Epilogue 1 - Helping Hooves
Flitter
Epilogue 1
Helping Hooves
The earth pony mare nervously stared at her hooves as she stood in front of the big door. She glanced up at the name plate. The name on it was known throughout Equestria. It was the name of the one that had started it all; the one that was coordinating all of it now. She smiled nervously at the prospect of actually meeting the person behind the famous name.
Finally, she mustered the courage to knock on the door.
"Yes, come in," a voice said. It was hard to hear whether it was male or female, but she knew that wasn't unusual. Everyone knew he was male, anyway.
She opened the door, and walked in. "Uh... hello. My name is—"
"Fog Lantern," Flitter said. The changeling was sitting behind a big wooden desk filled with papers and folders. "I've been waiting for you."
"...y-you have?" the yellow mare said, an uncomfortable look on her face. "I-I'm not late, am I?"
Flitter gave her a gentle smile. "I mean, I've been waiting for you to finally knock on the door. You were out there for, what, five minutes?"
Fog Lantern blinked. "Oh. You can... sense that. Right."
"There's no need to be nervous," Flitter said, "I heard you've done great work with the Health Care Volunteering Project. You're even a Form Sharing volunteer, right?"
Fog Lantern nodded. "Yes, Mr. Flitter."
"Just Flitter will do," Flitter replied. "How many?"
"Fourteen," she said.
"Well, thank you for that. There aren't many ponies who are comfortable sharing their form with changelings, and it's not like our employees are in any way expected to volunteer. So, how is the Health Care Project working out? I've heard some really positive things."
Fog Lantern pulled a folder out of her saddlebags with her mouth, put it on his desk and opened it. "It's an amazing success!" she said, forgetting her initial shyness. "There are over four hundred changelings working as volunteers in hospitals and homes for the elderly. Most in pony forms, though all of them wear name tags with their own names, just like the medical staff. Most ponies quickly get over the fact they're changelings."
"How's their training going?" Flitter asked.
Fog Lantern sifted through the pages and picked out one at the back. "The emotional development sessions aren't quite enough to prepare them, but a few weeks in the field seems to do the job. They still get taught the Old Ways, mostly as historical perspective, though I heard it contains quite some useful information."
"You don't know the Old Ways?"
Fog Lantern gave him an unsure look. "Ah, well, just the basics, really. They mostly get taught in chittertalk, for the young ones. I picked up some of the language over the last weeks, but hardly enough to follow the lessons."
Flitter nodded. "I should really get those translated and written down. They would make it a load easier for our ponies to get into their mindset." He sighed, and looked at the papers the mare had put in front of him. "So much work, so little time."
He looked up at her. "Still, I'm glad it's working out. Rainy will be thrilled; it was her idea, after all."
"Rainy? Oh. Morning Rain. Your wife."
"Heh. Everypony really knows all about us, don't they..." Flitter muttered, still smiling.
"Is she really... pregnant?" Fog Lantern asked. She wasn't usually into this kind of gossip, but this rumour was a really tenacious one, both amongst ponies and changelings.
Flitter raised an eyebrow. "Ahh, that would be telling," he said, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but that's private."
"There are a few more out there in your situation, you know," Fog Lantern remarked.
"Yeah, I know," Flitter said, smirking.
"If it really is possible, as Counsellor Morphosai says, it would really help them out to know."
"As I said, I know," Flitter said. "As in, I know them, I've met them, and they will be, or were, the first to know. And just like me, they won't say a thing. Mind you, some of those are still holding on to their pony forms, which, as Counsellor Morphosai also said, prevents conception."
Fog Lantern blinked. "Oh. Right. Well, uh, good luck with that, then, however it goes."
Flitter gave her a curt smile. "Thank you. Did you have anything more in that report?"
