Society as We Know It

by Comma Typer

Ponyville and a Train Ride

"Why did you scrap the train station?" a green changeling asked the changeling king who sat in front of his large wooden throne; he looked a lot like a shorter Thorax.

It was windy—the breeze whistled through the plants, including the vines, swaying them under its might. A few changelings roamed around, just admiring what was in front of them.

"It was too expensive to maintain," Thorax said, "but, more importantly, it didn't go well with the plants overtaking the railroad. That was too much labor for too little reward."

"Oh." The green changeling scrunched his face then smiled. "Thanks, Thorax!"

"You're welcome, Empis!" Thorax said, waving at him.

Empis flew off.

Another changeling was flying in.

Thorax eyed him.

The yellow changeling landed on the ground, holding a scroll with his mouth. He took the scroll out of his mouth and held it with a hoof.

"Good morning, King Thorax!" the new arrival greeted. Then, he bowed down.

"No, you don't need to do that kind of thing!" Thorax said as if in panic—raising his voice though not in anger. "Just talk to me as you would anyone else! I'm actually uncomfortable with all the bowing and the other formal greetings."

"Sorry, Thorax," the changeling said, making a sheepish smile. "It's hard since, well, you're a good ruler and all."

"Don't you flatter!" Thorax said, playfully smiling as he tilted his head.

The changeling nodded. He glanced at the scroll. "Uh, here's the list of places most visited by us changelings! Got it straight from Canterlot by request!" He hoofed the scroll to the king.

"It's always good to know," Thorax remarked as he opened the scroll. "Canterlot has all the records, all the archives, all the repositories."

"Not all of them," the changeling corrected.

"I wasn't trying to being literal."

The changeling gulped.

Thorax scanned the list. "Ponyville is at number one?"

"Uh, yes."

"Huh." Thorax was quiet for a while as he looked up from the letter and towards the blue sky. "It's a surprise, but not too surprising. It's a small and quiet town and places like Manehattan have a lot more tourist spots. But, it's also the town of friendship—Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship and she lives there, the Elements of Harmony live there, a lot of the friendship lessons that are in the journals were derived there, and there's always something going on in Ponyville—just like the big, uptown cities."

"I wonder—what about the sudden influx of changeling visitors to Ponyville? I haven't been there, yet."

"You should!" Thorax exhorted. "It's a nice place and the ponies there are nice, too."

"Maybe I've been working a lot lately," the changeling said. "Perhaps forgot about visiting Ponyville in the first place."

Thorax smiled. "Well, the next time you get a free day for yourself, you try going there. You're going to be shocked at the welcoming atmosphere of the town with its super-friendly ponies. Just don't go crazy over the Princess and her friends—they've already gotten more than their fair share of rabid changeling fans."

The changeling nodded. "Thank you for that. Do you need anything else regarding the list?"

"I don't think so," Thorax replied.

"Then, I'll go off to the arts and crafts place!"

Then, the changeling went off.

---

Pipsqueak and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were at the Ponyville train station, standing on the platform and holding several batches of colored paper. Nopony else was there.

Scootaloo looked to the side, peering into the distance. "Uh, are they there, yet?"

"They're not, Scootaloo," Sweetie said. "Wait for the train. It's always going to come on time." Then, she looked to the side as well.

Scootaloo noticed. "Hey! I thought you said 'Wait for the train'!"

"Well, I'm bored waiting." Sweetie made a grumpy face.

"But, it's gonna be worth it!" Apple Bloom expressed. "Just imagine all the visitors we're gonna help! Maybe there's gonna be a pony in need o' ar' help!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo nodded with her eyes closed. "If she doesn't have a cutie mark and we help her find her talent right here and now, wouldn't that be an awesome story to tell?"

Sweetie nodded.

"I would like to see that!" Pipsqueak told.

"We would, too!" Sweetie responded.

Then, the blaring horn of the train.

The colt and the fillies looked to the side.

The colorful train, with its heart-shaped lights on the bumper, was coming closer. They awaited with looks and no sound as they observed the train nearing the station. Then, it slowed down, finally stopping at the station.

Pipsqueak and the Cutie Mark Crusaders grinned, straightening themselves up and huddling together.

The doors opened.

"Welcome to Ponyville!" they all shouted together.

The stallion in front held on to his hat, standing his ground in his resistance against being pushed by the sheer force of the united shout.

"You look new, sir!" Pipsqueak said. "Is this your first time visiting Ponyville?"

