Society as We Know It

by Comma Typer

More Friendly History

"There's always more stories to tell," Eucalypti announced proudly. "We have an abundance of stories to share and memories to remember! Remember when we met that Solver guy a day later? Wow, was he paranoid or what?"

"It's not good to talk about him like that when he's not around," Hexapod said. "Just like what Princess Twilight taught us, we should make sure to not say anything mean towards our friends—and especially not to only speak meanly of them when they're not around, not there to listen to us."

"Oh, yeah, that's correct," Eucalypti said, throwing a hoof in self-defence. "Anyway, I'm now facing a problem of abundance! We have so many stories to choose that I end up not choosing any story at all!" He shot a hoof at his friend. "So, what about you be the one to tell a story again?"

Quick Fast giggled a little as he continued pulling the carriage through the dark night landscape. The moon shone on their lonely carriage along with the creatures that were there. "As long as you keep me interested. A talk in the night is better than a pony being silent for the entire trip."

"Or," Eucalypti suddenly spoke, "we could tell him about the time when we decided to have some of that pizza from Manehattan? And it was so tasty! Who believed that would even be possible? A flat bread to place cheese, tomato sauce, and vegetables on?! All the other changelings were talking about it—and, when we finally got to the pizza place, the smell was amazing—attracted and engaged my nose and it made me think and think so much about the pizza!"

Quick Fast giggled again. "You were that excited over pizza?"

"Well, we were excited to taste any kind of food at all," Eucalypti said. "I mean, to taste it truly. We could pretend to eat food, but pretending can only get us so far."

"And, we shared the food," Hexapod added, speaking animatedly with an expressive hoof. "It was an astounding experience—we got to taste food for what it was for the first time in our lives!"

"That's good," Quick Fast said. "Did you get that experience again when you tasted other foods like apples?"

"That, too!" Eucalypti shouted. "Apples? They were delicious!"

"I'm glad you like them," the pony said. He turned to face Hexapod. "Hexapod, it looks like Eucalypti really wants you to share the more personal stories, I guess."

"If that's what's best for the trip," Hexapod responded. He looked at his friend. "The next story we tell this pony, you be the one to tell him, OK?"

"I am completely fine with that!" Eucalypti said. "While you tell the story, I will think about what to tell him!"

"Heh-heh-heh-heh," Hexapod laughed as he turned to face the pony walking on the dirt path. "So, there was this time early on while we were rebuilding the Changeling Kingdom."

---

Months ago

The changelings made much of a noise as paint and bricks and wood and other building materials were carried on to this place and that place, as changelings gave orders by shouting—although the shouting was understandably an understandable and considerate shout and not a shout that would be construed as angry. It was a rush in the workplace—the workplace being the entire Changeling Kingdom. Already, there were some structures that looked almost like complete buildings with the only things indicating that they were still in progress were the scaffoldings. Other structures looked like they had just started, with several changelings hurriedly placing wood and bricks here and there, frantically trying to form a cohesive house.

Hexapod and Eucalypti carried several bricks and buckets of paint together, rushing past other changelings who were stationary and working on their respective buildings. They rushed past a group of changelings who were working on a road. Then, finally, they arrived at their site—a half-finished house. It looked incomplete. The roof wasn't even done yet, although most of the rooms were finished.

"So," a somewhat taller green changeling told the two, wearing a helmet, "as you can see, all we need left are some paints and a few stray bricks. Then—" He pointed at a stack of bags containing a cement-like material "—here is the changing substance. Makes the house's walls and doors move around with a factor of unpredictability just like the Changeling Hive...used to be."

"We're on it, Neon Guard!" Eucalypti yelled, saluting the taller changeling as he hastened to drop some buckets of paint on to the ground.

Hexapod followed suit.

The two changelings dropped all that they were holding on to the ground.

In front of them was an unfinished part of the house—the wall was incomplete, so they could still see what was inside. Inside was an unfurnished room as a yellow changeling hummed a tune while he painted the interior walls.

"Solver!" Eucalypti said, waving a hoof at him. "How are you doing? First thing in the morning is painting the wall, right?"

"Keeps me safe," Solver gruffly replied, only glancing at Eucalypti for a few seconds before looking back to his work.

"Aww, don't be so grumpy, Solver!" Eucalypti said, hovering towards him. "The doors from Ponyville and from Manehattan are going to coming here soon—we always knew you liked intricate work!"

"I never said anything about painting doors," Solver simply said. "Now, don't you have any work to do?"

