Twilight Sparkle placed down the huge pad of paper. With her magic, she flipped through all of the pages, all of them bearing hoofwriting that ranged from calligraphic to cacographic, from beautifully understandable to unreadable scrawls that she somehow got the meaning of, if her non-stop humming and eyeing of the pages suggested anything.
Then, the pad of paper dropped to the table with a loud thud that echoed through the large, round library room.
The Princess clasped her front hooves, having a giddy expression on her face. "Long Winded and Nastic! The first ever changelings to be an official part of my official changeling research effort!" She placed her hooves on her cheeks, making a cute, wide-eyed face that spoke of joy. "I got all this information just from you two! What am I going to get when I talk to even more?!" She laughed wildy.
The two changelings blinked.
She blinked, dropping her upbeat smile. She cleared her throat and sat royally and properly on her chair. "So, apologies for the hassle." She coolly gestured a hoof. "What was your reason for being here, dear changelings?"
"I'll just say one thing, Princess," Nastic said, raising a hoof.
"And what would that thing be, Nastic?"
He pounded the table with both of his front hooves. "Are you stalking us or something?!"
"Stalking?" She levitated his front hooves off the table. "I assure you that whatever I'm doing is going to be for the benefit of all." A smile crept up on her face.
"I don't like the sound of this," Nastic whispered to Long Winded.
"Don't worry about it! I trust her completely!"
Nastic smacked a hoof onto his face. "I just wanna relax all over Equestria. Is that something hard to do these days?"
A book floated down to the table.
Twilight placed on a cool, colllected face. "You can relax with this book, Nastic. I'm sure it will fit your style from what I've observed about you."
"Observed?" he mumbled.
She pushed the book towards him. "It's a 'Shadow Spade' book. Mystery, noir, logical—it's a book you'll love! Then maybe you'll ask for the rest of the series."
Another book floated down to the table. Twilight pushed that book towards Long Winded. "And this one's the 'History of the Wonderbolts.' You admire the Wonderbolts, so knowing more about them would satisfy that admiration."
Long Winded hugged the book. "Thanks, Twilight! When will I return it?"
"I trust that you'll return it within the year, Long Winded."
Nastic flipped through his book. Then, he closed it.
Long Winded sat by himself at another table. The huge book with its many wide pages filled with text and the occasional image or picture was open, although at one of the first few pages. He giggled, smiling all the way as he pored through the pages.
Meanwhile, Nastic's book was closed and placed at the side, providing no obstruction between him and Twilight Sparkle.
"I...didn't know you wanted to have a serious discussion with me," she began, her one voice echoing through the room.
The only other sound that was there was the flipping and the turning of a page from time to time.
"First serious discussion with a changeling other than the king, if you ask me," Nastic said. He gave out a sarcastic chuckle while he adjusted his hat.
Her ears flayed. "You do have a good point." She hummed, looking up at the ceiling. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"What about you stop exporting your culture to us for a while, Princess?" he said.
Nastic smirked.
He glared.
Twilight gasped.
Humerus flew around the room wearing his blue and yellow shirt that sported an image of a lightning bolt. He wore goggles and a blue and yellow hat that also had an image of a lightning bolt. And he also screamed and shouted while he flew around the room.
"Will you stop that?!" Red Noise shouted lying down on his stony bed. "I wanna sleep!"
"Blue Alarm's OK with me flying around and screaming," he replied as he whooshed to yet another place in the room.
"It's a few hours 'till midnight, Humerus!"
"And he has a point," Neon Guard said as he flew into the room. "Even if we are OK with you making all the noise you want about the Wonderbolts, we wouldn't to have our friends get annoyed at you. Remember the friendship lecture that Princess Twilight Sparkle gave a while back?"
Humerus stopped his flight in mid-air and stared at Neon Guard.
"Maybe this time's an exception!"
And he flew around inside the room, screaming and shouting.
"What exactly do you imply by that statement, Nastic?" Twilight answered back, concern in her voice.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh." He eyed the many books far behind the Princess. "The answer is right there."
She looked behind her. "OK, we have lots of books in our libraries while your library doesn't have a lot, yet. We're trying our best to fill your library to the full—"
"I think you're missing the point here."
Twilight looked at him. "It's something deeper, isn't it?"
Nastic glanced at his friend, reading and scouring his book. "My friend, Long Winded, is a good example of what I'm trying to get at here."
In the Carousel Boutique, a line of dresses levitated their way and floated in front of Sunny Perky and Blitheful. Rarity, wearing her red eyeglasses, walked up to the changelings. "Although it was difficult at first to design dresses for changelings like you, I realized that the bodies of changelings aren't that different from ponies'. Just a little bit of reworking here and there, to simplify things to you—and, behold!"
The two changelings gasped.
