pharynx was leading Thorax in the right direction, as the city started to change around them. The more uniform skyscrapers made of steel and concrete were replaced by more irregularly shaped stony structures, the smooth sidewalk became cobblestone, and more importantly, the ponies walking by became less frequent, replaced by a growing dragon population. It was like they were in a completely different city.

“See? We made it to Dragon Town easily!” Pharynx gave his brother an insufferably smug look. “Do you know the way to the comic shop, or do you need your hoof held for the whole walk there, too?”

Thorax gave him a dry laugh. “Ha ha, let’s just keep going.”

The two changelings made their way through the streets, going at a much faster pace with Pharynx taking the lead.

Thorax still took the time to take in his surroundings. “Huh, seems like the dragons don’t turn to stare nearly as much as ponies do,” he noted.

“Maybe it’s cause the dragons know how to mind their own business,” Pharynx replied, though his eyes watched just to confirm that Thorax was right. “Why else wouldn’t they stare?”

Thorax threw out his theory in a half-joking manner, though how serious he was entirely depended on Pharynx’s reaction. “I dunno, maybe they’ve seen a changeling walking down these streets enough times that it’s normal to them?”

Pharynx looked directly ahead and went silent, not wanting Thorax to get a read on his facial expression or his tone of voice.

Ironically, Pharynx trying to hide his feelings gave Thorax exactly what he was looking for.

To spare Pharynx any further embarrassment, they made it to their destination, a comic shop. Once they stepped inside, they were greeted by the excited faces of their dragon girlfriends.

And just their excited faces, since Ember and Mina were too into a conversation to realize that the door just opened.

“I dunno, Spike never really struck me as going for the dark and brooding type,” Ember shrugged. “He takes a lot of naps but I don’t think that means he enjoys the dream world.”

“But it makes sense, doesn’t it?” Mina insisted. “Just imagine it: The Princess of the Night and her most loyal and fiercest of guardians! Think of all the centuries they could spend in each other's company!”

Ember didn’t seem convinced by Mina’s rousing fantasy. “I always figured he’d end up with the purple one.”

“...Which purple one?”

“You know, if you’re busy, we can just go back home,” Pharynx piped up, still standing at the door with Thorax.

The two dragons in the shop finally noticed their dates had arrived. “Oh! Shoot!” Mina stumbled to go around the counter to the door. “Uh, hey! How long were you two standing there?”

“Only for a few seconds,” Thorax smiled.

“O-kay, so you didn’t hear us talking about…Yep, alright!” Mina quickly shut herself up. Exhaling sharply as she clearly dodged a bullet.

“What took you two so long?” Ember asked, looking at the clock. “I was starting to think you two weren’t coming.”

Pharynx tilted his head towards his brother. “We would’ve gotten here sooner if someone didn’t keep getting lost!”

As Thorax sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, Mina got confused. “What? How’d you get lost? Pharynx has been to Fillydelphia like a million times! He should know the streets like the back of his hoof!”

The smug look on Pharynx and the embarrassed look on Thorax quickly swapped between the siblings.

“Well, whatever. They’re here now, so we might as well get going, right?” Ember pointed out.

“What do you mean ‘going’? I thought we were just staying here?” Pharynx asked.

“No, we were meeting here.” Mina clarified with a wink. “Our real date destination is still a secret!”

After Mina closed up shop, the dragons and changelings walked through the streets, with Mina and Ember leading the way, and Pharynx and Thorax following close behind.

Thorax nudged Pharynx in the ribs. “So, you’ve been through Dragon Town enough times, where are they taking us?” he teased.

Pharynx desperately wanted to respond back with a punch to the jaw. “How should I know? You act like I live here or something.”

Ember turned her head towards Mina. “Does he really visit that often?”

Mina quietly chuckled. “He’s been coming over almost once a week lately. There are regulars at the shop who I see less often.”

Ember looked at Mina with both amazement and amusement. “Wow, I don’t think me and Thorax visited each other that often when we started dating…”

“Yeah, well I guess it’s different when you two are ruling over kingdoms,” Mina mused. “Being important royalty probably doesn’t leave that much free time.”

“...You’re dating the prince!” Ember pointed out.

“Yeah, and if he can afford to just sneak away once a week, how important are his royal duties really?”

Thorax was still egging Pharynx on. “Well, it’s getting pretty late, you think we’re going out to eat?”

“It’s…possible,” Pharynx hesitantly agreed.

“Ooh, maybe they made reservations for a really cool dragon restaurant!”

“Nah, Mina’s favorite place is the opposite of where we’re going. So-” Pharynx glared at his brother’s goofy grin. “THORAX!”

Mina pointed her thumb at the bickering changelings behind them. “...Are they always like this when they’re together?”

