‘War is good for business. Peace is good for business. There is always a way to make a good profit.’
-Some businessgriff.
The mystery of how Changelings made their way onto that forgotten island on the fringe of civilization is… well… a mystery. They themselves barely remember those days. And for generations, the inhabitants of the island lived mostly in isolation from the rest of the world. With only the disparate tribes of Farbrook having anything coming close to an amicable relationship with them. However, even in their isolation, the Changelings were suspected to have ventured outside their home for some purpose or another. There is no evidence of them having influenced the world in the manner you might expect – how much many would like to claim so. And if they did work for their interest, it was surely for their immediate protection and for the long term; their reported level of technological development speaks for itself. It is stagnant, with little to nothing related to even a spec of significant development making itself manifest out of the island. Even so, some sparse reports came that… Greneclyf has a modern navy. You may wonder how such a technologically backward state was capable of accessing such marvels of nautical technology. Ease your concerns and wonder no more!
It had all begun with a dispute between the many tribes of the island over a tenuous succession “crisis”. See, many monarchs ruled their individual hives on Greneclyf. And since times they themselves forgot of, the clans would elect a High-Queen or High-King to rule the island as one. Typically, it would have been an easily resolved affair, but that time around, ambitious dynasts were abound, and the ancient title was highly sought after. Knowing these conditions, a member of one of these clans and accompanied by a cadre of loyal followers had decided – by his own volition – to force the other clans into choosing his sister as the new High-Queen in a rather unconventional manner. He was assured no war would occur on the island over the issue of succession, for it was not (and still is not) the way of their people. Instead, the throne would be chosen over, to never-ending talks about old laws, precedents, some ancient feuds, and sometimes about who is to blame for the food tasting bad. All – except for the last – he could not stand.
What this dastardly genius decided to do is simple: to set sail toward the continent and blend themselves into the local populace. Via charm and guile, they made their way through multiple griffonian financial institutions and industrial firms to gather and divert enough funds toward financing the deposit required by the Skyfallans and Aquileans to begin constructing the future navy. All in less than five years. How could they divert this much funds without even being caught by our Griffon friends? Well, it is said that some anonymous rich benefactor has offered them with more of what they required. A tall, hooded figure with a metallic voice, according to later tales.
In short, it all went well, but as the prospect of guiding those ships toward Greneclyf reared its head, the brother and his accomplices decided on kidnapping unicorns to run the engines. Of course, as per the Greneclyfian tradition of non-violence, the kidnapping was done through an offer for intrepid unicorns in need of money or adventure to join them in their voyage to lands exotic. And Haukland and Aquilea were the perfect spots for these eager individuals.
In time, a sufficient number answered the call, and they then set course to the island. The rest of the contract was not paid, and the company in charge of shipbuilding declared bankruptcy without being able to identify the culprits shortly thereafter. With the chaotic nature of the continent in the wake of the Revolution and reeling from years of corruption, no actions were undertaken to take back those ships from their unknown buglers.
In the matter of ammunition, the Changelings met with an eager arms dealer on the shores of Skynavia. The unicorns wanting to leave were permitted to go, but for some reason, many remained. And the cabins, afterward, were very noisy at night. Surely from one of those spells, they are known to cast. At any rate, the travel proceeded smoothly, and a few shells were gifted in amazing conflagration to the benighted sorcerers along the way.
Finally arriving at Greneclyf, the brother presented his deeds to the gathered council, and his sister was sworn in as the new High-Queen of Greenclyf – continuing the 800 years-old line of the Leahamn Dynasty. The kidnapped crew was offered the possibility to remain with their new Changeling friends, but most took the monetary promise and were taken to Bakara to regain their land. Now, a small community still lives on the island, teaching the Changelings their language and giving the newly chosen queen, Gytha, the additional hope to open her country to the world for the friendliness those outsiders showed.
Books were written about this adventure and were classified as “fiction” by the many publishers instead of “autobiography” the authors insisted upon…
Fuck you, Clancy.
***
‘Who is this Clancy?’
‘A moron.’ She mumbled unintelligible words for a brief second.
Luna fixated Celestia for a few seconds, awaiting for an elaboration that would never come. ‘So… care to explain further?’
‘He’s a bitch.’
A shocked expression drew itself on her expression. After many a consideration, Luna continued. ‘Ah! Okay… He is a… uhh… the son of an ill-bred canine. Neat, neat… Not flattering for the Hounds, but sure why not. Nothing more on this mysterious individual?’ she insisted.
‘His existence alone warrants the extermination of this world and the opening of the gates of Tartarus.’ Not even sounding a little bit sarcastic.
‘WOW! Alright.’ Luna took the papers. ‘I will change the subject… This,’ she gave a close look at the notes, ‘Gytha.’ Luna checked again. ‘Yes, Gytha. She seems like a nice block. Her brother is…’ she hesitated, ‘… a peculiar individual. Those Changelings seem different than ours. And equally isolationist… Well, not so much. Have any expeditions been sent to retrieve the lost hardware?’
‘Too expensive, Luna! Come on, work this mind of yours! Eyr doesn’t throw wealth at random. “Eyr is not a socialist”,’ she took the tone of a proud and assured individual.
Luna did not question who Celestia was referring to. ‘I mean, they must be incredibly expensive, so it will pay itself just in value – right?’ What is a socialist again? she thought.
‘Yes… But, the Empire and others do not exactly have the resources for some ships. Plus, they may be made of metal, but it is still metal – it still rusts.’
‘Hm… Maybe Twilight and her clique can retrieve the ships for our fleet with their friendship powers… thing. You know what I am referring to.’
‘Brilliant!’
‘Yeah… I will let you decide on it. I don’t really care. I don’t feel like learning about the working of modern ships – the old ones were already a pain as they were. And I wasn’t the one that was robb-’
‘I was not robbed, Luna!’ She had made sure not to heighten her voice. ‘That low-life, run-off, reprobate did not-’
Luna grabbed her sister’s head between her two hooves. ‘Sure, sure. You were tricked, right?’ Letting loose of Celestia.
Celestia approached Luna and whispered in her ear. ‘I don’t want to talk about it. Maybe later.’
Luna laughed. ‘Ha-ha! Take your time, I don’t want to hard-press you. Seems like… an interesting story. He-he. And who knows, maybe I will be inspired to write a one thousand page book about it.’
‘Randomly chose that number, huh?’
‘Myes. Also – why this one was so short?’
‘Try to write about some forgotten island a continent away and tell me where it will take you. Plus, it is not like many exciting things might have occurred other than the quite dull line of succession. They had twenty queens with the same name succeeding each other – you know? I bet the Griffons will envy this when the knowledge becomes more widespread,’ she laughed to herself.
‘I don’t doubt. Like I don’t doubt there was some hint of prejudice in your text. There was some amazing potential to write about the misadventures of Griffons. Even if imaginary.’
‘Based accusations? I thought you were better than this!’
‘I am a mare of many mysteries…’ She paused. ‘Like Clanc-’
‘Shut up!’