There was a dress that was dark green. It sparkled; it was simple yet alluring. There was another dress; it was blue and yellow, having brooches that bore a striking shape, sharp like a lightning bolt would look like. There was yet another dress and this one was just yellow. A pink ribbon ran across it. Also, there was a hat that looked fancy.
"And, this one—I got the inspiration for this one from the tower, the center, of the Changeling Kingdom!"
A dress levitated out of the line. It was green and gray but it shimmered. Its extensions were craggy yet in a pretty way.
"Eww!" Sunny Perky yelled, pretending to not smell a disgusting scent.
"I wouldn't want to wear that!" Blitheful then softened up. "But, I understand your predicament, Rarity!"
"Uh, sure, Blitheful!" Rarity said anxiously. "Just like I said, it's not that easy at first!"
The dress was floated away to a trash can.
"Look at him!" he shouted.
That shout echoed.
"We are going in what direction with this happening to us, to all of us changelings? Maybe some of the crazier ones among us are right." He inhaled a breath of air. "Why exactly is our library empty? I don't think it's because of the the orders of books from Canterlot and from this castle. Do you want to know what I think, Princess?"
Twilight eyed the balled up hoof before her. She looked back into his eyes.
"I think it's because we had to order books from Equestria in the first place!" He slammed the table. "There! Why do we have to order books in the first place? Why not fill it up with our books, changeling books, books made by changelings, Princess? Oh, right. Because we don't have any! You can give us all the scrolls and the papers and the quills and the ballpens that Equestria has, but as long as you and your friends keep capturing the attention of my friends and the rest of my changelings, then we will not write anything! We'll just keep consuming and consuming your books, your art, your culture! I don't care if it's on purpose or not—if it's accidental, that just shows you're pretty negligent for the supposed Princess of Friendship!"
Twilight sat there, eyes and mouth wide open. She closed her mouth. Her eyes flamed.
"What?" Nastic quipped. "You're gonna say something to justify your wrong-doing? Heh." He adjusted his hat.
"Anything else?" Twilight asked.
Nastic looked at Long Winded. Around him and his table, a magical transparent force field.
"Didn't want to interrupt any book-readings. Nastic."
Her eyes were half-closed, locked on at him.
Thorax beheld the streets. They were clean. There were no more party decorations or trash. There were only changelings that walked and flew around. Some of those changelings wore Wonderbolts merchandise, others flouted it to their friends, still others wore and flouted.
"Anything wrong, King Thorax?" Royal Escorter asked beside him.
He sighed. "This is the Changeling Kingdom, right?"
"Yes, you are standing in it, King."
A breeze of wind flew in. The cold that was brought with it touched their carapaces and made the plants and the grass bend. Street lights and building lights shone onto the outside, giving the night a glittering glow and atmosphere. With the changelings that populated the place, it was indeed a truly lively night.
"Then, why do I feel like it's just a town in Equestria that happens to have changelings?"
"It's not, King. You know it yourself that it's outside of Equestria and the kingdom is not a mere town. Although, you're correct about it having changelings."
Thorax smiled. "You also know that I'm being rhetorical."
"I need to practice about that."
Thorax sighed.
More changelings passed by, a lot of them taking a short pause from their walk or their flight to take a bow and say, "Hail, King Thorax!"
He walked a little forward.
He stopped.
"I want this kingdom to be unique."
"Sooner or later, what's going to be the difference between a changeling and a pony? We're going to end up liking the same things, and the only thing that is going to tell us apart is that we look different! What next? Are you going to tell us that we're supposed to build our houses with concrete and wood because our materials are too un-pony-like?"
"That's not what—"
Nastic pounded the table. "Let me finish!"
Twilight shuddered.
"Do you want to know what's even worse, Princess?"
She stared at him. She said no word.
"When the changelings like and consume enough pony culture, what's going to happen when a creative changeling writes a masterpiece? Produces a symphony? Of his own? Everypony—heh, everypony—they're going to disregard it as mediocre and rush towards whatever a pony made! Changeling culture will not just be dismissed! It won't even exist. If it does exist, it's going to be minimal. It's going to be drab—by changelings' standards!"
"Then, what do you want me to do, Nastic?" She sighed, though a quiet grumble could be heard.
"Just give us money to survive and leave us be!"
He stormed off.
His bag levitated off him.
"OK, stop stealing that—"
"What's this, Nastic?" she asked, levitating an action comic book beside her face. She chuckled. "Didn't expect that from the likes of you, to be honest." She glanced at Long Winded, still reading under the force field. "Looks like you're not that different from your friend. Just a bit more secretive about it, I guess." She smiled and giggled. "Maybe you're just frustrated and all. You didn't need all those histrionics at work. However, that was a little scary."
