The Life and Times of a Changeling Nymph
The Biography of Ocellus: A Student of Friendship
by MixMassBasher
Edited by Neko Majin C
Headmare Twilight once said it's best to put your thoughts into words when she mentioned how the Friendship Journal came about. So, I'll try my very best.
Where do I even start with this? I don't know, honestly. I guess I'll start at the very beginning. Or rather, the end, depending on how you look at it. The beginning and end of the changeling race.
Queen Chrysalis had hatched another plan to take over Equestria and was close to success. I wasn't a part of that plan as I was just a growing nymph being trained for the new world that the Great Queen was making for us.
Ironically, the new world the Queen got wasn't what she'd anticipated. The usurping of her own throne.
The betrayer, or what most drones know him as, Thorax, had come back to the hive to save Equestria. With him, he brought along Trixie the Magician, Discord the Trickster, and Guidance Counselor Starlight, though, she wasn't a counselor, yet.
I wish I had met her back then. I could really have used some guidance. But we can't change the past.
Despite their small numbers, it wasn't power that won the day. It was their unity. Their newfound friendship. Although I didn't fully learn about this until later on. I never saw Thorax defeating Queen Chrysalis. I was patrolling somewhere in the hive far away from the throne room. But I did share my love like all the other changelings once I saw the way the older changelings changed form.
Despite all the Queen had taught us, there was an even greater power she did not fully understand. Sharing love was many times more powerful than taking it. Perhaps that's why Princess Cadence and Shining Armor could beat the Queen with the very thing she fed on during the first failed invasion of Canterlot. Which the Queen forbade us all to ever mention again, I might add, or else we'd face her wrath.
Am I afraid of mentioning it now? No, not really. I have gotten past my initial fear of the ex-queen.
I'll confess, though, I always liked the color blue. It was quite fitting I became this color when I changed.
As we newly rebirthed changelings danced in the ruins of our old kingdom at the crowning of the new and improved King Thorax, I had... mixed feelings about the whole thing.
The change was liberating. It felt good. I felt the freedom of choice for once in my life.
Yet, why was I so afraid?
Metathesiophobia; the fear of change, as Headmare Twilight explained to me later on. It was because I was now out of my own element. In an environment that was now different than it was when I was growing up.
A changeling afraid of change. Who would've thought?
I don't know why, but that fear just made me bury myself into whatever books or scrolls we managed to have in what remained of our old hive. What was shocking was that we changelings had no true history or culture other than the centuries of warring, deception, and constant hunger for love. I had hoped back then that time would change and we'd find new ways to make our mark in our world. A positive one this time.
Thankfully, that proved true.
The rest of the next season was spent rebuilding our hive, creating our culture and integrating ourselves into pony society. Shockingly, King Thorax somehow manage to strengthen ties with the Dragon Lord, of all creatures. This event proved that a changeling can change. For the better.
It was also after expressing my own feelings in our self-made Feelings Forums that I stopped being afraid of change. Instead, I came to fear the exact opposite. Turning back to our old ways. That was probably the cause of the recurring nightmares of turning into our old Queen. Thankfully, like all my other fears, I grew out of it with time and with friends.
And then came the School of Friendship. That was a whole other new experience for me.
Meeting other races without any disguises was frightening. Our original black hues help us hide in the dark of the night. Away from foes. But our colorful hues, like Pharynx once said, made us vulnerable.
That's what I felt when I entered the school. Vulnerable.
It also didn't help that I was representing my entire species in this brand new School of Friendship. Did that also make me a pawn once more? For the betterment of my race? Strangely enough, that's not really a bad thing. In fact, far from it.
I will say now that I never regretted coming here. If I didn't, I wouldn't have met Sandbar, Yona, Silverstream, Gallus, and Smolder. Five friends whose company I couldn't stand to be without. Kind of like how Headmare Twilight felt about her own friends, our other teachers, in her humble beginnings. Learning friendship was possibly what opened my eyes to what made Equestria truly strong.
