Despite all the paperwork and additional responsibility, Luna still managed to write back to many of her changeling friends. On one wall of her study, she and Eclipse had placed several framed photographs sent to her by changelings all over Equestria. Each one was a memory of a unique individual who held a place in the lunar princess’s heart.
A pale-winged changeling in the uniform of the Night Guard, surrounded by her comrades in arms:
Dear Princess Luna,
Today I am proud to let you know that our troop has come in first in the annual Grand Guard Rendezvous obstacle course! It may not look like it, but Commander Star Skimmer is absolutely thrilled. He claims that all our mountain training is paying off (though I suspect more of it comes from the recent influx of experimental auxiliary changelings who joined us in the spring). I hope to hear more from you about the planned updates to the pranking training system, as Commander Skimmer is starting to run short of ideas on how to keep morale up. Some of these new pony and changeling recruits have absolutely no sense of humor! This shall not stand!
Yours in silver uniform, Rough Diamond of the Night Frontier Guard
A large male changeling and a pretty mare, each holding blanket wrapped foals and surrounded by a bewildering variety of cookies and a couple pots of steaming coffee:
Dear Godmother Luna,
Thank you for the wonderful Hearth’s Warming gifts for the little pony lings. Both were very appreciative of their new toys and have decided that this is their favorite holiday (of course, they have yet to experience a complete Nightmare Night yet!). Both of the little ones have started shifter training under the authority of one of Cookie’s friends from the university. Both seem to be doing well; the other day, little Starburst managed to do a full transformation completely on her own! Let me tell you, Princess, it was one of the cutest and most surprising things when I walked in to check on the little mites and found instead of a half changeling pony a little blue unicorn foal. But wait, that was not the best part; Star walked right up to me and yelled (in what I can only assume is her version of the Royal Canterlot Voice) “I am Pwincess Woonaa. Da pwincess demands dat you make her woyal bweakfast!” It was all I could do not to burst out laughing on the spot. It took some persuasion from her father to shift back into her natural form, but all is well now.
Meanwhile, Rocket seems to have taken after his other godmother, Pinkie Pie. The other day, we were cleaning up after the lunch rush when he walked right up to the president of the university and his secretary, changed form into one that looked like a smaller version of Professor Bugsy, and gave his best impression of the dear professor, complete with randomly spouting Changeish words. It was not long before our little joker had both the university president and his crusty old secretary nearly in tears. Cookie says he also has winning impressions of the university president as well as numerous other professors. Apparently my dear husband has been taking him along on deliveries; he uses the former change when they deliver to university staff and the latter changes for students. Of course, both Starburst and Rocket spend most of the time in their natural forms, as they are not yet old enough to create their own pony forms. Their instructor tells us that that will come within a year or two. So there you have it; we are now raising a little princess and a future stage comedian.
With love and coffee, Chai Spice
PS: I am sending you another case of my Hearth’s Warmers cookies. I recommend that you warm them up a bit before eating to bring out the flavor (the twins like them hot with ice cream) ~ Cookie N Cream
PPS: Dear Pwincess, I would really like to see you again. Your sky is so pwetty at night with lots and lots of stars. If you come for my birfday, Daddy says he will make your favorite cake! Love Starburst
PPPS: Why did the changeling cross the road? He wanted to be something different. Love, Rocket
Another photo showed a changeling mare standing next to an elderly plum purple mare with silver mane and tail. The changeling was leaping in the air with joy, as she was attired in a black graduate’s robe and cap with a colorful tassel. A note at the bottom read “Miss Pine Climber, graduation from Masters program at Trottingham University for the Arts, in the field of linguistics. Mentor and adviser Professor Dr. Buzz ‘Bugsy’ Words”. Professor Buzz Words looked exhausted, but proud of her prize pupil. The latest letter from the pair sat on Luna’s desk:
To Princess Luna,
I wish to thank you again for your help in securing the grant that would allow us to visit and conduct studies of Marelantic Sea Pony languages this summer. This study, as you know, will be a sort of final hurrah for the professor, as she intends to retire once I finish my phD (she has been pulling the university president’s wing for several months hinting that I would make a “tolerable” replacement. I already know how to teach her classes!)