"Alright," Eucalypti said before he went back to Hexapod. He landed right beside him. "Do you have all things ready?"

Hexapod nodded.

And the two changelings helped each other as Eucalypti hastily laid down the bricks while Hexapod painted each newly-laid brick with speed. As the minutes went by, the wall slowly became complete, making the house look more finished and ready for normal day-to-day living.

Finally, after several more minutes, the wall was done and the changelings rested on the grass as they both wiped the sweat off their faces.

The two laughed.

"Will you stop all this laughing?!" Solver shouted.

The two stopped laughing and suddenly looked at Solver.

"I'm trying to protect this kingdom!" Solver yelled at them. "The ponies must know that we are not to be lied to, not to be tricked!"

"Uh, we were just laughing that our work's done," Eucalypti said.

"Oh, that's just the end of it!" Solver replied. He approached the two changelings. "Soon, all the changelings here will laugh because their work's done? But, I won't be laughing, because I know the truth! I know what's been going on! As long as I find out what the specifics, the details are—everything will be clear soon enough, and I won't be called a crazy changeling anymore!"

"Uh, you're a crazy changeling."

"You'll regret it!" Solver shouted as he flew away in frustration. "You'll regret what you just said!"

The two changelings looked on at Solver.

Hexapod looked at Eucalypti, surrounded by the noise of rebuilding and the rush of the workplace as changelings went here and there accomplishing their tasks. "How come you are friends with Solver? I don't see why you're close to him?"

"Ah, it's probably just because you worked at a different group," Eucalypti said. "Don't you remember Solver? The changeling who comes up with lots of the plans, fixing lots of things? Well, that's probably because you used to belong to a group where Solver wasn't that popular. I don't blame you. Anyway, he's now...like I said, crazy." He sighed. "Tried to be friends with him and I'm still trying."

"You don't have to force that upon yourself, Eucalypti."

"Well, I don't want to leave some changelings in the dark without any friends," Eucalypti said. "From the looks of it, Solver doesn't have any. And, Hexapod, don't you realize that friendship is something that binds us together, makes us stronger? If only Solver would see that."

Neon Guard walked into the scene. He looked at the painted wall. "Wow, that's quite fast for just two changelings at the job." He stayed quiet while he eyed the two changelings. "So, do you want to take a break? Have some snacks?"

"Yeah!" Eucalypti yelled. "I already have some apples I placed at the table!" Then, he rushed towards a wooden table where a few apples were sitting on. He immediately munched on an apple, eating rather noisily.

Neon Guard looked at Hexapod. "And you?"

"I'll join my friend," Hexapod replied, smiling.

Neon Guard smiled. "Well, I'll take my break as well. Blue Alarm, Red Noise, and Humerus must be around somewhere. Have a good day!"

Then, Neon Guard flew off, joining the cacophony of changelings flying in the sky as they tried to get to their own places.

Hexapod flew off to where Eucalypti was.

"What's next?" Hexapod asked as he landed on the ground.

His friend was munching on his apples.

"Uh, Eucalypti? Really?"

"Oh, Hexapod!" Eucalypti said, surprised. He took the half-eaten apple and placed it on the table. "What were you saying? I didn't quite catch what you just said."

"What's next?" Hexapod asked. "I mean, what's the next thing to do after this? I forgot what Neon Guard told us about the next thing to do with the house. Or, maybe we move to a different house? Or, maybe we move to one of those stores?"

"It's the last one," Eucalypti said, pointing a hoof at his friend. "We're going to build what they call a 'convenience store.'"

"And, what's that?" Hexapod asked further.

"From what I've heard, a convenience store is a store that offers convenience."

"In what way?"

"Well, there's all kinds of things there—you won't have to go to certain stores to buy all you need. You only need to go to the convenience store! A convenience store has food, drinks, soda, ice cream, candy, chips, donuts—"

"What about things other than food and drinks?" Hexapod asked.

---

Present

"And, it turns out that Eucalypti had no idea what a convenience store actually was!" Hexapod finished. "Although, now he knows what it is. We've been to the finished building and it was great! It truly was a store of convenience! And of friendship, since lots of us actually want to spend some time with our friends inside the convenience store. If you visit the Changeling Kingdom, you should stop by there because you get to see one of the best displays of friendship—changelings just sitting on the chairs in front of the tables, just talking to each other and having a good time while they have a good meal. Isn't that good, Quick Fast?"

"And, the food and the drinks are good!" Eucalypti added.

Quick Fast nodded. "Anything else?"