Happy Changeling Land

by Ebonysdagger

Carnival in practice

Happy Changeling Land
Carnival in practice

Not far outside the outskirts of Ponyville one could find what appeared to be a carnival being set up. It wasn’t overly large but it looked to be interesting at least to the locals. The usual garish colors of a carnival called out to the residents who had been experiencing a rather rough week involving some fires and at least two hydra sightings by the flower trio. While the stands were being set up a few residents came to view what was going on with some interest. They could see this would be an odd carnival from the start judging by the fact that some of the art depicted an overly cute changeling snuggling an oversized heart and while this caused some to complain most found it cute. It might have helped that the changeling depicted seemed to be a little slow if the artwork was to be believed due to it hugging the heart while standing on a railroad track in between the two crossing posts that had lowered.

Mayor Mare had signed off on allowing the carnival after meeting with the carnival boss who had approached her offering to let five percent of the gate go to the town if they could set up there. The carnival leader was a magenta eyed pegasus with silver hair and white coat who went by the name of Snow Cream. Lyra, who happened to be visiting town hall at the time to refile a permit to play in public, had mentioned that it sounded like a lovely idea given the stress levels in town which helped to seal the deal for the mayor since she could hardly say no to more income for the constantly destroyed little town. The mayor was a bit wary though as the carnival had asked to set up during a weekend when the Elements of Harmony would be visiting Canterlot to address some issues its members had so she hoped there wouldn’t be trouble.

As Friday that week rolled around the carnival opened up in full swing around noon with all the usual lights and overly expensive fare one would expect. That first evening a few of the younger and more adventurous members of town set hoof onto the carnival grounds. Those who did were charmed by the rides this carnival had set up for they were something new to most of them. Not a lot of Ponyville’s residents had ever seen a roller coaster so were not let down by the kiddy size it had nor had they ever even heard of a bumper cart before. The few citizens who had money to burn and had visited the larger theme parks before recognized the devices but they were more captivated by the presence of various games of all sorts for everyone to play.

All throughout the carnival grounds various ponies were hawking their stand's wares, games, or tickets for the rides but were not Flim and Flam levels of obnoxious about it. This scene was beautiful to young Snow Cream who was still gushing to the two who had made it all possible. “Thank you Mister Ein and Miss Gold, I thank you for putting me in charge.”

Miss Gold, an older earth pony with green hair and a black coat smiled while she observed the children playing some game involving darts and balloons, nodded her head. “You are welcome Snow. Of all the ponies who signed on to work with our project you seemed to be the most gifted with natural leadership potential. Also I will admit I somewhat pushed for you to win because I rather liked your trademark dish.”

Ein, a unicorn stallion with a grey coat and currently rolling blue eyes, chuckled. “No worries my dear. You just let us know if anything goes wrong. If this all works out we will be setting this up with a more permanent location and much larger attractions and you will be our go to mare for overseeing the investment. That way we can sit back in our retirement content in our vision living on.”

“Thank you both again.” Snow waved to the couple as they began to walk away and returned to running her own booth that sold ice cream and the newest novelty from Cloudsdale which just so happened to be snow cream. She lost track of the couple after a few moments due to hyper children including three very distinct young trouble makers.

Stepping around behind a tunnel of love the couple turned to each other with the stallion grinning and the mare having something of a put upon look on her face. “Okay, Ein, it looks like your plan is working at least on the children. That isn’t going to help us enough so I hope this pans out.”

“Worry not my Queen it will. Tonight the young will gallivant around and tomorrow all their older siblings will hear about the fun and attractions and come. Also some parents will come again with their kids to make sure they don’t consume as much sugar and that their older children don’t do anything on any dates that might be held here.” Ein reassured his queen while watching a small grayish/violet unicorn filly struggle to toss darts at some balloons while her mother, a grey pegasus, cheered her on. “Also, tell me you don’t feel the love and the best part is to come.”

As Ein finished wrapping up his reassurance out walked, or rather stumbled, the carnival’s mascot. It was an overly large affair of a costume that was made to appear not only cute with its depiction of a slightly loopy changeling with oversized eyes and a cute cat like grin but comically disproportionate all around so whoever wore it would have trouble moving around. This way they couldn’t help but contribute to the intended image of incompetence so as to relieve tensions. The pony wearing however was paid a significant wage as there was a risk for him being attacked due to the current changeling paranoia and rage. Thankfully for the daring individual wearing the costume he wasn’t assaulted but he did have to deal with being laughed at all night. On the other hand the mascot did a very good job of bungling around and playing according to his script of pretending to follow ponies having fun only to walk into objects or get distracted by balloons or butterflies.

As that night drew to a close and the carnival shut down in the wee hours of the morning Chrysalis, who had been posing as Gold, took stock through the hive mind of how her children had made out on their first day. Not only did they all report having managed to feed themselves well but that their sales had collectively already made back a third of the investment into this endeavor even including the paying of pony employees. As such she told them to continue with the plan and see how it turned out.

The next day played out just as Ein had predicted with only a single incident when Lyra got into a fight with her date, an earth pony named Bon Bon, in the tunnel of love ride over her long trips away from town. There was almost another one however when two children, who if Chrysalis were to guess were some rich person’s kids, started to assault the mascot but they were dealt with quickly and directly by Snow Cream’s intervention. It would seem hiring the sweets maker had extra benefits in that she was one of those ponies foals just felt compelled to listen to. Chrysalis made a note to have her scientists subtly study how Snow did it in case that too might come in handy in the future. If this worked why not set up changeling ran day cares or something was her reasoning. Occasionally a pony or two would leave after staying only for a time thinking they had worn themselves out not realizing they had been perhaps overly fed upon.

The final day went by without any incidents at all with increased attendance and thus more profits for the hive in both food and money. All told Chrysalis had found this whole thing to be worth their time. As the carnival was being broken down Chrysalis, in the guise of Miss Gold, turned to Ein. “Ein, you did well. I’m going to go ahead and set things in motion. You get Snow prepped for running the show as our front pony. I’ll arrange for us a location.”

Chrysalis managed to buy some land not far from Baltimare and sent some of the hive’s best construction drones to begin building a theme park not a week later. She was still amazed at how playing on pony kind’s desire to feel safe lead to them accepting the bumbling changeling image and their desire for distraction had led to their actual distraction from noticing they were feeding changelings. Chrysalis was smiling as she watched the much larger rides and attractions being put together dreaming of food for her subjects and pulling it all off under the nose of the Equestrians.

Author's Note:

Well here is chapter 2. I am surprised at how long this chapter was and I didn't even address how kooky I wanted some things to be. I'm trying to be original with the OC's but that is hard at times. I'm not the most creative when it comes to coat and mane colors.

Comments

[Light Ascend]

... since she could hardly say no to more income for the constantly destroyed little town.