A Swapverse Hearth’s Warming

by JPTOfficiaL

Rating: teen
Tags: Thorax, Ember, Profanity, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 2249

Thorax and Ember decides to spend Hearth’s Warming with Starlight and Spike, while Starlight repairs her relationship with her father.

Wanna make a cover art for this story? PM me on this site and let me know and we can discuss details!

Also, the Swapverse AU was made by Twilight Star, go check them out. This story is a fan made continuation from that AU.

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A few days after the Winter Moon Celebration (or as I call it, “The Winter Solstice Festival”, because Winter Moon Celebration is too on the nose), Ponyville is getting ready to celebrate another Hearths Warming. While most are celebrating with their families around this time of year, two creatures feel left out due to not being able to celebrate with family. That all changes when a unicorn and her fellow dragon friend invites them to celebrate the holiday with them.

Meanwhile, Starlight father, Firelight, wants to spend Hearth’s Warming with her daughter, but given his protective and over nurturing nature, she not too thrilled with him being there.

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So this story is part of an AU called the Swapverse made by Twilight Star, which is similar to the Lunaverse with some changes. Seeing that it has a dedicated group for it, and I really wanted to see more of it, but there’s only two stories about it on their profile. However, they did make it to where anyone can write stories around this AU; so, I took it upon myself to continue the series and put it in the group, albeit, not an active one.

With that being said, enjoy my first story!

Another thing, while I definitely liked the concept and the story itself, some of the characters felt a tiny bit out of character imo, so I also made sure that the characters were as in character as can be, with a slight twist.

The teen rating is for mild language throughout the story.

Published 2024-10-16 22:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2025-01-13 02:28:40 UTC

Left Out

(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!

An Unexpected Guest

Thorax and Ember were walking down the streets of Ponyville on the way to the library, taking in all of the sights as they did so.

“Every year, they never fail to impress me,” Thorax said, sighing peacefully.

“I agree,” Ember responded, taking in all of the decorations on the houses they passed by. “These decorations are beautiful. The Dragonlands have nothing on this!”

“Yeah!” Thorax said. “There’s colorful lights on the houses and I find some of them really cool. It’s crazy how creative the ponies here can be.”

“Right? It’s almost a competition to see who can decorate their houses in the most creative way possible.”

“If that were true, I don’t think Starlight would win that contest,” Thorax said as he and Ember arrived at a large oak tree with a library built into it, devoid of any decoration. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.”

As they approached the front door, it opened to reveal Starlight with Spike standing alongside her. “Hey, so glad you could make it.”

“I mean, we did say we were coming here an hour ago,” Ember stated.

“Oh right,” Starlight said, blushing from embarrassment. “I kinda had a lot on my mind lately about setting everything up, and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night, so my brain isn’t really working today.”

“Holy crap, do you need to go to the hospital? If your brain isn’t working right you need to get to the hospital right now.”

“My brain is fine, Ember,” Starlight said with a slightly exasperated tone. “It’s just an expression.”

“Man you ponies really like your confusing saying don’t you?” Ember replied.

“Anyway, why don’t you two come on in.” Starlight said as she motioned them in with her hoof.

As the group went inside, they gathered around the fireplace which has two dolls on top of it; one that looks exactly like Starlight, and one like Spike.

“Normally I would have dolls of whoever I was really close with came over to celebrate Hearth’s Warming,” Starlight stated, “but since I invited you two last minute, I obviously don’t have any of you two.”

“Oh that’s fine,” Thorax responded. “Being here is enough for me, and I know I haven’t said this earlier, but I can’t thank you two enough for inviting us here.”

“Yeah, if you two haven’t come along, we would’ve spent the holidays alone.” Ember stated.

“Oh it was nothing. We just did what anyone would’ve done,” Spike said.

Ember noticed the dolls of Starlight and Spike sitting above the fireplace. “What are those dolls? They look like you two.”

“Oh, those dolls are usually of somepony who is really close to you or means a lot to you,” Starlight explained. “It’s kinda like when you have photos of your family and friends; it reminds you of who really loves you and cares about you.”

“Well then, it makes sense your dad isn’t up there,” Spike said in a sarcastically joking way.

“It’s not that I don’t care per se, but yeah. Luckily I never told him where I lived, so he won’t be disturbing any—“

Just then, a door suddenly swung open, and in came Starlight’s dad, Firelight. “How’s my silly filly doing this Hearth’s Warming?”

”OH LUNA DAMN IT!” Starlight shouted.

“Oh man, you would not believe the trip I had to take to come find you. It’s really hard when you didn’t get a notice on where your daughter lives, am I right?” Firelight said as he walked in, hugging Starlight.

“There’s a reason I never told you my address,” Starlight quietly grumbled.

“I think my invitation got lost in the mail or something,” Firelight continued.

“Wish I could lose you in the mail,” Starlight said with her still annoyed grumbling.

"Oh I'm sure you're just so happy to see me after so long and--" he paused when he noticed Ember and Thorax in the library with her, and got into a defense stance in front of her daughter. "Starlight, get behind me, I'll deal with this."

"Dad wait, they're my--" Starlight tried to say before being interrupted by Firelight.

"I don't want you two going anywhere near my precious little daughter. If you think you can harm her, you got another thing coming!" he said.

"Hurt her?! We weren't going to do that!" Thorax defended.

"Nice try Changeling! I've heard what your species can do, and I'm not falling for it." Firelight rebutted.

"Uh, what Thorax says is true. We are her friends after all," Ember stated. "My friends are my hoard, and I'll do whatever I can to protect that hoard."

He decided to move back from them after hearing both Ember and Thorax's oath. However, he was a bit skeptical so he asked Starlight, "Starlight, is what they they true? Are they really your friends?"

Starlight groaned in annoyance, "Yes Dad, I've been trying to tell you that, but as always, you wouldn't listen to your oh so precious daughter. How did you even find me anyway?”

“Oh so glad you asked!” Firelight exclaimed.

“I’m probably going to regret asking that…”

“I went to Ponyville because that where you moved to. But since you didn’t send your old man an invitation, I had to ask each of the residents of the town where you lived.”

“Ok, that doesn’t sound as bad as it could’ve been…”

“So I had to do some deep digging, aka asking the mayor if she knew where you lived.”

“And I immediately take that back.”

“So she gave me all of the information and now I’m here!”

Ember whispered to Thorax, “Yeesh, I knew her dad loves Starlight from what she told us, but this is next level.” Thorax nodded in agreement.

Firelight walked over and sat near the fireplace. “So, are we going to start celebrating or what?”

“Dad look, you can’t just walk in here unannounced,” Starlight said in annoyance. “but I’ll let you stay since it’s Hearth’s Warming.”

“Great! Now let’s get some hot cocoa and I’ll read Starlight’s favorite story; Frosty the snowpony.” Firelight beamed, wrapping his hoof around his daughter.

“I’m going to regret this,” Starlight groaned.

Author's Note

Woooooooooooooooooooo. Second chapter done yessirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Update…

Ok so, I’m going to be blunt, this story is cancelled. The reason it’s cancelled is because I kinda made up the story as I went along, and while I had a basic structure, I just winged it for the most part, and I’m not really satisfied with how it turned out. Don’t worry, I’ll still make more stories related to the Swapverse in the future, it’s just this story isn’t cutting it for me.
Thanks for understanding and have a great day.