A Nation of Love

by Ultra-the-HedgeToaster

Prologue – History is written by the Victors

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A NATION OF LOVE

By Ultra the HedgeToaster
Inspired by FanOfMostEverything's A Crazed Gleam

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This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book:

> [click here] - no background music
> [click here] - with ambient music loop

> [overview of all chapters]

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Once upon a time, there was a wise and powerful Queen.

She cared for all of her children, striving for her Hive to grow strong and powerful.

Yet unfortunately, the land she ruled was frail and loveless. All across the land, her children were starving.

However, in the neighboring kingdom, love was abundant and magic flowed freely. This kingdom was inhabited by ponies.

But the ponies were selfish; instead of sharing from their overflowing abundance, they chose to hoard their love amongst themselves.

Changelings could only feed if they disguised themselves as ponies, forced to walk among them always fearful of discovery.

The Queen humbly approached the rulers of the pony-kingdom, asking for help to feed her starving children, but the pony-princesses refused.

She pleaded for them to see reason, but the selfish pony-princesses just laughed at the Queen.

“You cannot have our love.” Said the youngest. “For it is our own.”

“We control the dreams.” Said the middle princess. “We can send nightmares into your hive-mind, and make their minds break like brittle.”

“We control the sun in the heavens above.” Said the eldest. “We can send down its heat, and make your hives burn!”

“Now, begone from our lands!” They spoke as one.

Dismayed, the Queen saw no other choice but to leave.

Once she had left, the evil pony-princesses laughed:

“Hah! There goes the weak and hungry Queen! Let her changelings rot; soon they won't bother us anymore.”

“Soon the changelings shall be no more, soon the changelings shall be no more! Hah! This calls for a celebration!”

“I know! Let us have a royal wedding! It will show them how much love we have! Hah!”

However, unbeknownst to the evil pony-princesses, a brave changeling had snuck into their castle, disguising himself as a pony-guard.

He overheard them planning the wedding, and when he sent his message through the hive-mind, the clever Queen hatched a plan.

For while the three pony-princesses were powerful, not all were equally so.

In a selfless act, a group of fearless changelings captured the youngest of the three pony-princesses, who was also the one who had ordered the wedding.

But how could they replace her? The pony-princesses were strong, even the youngest of them.

A lone drone would surely be discovered for being too weak!

So, the Queen took it upon herself to don the disguise of the youngest princess.

While in disguise, the compassionate Queen had to endure many trials pretending to be the evil princess, seeing the ponies flaunt their love that could've fed many of her children fit-to-burst, whereas the ponies could simply feed on grass and fruit.

And yet, it was very nearly all for nought.

Perhaps it was simply poor luck, or perhaps the Queen had not been able to act as heartless as the evil princess would, but, just as the royal wedding was about to come to a close, her ruse was discovered.

The pony-princesses were furious!

“I will scorch your lands with the power over the sun!” spoke the elder princess.

“I will break your minds with the power over nightmares!” spoke the middle princess.

(The youngest princess didn't say anything because she was captured.)

All seemed lost! The Queen was struck with dismay. “Oh woe, this day should have been just perfect, yet now all changelingkind is undone! Forgive me, my children, for I have failed you!”

“No, you have not failed us, mother,” her children spoke as one, emoting through the hive-mind: Hope, support, unwavering belief, affection.

Her children's thoughts gave the Queen the strength she needed, and using the power of the love she had gained while disguised, she defeated the evil princesses and took away their powers over the sun and moon.

Love was brought to all the changelings – and the glorious Queen vowed no changeling would ever go hungry again.

And that's how Omnifaria was made.

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“The end,” Nurture intoned deeply, closing the book.

The young nymph sat snug in her pod, pretending to not be sleepy at all. Her muzzle scrunched, Nurture could easily smell the rise of confusion, mixed with curiosity.

“But Nunu, what happened to the ponies?”

Nurture sighed. It was always about the ponies with this clutch, wasn't it?

Too bad that real history didn't make for a good bedtime story.

“Well...” Nurture began, stalling for time. “Say, how are your transformation lessons coming along?”

“I can already change my colors!” The nymph piped up, not minding the side-topic. “And I can make fur and wood... well, a little...”

“That's very good, dear!” Nurture smiled brightly. Though it wasn't like there was any rush for the little ones. “Now, let me ask you a question.” Nurture booped the little changeling's snout, prompting a giggle. “When was the last time you fed?”

Again, Gentle's muzzle scrunched, as the little nymph looked up in confusion.

“Uhm... dinner was at six?“

“And before that?”

“Uh... lunch was at twelve I think?”

“And before that?”

“Bravery gave me some of her happiness when we went to the arcade and I had already spent all my Cadenzi.”

“Okay.” The caretaker chuckled, deciding not to chide her for eating candy before a meal. “But before that?”

“Breakfast?”

“And before breakfast?”

“Uhh...” The nymph pouted adorably at the odd question. “Dinner again, yesterday?”

Nurture's insides melted at the sight.

“And... when was the last time you *couldn't* feed?”

“Couldn't... feed?” Gentle tilted her head. “I don't understand.”

“Was there ever a day when you couldn't get love?”

“Couldn't get– But love is everywhere!” Unconsciously, Gentle's gaze flicked to her night-lamp buzzing with just the faintest hum of energy.

“Yes,” Nurture chuckled. “Today, it is. That is the gift our Queen gave us. But it was not always this way...”

The scent of amusement grew stale as the caretaker trailed off.

“You see... even after our Queen defeated the pony-princesses, the ponies still didn't want to share their love. And...” Nurture bowed her head. “It was a... different time. Like the story said, changelings had to hide among the ponies just to get by.”

She could've said more. She didn't.

The pause stretched.

Until a tiny voice broke it.

“But, what happened to the ponies?”

Nurture sighed. No easy way out, was there?

“There was fighting. Many... got hurt. But in the end, we won. The ponies... left, and we used their genetic code to build our love-factories.”

“That's... That is so sad...” Gentle whimpered slightly. “Why... why couldn't every-one just love each other?” The nymph looked up at her with big, dewy eyes.

“Aww, now don't you think about such bad things.” Nurture rustled the little one's dorsal fin. “That was all a very long time ago, and things aren't like that anymore.”

The little nymph glanced up at her, and Nurture gave her best reassuring smile.

“Our Queen made sure of that.”

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Author's Note:

Special thanks go to my editor Reese, and thanks to FanOfMostEverything, for providing both inspiration and aid in writing this story.

This story originally spawned from a single sentence in midst of a setting that would otherwise have seemed like nothing more than a bleak alternate future:

"You know, ponies have actually been romanticized as of late."

That line. That one line. I really liked that one line.

And that's how Omnifaria was made.

Comments

[Lord Dominator]

That title doesn't fill me with confidence in this little story's accuracy :p

[Xanderfox]

Yes I am sure they "build" "love factories"

[WannaFlugelHorn]

8981869

Oh gosh! It's the Rainbow Factory all over again!

I'm going with the genetic code thing, even if they killed them all and chased away everything else!

That story was enraging with all of its lies, but then again, isn't that what OUR textbooks reflect? Whatever, I'm still mad!

[Emil]

8981869
Because "we use the ponies in our joy divisions" sounds even worse?

[tsaukpaetra]

Being back the ponies!