‘Cause a true, true friend helps a friend in need, of course!
I listened to every word our teachers taught me. Call me a teacher's pet, if you will. I don't care. This is who I am. But that doesn’t stop me from getting in trouble now and then... Hehe.
From camping in the Castle of the Two Sisters to seeing the Tree of Harmony, every day was an adventure. My friends stuck with me through thick and thin. They became my second family.
Gallus, with his funny, sarcastic way of thinking. Sandbar, with his chillaxed, as he called it, attitude. Silverstream, with her bubbly enthusiasm. Smolder, with her snarky personality. And, Yona, with her cheerful personality disposition.
And then there was Cozy Glow. She was an enigma in and of itself. Although she acted all cheerful and sweet, I never did feel those emotions coming from her. I thought it was another part of my changing biology, like how I could feel love radiating from my friend Sandbar from time to time despite never figuring out at whom it was directed... I still haven't figured that out, to be honest.
But now I know better. Cozy Glow might as well be the old queen in disguise with how she acted. She betrayed us. Our friendship. Was this how Princess Luna felt in the past when she was neglected by the ponies of Equestria? If so, I have a better appreciation for the Princess of the Night. Maybe next Nightmare Night I can give her more of the candy that I'll be collecting with my friends.
But, as always, friendship always wins. In the end, she was punished for what she had done. Sentenced to Tartarus, surprisingly. Hopefully, she'll change her ways, like how Starlight once did. Everyone can change for the better. Just look at my entire race!
All in all, I'm happy where I am. The creatures I met, the friends I made, the experiences I had, I sincerely hope the next season brings forth more friendship among all races.
Sincerely,
Ocellus
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Haha. That song reference though.
Does.. Sandbar have a crush on Ocellus? XD.
9255728
That's not the only song references though.
Maybe...
I love how this whole entire story was placed!!!
Creative and thoughtful I love this book
What a fun little, well, (auto)biography of Ocellus! It was refreshing to see her thought process during the changelings' reformation, that it wasn't all smiles and rainbows even through the School of Friendship. You do her "voice" pretty well: smart and sincere (given that it's a journal we're dealing with) with a bit of fun mischievousness on the side.
Overall: It's nice!
9274113
Thank you! That says a lot especially coming from the guy who wrote Society as We Know It.
The bit where Ocellus mentions a lack of culture is a nod to your story. Funny tidbit, I also thought of of referencing your characters from that story but decided against it.
9275946
Ha-ha! You're welcome!
It's nice to know for sure that it was a nod. I had an inkling you did that on purpose, but I thought Maybe it's a common fanon; I'm sure lots of other people think the same way, too. Also: it's good you decided against it because if you just went up and mention Humerus and Nastic, it'd feel out of place.
Anyway, I really need to get around in these parts more, eh?
A pleasant little read. This was nice. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome.
9275946
This was a pleasant read, however it felt like I was reading something a talented middle schooler would write. At no point did she express her feelings, yes she told us about them, but never expressed them. Please do not misinterpret my statement. I liked this, and see a good amount of potential in you as a writer, I especially liked the allusion to Sandbar feeling love but Ocellus not knowing who, but I would have loved to see more showing instead of telling. Other than that, your grammar was correct over all, the story flowed well, and you do have a firm grasp of her voice, just the expression of that voice I think could use some practice. All in all a better story than most. Depending on how I feel about the other story you asked for a comment on, you will probably get a follow, as I find you have an interesting voice of your own and would like to see it devolop.
9311760
Thank you for the feedback. I should have given her more expression on her feelings and probably in my defence I could say that as mentioned in the beginning, this is her first time writing so she's starting with the basics just as I am with my writing
9312515
Fair enough, I can be a little harsh, but I have Three rules that turn it positive.
1. Everything I say, I will also say to your face.
2. I don't say anything I can't apologize for.
3. I never waste my time. So if I give you a comment, even one that is harsh, it is because I believe that you are capable and gifted enough to take advantage of the criticism.