“Get used to it,” Ember said with a heavy sigh.

After what felt like hours of walking and Thorax pushing Pharynx’s buttons, the dragons finally brought their dates to their destination.

“Alright, we’re here!” Mina said with a flourish, showing the movie theater on the corner of the street.

“Oh yeah, this is the way to the movies…” Pharynx quietly noted to himself, looking at the surrounding buildings.

“Ooh, we’re going on a movie date?” Thorax was immediately excited, just seeing the big movie theater with all the bright flashing neon lights on the marquee left the changeling in awe.

A little too much in fact. The longer Thorax looked, the more he was entranced by the flashy bright lights.

…And so was Pharynx. Despite wanting to make fun of his brother for staring like an idiot at the sign, even he found himself unable to pull his eyes away from the pretty lights.

“We should proooobably get them inside right now.” Ember said, looking at the two changelings in the same head tilted, mouth open stance.

“...Yep.”

The dragons went behind and pushed the changelings towards the entrance, trying to snap them out of their light trance.

Once they managed to shove them through the doors, Thorax and Pharynx eventually blinked back to reality.

“Well, guess I gotta cross ‘camping’ off the list of date ideas…” Mina pouted, her dreams of eating smores by the fire going up in smoke out of fear that her boyfriend might also go up in smoke.

Thorax looked around, trying to get his bearings. “Oh, we’re inside.”

“So what movie are we seeing?” Pharynx asked. He tried to approach the ticket kiosk before Mina stopped him.

“Nuh-uh, that’s still a secret! You just go and buy us snacks, we’ll get the tickets!” Mina said with a wink.

Pharynx just stared at her dumbfounded. “We don’t even get to know what movie we’re gonna see? What if I hate it?”

“Oh trust me, you won’t.”

Pharynx rolled his eyes and went with Thorax to the snack bar.

“Would’ve been nice to be told we were going to the movies. I could’ve smuggled in stuff from home if I knew.” Pharynx said, not even trying to lower his voice.

Thorax raised an eye in suspicion. “You would’ve carried snacks all the way from the hive to Fillydelphia?”

“Well, not me, obviously. You’re bigger, you'd clearly be able to hide it better.”

“Ooooof course. So, what movie are we seeing?”

“No idea, they wouldn’t tell me,” Pharynx shrugged. “We’re apparently gonna love it, though.”

Thorax tilted his head, wondering what sort of movie date those dragons were taking them on.

Pharynx stepped up to the counter, looking at all the things that were on sale and noting that a lot of them were gem-encrusted.

“Oooh, we should get the large popcorn, right?” Thorax piped up.

“What’s this ‘we’ stuff? You have your own money!”

Once the changelings returned with all the snacks, the dragons escorted them into one of the theaters.

The two couples sat in the same row, with Pharynx and Mina sitting together next to Ember and Thorax. They idly ate away at their buckets of popcorn, watching trailers as a few more dragons started to fill the seats.

Pharynx slumped in his seat, waiting for the actual entertainment to start. Thorax, however, was quite invested in the trailer.

Thorax leaned over to Ember, pointing at the screen showing a bunch of ponies in bright, colorful spandex costumes. “So, is this like seven different trailers for seven different superhero movies or something?”

“Why are you asking me when Mina’s right there?”

Mina opened her mouth, ready to go on a tangent, but before she got to get a word out…

“It’s for the Power Ponies movie. Over the past few years they’ve been making individual movies about them all so they can build up to a grander movie where all of them are together and finally form the Power Ponies. It started out with the Zapp and Masked Matter-Horn movies, and after those successes they moved onto tying them together with Fili-Second, Radiance, Mistress Mare-velous, Saddle Rager, and Humdrum. It’s the big team-up that a lot of fans have been waiting for, especially since one of their biggest villains, The Mane-iac, is rumored to finally make her cinematic debut.”

Thorax and Ember were stunned at how detailed Pharynx rattled all that information out and how casually he did so. Thorax more so because whenever he usually went off on that kind of tangent, Pharynx would just call him a megadork and noogie him.

Mina, however, never felt more in love with him. “Red rubies! You really remember all of that from what I told you?”

“Well yeah, of course I listen to you,” Pharynx said in a matter-of-fact tone.

With the trailers and previews not seeming to end any time soon, Thorax attempted a classic movie date maneuver. He pretended to yawn and stretch his arm, leaning over to drape his hoof around Ember’s shoulder.

Ember rolled her eyes at how unsubtle her boyfriend was being, but softly smiled as Thorax pulled her closer.

Not wanting to be outdone, Mina tried the same thing, yawning and stretching her arms towards the ceiling.

