//------------------------------//
// The Book Club Session 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

Blue Alarm stood on the purple floor. He looked up, seeing the yellow and green banners with their stylizations of a tree. He looked at the ponies that were inside the library room. They were all busy just enjoying the night, talking to each other as many of them held their books. The occasional joyous laughter brightened up the mood, giving the book club session a welcoming sense. There were a few more ponies entering the library, walking in and looking at what was going on.
"Wonderbolt history," a pony said, " Equestrian history, Ponyville history, Canterlot history—what's interesting about history is that we get a glimpse of what happened before."
Blue Alarm looked at where the pony was.
He was wearing a hat and was standing in front of a table of other ponies who were also standing.
"Ponyville, for example, is, today, a good place to live in and a good place to visit," the pony went on. "However, who built the houses? Who used to live here before us? That's when the books about Ponyville's history become not just useful but, honestly, entertaining. You get to appreciate the ponies who decided to settle this place, you get to appreciate the ponies who built this town to be the town that it is now."
His audience nodded and one of the ponies stomped on the ground, approving the words.
Blue Alarm hovered over to another table, passing by more ponies who were walking by. Most of those ponies glanced at him and smiled.
He landed near the table.
"OK, Daring Do fans!" Rainbow Dash announced, looking fierce while she held up a Daring Do book. "Who here has read all the books so far?"
A few ponies raised their hooves.
"That's great! You're like me! You read the entire awesome adventure of Daring Do! But, what about the rest of you who haven't read all of the books?"
"We don't have the time?" a pony said. He was wearing an outfit that looked just like Daring Do's.
"When did you start reading the Daring Do books?" Rainbow asked.
"Just yesterday."
"What book are you on now?"
"Why are you asking this?"
"It's an important question!"
"I'm just here to have fun talking with other Daring Do fans, not get asked questions about my being a fan!"
Blue Alarm laughed a little before hovering off to another table.
That table was where Twilight Sparkle and Moon Dancer and their friends were. Most of them were holding books.
"Who's ready to talk about complex math?" Twilight declared.
Lemon Hearts, Minuette, and Twinkleshine groaned. "Really, Twilight? Is that the kind of things you want to talk with your friends?"
"Not all the time," Twilight said. "It's nice to talk about it, though. When you realize that numbers are more than just things you write on the paper and on the chalkboard, math starts to become something astounding, something that you see in everyday life."
"Like calculating the price of apples at the market, I get it!" Twinkleshine complained. "I understand the simple maths like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Fractions, yes, I get that, too. Maybe algebra. But calculus?"
"Calculus is fun, too. You just have to be interested in it!"
"Let's talk about something else, Twilight," Twinkleshine said. "Like, how's your being a Princess?"
"It's not really a big deal anymore," Twilight replied. "I mean, I don't have to be all arrogant about it. I still have lots of time to spend with my friends to go to other places in Equestria, to talk with each other casually, to have fun." She smiled.
"You've really become a better pony since we last saw you," Lemon Hearts said.
"Mm-hmm!" Moon Dancer looked at Twilight. "What about we talk about history?"
The three mares groaned again.
Blue Alarm hovered off again to another table.
At the table, Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie were laughing.
"That's a great idea for a party!" Cheese said. "We could install balloons everywhere and then we let the party participants get all the balloons that they want!"
"That would cost lots of bits, though," Pinkie said. Then, she grinned. "But, you're right! It's a great idea!"
"And, here's another one: Instead of ordinary cakes, we use birthday pies! The challenge is to make them look just as amazing as a birthday cake!"
"I already have some birthday pies myself!" Pinkie then held a birthday pie. It was a simple pie with a few candles on top.
"Pinkie, I know you could do better than a pie with candles!"
Then, Pinkie held up another birthday pie. This one was more flashy, having lots of chocolate on it. It also had candles on top.
"What about we make it even more extravagant than that?!"
Pinkie held up another birthday pie. This one had tons of chocolate and maple syrup on it and it also had candles on top.
"OK, you might be ruining the floor already, Pinkie."
Pinkie then ate all of the three birthday pies.
Cheese laughed.
Blue Alarm hovered away from the table and landed on the floor.
He walked towards the long bookshelves containing many, many books. Books were being taken and were being placed back by the ponies there.
Blue Alarm picked a book from the lowest shelf.
It was a big book. On the cover was the title, "The History of Ponyville."
He opened the book.
Inside were paragraphs and paragraphs detailing and describing the founding of Ponyville and the ponies who had lived there.
He closed the book and placed the book back to where it was.