That being said I also loved the parody story you did inspired by letters from a disgruntled friendship student. It was well written and hysterical.
Since I like Ocellus almost as much as I like Gallus (as I have a thing for both catbirds and bug horses), I was hoping that this story would help flesh out her personality. This isn't so much a story as an insight into what makes the ladybug horse (as I call her
) tick.
One of the most interesting ideas you had was that Ocellus sensed something was off with Cozy Glow, even though no one else saw it.
Stuff like that makes this piece interesting to me. That's why I faved it.
Keep on writing, buddy.
9255728
Interesting thought, but from the show itself I see that they pair Ocellus with Smolder a lot more often. And it's amazing, mainly because of Smolder's growing acceptance that femininity is not a non-dragon trait, in that "girly" stuff doesn't have to be considered weak, and a girl doesn't necessarily have to exhibit more masculine traits to be strong. Ocellus being a soft-spoken colourful bug is a perfect match.
...
I really like Smol Smolder.
9335220
Yeah, I see your point. The ship obviously won’t be canon, but it’s nice to think about.
This was a nice read. Short and sweet, and a journal entry is a good way to look into a character's mind without it technically being too much exposition.
I agree with most of what 9311760 said, but there's one thing I disagree with in terms of how this is written. Showing and not telling is very important, but since this is a first-person account in a journal, and no third-person narrative to show what Ocellus is doing, there really isn't any way to 'show' here. This could be remedied, though.
You could have this be a sort of mini-tale of something that Ocellus is doing in her room—purely slice-of-life—whether she's preparing to go to bed, or something else that requires her to have a reason to be writing in her journal. This would allow you to have a third-person narrative for the whole of the story, but the journal entries Ocellus writes would be in first-person. You could have her write some parts of her entry before taking a short break for her to do something, have her talk to herself about her thoughts while showing her facial expressions, movements, etc, then continue. While jumping between narratives is generally not the best way to go with stories (at least from what I usually see, though I've done it myself), in a situation like this, it would make perfect sense.
Another idea you could use to expand this into something bigger (if you wanted to) would be for all six of them to write in the journal, just like the Mane Six did. Each chapter could be a new entry. If you didn't want to make it that long, each character could just have one, with a similar narrative style and each writing about their backgrounds before they came to the school—Gallus about Griffonstone, Yona about Yakyakistan, Silverstream about Seaquestria/Mount Aris (you get the picture)—while showing what they're doing while writing, perhaps interacting with the others if they're there.
Just a thought or two. Sorry for the wall of text.
9373267
I think I was a little unclear on what I meant. Her emotions, didn't sound real to me. Like I said, I happen to think that this has promise and I do hope that Mix continues and expands on it. However on looking at the story I realize that maybe some of the hollowness was intended. The character that is writing the diary has the experience of a middle schooler after all. So if anything the breaking of the rhythm in the narrative could be both an error on the character's part as well as a tool for alliteration for the author that writes her.
9373317
9373267
Thank you for the feedback once more. As mentioned before in my previous comments. Just as Ocellus is a starter at writing her story. I myself was just starting to write on my own.
The intention of the story was as Level Dasher said. I wanted to look into the mind of a character from her beginnings to now in the Student Six in a simple short story. I had a little fun writing a few tidbit extra details that while doesn't follow the cannon character add some tidbits to the character I write. Like what made her pull herself into reading, her favorite colour being blue, fears of the future of her kind and fears of going back to the old ways even a little nod to Sandbar having a crush on Ocellus but is oblivious to it.
Funny that a short story I wrote in a very short time has more people commenting on it that another story I took a very long time to post later on. Boutique Down the Road.
Would appreciate it if you guys check that out too if you want and have any feedback that i can improve as an author.
Also, there is potential to write other stories with the other Student Six but I have no concrete ideas as of now.
I read this in Ocellus's voice and I look forward to seeing where this story goes, if more is added in the future!