//------------------------------//
// Twilight's Report I 
// Story: The Fractured Unity 
// by Time Reaper 
//------------------------------//



From: Twilight Sparkle
To: Princess Celestia

Dear Princess Celestia, I'm writing to you my first report of what I've found about Changeling society so far. I am quite excited to inform you what I have found so far from them, for it's so similar and, at the same time, so different from us. By that, I mean of how there are certain aspects of Changeling society that we share (such as our system of royalty and the usage of the media) but it's so different at the same time, with having so many queens working together instead of having an unified monarch.

From what I have gathered, the changeling society has been at peace for almost a decade and the current system has been made to keep that peace as long as they can. Now, from what Diamantis has explained to me, the changelings have been in a state of civil war for the last thousand years and the queens are now trying to keep the peace among the changelings.

I know this would seem as the changeling queens being friendly to one another but, in reality, they don't really trust each other and would rather cut ties with one another but, afraid of going back to war, the queens have learnt to work together as a mean to search for personal gain as a mean to avoid conflict.

This is something that I have taken as a personal lesson. Friendship may not be so simple to attain between former enemies, but it can still be gained if both parts are willing to put aside their differences in the search of a common goal. The fact that the common goal is peace and the betterment of the changelings as a whole, is something I find very encouraging.

Now, I have also learnt a lot about the queens you met during the negotiation for the deal: Fortis and Valeris.

For Queen Fortis, I'm certain you must remember her for being the kind queen that seemed to be controlled by Varelis during the deal's drafting. Well, from what I gathered, she was the princess of her hive until not too long ago. While I haven't found the reasons behind the end of both Queen Fortis' mother and sister, it looks like Fortis wasn't planned to be the one ruling her hive (Castleen) but, since the queen and first princess were no longer there, there was no other choice but to crown her and, to celebrate her coronation, Diamantis was invited to the event.

This was useful to me, for I gained access to the changeling nobility (which isn't very different from the equestrian nobility in Canterlot) and managed to see how their governing system works. On that regard, it looks like Castleen is a system where the nobles use the workers to gain wealth for themselves and, not only that, but also, the workers aren't well treated in general, with low wages, no security to defend themselves from monsters such as manticores and the population is too blind to realize that they are being abused. Thankfully, Queen Fortis said that she aims to reform the whole hive, even though the nobles doesn't seem to kindly of that.

I also happened to meet the daughters from the changeling queens allied to Fortis and, thankfully, they're not as dreadful as the other nobles but I do wonder how much do their personality reflect that of their respective mothers. Especially when it comes to Queen Valeris' daughter, Princess Prisis.

You see, while we remember Valeris to be a very imposing figure that was willing to get what she wanted, her daughter seemed to be friendlier and open to other's ideas, although too protective of her mother, which is a great contrast from her mother and her silencing of Queen Fortis during the deal. This leads me to the most conflicting part of what I gathered so far and is regarding Queen Valeris.

From what I gather, the changelings used to be at war with each other and it was Valeris the one who put an end to said wars. The thing is that, apparently, she also removed other queens in the process, including her own mother! Can you believe that? How could she remove her own mother from the throne? No matter how awful she could have been, it's just inconceivable for a monarch to be removed.

This is what I find so conflicting about this queen in particular. She seemed to have done good or that tries to do good but in such a way that she would look like a villain on the same level as King Sombra or Nightmare Moon, and she is supposed to be the "good queen" when compared to Chrysalis!

In all honesty, I would like to have your opinion, as well as Luna's, on the matter, for I cannot think properly of how to look at her.

I would also like to update you on the matter of Diamantis forming her hive with us, your little ponies, and she seems to have good intentions so far. She already gained the protection from Fortis and has started to talk to all of us about the changelings we are going through, how our hormones will affect our thinking and... well... it reminded me a lot of when I had the talk with my parent all those years ago, but I won't complain, I think I have a better understanding of how this new body will be like and I'm glad to know that our minds won't be changed and we'll still be the same as before, just with a new look.

With that said, Diamantis told me that it would be a bit hard to find the samples of the wax she used on me and the other ponies because it was a "especial formula" but that she would try to get it to me.

That is the most important to report, now, I'll go into what Diamantis have told me so far about the system between the queens, some things I can only pass of as rumors or not confirmed yet, as well about the new radio I sent you, trust me, you'll like it.



This was the third time Princess has read Twilight's letter, she read it out loud the first time so her sister could know what she said, but that didn't stop her from reading it again, trying to determine a what course of action to take with this new information.

"Sister" -, asked Celestia, - "what do you take from this?"

As she turned around, she found her sister tuning the changeling radio back and forth between the ponies and the changeling transmitters. They couldn't believe how well hidden the changelings were, not only on the radio, but even possibly on the trains and among them for who knows how long and they were none the wiser.

Truly skillful to avoid detection.

"Well" -, Luna answered, - "we'll admit that the enemy was severely underestimated. If they have managed to remain among us for so long undetected, then they'll probably have multiple mechanism to ensure their existence among us even if we wanted to remove them from Equestria."

"Indeed" -, Celestia said as she turned back to the letter, - "and this system clearly shows that any type of move we wanted to do would imply a fight against, potentially, 37 queens... we are severely under prepared for this task ahead of us."

"We better have a plan of action before the nobles decide what to do then" -. Lune shuddered as she thought of the nobles trying to make a plan to "recover" any asset owned by changelings, and the ensuing conflict it would create. - "I recommend to scan the guard first, followed by our scholar institutions. Afterwards, we'll be trying to see how much do the changelings control before we start making a complete negotiation with this queens."

Celestia thought about it as she looked at the radio given to both Twilight and Diamantis. It was very convenient for Queen Fortis to give, exactly, two radios that would allow them to openly listen to what the changelings said, especially when the queens were going to discuss the deal so soon. Luna thought so as well.

"Well, at least we'll have some leverage if the nobles decide to push for some mad idea."

"I suppose that only leaves one more thing to worry about as the days proceed."

Luna then decided to put her hoof on the last part of Twilight's letter, the one referring to a queen named "Anidis" and how the queens were bent on making sure they knew nothing about her.

"Friend or enemy?"

Celestia gave it a thought and considered. Just because the queens weren't fans of her didn't mean she was worse, but also that she nice.

"We'll have to wait and see, I don't plan to risk Equestria to a wild card."

She then reread the parts regarding what Valeris did to ensure the peace among the changelings.

"Especially when it's potential enemy is being ruled by another..."

Luna agreed on that and decided to continue tuning the radio until they found a station playing Changeling music. It was an interesting song about a mare asking the sun to protect her lover, who was leaving her house, with the lover responding how he was still in love with her and how he promised to come back.

"At least we can say they have good taste in music, even if it isn't what we're used to listen."