He took another book, this one from the shelf above the lowest one.
It was a smaller book. On the cover was the title, "Studying the Government of Equestria."
"I know this one," Blue Alarm said. "'Equestria is ruled by two Princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who rule over various towns and cities which may have their own governing ponies, an example of which is the mayor of Ponyville, who, as of now, is Mayor Mare.' The simple and short meaning of it. It would be good to know about the details and the more advanced parts of the government."
He placed the book back.
He took another book, this one from the shelf above the previous one. It was called "Equestrian Literature: The History and the Influence of Equestrian Literature."
Blue Alarm placed the book back.
"Oh, Blue Alarm!"
He turned around. "Twilight Sparkle!"
"That was a nice conversation we had with you and your friend!" she said. "I was just looking for some books. Moon Dancer wants to talk about magic and she wants to use the 'Magical Compendium' as a starting point." Her smile went away and she raised a curious eyebrow. "By the way, did you catch the name of your friend before he left?"
"Uh, no. Looks like I must've forgotten about it."
"I've been living here for some time, and I still don't know the names of all the ponies who live here," Twilight said. She laughed. "Silly me! Maybe he's new; that would explain it."
Then, several books glowed—they were enormous ones, their pages forming a considerable block of paper. Twilight levitated them and brought them out of their places and right beside Twilight.
"Your friend must be really interested in magic," Blue Alarm said.
"The rest of my friends are interested, too," Twilight said. "Not as interested as her, though. What were you looking for?"
"Just browsing," Blue Alarm replied.
"Ah, the pony or the changeling who is amazed by this grand collection of books that he doesn't know where to start! Just enjoy and talk with the other ponies here! You're already having a fun time here!"
"Thanks, Twilight."
"You're welcome, Blue Alarm!"
Then, Twilight walked off to her table.
Blue Alarm looked back at the many books in front of him. "Thorax would be so proud to have this many books made by us, written by us. I can imagine all the wonderful stories we could tell. Then, what about changeling life? A changeling could write that, too. Changelings would buy their books. Ponies, also. It would help both us and the ponies—we would get more money and we would enrich our culture, and the ponies would have a good time reading what we wrote."
He heard the chatter and the talking of the ponies around him, all in that happy, interested tone.
"Were you going to get a book?" a pony asked beside him.
"It's OK," Blue Alarm said.
The pony got a book and glanced at him before walking off.
"Too bad our library is not so full," Blue Alarm said. "Now, we're just trying to rebuild the Changeling Kingdom. There are some leisurely things to do, but it's not enough. There are changelings going around taking pictures and sharing those pictures with others. Pictures of Manehattan, pictures of Ponyville, pictures of Canterlot, pictures of the Crystal Empire, even pictures of Griffonstone and of the Dragon Lands! At least there's friendship." He smiled.
He hovered away from the bookshelves.
"May I have all of your attention, everypony?" Twilight announced loudly.
And everypony and Blue Alarm looked at her.
She was flying, flapping her wings. "I'd like to thank all of you ponies and changeling—" She looked at Blue Alarm "—for coming here. It's been a pleasant and fine experience, gathering with other ponies to read books, to talk about them, and to just be together and enjoying our friendships in this library."
The ponies cheered, some shouting and yelling and screaming, others stomping their hooves on the ground, still others just giving Twilight a simple smile.
"I don't have anything else to say. I just wanted to thank you. You may now enjoy the rest of the night!"
The ponies cheered again, bringing a loud volume of sound to the library as Twilight hovered down towards her seat and looked at her friends. Several big books were on the table.
"A book about changeling history?" he heard a pony say.
Blue Alarm's ears perked and he immediately looked at the pony speaking.
He was holding a large book. On the cover was the title, "The History of the Changelings."
He gulped. "Oh, no. Did Twilight buy the new version? I hope she didn't forget—that pony's always organized!"
A few ponies looked their way towards the pony with the changeling history book.
"I am not here to accuse anypony of being a changeling, but does this book contain the changeling-wide reformation?" the pony asked earnestly, eyeing other ponies as they passed by him. "We wouldn't want to give our foals the wrong information."
The ponies around him nodded their heads.
A pony raised his hoof. "Let's open it and see. The author is usually going to talk about it in the beginning."
The pony holding the book opened it.
"OK, this is the authors' notes."
The ponies around him leaned in, striving to listen closely.
"'We did not anticipate this.
"'All of our past editions of this book were about the changelings being evil for that was what their actions told us. When we wrote the previous edition of this book, the memory of the attack on Canterlot was still fresh. That Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were now the rulers of the Crystal Empire only eased our worries a little. It was a very real threat that the changelings might attack us again. So, we told our readers to be careful, to be watchful.
