Seeding of a Lotus
The summer air blows softly through an amber field of high grass. For miles, not an animal in sight, trees, rocks, or anything else. Just the beautiful tranquility of the summer’s Morning sun shining down on clear skies. Long periods of travel would show nearby ponds, some clean, remaining untouched while others were infested with large, horned beasts. Herds of large, tough-skinned creatures here and there grazed on the nearby grass. Nothing more seemed to be occurring; It was complete, uninterrupted peace.
By a clear pond, lied a sproutling, seeming to have been planted some time ago. There seems to be a site where most of the grass had been recently cut down in the distance. From there, a group of changelings stood there, seeming to watch over the large space of cut grass. They came prepared with plentiful wheelbarrows, carrying supplies for construction. One of them takes out a scroll and unravels it to reveal schematics for a large scale build project -- a village. The group overlooked the blueprints and one changeling, one who had red tinted eyes in place of cyan, lightly pushed the crowd away to take his look at the map and compares it with the land ahead of him. His entire appearance wasn’t drastically different from the others, however, notable details include missing wings, tail, a horn bent overhand, and more perforated holes.He looks at the others, who looked back for some sort of confirmation. The red-eyed changeling gave them a simple smile and a nod, giving them the ok for the build.
After some time passed, the changelings were working together to create a new home to live in, tents laid outside for resting. Starting out, they’ve already started building a town gate and a wall surrounding that. The gate isn’t all too fancy, just a feudal era ornamental gate with a three layered wall of brick surrounding it. The wall itself seems to be made out of a natural adhesive the Changelings secreted, which later they filled up on rations to quickly regenerate their supply of adhesive on hand. Night falls and fewer are working, others beginning to head on to bed or go by the wheelbarrow to take some rations and eat up. This process continues on for several days and nights until homes are built and so everyone gathers around to see the end result: A new settlement of their own creation. The house quality was on par with homes in Ponyville, several farms surrounding the area, ready for seeds to take over the rich soil and grow free. Within the town center appeared to be a colosseum, seating dug out for others to sit down and enjoy some entertainment.
Soon enough, the citizens of their new home began flowing in and inhabited their new home. Surprisingly enough, life was actually rather stable for the residents as the streets were filled with passersby either conversing with one another or just dealing with daily necessities with a healthy smile on their faces. The Colosseum was already in use; a training session was being held as the changelings practiced battle forms. A group of children played around by a the nearby pond, running around, chasing one another until suddenly a heavy rumbling could be felt from a distance, causing one of the young changelings to lose their balance and tip off into the pond. At first they were concerned, but the rumble only lasted for a second and so the children soon turned to their friend, who they just notice had fallen into the water and gets a few good chuckles out before pulling them out.
Not before long, a loud, terrifying roar of a wild beast breaks into the air, so loud that the earth went back to rumbling once more. The children held their hooves over their ears, cowering down in fear as they looked around for where the possible source of the sound could be. As the roar raged on, the townsfolk went into chaos, panic around the entire town as some ran around aimlessly and others got into defensive positions at the town gate and other stations around town, ready and waiting for anything.
Nothing ever did come. This has, however, left a terrible impression on the townsfolk, sprouting concerns of how dangerous is this new land compared to their old home in the Everfree Forest. It was a weird feeling, but for once, changelings finally understood the emotion they forced into many innocents: Fear.
Some time has passed since then, worries not yet leaving the townsfolk. By the town gate, it was decorated with a flag: A symbol representing the lotus flower proudly hanging high for all to see. Town life seemed to continue normally -- nothing much had changed since that day. It was as if the townsfolk were trying to forget the incident entirely. Inside a normal looking house, The interior seemed to be quite messy, cluttered with papers around the place and swords hanging by corners of the living room. There was a currently active fireplace inside, a shield hanging above with a design of a snake. Also hanging around on the walls were various items such as a back plating belonging to the red changeling, an ornamental sword with odd modifications to the handle, and several photos of serene areas around Equestria. Sitting in a stable four-legged chair was the red-eyed changeling, seeming to look over at some of the papers lying about. The forms seemed to be complaints from the townsfolk about present issues. He kept checking through them all, placing one form down into a neat stack, many he seemed to hastily place over, not even bothering to read it the whole way through. All of the sudden, his ear twitches as he looks up, looking out the window beside him then at his door. Nopony was around, but it was like he could hear something. Sure enough, his assumptions were answered soon when somepony twists the door knob and it slowly starts to open.