"It's past midnight," Hexapod said to Eucalypti as they sat on the wooden platform.
There were no ponies on the dry dirt streets filled with dust. A tumbleweed passed by. The night sky was beautiful with its many stars and its bright moon—it brought an astronomical touch to the lonely situation the two changelings were in.
The gas lamps outside the buildings gave the little town some light. The lights that were still on from inside the houses bore no sounds that were out of the ordinary—just the shuffling of hooves, the ruffling of pages, and the quiet whispers of talks and chats.
The breeze was rushing by, bringing up some dust along with it.
The cherry trees in the distance stood out from the desert landscape that the town and its surroundings lived in.
"And, you still want to stay up?" Hexapod asked. "That's ridiculous."
"I've never stayed up this late before," Eucalypti said. "Well, I did but not much."
"There's nothing to do here," Hexapod replied. "There's just us—and, the ponies who are awake won't bother with any of our requests."
"That's because they're the rough ponies of the frontier!" Eucalypti responded, gesturing rather animatedly with his hoof as he spoke each word with confidence seen in his loudness. "Haven't you read your history books?"
"You're treating me like I actually went to a pony school."
"But, have you read your history books? I didn't ask if you went to a pony school."
Hexapod remained silent.
"Think about the kind of life these ponies live here—right out in the frontier, near the borders of Equestria and the borders of other places, places more dangerous!"
"Like, let me guess, our own kingdom?"
"Yeah!"
Hexapod slammed a hoof on his forehead.
"What? There are hazards when you're constructing and rebuilding things here and there!"
"Alright," Hexapod said. "Go on with your analogy or whatever you're talking about—a metaphor, some figure of speech."
Eucalypti cleared his throat.
The night was still lonely and quiet. The background noises were still quiet and hushed. A couple of boxes of produce laid on the platform. An empty carriage was beside the building.
"Let me remember it!" Eucalypti placed a hoof on his head and closed his eyes, making a stressed face as he concentrated. "Ah-ha!" He raised a hoof into the air. "These ponies—they live out here, in the desert, with home so far away! They're lonely, isolated from other ponies! It's just them! So, being as nice as the ponies back home isn't going to help them nor get them very far on their progress to become, I don't know, successful or whatever you define as a good thing in places like this!"
"What's your point, basically?" Hexapod asked. He placed a hoof on his chin and rested his there. "I don't want to tease you or anything—"
"Tease me no more!" Eucalypti yelled.
Then, his cheerful demeanor, his happy face, went away. "Well...I'm not so sure anymore."
The two changelings sat on the platform. Hexapod sat with both his hooves on his face, looking down on the dirt. Eucalypti looked up towards the night sky.
"Have you ever thought about your life before Thorax and his friends came along?" Hexapod asked. "Our lives?"
"Not really," Eucalypti said, inching closer to him. "Why, friend?"
Hexapod sighed. "So much wasted time. So much wasted ability, so much wasted thought. Everything was directed towards stealing love from ponies and other creatures—and what did we get in return? We got satisfied for a little while, then it's gone again in a few days!"
Eucalypti looked at his friend somberly, staying silent.
"How many years have I lived?!" Hexapod yelled. "I've lived for less than three decades—less than thirty years!" Yet, I've lived most of my life believing that I was to be a slave to this horrible system—that I was chained to a hunger for love forever! And, do you want to know what makes it even worse, Eucalypti? Do you want to know what makes it even worse?!"
"I guess I know," Eucalypti said, his voice quieter than normal. "We've went through it all together."
"You got a little taste of freedom," Hexapod said. "A little freedom from the hunger—any taste, any amount of freedom was nice for the moment. But, they're going to go away—then, when you've tasted love—after a while, it's gone. You want that freedom—you wanted to be starving no more! We looked at Chrysalis—the prime example, our queen! Yet, you would think she would give us some of the love she got!" He paused, his breathing becoming quicker as the seconds rolled on. "Chrysalis taught me that that was how life was going to be for a changeling like me! That was going to be how it was! Every time we thought that there could be a better way—no, it would be gone—we always thought that that was a sign of defection, a sign that our will was weaking in the face of the temptations of the societies, of the towns, of the cities, of the creatures around us, unaware that we were among them, stealing their love from right under their noses!" He cleared his throat.