Thanks to your support, we have begun to attract a wider variety of students to campus. We can not have sea ponies or mer ponies or plesio ponies yet, as we do not have appropriate aquatic facilities, but getting Professor Bugsy’s name into the spotlight has attracted numerous exchange students. For example, this morning my “Equish as a Second Language” class consisted of a small flock of griffons, two elks, a tapir, a pair of llamas and my newest students, three young stallions from Pferdreich (it should come as no surprise that one of the first Equish words they knew was “beer”, after all, it is both a cognate and an important part of college life. “Coffee” was their second word, acquired just before the first exam!) The president is proud of our fame (or perhaps Professor Bugsy’s notoriety).
I hope you will be able to attend the ceremony for my doctorate in two years; it meant a lot to me to see you in the crowd for my masters’ degree. Professor Buzz Words sends her regards.
Best wishes, Pine Climber, assistant professor
PS: Do not get excited about taking my place yet, little whipper snapper! I am not that old yet! ~Bugsy
There was also a wedding photo; at first glance, it was not obvious that the mare was a changeling, but the composition of the crowd on the bride’s side of the aisle and the mare’s unusual dragonfly-like wings told the viewer otherwise. Both mare and groom were smiling brightly at the camera, and there seemed to be an unusual glow between them.
Dear Princess Luna,
I am writing to say thank you for the lovely wedding gift. We shall be making great use of it once the theater season closes. An all expenses paid honeymoon to the beach at Horseshoe Bay is a dream come true for us! We will, of course be sending you pictures and a postcard. I am very happy we are going there; despite all my past travels, I have never seen the ocean before and neither has Spotter.
I have heard from Zinnia that she is enjoying her time among the elites of Canterlot society. While she is not able to tell me details, I assume she is acting as your eyes and ears among the nobles and high society ponies. There is no need to worry; she only tells me the funny stories about the nose in the air kind of ponies getting their comeuppance. I assume you get more details than I do.
Oh, and one other thing, Spotter Light and I are expecting a pair of little sparks of our own in a little less than a year. (The theater staff are taking bets on gender already!) I have heard from Cookie that you accepted his request that you be a godmother to his little nymphs. Would you think it a terrible imposition if I made a similar request? After all, if it had not been for you and Zinnia, I would have never met Spotter Light. Please write back to me!
Your little light, Glow Wings
There is a large group shot on the wall, consisting of around two dozen changelings and a similar number of ponies and a few other species. A large decorated sign in the center of the photo reads “Canterlot Mountain Artists’ Collective: Dedicated to a more accepting and colorful world”. Below the picture, the artists signed their names in styles ranging from elegant flowing calligraphy to a shaky print made by “Trak”. Few of the collective’s inhabitants send Princess Luna letters, but the princess of the night receives beautiful art pieces on a regular basis, as well as poems, stories, and invitations to various exhibitions and gallery openings. Luna attends as many of the last as she can. She often sends commissions the collective’s way, and the royal artists spend a great deal of time at the colony to “recharge” their creativity. One of the most frequent visitors is a stallion who calls himself Summit Streak. Next to the photograph is a framed watercolor painting of a changeling watching the night sky from the peak of Canterlot mountain; the city of Canterlot appears lit up in all its glory below. The painting is accompanied by a poem:
Over stone and under sky
We dream and see the world together
Though summer’s sun has its hue and cry
Tis winter’s moon’s glow that wishes better.
For while life is spent in daylight’s glow
The night’s moon makes the spirit giving
For without dreaming what we know
The real world is not worth living.
There is one other large group represented on Princess Luna’s Wall of Changeling Fame: this one was taken at the front entrance of the Royal Theater. Clustered around a statue of a changeling and a pony dancing is a herd of ponies and a hive of changelings. No one in the crowd is wearing costumes, but it is obvious all the same that the group is all together as the combined talents of Spear Shaker’s (no longer travelling) Players and the hard working staff of the Royal Theater. Luna had been surprised that it had taken so little time for the Royal Theater manager to come to terms with Spear Shaker’s production manager Quick Chance with regards to who would run the whole shebang. From the sound of it, the theater manager had been convinced by the Hearth’s Warming pageant and Spear Shaker’s gregarious persuasion that having a resident set of players would be good for the theater. Plus, as Quick Change had pointed out, he could still book other groups to perform when the theater troupe was in rehearsals for a different show. Luna attended as many shows as she could. Under the guiding hoof of Spear Shaker, the princess found herself alternately laughing, crying, and clinging to the edge of her seat as the players gave the audience their show and received the fulfillment and nourishment they desired. With every new production, Quick Chance and Spear Shaker sent Princess Luna an illustrated program for the show, complete with autographs from every pony or changeling to set hoof on stage. It always included tickets. Luna has a growing stack of them on her bookshelf:
A Nightmare Night’s Dream
The Griffon King
Much Ado About Changelings
Droolius Caesar (starring guests from the Cheroonear diamond dog pack)
Death of a Sales Pony
The Sound of Moo-Sic (starring the great bovine opera singer Moolie Andrews)
Pie Pie Pony (guest star Pinkie Pie)
How Discord Stole Hearth’s Warming
Mane Spray
Ponyo and Muleiet
The Little Mer Mare
The Shadow of the Catacombs
The Unsinkable Marely Brown
The Queen and I (with Queen Maricopa as herself in the title role)
And dozens of others make up a growing collection. None of the cast and crew write the princess, of course, but she sees many of them at social functions and at the shows. The sole exception is Queen Maricopa Elytra, who, when not performing on stage, acts as an adviser on changeling politics. When Queen Chrysalis and part of her swarm were sighted on Equestria’s southern border, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia spoke to Queen Maricopa.
