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Overview

Development of the Changeling Territories

Dr. “Mellow” Copycat, PhD.

In honor of HRM Queen Chrysalis

And in memory of that scumbag once now known as, simply, “the King”

Chapter I: Overview

It has been a whole year since the tragic battle of Canterlot, and I have been requested by Queen Chrysalis to write a summary over what has changed over that year. For all the nymphs who are unaware of how the battle came to be, I shall give a brief summary: The late King was a greedy bug who thought that it would be wise to gather enough love for the colony by crashing Princess Cadence’s wedding. Queen Chrysalis, being the great ruler she is, rejected the idea because it would cause an even bigger rift between the changelings and the ponies. However, as time went on, the King managed to slowly stress this idea on our Queen until she cracked under the pressure. The Battle of Canterlot ensued, and the changelings were banished out of Equestria. The King was promptly executed for his crimes against the colony and we set to rebuilding our society.

During the Battle of Canterlot, our Queen used the magical network to send orders to our warriors and capture as many ponies as possible. Because of the coordination of our troops, ponies came up with the hypothesis that we, changelings, acted like insects that worked as a collective hive with the Queen being the only “free” being that would use a hive mind to command her “drones”. Judging by the fact that I have a PhD in changeling mentalities, the fact that I wrote this, and the fact that you are reading this, means that the ponies are wrong.

After a few months, our society took a sudden turn for the better. We were capable of feeding everyling, everyling had a warm home, noling was left in the streets to fend for themselves, and we even had protection against the wild! Thankfully, over the months leading up to current times, our society is slowly becoming as prosperous as the times of Queen Cocoon, a time when changelings thrived with almost limitless love. The only thing that was missing was an abundance of love; with the suspicion that the ponies now possess and the griffon’s unwillingness to help, we are left with only a few sources of love left for the colony.

Now that the nymphs know everything they need to know about the aftermath, without further ado, I shall summarize how our society has evolved.

Oh! Before I forget, my name is Copycat. My distinguishing title is “Mellow”, for my overall laid-back personality. If anyling doesn’t like how I don’t write completely professionally, then I frankly do not care in the slightest. I always end up doing that anyway. Now, back to the summary!

Let’s start from outside the colony, the surroundings of our home are very lush with many trees, rabbits, flowers, and pretty much any plant or animal you could think of. The surrounding of the colony have always been this way, and if things stay on track, they always will. The thick surrounding walls are made from dried mud taken from the nearby swamp and large chunks of stone taken from what is now the underside of the city. Wooden walkways have been built for guards to rest their wings and take cover if needed, and a circular metal gate was constructed at the entrance. Because of it’s bizarre structure, it has been commonly nicknamed “the waffle”, a food borrowed from the ponies that is commonly eaten with honey or jam. Yummy… Anyways, there are several towers dotted around the perimeter that store military supplies and many other things that are to be kept from civilian eyes.

Moving on to the houses, the most common household is constructed out of dried mud, wood, and stone fireplaces. Ever since the technique of glass was learned from ponies, changelings had loved windows and every room (barring bedrooms and bathrooms, Cocoon forbid they had more than one) had at least three windows. Skylights and glass doors also started getting more popular, and by the time modern times have come around? The housing market started looking like cheese! Windows were everywhere and the window industry skyrocketed. Then there was that one changeling who made his house look like an apple… I’ll admit, it looked nice, but it didn’t seem to fit in with all the cheese-like houses. But I digress, the houses usually contained three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a couple of rooms for more specific needs. It was common custom to always have a bath and a warm bed ready in case a lone changeling needed help, despite the fact that only two changelings actually needed help…

Entering the realm of the more important people in society, house structure increases proportionally to wealth. The more chits (that’s our currency, little ones) one has, the more rooms and the larger the windows of the house are. They usually included one more bedroom and bathroom, a billiard room, and even an indoor or outdoor pool when compared to average homes. When compared to pony society, our nobles are a lot less snobbish too! Most pony higher-ups tend to keep to themselves, while most changeling nobles constantly make donations to the less fortunate colony members. Unlike those filthy pony nobles, nobles in changeling society are based upon activity within the community and care for others. When Queen Cocoon commanded that social status be determined upon help for others, it fleshed out the “bad” and moved in those who genuinely cared for what was beneficial for the colony. It’s a shame ponies had to be “equal” in their ways, how can you “love and tolerate” when your politicians can’t even follow that saying? Moving past that, with the knowledge that those higher in society give more help to those lower in society, the conclusion that more bedrooms, more bathrooms, and more entertainment are to be used for those who require shelter from the elements.

Before we head on to the highest positions of society, we will move onto businesses. Most businesses also double as households for their owners. As a matter of fact, it would be more accurate to say that businesses are houses with a stand outside and a sign stating what the business specializes in. Businesses carry at least two types of sales material, one that is cheap and common, and one that is expensive but a necessity. As an example, my grandfather was responsible for selling strawberries and silverware. Strawberries are a common emergency food when love is not available because of the similar sweet taste they share; they represent the less expensive, more abundant, and very popular material. Silverware is something only new changelings would need when they are being polite while eating physical foods; they represent the more expensive, less abundant, yet necessary material.

Now we move onto one of the most important topics, The Council. The Council is a group of changeling representatives hoofpicked by the Queen herself to discuss and solve problems. The Council is comprised of: The Banker, who’s job is to manage monies; The Tactician, who’s job is to organize the military; The Mayor, who’s job is to report and take care of problems within the colony; The Voice, who’s job is to be the Queen’s speaker when she is busy; and The Queen, who has the most important job of maintaing order throughout the entire hive using magical networks to make important messages. Magical networks connect to everyling’s mind and relay a message for everyling to hear; they require a large amount of magic to use and are only used in emergencies. Each member of the Council has a specific area of society to manage, and whenever they meet, they lay out their problems and work together to solve the problems. There is another member of the Council that is currently not there, The King, who works alongside the Queen and is almost identical to the Queen in every way. However, The King has more to do with planning and less to do with public speaking than the Queen.

The Queen also has the highest position of power in The Council, having control over even The King. However, The Queen’s position depends solely on her citizen’s faith in her. In the Battle of Canterlot, when she absorbed the captain’s love, our stockpiles of love where so large, that we had absolute faith in her and that the battle was already won; but massive increase in magical strength was too sudden and the power influenced her thoughts and she became arrogant. Remember young nymphs, emotions and magical strength are directly linked and can change your mindset entirely. It is important that emotions are kept in check when casting spells, or the spell’s effects might be drastically changed. I once tried to cast a simple ember spell to start a fire in the fireplace when my niece accidentally tripped over the family dog. Needless to say, they both yelped in shock, I jumped in surprise, and the firewood got incinerated by a flare! So yeah, emotions go hoof in hoof with spell casting… What was I talking about again? Ah, never mind, I’ll just move on…

This is a basic summary of our wonderful colony, Emerald Grove. In the later chapters, I shall summarize the other colonies and how they function differently, how changelings are named, what our diet is composed of, and how we fit into pony societies! I shall see you in the next chapter! Which is on the next page if you were wondering…

Author's Note:

Hello there reader.
This is, as you might have guessed, my first story.
If you have any criticism or suggestions then please leave a comment!

I am open to anything to help make this story better.
(Remember, if you are going to dislike this story, please leave why you did so that I would not make the same mistake twice.)
EDIT: I forgot to give credit to TinCan for the currency idea! (chits)

Thank you and I hope to please!