“Adults are stupid.”
It was a surprise to Twilight that a Changeling filly was willing to speak. But Tae-Yeon was quite happy to be interviewed for the Canterlot library’s historical records, and she was now sitting in the chair across from Twilight, arms folded across his chest. Tae-Yeon was an “Keobjil” Changeling who was half Sugnbohn, half Ghainaim. As a member of the “Keobjil” clan she had thick muscles, a well-built, beetle-esque set of small, useless wings rising and falling off her back. They weren’t quite as extravagant as the Ilgagsu wings, who resembled that of moths or butterflies, but it was better than the wingless Nabang, who’s skill laid in their odd horn sets. Each of the different Ghainaim clans struggled to fit in with “Normal” ponies, seeking only to belong once more.
Evidently that wasn’t easy. Especially if you were part of a family that despised the former elitist clan.
“Why are adults stupid, Tae-Yeon?” Shinedown gently asked her in the Sugnbohn language.
“They’ve all lost their imaginations. They don’t believe in the stories anymore. All they like to do is whine about how things aren’t the same and say the tales never happened.” Tae-Yeon mumbled, Twilight tilting her head slightly to the side in confusion.
“What kind of stories are you speaking of, Tae-Yeon?”
“We’re AAAAALIENS.” Tae-Yeon whispered, waving her hooves in the air, waggling them back and forth. “Our ancestors came from beyond the stars. That’s what the old legends say! We just took on pony skin to get close to them, but we wore it so long, it became our real skin! Wooooooooo!” She proclaimed, warbling the “Woooo” in a creepy fashion as Twilight raised an eyebrow up. “But the adults don’t wanna believe it. They lost their imagination and they don’t want to admit where we came from because they think it makes them look bad. That it makes them look like big jerks who just went around hurting people.”
“You don’t think it does?” Twilight asked, intrigued as Tae-Yeon shook her head.
“I think it’s more like…we just wanted a good place to stay. I’m guessing our ancestor’s original home went bye-bye and we had to find someplace new. It’s why we ended up where we are today, right? People don’t leave a good place unless it turns real bad.”
“I’ve never done full tests on the bodies of Changelings to compare them to Ponies. Perhaps her theory has some truth.” She admitted to Shinedown as her translator rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look in his eye.
“And the adults don’t believe the tale of why the animals talk either. They’re all stuffy.” Tae-Yeon mumbled, Twilight’s eyes widening as she beamed.
“Oh, I KNOW that old story! Every animal used to be able to talk on our planet so as to have true harmony, but then when ponies started to make real civilizations, other animals got jealous and mean. They attacked the early ponies and as punishment, they lost the ability to think and speak like people! But the good animals that stood by us got to keep those rights.” Twilight sighed wistfully. “It was a really good bedtime story my mother liked to read to me. I never got scared, not even when she brought up the wolves and how they got an extra punishment by being made into wood for being the ones that urged the other species to attack!”
“I’m surprised dragons didn’t try it.” Shinedown admitted, scratching his head. “The story never explained why the dragons didn’t join the timberwolves and the manticores and basilisks…”
“I think I know why.” Tae-Yeon said with a small grin, wagging her hooves about. “There weren’t no huge piles of gold or gems around. All of it was still buried deep in the world, so they weren’t all mean and nasty and sleeping on piles of treasure, hoarding everything and being greedy! So they were nice until they started finding treasure!”
“Perhaps I should interview more…friendly dragons to inquire about that. Draconic culture fascinates me as much as Changeling culture.” Twilight admitted with a nod. “Do you know of any other stories the adults don’t like to hear?”
“They hate hearing about Ghainaim. They’re always so mean to them and mean to me too because I’m a “halfblood freak”.” Tae-Yeon grumbled. “…big jerks.”
“The little dibbuns tease my adopted son too because of his changeling blood. And I’m harassed myself for being an “inkblood”.” Shinedown admitted, putting a hoof on his chest and giving Tae-Yeon a sympathetic smile as he patted her on the back. “It will take some time for folks to get used to all of you.”
“I don’t got that time. I want them being nice NOW.” She muttered.
“Yeah…that’s what I always said.” Twilight sighed quietly.
…
…
…
… “So Sugnbohn have a…creator God?” Twilight inquired of Lee as the pale-pink-crested changeling nodded, leaning back, smoking a strange kind of cigarette that wafted up odd, greenish smoke into the air. He let out a singular puff of smoke that formed itself into an “o” that drifted lazily over Twilight’s head before puffing out a few more “o’s”.