“Let them be,” the changeling queen had advised. “They will probably move on on their own; defend your ponies in border towns as needed, but I suspect that the swarm has a destination elsewhere in mind.”
That prediction had proved correct, as the princesses soon received word that a changeling hive had settled around an oasis near the border of Naqua, land of the camels. From the sound of it, the changelings were conducting peaceful trade agreements with the humped nomads, with the camels offering goods and emotional interaction in exchange for water and hive wax and other changeling produced goods. The threat had vanished on the wind for the most part, though Celestia had insisted on keeping a regiment of Frontier Guards based in the closest pony town. Soon enough, Princess Luna received a message from the border:
To Princess Luna,
I am writing to seek official sanction for the present location of my hive in the north east part of the Great Ungulate Desert. You see, we are on the border between Equestria and the Naqua Caliphate and wish to come under the aegis of Equestrian law rather than that of the camels (due to trade). As I have been informed that you have been in charge of handling pony to other species interactions, I am writing to you to request amnesty for me and mine as well as permission to remain here.
Following the events of my attempted invasion, the remnants of my swarm and I were scattered; I lost hive mind contact with all but a fragment of my underlings. I have since repented of my foolish quest for power, as I have encountered and learned from a Naquan mystic. This camel is known as the Great Teacher and has made it his purpose in life to teach others about contentment and desire’s role in disrupting it. As a result, I have realized that the reason I was always unhappy is because I was too obsessed with gaining more: more changelings, more posessions, more power, and more land stripped for our well being without consequences. My hive and I seek your forgiveness, as well as that of your sister and the princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
Your humbled queen, Chrysalis
Ps: I will be sending a gift of a hoof woven tapestry as a gift to the newly weds. If they choose not to accept it along with my apology, please feel free to keep it for your own collection.
After reading the letter from Queen Chrysalis, Luna reached for a piece of paper and a quill to write to her sister. However, she stopped the motion mid reach. Why should she seek Princess Celestia’s permission to grant Queen Chrysalis’s request for amnesty? After all, as the queen had written, Luna herself had taken over control of the changeling petitions that had begun this sequence of letters. Why would the princess of the sun take any trouble to deal with them? As far as Luna was concerned, as long as the changelings treated all those they contacted with equal respect to their own kind, she did not much care if they were on Equestrian soil. A glance at a map of the Great Ungulate Desert showed that the oasis and caverns claimed by Queen Chrysalis’s hive were for all intents and purposes in the middle of nowhere. Few camels came this far into the desert and even fewer ponies. The nearest pony settlement was a Frontier Guard outpost in constant contact with the Frontier Guard communication network headquartered in Canterlot. Any trouble could be dealt with in a moment’s notice. And so Princess Luna, protector of the night sky, raiser of the moon, and keeper of dreams instead wrote a letter in reply to the changeling queen:
To Chrysalis, queen of the Great Ungulate Desert changeling hive:
I, Princess Luna Equestris, diarch of the Royal Nation of Equestria, hereby grant thee and thine permission to inhabit the Scorpion Rock Oasis and Arachna Caves as well as to open and maintain trading and commercial relations with the camel caravans of Naqua. If she should desire further assistance for her people from the twin crowns, she may contact us either via letter or through contacting the Frontier Guard Outpost at Turquoise Cliffs. The latter have been informed of this.
Should you and your followers wish to pursue citizenship, you will need to wait at least six months from receipt of this missive before contacting myself, Princess Luna Equestris.
Congratulations.
Princess Luna Equestris, princess of the night
PS: If your Great Teacher would care to write to us about his lessons, please extend my invitation for him to do so.