"I visit Ponyville all the time," the stallion said. "I live here!"

"Oh." Pipsqueak pouted.

The stallion walked around them and off the train station. He was followed by more and more ponies walking out of the train station, some who happily greeted the younger ponies holding paper.

"Everypony lives here!" Scootaloo complained. "Not even someone who isn't a pony?"

Then, two more ponies went down to the platform. One was a stout yet burly white Earth pony with trimmed purple mane and a bushy purple mustache; he wore a blue exercising suit and a towel around his neck. The other was also an Earth pony, though shorter and younger: Plaid Stripes.

"Hi!" Pipsqueak said, waving at the two. "You two look like tourists!"

"On business," the stallion said, maintaining a serious look and a serious tone. "I'm Mr. Stripes, and this is my daughter, Plaid Stripes." He gestured a hoof to her.

Plaid Stripes waved shyly at them.

"Oh!" Sweetie's eyes went wide open. "You must be the pony managing Rarity's boutique over in Manehattan!" She extended a hoof. "I'm her younger sister, Sweetie Belle!"

Plaid Stripes hesitated. She briefly glanced at her father. Then, she shook Sweetie's hooves, grinning and showing her braces.

"And, Ah'm Apple Bloom!" Apple Bloom said, extending her hoof at her as well.

Scootaloo offered her a hoofshake, also.

Pipsqueak, as well.

Plaid Stripes shook their hooves.

Mr. Stripes smiled a little. "Well, greetings are done and over with. Thanks, but my daughter has a very important appointment with Rarity. Something to do with utensil clothes becoming fashionable."

Sweetie Belle's face looked confused. "What?"

"What? You think it's not a good idea?"

"Uh, no, Mr. Stripes!" Sweetie said, balking. "It's just, uh, it's, ah, something I haven't heard of. Uh, not that much."

"You must hear of it," Mr. Stripes went on. "My daughter is a fashion revolutionary for introducing spoon clothes to the world, and now, she will expand her green horizons." He stretched out his hoof and moved it in the air, looking at the sky. "Brilliant ideas: fork clothes, spork clothes, knife clothes—"

"Aren't knife clothes dangerous?" Scootaloo asked.

"My daughter is more than capable of rectifying that!"

Scootaloo gulped.

"I apologize, but we are on tight schedule," Mr. Stripes said. He looked at his daughter. "Let's go qiuckly!"

Then, the two ponies ran, though Plaid Stripes took one last glimpse of the younger ponies before she went back looking forward.

"Spoon clothes?" Pipsqueak said. "That's something I've never heard of."

"You'll end up hearing more about it if the appointment goes well," Sweetie said. "Soon, everypony in Ponyville is going to wear cutlery on the clothes because it's trendy."

"What would you do with them?" Scootaloo asked.

"Eat with them," Sweetie said. "I've seen the spoon clothes myself—Rarity brought some here and it's in the boutique."

"Could I wear some of them?" Pipsqueak asked, excited. "I wanna know what it's like to have them!"

"I don't know, Pipsqueak," Sweetie said, a look of worry on her face.

---

"Train?" Empis asked as he stood in front of another colorful train in the middle of the dry desert.

"What are you waiting for?" the bulky train conductor asked, gesturing a hoof towards the inside of the train and giving Empis a mean look. "Do you wanna get to Ponyville or not? Get off the platform and get in!"

Empis looked left and right.

There was no one else on the platform.

Then, Empis went inside the train.

The conductor went inside and the train closed.

The train started chugging along again, the moving of the wheels becoming faster until it became a rhythmic sound. The dry and arid landscape, complemented with bright sun and its blue sky with minimal clouds, sped by the train as Empis looked out the window and at the outside.

Several things stood out. A few wagons of ponies moving through the desert, a herd of buffaloes stampeding on their stampeding grounds, dirt paths where some ponies walked on, signs that told where the nearest towns and cities where.

"I'm Locomotive," the train conductor said, approaching the changeling. He pointed a hoof to himself. "Apparently, you're the only one aboard on this train. Then again, this is the frontier—not that many ponies want to use the train at this time. Afternoon? You better wait until sundown—that's when they start visitng their friends in the larger, more populated towns for parties and other friendly times."

Empis blinked. "Do you get lonely here?"

The conductor sat down on the cushioned seat across the changeling's. He sighed a sigh of relief, stretching his front hooves. "Yes, I do." He stayed silent for a while. "What's your name?"