“Hana, dul, ses, nes…” Lee intoned in a deep baritone in between each puff.
“He’s counting, isn’t he?” Twilight asked of Shinedown as the blue-haired Earth pony sighed and nodded at her. “What is that plant?”
“He’s smoking “Cannabis”, a hallucinogenic drug. There’s a twenty-year penalty for smoking it in the Changeling kingdom, but that just makes indulging it in all the more appealing for some. Not to mention it makes Changelings very happy and cheery without needing to truly feed on real emotion.” Shinedown apologized as he gestured at Lee, who was giggling a bit, continuing to count and blow smoke rings.
“Twenty years for a hallucinogenic? Somewhat harsh.” Twilight remarked, tilting her head to the side in confusion, looking unsure. “I mean, he just looks rather silly and stupid right now. Does it turn them into knife-wielding psychopaths? Do they go on killing sprees?”
The earth pony shook his head. “No, they mostly just sit around, looking at their hooves. But for a society that’s all about constant production and effort for the greater good, slacking off like that is kind of a no-no.” He remarked before putting a hoof on Lee’s shoulder, giving him a glowering, dark stare.
“Huh?” Lee mumbled.
“Geunyeoui meoli wie yeongileul bul-eo jungji, ttoneun naneun dangsin-ui eongdeong-ikkaji jigeumkkaji nae bal-eul neoh-eo geos, sum agchwidoebnida!” Shinedown hissed out, Lee immediately straightening up and almost swallowing the cigarette he was puffing, hocking and spluttering on the spot.
“Sheesh, what did you say to him?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion as Shinedown gave her a “You really don’t want to know” glance, Twilight deciding to move back to her question. “As I was saying, you had mentioned Sugnbohn believe in a creator God just like we do?”
“You have the Goddess. The one named Faust. Her gifts were that of the forces of harmony. We worship at the altar of Emotion.” Lee said, giving her a large, enormous grin. “Sweeeeeeeeet emooooootion.” He sang out, waving a holey hoof in the air before taking another puff of the cigarette. “The tales are recorded in the Changsega ! The ancient stories! Most of us don’t believe ‘em anymore, but they’re amaaaazing.”
“ Changsega…” Twilight whispered, letting the musical word roll of her tongue, scribbling down in her notebook with fervent intensity. “Please, please tell me more!” She pleaded.
“There were two…a male and a female. Tak-Seongha and Jayd-Seongha. They spoke for a greater being still, but the tale is of them.” Lee admitted, waving his hooves in the air, blowing some more smoke as he took the little clouds he was making and created an image of a mountaintop, with two figures lying down atop it. “They laid down together over the tallest mountain of the land and slept, drifting off into endless sleep. Their bodies began to break down, and as they did, emotion was released into the world. All that was left was their soul…” He murmured, the two “bodies” atop the mountain now tiny balls that floated up before dissipating into the “sky” above as Lee then took in a breath, inhaling the smoke before letting it surge forth from his nostrils. “Everyone breathed in what they left behind, and emotion came into them. Before, they only knew what Harmony was. Now they could rejoice in it, and the celebration of the world’s true birth lasted for an entire year!”
He let out a deep, happy sigh, leaning back in the chair. “It’s a beautiful old tale.”
“Do you think its true?” Twilight wanted to know, looking intrigued.
“Yeah, kinda. Just that what really happened has been sorta twisted up a bit because it’s been so long since it happened.” Lee said with a shrug.
“What does that word mean? “Seongha”?” Twilight wanted to know, realizing the people that he’d referred to, the God and Goddess who’d supposedly granted the planet of Equus emotion, had had unique honorifics she hadn’t picked up on.
“Holiness. For the two were priests in service to an even greater power, a beautiful, shining light that warmed Equus for a year. When it departed, it left behind the sun and the moon to give light in day and then at night.” Lee added with a wave of his hoof and a calm nod. “The Cornerstone of Light was what the warmth of day and night was founded on, as the legends say.”
“It’s a very pretty legend. No doubt you’ve all got some fascinating artwork about your creation legends.” Twilight admitted as he finished writing down in her notebook, nodding her head at Lee. “Do you think you could tell me of any Changeling artists I could speak to who’d be happy to show me such art?”
“Oh, of course.” Lee remarked with a calm smile. “If you could do me a little favor.” He said, holding up the cannabis cigarette and jabbing at it with a big grin, Twilight cringing.