Eucalypti patted his friend's back.
"And, to think that I've lived more than twenty years believing a lie!" Hexapod screamed. "That there was no better way! I'm just angry now that it's only now, only just a few months ago, that we realized that there was a better way—sharing love! I don't know if it's something that Chrysalis kept form us or if she didn't know—either way, she was selfish! Keeping all of the love for herself, giving us only the scraps, only what was left after she was full!
"I even fought against Thorax. I remembered that day—had to look for him, then I saw him. I thought that he was the enemy, having left our kind. But, no, he turned out to be our hero, the changeling, the leader we needed. When I saw Thorax in that new form, with all those shiny wings and that colorful carapace—I knew it was better. Then, I saw one thing about Thorax—there were no holes. Remember when Chrysalis told us about how she fought Celestia and that Celestia gave us our battered forms? Now, Thorax was proof that our old, warring and evil lives can be changed to what's good, what's better, what's truly the best.
"Too much wasted!"
Hexapod placed his hooves on his head, whimpering a little under the moonlight.
"Then, Starlight told us that sharing our love was better. Then, I looked at the others who were sharing their love, becoming these new, wonderful creatures that were still changelings, but...good ones. Then, I shared my love. After that, I felt new. I no longer felt hungry, no longer starved for love. I felt...complete.
"Was that good?" Hexapod finally asked.
"Of course, it's good!" Eucalypti said, his voice raising a little, his cheeriness coming back.
"But—if only we knew. If only we knew, all those years ago, before we attacked the Princesses, before we crashed the wedding at Canterlot, before I was first commissioned to serve in the field, to participate in my first mission to steal love! I wouldn't have wasted all my years and all my time and all my effort on a lie, an evil lie, a deception, a lie!"
Then, Hexapod cried.
Eucalypti patted his friend on the back.
Hexapod sobbed and sobbed, covering his face with his hooves, though the flow of tears went on, going on his hooves.
Eucalypti hugged his crying friend.
"I want to take back all those wasted years!" Hexapod yelled. "But, I know I can't!"
Eucalypti kept hugging him.
Hexapod's sobbings grew softer and slower.
He regained his composure, though he still moved slowly.
"Do you want to know what it's been like these past months, Eucalypti? Especially with you?"
"What is it, Hexapod?"
"It was liberating. It was good. It was freeing—I could finally be free from all the lies that I've listened and believed all these years, I could finally do whatever I wanted to do—as long as I didn't do anything bad, of course. And, there was even more—we could have friends now. We could be friends with the griffons, friends with the dragons, with the yaks and the zebras and the breezies. But, there were the ponies, too. Spreading the magic of friendship all over, telling us—telling us what's good about it and why friendship is better than conflict and how we can apply that to both the normal life and even on those adventures that the ponies sometimes get into. I could talk to changelings like, well, you. And, just talking, just talking about anything other than planning on the next thing to do in order to get our love was great."
Hexapod was then silent.
A few minutes passed as Eucalypti looked at his friend and as Hexapod looked around.
"I think it's time to get back home," Eucalypti said.
The Changeling Kingdom was still abuzz with buzzes and flying changelings. Many lights were still on as the sounds of rebuilding blared on, making the kingdom a beacon of a rebuilding, improving civilization under the night sky.
As Hexapod and Eucalypti entered the kingdom, they passed by many more changelings, most of them greeting them with a wave, a verbal greeting, or both. There were changelings carrying carts and wagons of construction material—the changing substance which was among them. There were a few changelings who were on the sidewalks selling various things from food to tourist items such as postcards and beautiful photos of the kingdom. A few ponies were walking around, all of them wearing cameras as they took pictures.
"Yes," Hexapod said as he walked on the sidewalks beside his friend. "I know that everything is bright. The ponies have been helping us rebuild for a long time already. Now, we have ponies visiting us, checking the place with no more fear, no more anxiety about us stealing love from them. It's all dandy and fine."
Eucalypti nodded. "And, let's go to Ponyville when we wake up?"
Hexapod laughed and brought his friend closer to him. "Good idea. It's a good idea."