"Oh!" Fog Lantern said, nodding. "Yes, we have documented the overall interaction between the cared people and their changeling caretakers. There were a few incidents of old ponies screaming and yelling at the few brave ones that didn't go in pony form, but most of the meetings were quite peaceful. The changelings said they usually got enough positive emotions to feed themselves and their near relatives."
Flitter nodded. "They make themselves useful, and can feed their families with it. That's what it's all about, after all; working better than the Teamwork Project."
"Oh, Teamwork wasn't that bad," Fog Lantern said. "It got changelings a reputation of being hard-working people. It did wonders for the public view!"
"Yeah well... colleagues aren't appreciated on a personal enough level, it seems," Flitter said, remembering the failed project. "The involved changelings still rely heavily on the Counsellor's reserves, and we all know those won't last much longer."
"Still," Fog Lantern said, "I doubt we'd have been able to pull off Health Care Volunteering without it. Oh, and Teamwork may not have to rely on the reserves for too long. We've noticed some kind of, well, economy springing up between the two groups."
"Wait, you mean a trade in emotion energy?"
Fog Lantern nodded. "Health Care Volunteering is, after all, volunteering. Project Teamwork gave some changelings a taste of Equestrian lifestyle, and they're quite liking it, but the volunteers aren't earning any bits. A few of them seem to have figured out they can sell their surplus to Project Teamwork changelings that want some extra, usually so they don't have to wait for the reserve requests in order to start a family."
"That's good news," Flitter said. "It could make my job a load easier in the long run." He briefly looked over the other pages detailing the overall progress of the project, and spotted a peculiar detail on one of them.
"Unconfirmed identities?" He looked up at Fog Lantern. "What's that all about?"
Fog Lantern gave him an uncomfortable look. "Well, I'm still looking into that, actually... but apparently, there were more changelings in the Program than we could identify."
"How so?"
"We honestly don't know," Fog Lantern said. "It just seemed like a clerical error at first, but when we investigated the hospital, the changeling caretakers from the program described a pony-form changeling we couldn't match to the Form Sharing data."
Flitter frowned. "Where was this? Close to the Badlands?"
"Yes. Dodge City Hospital. You don't think it could be the attackers?"
Flitter shook his head. "I don't know. But I had expected to hear more of them after the invasion. For all we know, they've fallen apart after that, and they're all starving. It's my job to see things from both sides, you know."
Fog Lantern rolled her eyes. "There's just as much chance they're perfectly all right, and are simply abusing our own system."
"I know," Flitter said. "Still, as long as they're blending in, they should be relatively harmless. They'll have to be, if they want to keep using our system." He smiled. "Either way, it should be interesting to meet some of them. If you manage to make contact, please let me know right away." His head suddenly shot up. "Oh! And if you do, ask them if they know the Ways of the Royals."
Fog Lantern raised an eyebrow. "Of the Royals?" she asked.
Flitter nodded. "I've been talking about our history with Counsellor Morphosai. We call them the Old Ways, but traditionally, they were apparently meant as guidelines for new queens to survive outside a colony. Other hives might not recognize our term for it."
He looked at some of his own notes lying on the desk. "I'm just wondering if we'll have any common ground, really. The subject of contact with other hives has been keeping me busy for a while now. The Princesses are somewhat worried about the fact they found no traces of the invaders' hive in the Badlands."
"I see," Fog Lantern said. "Well, at this point, we're not sure if they'll even return. But if they do, I'll alert you right away."
"Thanks." Flitter floated up the papers with his magic, and put them all back into the folder. "Well, that'll be all for now. I'm glad I got to meet you, Fog Lantern; this has been incredibly useful. I'll go over the finer details later, and I'll take care of bringing it to the Board and the Princesses."
"The Princesses will be reading my report? Oh my gosh!" She suddenly looked back to Flitter, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "Oh. Uh. Pardon my enthusiasm."
Flitter smiled. "I like your enthusiasm. We can definitely use more enthusiastic people here. Not that I personally need it; I'm quite well-fed."