"That comic keeps me calm, OK?!" Nastic yelled. "When you see all your friends and all your fellow changelings being caught up in this wave of pony this and pony that, I might as well find a way to take away the stress that gives you."
"And it's a pony comic, isn't it?" She looked at it. "I and my friends had a little adventure involving this particular comic series." She eyed the changeling. "Wait, did you get magically sucked into the comic world when you read this?"
"Who gave you that idea?" He groaned. "Just give it back to me and we're—"
"You could've just drawn your own comic book, if you wanted to be consistent."
Nastic threw himself towards the comic.
The comic floated away.
The doors slammed shut.
"Somepony needs to explain to me about what just happened!" Rainbow Dash shouted while she flapped her wings above the carpeted floor. She turned towards the small crowd of ponies catching up behind her. "Anypony?"
"I didn't come all the way from Rainbow Falls for this!" a green stallion cried out. "Twilight couldn't possibly delay a book club session, right?"
"That's the thing, Wensley!" she replied, whining with her front hooves as she hovered.
"What about you check what's going on inside first, Rainbow?" a blue unicorn asked.
"Minuette, I might be disturbing Twilight with whatever she's having inside!"
"Well, you got there first," another unicorn, a yellow-gray mare wearing a black sweater and a red, purple, and violet mane, said. "You must've seen a glimpse of what was happening there before the doors closed."
"Hmm." Rainbow rubbed her chin. "I guess you're right."
"So, what did you see?" Quibble Pants, in his adventurer outfit, asked.
"OK, I saw Twilight—"
"Now, you answered your own question." He crossed his arms and made a smug smirk. "Anyone else inside the room?"
"Two changelings and—"
"Changelings?!" Wensley screamed.
Twilight slammed the comic book onto the table.
"I bought that with my hard-earned bits, Twilight!" Nastic yelled.
He hovered closer to her, grumbling.
"The changeling that wants to be the shining example to his fellow changelings, yet...lookie here." Twilight smiled. "Looks like he's enamored by pony culture as well."
"What else can I read? No changeling has made a single comic book—"
"Like I said, why don't you make your own?" She crossed her front hooves while she sat. "If you do it well, you'll get famous, earn lots of bits, changelings and ponies would probably love it, changeling culture would now have a masterpiece, and I and my friends would read it together for fun." She extended a hoof. "It's a win-win scenario, Nastic."
"Well, I can't draw a comic book—"
"Then, do something else. Can your write a book? Can your write a song? Can you paint a painting? Can you be an actor? Can you make a single piece of changeling craft?"
"I'm not creative, Princess! I'm just the catalyst for other changelings to rise up against this oppression!"
"Oppression?" Twilight shifted her eyes to the left, to the right, to Long Winded still under the force field, and then back at Nastic who was seething with fury, eyes glaring at the Princess. "This is the first time I've heard of a changeling complaining about our help. We Princesses give a regular sum of Equestria's income to you, we provide you with the resources and materials necessary for you to reconstruct the kingdom in a better image, and we made a few announcements within the few months since Thorax became king that told our pony subjects to be as nice and as friendly as they can to you changelings, to even make some changeling friends because, you know, friendship is magic. How could you see oppression in all of that?"
"Subtle take-over."
Twilight groaned. "You're still worried about changeling identity and culture, aren't you?" She sighed and closed her eyes. "I respect that." She opened her eyes. "Could it be our fault? Sadly, yes. Do we intend to replace all changeling culture with pony culture? No, we don't. But, just think about it. When out of the four creatures who saved you from Queen Chrysalis, two of them were ponies—when you changelings look up to Thorax who was, himself, attracted and amazed by the friendships that ponies were making and spreading—when ponies give you warm hugs and friendships and just give you a good time, don't you think that the changelings will respond positively to that? Maybe they want to give the favor back, so they end up eating up all the pony products that we create. Another reason is that, maybe, pony culture is the only thing they could like for now. The Changeling Kingdom is in a better condition that it has ever been before, but, let's be honest here, Nastic—there is still much reconstruction and rebuilding to do. If you look at the statistics, the Changeling Kingdom is still in the stage where it consumes a lot of materials and resources only for it to produce a little of its own products. Coupled with the fact that the land around the Changeling Kingdom is basically barren and unfit for farms of almost any kind, the changelings basically have no time to make their own items unless it keeps them alive and fit. A great song is nice to make, but that wouldn't be at the top of your head when much of the food you're getting isn't from your own kingdom but is from another place that's a train's ride away, right?"
Nastic blinked.
"What I'm trying to say here is that the changelings don't feel like making their own culture because...maybe it's not the right time."
Nastic flew himself towards the Princess.
He was stopped as he floated magically above the table.
"Or, maybe, you're just looking at only one part of changeling culture. It's not always books and art and songs. Sometimes, it's not even something you can sell."
