Society as We Know It

by Comma Typer

The Sunset Meeting

The sky above Canterlot was yellow, the sun was near the mountains. Behind several windows, lights turned on, providing their buildings a sense of much light, a feeling of the lit city under a sunset.

The paved white walkways were filled with crowds of ponies chattering and talking, many trying to get their way forward. A large stairway, also filled with ponies, led up to the castle's pair of huge double doors. On them were decorated stylings of gold and silver.

Beyond the doorway, through the spacious hallways lined with tall columns of marble, the crowd of ponies stopped in front of a raised platform, itself decorated in gold and silver stylings. The floor was reflective. From the high ceiling were tall banners in purple and blue. The windows of stained glass that reached up to the ceiling bore, in their lines, the landscapes during the day and the night, while letting in the sun's beams, displaying on themselves rays of light. Guards in their metal uniform stood, showing no emotion but blank faces.

A red carpet laid on the floor and on the platform. On it were two chairs of leather and gold. However, the two crowned alicorn sisters, the Princesses of Equestria, did not sit on these thrones. Rather, they stood close to the throng of ponies in front of them. Among the crowd were earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, dressed in a variety of clothes and some in none. There was little talking done among the many ponies there—the Princesses were attending to their subjects. All looked and beheld the sight of the Princesses and the sound of their authoritative yet smooth, calm voices.

Amidst the crowd, four changelings stood right in the center. One of them cheerily held a paper bag.

"Want another donut?" Humerus asked. He held out a donut from the bag and grew his smile.

"We'll have dinner later," Neon Guard replied. He looked at Humerus's face. He sighed. "I know you're excited to meet the Princesses, but what are you going to tell them?"

Humerus blinked and stopped chewing. "I dunh no."

"You gotta have something to tell the Princesses of the Day and Night, Humerus," Blue Alarm said.

Humerus thrust a donut to Blue Alarm's mouth. "I can think of something, Alarm," Humerus said.

Blue Alarm gulped the donut down. "The Princesses call ponies on a random basis. You could be next."

"I'm going to be fine, guys," Humerus said.

"We'll be all right," Red Noise said as he grabbed a bunch of donuts.

Humerus grabbed another bunch and stuffed his mouth.

"Is that how you treat the presences of the Princesses?"

The changelings turned around.

A pink pony with curly hair was staring at them angrily.

"Hey," Blue Alarm said, "weren't you the one who said—"

"Gimmie that!" the pony yelled, grabbing the paper bag of dounts. She threw three in the air and all fell to her open mouth. She smiled at the changelings.

Humerus gulped. "Uh, isn't that—"

"Your donuts?" she asked. "I know!" She giggled. "The name's Pinkie Pie!"

"Wait, the Pinkie Pie that we captured a few months ago?" Humerus asked.

A few ponies around them looked at the changelings.

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie said. "You could have surrounded all of us in soda and we would all be fine!"

The changelings looked at each other, thinking about what to do with the strange pony in front of them.

"You must be new here!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Yes, Pinkie," Neon Guard said, "we're—"

"You know what that means?!" she shouted as she grabbed Neon Guard by her hooves. And quickly she spoke. "That means we're going to have a wonderful, fantastic, wondertastic, fantastful welcome party!" She threw some confetti around Neon Guard. "But that also means that we can't do it here since there a lot of ponies here and the Princesses—they're really nice and really kind—but they don't allow Pinkie Pie parties during these hours and days where ponies get to talk to them about this and about that but I really understand them, but anyway, I think you're off to great a start visiting the Princesses because they're the leaders of Equestria and you're dealing it like my friend Twilight would do, always dealing it in some kind of order like one, two, three—maybe that's why you're here! You want to do it in some kind of order, not order like an order of donuts or an order of burgers at Hay Burger but an order as in one, two, three like I said before! Let me guess who you're going to visit next! Hmm..." She rubbed her chin.

The four changelings had their mouths wide open, wondering how she never missed a beat in that very fast monologue.

Blue Alarm raised a hoof. "Pinkie Pie, we would like to visit your welcoming party but we also have—"

"You do?!" she asked. She raced to Blue Alarm. "Let me guess your name. It's going to be like a game! Ooh! That rhymed! Your name is Blue Alarm!"

"How did you—"

"That wasn't even a guess! Now what's my name?"

"You just said your name was Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie gasped. "You must be really good at the 'Let-me-guess-your-name' game!"

Humerus laughed.

Pinkie's mane rang. She brought out an alarm clock from it. "Must be time for the 'New Changelings' Welcome Party' preperations! See you in Ponyville tonight or tomorrow or whatever time you want it to be within the week!" Then, she bounced her way through the crowd and out of the room, laughing all the way out.

The changelings turned around back towards the Princesses. They were talking to a different pony this time.

"I can't believe we'd captured a pony like her," Humerus said. "She would annoy us all day if we didn't place her in the pods." He grabbed another donut from his bag.

"Ah, the changelings on their break," Princess Celestia said.

Everypony looked at the changelings. They moved to make a circular space around them.

Humerus grinned. The rest of the changelings placed on smiles. They bowed on their knees.

"You can fly over here, I don't mind," Celestia said.

"Uh—we can?" Blue Alarm asked. He still bowed.

"We allow it," Princess Luna replied. "It's of no harm to any of our citizens—you are our friends after all."

Beads of sweat rolled down Blue Alarm's face. I can't believe it! he thought. We're going to get an audience with the Princesses of Equestria, the ones who raise the sun and the moon. I should've taken my own advice.

They flew above the ponies and the red carpet and landed in front of the Princesses who were now on the floor and off the platform. The buzzes of their wings was the only sound that was there as all were silent.