…
…
…
… “I’ve been studying your species’s armor.” Twilight admitted to the captain of the guard, Gaya. He had his hooves on the table and had placed them carefully together as he stared deep into Twilight’s eyes, almost accusingly so. “It appears to be a type of brigandine.”
Gaya, Captain of the Guard nodded, holding a hoof up and speaking swiftly as Shinedown translated. “It allows us to breathe fluidly in combat and most importantly, to move swiftly. For us, we need to move quickly. Individually, we are not very strong. But in numbers, we overpower. Hence the need for much mobility.”
“Yes, I gathered that from the invasion of Canterlot.” Twilight admitted as she put the quill pen to her lip, concentrating a bit before tilting her head slightly to the side. “What do you make the armor out of? Steel? Iron? Bronze?”
“The armor is actually made from hardened dragon bone that we’ve forged into plates.” Gaya informed her with a calm nod. “Needless to say, this made us frequent enemies of the dragon race. Having us wearing their dead ancestors did not make us popular. They could still smell their friends on the armor we wore into battle and we would get cooked alive if we were careless. With extreme prejudice.”
“It must have been difficult imitating dragons.”
“For larger Changelings, it wasn’t too difficult to imitate younger dragons, but…yes, even our considerable shapeshifting abilities are limited by what we have to imitate. I couldn’t, for example, become a sea serpent.” He told Twilight with a spread of his hooves and a small smile. “Though my father always yearned to transform into a dragon. He was always pushing me to try harder.”
“Tell me of family life.” Twilight asked gently. “If you wouldn’t mind, that is. I understand that your nomadic ways made your former traditions difficult, but tell me, before you were nomads, did the mother stay at home, did she typically work? What age did you have your children practicing transforming?”
“Please, slow down, I shall explain all.” Gaya informed her with a roll of his eyes. “Our fathers are the head of the family and it was their responsibility to provide food, clothing and shelter, and to approve the marriages of family members. This was a very big deal to my kind.” He admitted as he put a hoof on his chest. “And I, as the eldest son, had special duties: first to my parents, then to my brothers from older to younger. A father’s first duty was to his sons, then to his wife, and lastly to his daughters. The wife’s first duty was to her daughters, then to her husband, then to her sons. This way all our bases were covered.”
“Would they both work? Or rather, be out imitating other beings?”
“Not necessarily.” Gaya informed her with a shake of his head. “It depended on our natural skill. Some of us were better at tilling the land and harvesting crops or looking for wild animals to eat, whilst others had a natural skill at infiltration. You quickly picked up on these things at a young age, there were signs. They’d be able to sneak things out of your pockets, or they’d always be examining little bugs in the garden.”
“Ohhh, that’s cute!” Twilight giggled, Gaya groaned as he held his hoof in one hand.
“PLEASE do not call us “cute”! Look. We…” He cringed, shaking his head back and forth. “We do not really want to be like you ponies! My species has long, proud traditions and we don’t want to be “cuddly” or “adorable”! We have a reputation to uphold that kept us alive for decades, feared by other predators who would have wiped us out for years of picking and prodding at them. How would you feel if, say, Chrysalis said you’d make a good CHANGELING?!”
“Why would I wanna be-” Twilight stopped herself, realizing now just how it must feel to be on the other side. “Oh. I…see.” She murmured softly, biting into her lip, blushing in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean-that is, I-its just-”
“I understand. You ponies love young, cute things. Your culture has trained you to relax and take in all of life, you’ve had decades to develop your technology, your art, your philosophy. You have had it easy in the name of focusing on the things you felt mattered most. We had to focus on staying alive above all else and just had to carry what little else we could fit with us, hoping in the end we’d finally reach somewhere where we could settle and rebuild our people into a true nation anew.” Gaya softly murmured as he folded his arms over his chest, lowering his helmeted head, deep red eyes slowly closing. “My own father never lived to see the home of his ancestors restored. He allowed himself to starve to death so my mother could have enough food for us one cold winter night.”
Twilight wanted to reach out, to touch the Changeling’s shoulder in sympathy, but Shinedown gently shook his head as Twilight hesitated before speaking up. “Would…you like me to get you some “Mandu” dumplings? Shinedown has continuously recommended I try your vegetable ones, but I do know the diner down the road makes meat ones.”
“I would…appreciate that.” The Captain of the Guard finally sighed. “Dangsin-ui chinjeol-eun gajang hwan-yeonghabnida.”
“What?”
“He said “your kindness is most welcome”.” Shinedown said, Twilight clasping her hooves together and bowing along with her translator.
“Geugeos-eun naui gippeum-ibnida. It’s my pleasure.”