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 theirown 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 ofchangelings, the royal brothers of the recently reformed changeling kingdom.
“This is so dumb,” Pharynx grumbled, shooting glares at anypony who passed by thatgave him a weird look, which was all of them.
“You still agreed to it,” Thorax said, sporting a small smile as he walked ahead throughthe 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 ofthem 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, makethem do your dumb arts and crafts?”“Maybe! Mina would probably make some stuff for her cosplays, and Ember…would likeeating 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 toside, trying to decide where to go. “C-C’mon, we’re almost there!” He said, decisively pointing ina direction before walking down the street.
Pharynx, however, stayed put, pointing his hoof in the opposite direction. “Pretty sureDragon 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. “Allthis 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 aroundthem. 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 thewhole 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 pacewith Pharynx taking the lead.
Thorax still took the time to take in his surroundings. “Huh, seems like the dragons don’tturn 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 downthese 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 lookingfor.
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 torealize that the door just opened.
“I dunno, Spike never really struck me as going for the dark and brooding type,” Embershrugged. “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 theNight and her most loyal and fiercest of guardians! Think of all the centuries they could spend ineach 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’dyou 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 stilla 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 enoughtimes, 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 areregulars at the shop who I see less often.”
Ember looked at Mina with both amazement and amusement. “Wow, I don’t think me andThorax 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 goingout 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 cornerof 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 anidiot 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 twochangelings in the same head tilted, mouth open stance.
“...Yep.”
The dragons went behind and pushed the changelings towards the entrance, trying tosnap 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 dreamsof eating smores by the fire going up in smoke out of fear that her boyfriend might also go up insmoke.
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’regonna 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 thehive 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 notingthat 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 oneof the theaters.
The two couples sat in the same row, with Pharynx and Mina sitting together next toEmber 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 wordout…
“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 havebeen waiting for, especially since one of their biggest villains, The Mane-iac, is rumored to finallymake 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 kindof 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 ofthat from what I told you?”“Well yeah, of course I listen to you,” Pharynx said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Thorax puts arm around Ember, Mina puts arm around Pharynx.
With the trailers and previews not seeming to end any time soon, Thorax attempted aclassic 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 soundand an orchestrated score.
Almost immediately, Thorax and Pharynx’s ears flickered, their eyes glistening withrecognition.
“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 spacemovie 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 moreinterested 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 theirseats 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 itthis 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 thismovie?”“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 hercurrent 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 viewthe 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 atleast understand why Pharynx and Thorax were so crazy about it.
The movie was reaching its climax, the protagonists had discovered a whole warehouseof pod ponies being grown. Mina was at the edge of her seat, her heart was pounding. And thenshe heard something unexpected coming from her left. She turned her head, instead of thegiddy 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 areunion between a parent and child.
Thorax was doing much worse at hiding it. “It’s…it’s so beautiful…!” he sobbed, leaningon 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 gettingup, 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 thechangelings returned back to their kingdom.
“So like, every changeling has seen the movie?” Ember asked, trying to end the day withmore 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, thatmakes sense.”“Well, I guess it’s not that bad,” Ember shrugged. “I remember Mina used to have awhole 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 gameimmediately. He grabbed onto his brother’s hoof, making it smack against his own chest. “Whyare 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 acrossthe 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 herealized 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 thehumiliation 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 wasdoing 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 themovie. I have no idea how you found out, but it was…really nice. I don’t know how I could everreturn 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.”