"Empis," he replied. "It's Empis."

"That's a good name," the conductor said. Then, his face disppeared. "I'm not kidding you, am I? I don't know what's a good name for a changeling. Thorax and Pharynx have good enough names—but, how am I supposed to know?!"

"It's one of the things that we changelings understand, I guess," Empis said. "Some of us didn't even have a name when we were born. The queen just saw us as brood-mates of some changeling that did have a name."

Locomotion's face dampened. "Shame. It's a sad shame, a sorry shame, isn't it?"

"I was glad that I had a name," Empis went on. "You had something to hold on to as your own besides your personality. Ownership wasn't that big of a thing back in those days. Getting too attached to things would drive us away from the hive and from getting love—that's what she taught."

"Did you end up getting some things anyway? For yourself?"

"Definitely," Empis said. "But, I had to throw them away—at first, I didn't want to get caught. Then, I just told myself that Chrysalis was correct in everything she says. Besides, without her direction, we would be even more starving than before. So I thought."

"Of course, you knew the truth, you became a colorful changeling, and you shared love," the conductor said. "It's becoming a common story among us ponies. History books are catching up to it, the foals are learning it even early on. Then again, they would end up catching up to it when there's all the buzz around it back some months ago."

Empis nodded. "I just want to think back to that moment, to those first few days: We were all wondering what we were going to do. Everything we've ever learned about the world was shattered, to be replaced with what I know to be the truth. It's a strange thing: It's all broken, and yet you're fine. I had suppressed those thoughts about thinking that you ponies were right—that friendship was the best way, and that, maybe—a big 'maybe'—stealing love wasn't the only way we could survive and flourish. After Thorax left the hive and betrayed us, there was something that nagged in the back of my mind—that maybe Thorax was right. Perhaps Thorarx saw it was all wrong because it was wrong."

Locomotion looked out the window. Then, he turned to Empis. "I can see that you're getting somewhat emotional about it, Empis. I understand."

"It's alright, Locomotion," Empis said. "I don't mind telling you my story. I'm sure my friends don't mind telling their stories, too—about they all thought that Chrysalis was right, and then Thorax and his friends came in and showed us that sharing love and not stealing love was the better way, and we all accepted that truth and we became better for it. I'm not that expressive about my feelings as the rest of my friends—they would gush about how great it felt for them to reunite with their brood-mates—that time, it woudn't just be any reunion. It would be the first time they would meet as friends—free to share with each other, free to laugh with each other, free to go with each other, free to live with each other as life-long buddies. I'm not surprised if one of them ends up crying about it—it is something revolutionary and unheard of for us changelings. Well, we did hear about things like friendship and sharing love, but to actually practice it? That's something we dared not do at all before."

"And, look at you now," Locomotion said, pointing at him with a hoof. "Free creatures with good lines of work and even better fun days and nights. You can do anything now."

"I don't want to regret my decision," Empis said. "And, it turns out that I won't be regretting it anytime soon."

They remained silent as the landscape slowly became greener and lusher. Grass became commonplace, now covering the ground with the trees and the rest of the plants. Pegasi moving the clouds here and there in the sky. More buildings appeared, though of the rural, quiet and homely kind.

"What is it?" Locomotion asked.

"Huh?"

"Do you have something on your eye?"

"Nah," Empis said. "Probably just an illusion."

Locomotion snickered. "Just small talk like that. Do you ever have those kinds of conversations with your friends these days?"

"Usually," Empis replied. "Who knew that even small talk was liberating?"

"Liberating? You must've been oppressed during her rule!"

"Yeah...."

Empis looked out the window again and so did Locomotion.

Then, the pony stood up.

The rythmic sound of the wheels slowed down.

Bushes appeared in the landscape. The bright and shiny purple castle came into view.

"This is where you're stopping?" Locomotion asked, nearing the train doors.

Empis nodded.

"First time here?"

"No."

"How do you like the ponies here?"

"Just as I expected: Very friendly."

"Hm!" Locomotion smiled. "Just as I expected, Empis. What do you plan to do here?"

"Walk around, hang out, relax, talk, play some games. See what I can do."

"Exercising your freedom, I see?"

Empis nodded, his smile becoming a beaming grin, even showing his teeth while he closed his eyes.

Then, the train came to a halt.

The doors opened.

Empis stepped out of the train and on to the platform.

"Hi!" Pipsqueak and the Cutie Mark Crusaders yelled.