Before Mina could start leaning, Pharynx grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her arm over his shoulder himself, shooting a smirk directly at his brother.

Ember was ready to go through the rest of the popcorn bucket until the movie finally started.

“About time,” Pharynx muttered, slumping back into his seat, kicking his hooves up onto the row in front of him.

After sitting through all the opening credits, the movie opened up with a roaring sound and an orchestrated score.

Almost immediately, Thorax and Pharynx’s ears flickered, their eyes glistening with recognition.

“No…” Pharynx said in disbelief.

“Is that…?” Thorax’s heart started to beat faster.

Mina and Ember looked at each other with a satisfied smirk, their surprise going off perfectly.

As the screen showed a distant planet teeming with strange alien life, the changelings got even more excited.

“It…It is!” Thorax exclaimed, scooting to the edge of his seat.

Pharynx did a triple take between the screen and Mina. “Y-You didn’t…!”

“Of course we did!” Mina whispered back with a wink and a nudge to Pharynx.

Ember tilted her head as she watched a rainy city. “So is this like some sort of space movie or something?”

“Oh no, it’s something much, much more…!” Thorax said, his voice cracking, prompting an aggressive shushing from some of the dragons in the front rows.

While Mina and Ember were watching the movie with moderate moviegoing interest, Pharynx and Thorax stayed at the edge of their seats, eyes practically glued to the screen.

The movie so far had been going fairly slowly, at least for Ember, who was more interested in watching Thorax’s reactions to the movie rather than the movie itself.

“Yesssss…” The two changelingswere grinning ear to ear, bouncing up and down in their seats watching a bunch of ponies on the screen standing around, emotionless.

Ember leaned over to Mina. “I knew they’d like the movie, but I didn’t think they’d like it this much…”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect anyone to get so…invested in ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’...” Mina nodded.

“I mean, I don’t see what’s so special about it…” Ember shrugged. “So far, it just seems like a boring horror movie-”

Thorax and Pharynx immediately turned to her and gasped in shock.

“You take that back!” Thorax hissed, scowling like Ember just gave him a personal slight.

Ember recoiled, she’d never seen Thorax get so angry before. Honestly, it was kinda attractive, she was tempted to badmouth the film again just to see if he’d show off more of that fury.

Mina looked over to Pharynx, who was still watching, almost unblinking at the big screen. Not a trace of sarcasm or embarrassment was found on his face. It had been a while since she had seen him with this kind of unadulterated happiness. “Wow, you two really like this movie, huh?”

“Well, not just us. Pretty much every changeling agrees that this is the best movie ever made,” Pharynx replied.

Mina let out a small laugh out of disbelief. “Wait, every single changeling loves this movie?”

“Mmhm!” Thorax chimed in. “It’s a truly brilliant film that transcends traditional storytelling!”

Ember looked back at the screen, seeing a pony standing in front of a giant plant-like pod in a garden. “I mean it’s…fine? I don’t see why you two are going crazy over-”

The movie showed a pony emerging from the pod, covered in a green slime, not too dissimilar from what she witnessed over at the hive. Ember quickly connected this scene to her current understanding of the plot of aliens replacing ponies with emotionless lookalikes.

“Ah…yeah.”

“Sure it’s a touch inaccurate…” Thorax sheepishly grinned.

“But changelings agree that it’s ponykind’s greatest gift to cinema. Can you believe they made this movie before Chrysalis invaded Canterlot?”

“That’s part of what makes it so amazing!” Thorax squealed before they got shushed again by the increasingly annoyed dragons still in the audience.

Realizing why their dates loved the movie so much made Mina and Ember start to view the rest of the scenes in a slightly different light. It wasn’t that far-fetched to imagine the pod-ponies as changelings instead. They started to watch with a bit more intrigue, trying to at least understand why Pharynx and Thorax were so crazy about it.

The movie was reaching its climax, the protagonists had discovered a whole warehouse of pod ponies being grown. Mina was at the edge of her seat, her heart was pounding. And then she heard something unexpected coming from her left. She turned her head, instead of the giddy grin that was on during most of the film’s running time, Pharynx’s eyes were welling up as he was sniffling. “Are you…crying?”

“N-No…!” Pharynx choked out, visible tears streaming down his cheeks.

Mina looked back at the screen, seeing imagery that was making even the toughest dragons in the seats at least gasp in shock, then back to her boyfriend, tearing up like it was a reunion between a parent and child.

Thorax was doing much worse at hiding it. “It’s…it’s so beautiful…!” he sobbed, leaning on Ember for emotional support.

Ember slowly patted his head, feeling more confused and conflicted than when she received her first hug.

Once the movie ended and the credits started rolling, most of the dragons started getting up, stretching, and leaving the theater, but the double daters stayed in their seats.

