//------------------------------//
// Introduction: Life and Times of a Changeling 
// Story: Rotten 
// by ThunderChaserCreate 
//------------------------------//

	Have you ever been inside a Changeling hive? It's like being in a shopping mall at nine on a Friday night, except filled with clones. But, hey: we're changelings. We exist to suck the love and joy out of life. Have you ever thought about it like that? We are literally put on this planet just to make other ponies unhappy.

So how can things get much worse?

I figured this out at young age. I'm pretty clever, after all. It's not hard to understand that when all of Equestria sees your entire species as evil monsters, you can basically be as nasty as you want. But, again, I'm pretty clever. I decided that, instead of being all mean just to live out the cliche, I would focus all that anger on learning things. Instead of going out with the crowd of doppelgangers to beat up some harmless woodland creatures, I stayed in and studied. Instead of wasting time at the beginning of class setting up pranks for the teacher, I actually got ahead on my studies.

You get the point. I was basically a shut-in, spending every free second reading some dry research paper or scientific journal.

As a result, I was the weirdo. I wore these big square glasses that made me stick out of a crowd, which is a no-no in the changeling society. 

Our sector motto was 'no faces, no names, just order.'

Was it healthy living in that kind of social environment?

No.

Did we know anything else?

Well, no. 

That's why my father, overbearing and drone-like as he is, sent me to a University. In Canterlot. With ponies. For  a change of pace.

For a taste of something new.

Who knows? Maybe this delve into a new world will do me good. Maybe I'll be like a normal changeling soon.

Then again, I can't help but take this as some kind of hint from my father. Does he want me to leave? Is that all this is? I mean, it's so hard to tell. Maybe he just wants to give me my freedom, though that's unlikely.

Princess Almeria Quincy Hess of the changelings doesn't really get her freedom.