Humerus chuckled, his smile showing through the laughs. They punctuated the buzzes.

They landed in front of the Princesses and bowed again. Celestia, with her flowing and bright multi-colored mane and wide wings, towered over the changelings and most of her subjects. Luna, with her starry, ethereal mane and wide wings also, also towered over the changelings, although she was shorter than her older sister.

"You don't need to bow that many times," Celestia said.

The changelings stood up.

Humerus was laughing in hysterics. "I-I'm finally here! I-in front of princesses! The Princesses of E-Equestria! A-and Celestia is talking to m-me!" He went on laughing. The other changelings looked at him.

"Are you sure this is the wise thing to do, sister?" Luna whispered to Celestia.

Celestia nodded. "I am sure it is," she whispered back.

Luna walked towards them, raising her head. "So, what is your business with us? Are you acting as representatives of the Changeling Kingdom? Do you have some important matters to discuss with us?"

Humerus let his mouth hang open.

Luna recoiled from the sight. "I see that you are a...rather surprised changeling."

"I'm just so happy to see you," Humerus said very fast.

Neon Guard moved in front of Humerus. "Apologies for Humerus's odd behavior. He was just very excited to visit you Princesses."

Celestia nodded. "Apologies accepted. You can also say 'sorry.'"

"Sorry, Princess Celestia," Neon Guard bowed down.

"Didn't I already say that you're not supposed to bow that many times?" Celestia said but she smiled. "We may be Princesses, but we don't have to use words that are too complicated and we don't need our subjects to be stressing themselves too much."

"I see," Neon Guard said. He eyed Red Noise and Blue Alarm. They were still smiling, Red Noise especially. He turned back to the Princesses. "To be honest, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we only came here just to make Humerus happy. That was all."

"What?!" a mare cried out. "They just came here for a visit?! That's unfair!"

"Yeah!" a stallion answered. "I have some significant matters to talk about with the Princesses!"

"But are they more significant than what they want?" Luna asked the crowd.

Everypony was silent. They were silent for a short while.

"Besides, it's almost time for Luna take on her duty of raising the moon," Celestia said. "It's nice to have the good changelings visiting us as our last friends to attend to before the sun sets. We haven't had a changeling visit us for a good reason since...forever."

Humerus giggled. "W-we're the first ever changelings to be here!" And he giggled again. The other changelings looked at him with puzzled looks.

"In fact," Celestia continued, "what about we lower the sun and raise the moon right outside the castle, right in front of all of you?"

Everypony was silent again.

Then, they cheered and shouted. Some confetti was thrown.

"And," Celestia said to Humerus amidst the happy noise, "you and your friends can be the closest ones to us while we do our tasks, if that will make you even happier."

Humerus giggled again. Then he laughed. "Aha!" he cried out. "I'm going to be witnessing the Princesses change day to night! This is the greatest day of my life!"

Blue Alarm looked at the ponies cheering around them. They didn't seem to mind being so near to the Princesses of Equestria as they would bring the day to an end and the night to a beginning. They didn't seem to mind the changelings either.

Such fortunate ponies, he thought.

---

Canterlot's white city walls bordered with gold had its gate and its passageway filled with ponies. The several guards in their uniform stood on the wall, on the gates, on the ground, hoping that the Princesses would at least stay on high ground in the event that some rebellious creature would attack the leaders of Equestria. However, the Princesses made the guards all the more nervous by not having any guard rails or fences or any barriers at all holding the masses of ponies back. A small circle of space was around the Princesses and around the four awkwardly smiling changelings that went beside them.

The many, many ponies did their best to respect the Princesses by indeed keeping a small circle of space around their leaders. While many had smiles, a few only bowed down and did other gestures of respect—not smiling at the changelings. Despite that, confetti and balloons were everywhere. Some buildings had their doors open, ponies inside waving at the Princesses and cheering. An enthusiastic aquamarine unicorn bounced up and down and waved at the changelings.

"Is she Pinkie's sister?" Red Noise whispered to Blue Alarm.

"I don't know, and maybe I don't want to know, Red Noise," he replied.

Finally, the Princesses stopped right outside the gate and Canterlot's walls. And the ponies' cheers only went louder.

"This is the first time in a long time that we're going to raise the moon and bring on the night outside our towers," Luna announced.

Everypony became silent.

"Yes," Celestia went on, "it is true that it would take more magic to raise and lower the sun and the moon on the ground than on the balcony. It is also true that it is safer to do so on the balcony." He eyed a guard who Celestia happened to see. "But, it only takes up slightly more magic. More importantly, I and my sister have noticed that bringing the day and the night on a tower far above where an average pony would be was...not always the best thing for you. Although we are the Princesses of Equestria, we want to be near you."

Celestia nodded to her sister.

"We've already done a good job with that," Luna contineud, "going to many places in Equestria when problems appear. We decided, however, that we need to do a better job at that. Most rulers would go on with their daily activites away from their subjects. We want you to feel and be sure that we are close and that we do care for you."

Humerus grinned wider. "They're about to move the sun and the moon!" he whispered through his grin.

"And what better way to start that than to do what we've always been doing..." Celestia paused.

"...right in front of you."

Celestia's horn glowed a light yellow glow.

Everypony cheered again.

The sun moved down behind the mountains, the sky turning from a bright yellow-orange to a dark blue-purple. Everywhere, it grew dark. Stars appeared in the sky. Many stars sparkled. At the opposite side of the sky, the moon moved up, providing its moonlight and completing the landscape and the skyscape of the night.

When everypony looked back at the Princesses, it was Luna's horn that was glowing, glowing a blue light.