He was placed down on his chair.
"When ponies bump and shake each other's hooves, isn't that part of their culture? What about the story of Appleloosa? Everypony knows that it was built in less than a year, but not a lot of ponies think about their culture. Settler ponies from different towns and places throughout Equestria made the choice to make a town in the middle of a desert in the hopes of making a great city that prospers there. Also, they like adventure." She smiled. "Anyway, you have the cultures of all the towns that all these different ponies came from. Sooner or later, those cultures interact with each other. Over time, the cultures sort of get mixed, and, after some more time, a new culture arises out of the combination of cultures." She frowned. "Do you understand, Nastic? So far, I mean?"
He grunted.
"I guess that's a 'Yes.'" She picked up the comic book with her magic. "Now, what about the ponies who made this comic book? The company that creates 'POWER' and other such comics wants them out every month at least. You can't possibly have one pony make an issue every month, at least a high-quality comic every month. So, there are more ponies who get hired, who volunteer, and they can come from all over Equestria. The result? A comic book that adds to the overall culture of Equestria by having the elements of many different local ones." She frowned again. "Are you following me?"
Nastic growled. "So far."
Twilight's ears flayed again. But, she placed another smile on her face. "Maybe, with all the interaction of both ponies and changelings happening inside the kingdom, you'll form new traditions, you'll shape a culture that would be richer and more full than your past culture where..." She grinned nervously. "Let's not talk about it, shall we?"
She extended a hoof. "You've said your point. I've said mine. Agree to not hurt each other and be friends?"
The doors lurched open.
"I don't get care about politeness, anymore!" Rainbow yelled. "Why is the book club not starting, Twilight?! You're not having any private reading sessions about Daring Do for only the changelings, are you?"
Twilight contorted her face to show a forced smile. "Heh-heh." She looked at the crowd of dissatisfied ponies behind Rainbow. "I can explain it all if you can give me the time, everypony."
"It's already ten o' clock in the evening, Twilight!" Rainbow yelled.
"Late night book club session, anyone?"
She glanced at Long Winded. He was still reading his book under the magical force field.
Now, there were laughs and quiet talks all around as pages turned everywhere. Books, both open and closed, sat on all the round tables as ponies conversed and discussed about a variety of topics. Some just read their books, reading them silently as their eyes moved from one word to the next, from one sentence to the next, from one event to the next.
At one table, Twilight and some of her friends laughed. Along with them, Long Winded laughed, too, although hesitantly.
"So, who here remembers the 'Magical Compendium,' all the ninety volumes?"
Everypony but Twilight and Moon Dancer groaned.
"And, don't forget the unofficial volumes starting from Volume Ninety-one!" Moon Dancer added.
"Wait, there were more volumes?!" a goldish-gray unicorn with pink, puffy mane exclaimed.
"Mm-hmm." Moon Dancer levitated the big, decorated book in front of her. "I'm glad Twilight was able to gather the unofficial volumes as well as the official ones. Provides different perspectives on magic that not everypony agreed on."
"I think we can all agree that we don't need to read those, right?" another unicorn, having a yellow coat and blue mane, said.
Twilight glared at her. "Lemon Hearts, this is a book club, remember?"
"Oh, sorry!" She grinned.
"What about you, Long Winded?" Moon Dancer asked. "Do you have a favorite book? A favorite literary genre?"
"Uh..." He held up his large book. He grinned at everypony.
"The 'History of the Wonderbolts' is your favorite book?" she asked, confused. She smiled. "I didn't know you were a history pony! Uh...history changeling."
"Well, it's not really my favorite."
"Come on, Long Winded!" the Princess teased. "You just told me in our interview that you absolutely love the Wonderbolts!"
Long Winded gulped.
"So, it only makes sense that a book about the Wonderbolts would be your favorite."
He gulped again.
"Are you eating something?" Minuette asked. "You know it's not time for dinner. Unless changelings usually eat dinner late at night?" She pondered with a hoof on her head while she looked up.
"Nope. I'm just nervous. Wait, where's Nastic?"
Twilight grinned. "Oh, he's just sleeping over there." She gestured a hoof towards Nastic who was sleeping with his head on the table. "I guess the night has been a tiring one for him. It would be rude to levitate him somewhere—I haven't studied enough of changeling biology to see if the average changeling wakes up at the slightest of distrubances." And, she levitated a stack of bottled drinks onto the table. "Which is why...we're staying up reading books and chatting until morning!"
Everypony stopped what they were doing and looked at Twilight and her stack of drinks.
"Uh, exactly what's in there?" Rainbow asked.
"Coffee, tea, and soda! Everypony is going to have a drink they'll like that will keep them going!"
She levitated a book to the air. "Late night book club session, everypony!"
And everypony cheered. And one changeling.
The other one slept.