Fog Lantern snickered; she was well accustomed with changeling humour by now. "Well," she said, walking towards the door, "consider it a gift for the baby, then." She gave him a friendly nod, walked out of the office, and closed the door behind her.
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Yes! World building at its finest! Changelings coexisting with ponies in Equestria, you should pat yourself with the back for that achievement
1651368 agreed. I really wonder when the new baby is coming
... Ooooooo... She mentioned the baby she was supposed to pretend didn't exist, or at least, not exist yet.
Badlands Changelings invading through the system, hopefully their up to doing good.
For some reason I imagine Morning Rain being some sort of role model to many of the girl changelings seeing as many seemed to lke her
Though I would assume Flitter gets tons of questions from changelings in similair situations as was hinted at.
YES I do like this.
yay~
great chapter
So this is the status of the "project"
I hope for a sequel/side story because this is too good to end here, so MOAR
Whoo. I pretty much rewrote half of this over the course of the last days. Ideas just kept coming, y'know? I even had to throw out a rather nice bit because it really didn't fit in there anymore. Ah well. Stuff evolves like that.
I agree with the above comment. Sorry to see the story wind down.
Aw, sweet ending.
1651450
Might wanna use that nice pin button to refer to a specific post; comments seem to be flooding in all the time.
I came.
To read the new chapter.
Also.
I came.
Because there has to be a sequel or I'll kill you myself.
One last thing.
I came.
this needs more than two epilogues!
you should wright a hole story sequel!
1651462
Unfortunately, that's not up to me. My muse is a fickle mare
Thanks for the story.
Here.... Have one for the road!
Flitter.......
That is all.
1651480
I doubt changelings are able to grow any kind of facial hair.
...then again, neither are reptiles
Finally Changling racism has been stopped thank you Nelson manflitter
Nuuu, soo good story and now epilogue. Dang i hate when great story end
Uh-oh, Chrysalis is up to something sneaky... never count out the insane, power-hungry ones until they're dead and rotting before your very eyes!
There could indeed be a sequel, since the Badlands hive has completely vanished without a trace. That's not what would happen if they simply died or disbanded. Instead, it indicates there was an organized escape. And now, when it's clear that the ponies are accepting Changelings, the fact that none of the Badlanders have shown up asking for inclusion means they are likely still being led by Chrysalis, who almost certainly still machinates upon nefarious plans with intended sinister outcomes!
Will the ponies and friendly changelings manage to fend off the doer of dastardly deeds? Tune in next time! Same bug time! Same bug channel! Na-na-na-na-na-na-changelings! Na-na-na-na-na-na-changelings! Changelings, changelings, CHAAAANGELIIIIINGS!! *Changeling Bug Signal on screen*
1651488 That's not fair, he should be allowed to!!!
And Google has failed me!!! I can't find ONE damn image of a changeling with a moustache!!!
that was good. it always hurt when the story you like so much comes to the end, but good ending helps deal with it and carry on.
nice job.
1651368
indeed. the way it was meant to be.
1651490
Yay! coexistence
1651613 awwww you didn't get my pun
A new chapter of Flitter? with Changelings and Ponies working together?
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9ivhbxtLu1rv4e0b.gif
Intriguing still.
BRAVO SIR BRAVO And i would love to see a sequel!!
World building! yay!
...of course... the story is drawing to a close... so that makes me sad... but... at least it's been a good run and didn't over stay its welcome.
Wow, nice story! Really liked it! Read it all in one go :D
Also, do you happen to be the Nyerguds from cncworld.org? Homer says hi ;D
1651814
There's only one Nyerguds. And I'm on pretty much all C&C forums
Glad you liked the story. One last update to go
1651820 Yeah I suppose :P Still, surprised to see you here!
1651422
I suspect that since she was responsible for this love energy that Flitter had been carrying, that they might be treating her a bit like a queen. Since the queen's role in changeling society apparently has something to do with energy distribution.