"'The changelings did indeed attack us again—and they managed to capture the Princesses, the friends of Princess Twilight Sparkle, among others. It was a terrible, devastating attack—yet, we were saved from the changelings by Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax. The interesting hero to talk about here is Thorax—for he himself is a changeling. A good changeling. Nopony in our writing team nor any of our researchers were aware that such a changeling could actually be there. When we heard news about Thorax being accepted into the Crystal Empire and, in general, Equestria, we were quite cautious about it. One of us even argued that it was all a plan to destroy Equestria—that Thorax would capture ponies when they were the most friendly toward him. However, it turned out that Thorax was genuinely good and that he meant no harm.
"'Then, when the changelings attacked Equestria, Thorax joined Starlight Glimmer and her friends to save the captured ponies. While they were trying to save the captured ponies, Starlight told Thorax to share love. When he did, Thorax turned into a being that we have never seen before—a colorful pony-like creature. Then, Starlight told the rest of the changelings there about sharing love. The changelings shared love and they became colorful pony-like creatures, also.
"'Queen Chrysalis was the only changeling to not accept the idea of sharing love. She escaped, but the rest of the changelings remained, now reformed and good.
"'When we heard about this, we were shaken. We were bewildered. The changelings are now good and they now seek to learn the magic of friendship? I personally never thought that this would ever happen. But, it did happen. It is something that we ponies should all accept and that we should help the changelings to adjust into their new lives as friendly creatures.
"'Then, we gathered around in Canterlot to discuss the idea that has been in our minds ever since: What would happen to this book? What would happen to "The History of the Changelings"?
"'We settled on the issue by deciding on continuing the publishing of this book but with the more recent information about the changelings being good. We are truly excited about what is to happen next with the changelings. All of us now have changeling friends.
"'Reader, enjoy this book but, more importantly, welcome the changelings eager to become your friend.'"
"Oh, I was about to tell you that I got the new edition of the book!" Twilight said. She rushed towards Blue Alarm. "I should've told you earlier." She smiled awkwardly.
"Don't worry, Twilight," Blue Alarm said.
Twilight looked at him. "So, is there anything you want to tell me, Blue Alarm?"
"No." He smiled.
"Alright, then!" Then, she walked her way to her table.
"We have the right edition," the pony holding the changeling history book announced. "You can rest easy that your foals will be taught what is correct and not what is false."
The ponies around him approved of him by stomping the ground with their hooves.
Blue Alarm hovered off and went towards Twilight's table.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends were laughing again.
Then, they looked at the changeling.
"Blue Alarm!" Twilight said. "Have a chair and you can talk with us! We were just telling each other jokes!"
Blue Alarm hovered and sat down on one of the chairs.
"What do you do as a changeling?" Moon Dancer asked, adjusting her glasses with her magic. "I've been rather curious about what changelings do now."
"Do they have donuts?" Minuette asked. "We have donuts regularly!"
Twilight giggled. "It looks like you're in for some time, Blue Alarm!"
He smiled. "I'm happy to talk about a lot of things with you ponies!"



Blue Alarm stayed in the brightly lit Sugarcube Corner. Outside, the night sky was adorned and decorated with the glowing stars and the bright moon shining its light on to Ponyville, giving the town a peaceful, quiet look to it as the buildings glimmered with the moonlight. Several ponies were outside, walking and talking with each other.
"You're quite late," Pinkie Pie said from the counter. "There's nopony else here! If you're wondering why the Sugarcube Corner is still open, that's because we're testing something out—it's called a late night dessert! We sell our sweets late at night!"
Blue Alarm sat down on one of the chairs.
"So, what do you wanna order? A cake, a pie, a cakepie?!"
"What about Mr. and Mrs. Cake?" Blue Alarm asked. "Aren't they supposed to be taking care of their foals?"
"They're already asleep! I'm the one who gets to bake all the food here at this time! Isn't that amazing?! It would also be great, too! What about spectacular?"
"Pinkie, I just want to have a simple cake, that's all."
"One simple cake, coming right up!"
Then, Pinkie took out a cake from the counter display, placed it on a plate, and threw it at Blue Alarm.
Blue Alarm caught it with his front hooves.
"You're good! Do you wanna be in the Ponyville Buckball team?"
"Nah." Blue Alarm took a bite of the cake. It was a chocolate cake. "It's a delicious cake, Pinkie."
"Why, thanks!" Pinkie said, grinning at him.