(In the voice of the French narrator from Spongebob)

Ah, the small town of Ponyville, getting ready for another year of Hearth’s Warming. The carolers are caroling, the bakers are baking those delicious sweets, the fillies and colts are having snowball fights and making snow ponies, and Discord is, well, being Discord.

Discord can be seen floating around the town with an army of mini snow gremlins from the snow the young ponies were playing with.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, having a good time, except for two creatures; a blue dragon, named Ember, and a changeling, named Thorax. Although they found themselves mostly at home in this small horse town, they couldn’t help but feel left out around this time of year.

Ember was flying around Ponyville watching as all of the ponies prepared for the annual holiday. As she was flying, she couldn’t help but notice Thorax sitting on a bench, with a sad look on his face.

“Hey, Thorax, you doing alright?” Ember asked.

“Not really,” Thorax replied.

Ember sat down next to him and put a claw on his shoulder, “Is something wrong?”

“Well, kinda. It’s just-“ Thorax sighs before continuing, “-I can’t help but feel left out. Seeing all of the ponies celebrating with their families is just another reminder to me that I don’t have a family; at least not anymore.”

“You mean when you were banished from the hive?”

Thorax nodded. “Yeah. I never really felt like I fit in, and to be honest, I don’t want to go back. It’s just not the place for me.”

“I hear ya. While I do like spending time in the Dragonlands, sometimes it can be a bit boring with the same thing happening all of the time. So I guess we can both relate to each other in that sense.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Haven’t you tried asking any of the ponies if you can spend Hearth’s Warming with them?”

“Well, no. I don’t want to get in the way of them celebrating the holidays with their families. Plus, who would want to spend the holidays with a changeling?”

“Like, most of the town. I mean, you’ve lived in this town for years, right? So surely the ponies in Ponyville ought to have trusted you by now.”

“Yeah, that is true for a lot of ponies, but there are still some here that are skeptical of a changeling living in Ponyville, and given the history of our kind, who can blame them?”

“I see what you mean, Thorax. A few ponies still haven’t gotten used to me living here either. But I try not to let them get to me, and you should too.”

“I suppose so. Still, I just hope I won’t have to spend this alone…”

“I’m sure you won’t Thorax. I’m sure you won’t.”

Just then, a light purple unicorn with purple mane and light blue strips down the middle was trotting down the path towards their direction, with a purple dragon on her back carrying some gifts. She slowed down when she noticed to of her friends sitting in the bench and walked up to them.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Starlight asked.

“Oh not much. We’re just sitting on this bench talking,” Ember replied.

“About what?” Starlight inquired.

“Just us realizing that I don’t have any family to celebrate Hearths Warming with,” Thorax sadly responded.

“Oh that’s right; you were banished,” Starlight said with empathy in her voice. “so you don’t exactly have any family to celebrate with, if changelings even celebrate Hearths Warming, which I assume they don’t.”

“No, they don’t,” Thorax responded. “We have this thing called a gourbfest, but it’s not the same as what you guys celebrate.”

Hearing his answer, Starlight turns to Ember for her story. “And what about you Ember?”

“Well, the Dragonlands don’t have holidays,” Ember explained. “They’re more like events; they mostly consist of fierce competition and cage matches, which are fine from time to time, but it’s just the same thing over and over,”

“But you do have family, right?” Starlight inquired.

“Actually, it’s just me and my dad mainly. While I do love him, he can be stubborn and slightly overprotective.”

“You’re not the only one, soul sister.”

“Soul sister?”

“It’s an expression. Anyway, what I meant was that you aren’t the only one with a protective dad, albeit for a slightly different reason.”

“Wow, that’s the second time today someone’s been relatable.”

“Is that something you don’t experience every day?” Starlight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you hear stuff relatable to you everyday?”

“Touché. Anyway, I was just checking to see how you were doing-“ Spike whispers an idea in Starlight’s ear, “-say, that’s a great idea! Thorax, Ember, would you like to spend Hearth’s Warming with me and Spike?”

“Wait, you’d be ok with that?” Thorax questioned.

“Of course! I would love to have more ponies, or creatures in this case, to spend Hearth’s Warming with.” Starlight replied.

Spike got off of Starlight’s back and went towards Ember. “And I get to spend Hearth’s Warming with a fellow dragon buddy.”

“I gotta say, I like that idea. After all, it’s what you ponies say, ‘merry moments comes from more things,’” Ember stated.

“Don’t you mean the more the merrier?” Starlight asked.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Ember replied.

“But you didn’t say it correctly,”

“Well it’s not my fault pony sayings are confusing,” Ember started walking back and forth while going on a slight rant. “For example you say ‘soul sister’ despite me not being related to you in the slightest, so how can we be soul sisters if we aren’t related, and now you’re saying that the ‘merry moments comes from more things’ isn’t even the correct saying, which makes no sense because it sounds so similar-“

“Anyway,” Starlight interrupted, wanting to get back on topic, “would you two like to celebrate Hearth’s Warming with us?”

Thorax and Ember thought for a moment what they should do; weighing out all of the pros and cons. Considering the pros vastly outweighed the cons, they figured it was better than spending Hearth’s Warming alone, so they decided to go through with it.

“Let’s do it,” Ember said.

“I’m coming as well,” Thorax responded, getting up from the bench.

“Great! You can meet us in the Golden Oka Library Tree in about an hour once we get stuff set up. See you then!” Starlight said, waving to them as she departed.

Author's Note

Yoooo first chapter complete! I tried my best with this story, but it may not be perfect, so if any of y’all see any grammatical errors let me know!