1651517
I don't think Chrysalis is insane. Daring perhaps, ambitious certainly, and somewhat foolish. It sounds like the hives have long been out of contact with each other, and given their mode of disguise while traveling it's unlikely they would be easily detected. I might even go so far as to suggest that a "well fed" changeling might be nigh undetectable by other changelings and difficult to distinguish from an ordinary pony. Even though they aren't a source, having enough energy might make it difficult to distinguish a non-source on passing. Thus Chrysalis might honestly believe herself the last Changeling Queen and thus have a justification for seeking a more permanent, if more violent, remedy to the issue of survival of her and her species.
This is good.
...
In an unrelated note:
1651461
WHAAAAA-?
1651449
I love the way you did this
I vote for a Flitterverse!
Thanks for more Flitter
1651466 Well, my suggestion is to get your mare some of Pinkie's Sarsaparilla.
Pink Pony gives you wingz!
1651461
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/archive/d/d9/20091230153252!Jack_atlas.png
Yuuuussei!
Let's go read an awsome fanfiction on motorcycles!
>>Nyerguds
Seriously, I absolutly loved this story. well done.
images.wikia.com/mlp/images/e/ec/FANMADE_Twilight_Clapping.gif
Yet another brilliant chapter. I'm starting to think Nyerguds is physically incapable of writing a bad chapter.
(on an unrelated note: writing this comment for the fourth time. Stupid mobile browser)
On a more related note: Sequelsequelsequelsequelsequelsequelsequelsequelsequel.
1651945
Here is an interesting angle... What if Chrysalis's war band was made up of several failed Hives, all brought together under her leadership? If her own had been in decline as well, it would easily give her that "I'm all that's left" mindset.
1651820
Command & Conquer is awesome.
1653845
Very much so. Mind you, the C&C 4's ending(s?) had me facehoofing so hard it left a scar. Thankfully Red Alert has yet to disappoint (at least not that badly, anyway).
1654035
Eh. I'm a hardcore Westwood Studios fan; I ain't played any C&C game that wasn't made by them. (Generals doesn't count, as it's not a real C&C game, just had the name slapped on it for brand recognition.)
I don't like how there's an epilogue.
It means the story is either finished or about to...
I don't want to finish this story, it's too good to end
Oh well, it was great while it lasted.
Sequel?!
Ah, first epilog in place. Good work, everything has the right feel for progression from the end of the story into the events here. Flitter's settling in nicely as the chief administrator of the Equestrian Changeling Liason Office, and it sounds like a couple of the ideas I suggested as being possible niches for changelings in Pony society are already being tried out. I like the idea that changelings exposed to pony life are developing a taste for some of the luxury items, and learning on their own how to indulge in capitalist ventures with their emotional harvest between each other. I'm sure that both Flitter and Morphosai are looking at this development with good cheer.
I see that Morphosai has settled on the designation of Counselor to define her new status within the Equestrian hierarchy. Now, I'm wondering how long other Hives will be observing this experiment before they think about joining in? You can't expect there to be only two Hives in the world, though I would imagine that realistically expecting more than a half dozen or so would be seriously straining the ecosystem... at least until more of the changelings learn Flitter's trick of how to become self-sustaining.
I wonder if ponies are the only species that this trick works with, or if there are hives that specialize in other species? I'm sure that there's an equivalent in the Zebra lands (hmmm... for that matter, I wonder if Zecora was aware of the Everfree Hive, and did she have any trade with it? Zebra brews call for a lot of esoteric items, and her shape-forming powders certainly had a lot of color tags that suggested changeling influence.)
And I see that someone is already taking advantage of the new changeling initiative. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Hopefully the next (final?) epilog will tell us where things have gone with respect to the unidentified changelings.
1651633
what pun
This story felt really short.
1651633
Unlike 1654374, I DID see the pun. Sadly, I didn't get the reference. Mind explaining?
1654621
I second that