“It only gets better every time I watch it…” Pharynx sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Oooh, thank you two so much!” Thorax squealed, pulling both dragons into a big hug, one that Mina took happily and Ember took reluctantly.

“Yeah yeah, let’s just…get out of here…!” Ember said, trying to pry herself free.

They walked all the way back to the comic shop, and decided to chat before the changelings returned back to their kingdom.

“So like, every changeling has seen the movie?” Ember asked, trying to end the day with more answers than questions.

“Mmhm! It was a real favorite grub activity growing up!” Thorax nodded, wrapping a hoof around Pharynx.

Mina raised an eyebrow. “Huh, I didn’t know Chrysalis’s hive had its own film projector…!”

“It didn’t,” Pharynx grinned.

Mina and Ember slowly started to connect the dots in their heads. “...Ohhh yeah, that makes sense.”

“Well, I guess it’s not that bad,” Ember shrugged. “I remember Mina used to have a whole hoard of comics back in the Dragon Lands before she moved out to Fillydelphia.”

A hot flash of pink appeared on Mina’s cheeks. “Hey! That was supposed to be a secret!” she insisted.

“Wow, so you were a bit of a rule-breaker too, huh?” Pharynx smirked, sidling up to Mina, leaning against her shoulder. “And I thought you couldn’t get any cooler…”

“C-Come on, I was a young dragon, it was different back then!”

Pharynx’s eyes suddenly lit up and looked at Ember. “Oh speaking of things we did when we were younger, did Thorax ever tell you about his favorite game when we were growing up?”

“Oh come on!”

Well with a reaction like that, how could Ember not pry further? “He hasn’t, what is it, Pharynx?”

Pharynx started sputtering in sarcasm-drenched shock. “Thorax! I thought you wanted to be a good boyfriend, and yet you wouldn’t tell her your favorite game?”

“It’s not my favorite game, Pharynx!” Thorax said, crossing his hooves in annoyance.

“Now how can you say that when we played it all the time as grubs?”

Mina stifled a laugh. She had a pretty good feeling she knew what Pharynx was referring to.

“Aw, come on, Thorax. Why don’t you show me the game?” Ember said with absolute sincerity.

“B-But…!”

As Thorax was looking at Ember, Pharynx took the initiative to start the game immediately. He grabbed onto his brother’s hoof, making it smack against his own chest. “Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”

“Stoooop! Owww!” Thorax immediately started whining as Pharynx kept smacking him with his own hoof. “It’s not funny!”

“Oh I disagree, this is hilarious!” Pharynx laughed, making Thorax slap himself across the face. “Come on! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!”

Thorax tried to get away, but even if he was bigger, his older brother was still stronger. “Pharynx! Cut it out!”

“Make me!” Pharynx said with all the indignance that only an older brother could give.

“I’m gonna tell mom!” Thorax blurted out.

For a moment, Thorax’s threat actually worked in giving Pharynx pause, before he realized how unlikely that situation would be nowadays.

That brief moment was all Thorax needed to push Pharynx off. “Ugh! I hate that game, it’s humiliating!”

“Well, not for me, it’s not!” Pharynx chuckled.

“Oh, I dunno, I think it looks pretty fun!” Ember said, earnestly excited seeing Pharynx make Thorax hit himself. “Can I play?”

“Ember, come on!” Thorax whined, knowing that if Ember started, she may never stop.

“Go for it! It’s really easy and super fun!” Pharynx grinned, egging her on.

Thorax let out a defeated sigh as the dragon grabbed onto his hooves. If he couldn’t break out of Pharynx’s grip, he had absolutely no chance fighting with Ember.

Ordinarily Ember would be against such weird things like hoof-holding, but this seemed like a more productive idea. She made Thorax’s hooves wave around, giggling to herself before making him lightly slap his face. “Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”

Thorax was blushing even harder. “Ember! Q-Quit it!”

Pharynx stepped back and watched the carnage ensue with Mina, satisfied with the humiliation of his brother. “Heh heh, they make such a cute couple…”

“That’s evil...” Mina was trying to give Pharynx a stern look, but it was clear that she was doing everything she could to not break out laughing, too.

“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing you’re here to ‘reform’ me,” Pharynx teased, giving her a nudge. His smug smile dropped a bit to a more modest one. “But uh…thanks for the movie. I have no idea how you found out, but it was…really nice. I don’t know how I could ever return the favor-”

Pharynx was quickly shut up with a kiss to the cheek from Mina. “Tickets to the Power Ponies movie will do just fine.”

Author's Note

This one was a commission for Chel, which explains why it's a lot longer than usual.

If you wanna guarantee I write about a crackship, let me know!