Lesson Thirteen: Meeting New Friends
Twilight found herself wandering about the party for the next half-hour or so.
She had to remind herself a few times of the circumstances that had lead to being escorted around the massive party, taking place deep under a nigh-lifeless desert, by one of her most dangerous enemies. Sure, following the trail of events in her mind told her exactly why she was standing at the side of a certain Changeling Queen as she advised her changeling subjects about pony-party events. But, if you had told Twilight a year, a month, or even a week ago, that this was where she was going to end up, it wouldn't have been out-of-line for her to scoff at the idea.
But, here Twilight was, watching Chrysalis patiently instructing her attentive changelings on the rules of Bobbing for Apples. Which, due to a lack of readily available apples, had become Bobbing for Rubber-Balls-that-the-Changelings-had-in-a-Strange-Abundance.
When asked about why they had so many little rubber balls, Chrysalis, without even turning away from what she was doing, pointed a hoof towards Pinkie Pie.
Twilight had to admit that it wasn't the strangest thing she had ever discovered, that Pinkie Pie had brought with her a large supply of rubber balls for their trip.
Pinkie Pie, for her part, was delivering her usual Pinkie Spirit into the proceedings by cheering on the changeling nymphs that were trying to play the improvised game. She had originally been trying to teach the changelings the intricacies of the supposedly simple game. But when most of the little changelings had tried climbing into the tub of water after the balls, it was quickly concluded that the pink pony's rambling explanations were doing more harm than good. The Changeling Queen had given a huff of annoyance, before curtly ordering Pinkie Pie to one side and taking over the role herself.
Watching as Chrysalis carefully fished one of the bizarrely adorable little changelings from the tub of water, while Pinkie Pie continued to cheer her on, Twilight again had to remind herself of how she'd gotten to this point.
It had been a weird day.
Twilight had dealt with weird days before, with many of them being brought about by the aforementioned pink pony.
She'd dealt with a similarly weird day, when she had stumbled upon Chrysalis snoozing away in Princess Celestia's own private study not too long ago.
But this day might very well top her long list of weird days. With so many ups and downs, discoveries both personal and otherwise, and subverted expectations, Twilight found herself regretting not finding a way to record the day's events. She was sure that before too long, she was going to be losing track of important details or misremembering events.
She'd lose track over how such a traumatic and uncertain day, could end with her feeling so warmly and certain about her course.
Certainly, dealing with Chrysalis was almost perpetually stressful, as she seemingly went out of her way to tease, annoy, and unnerve the young princess. But now that Twilight was able to stand to one-side and look on, as the Changeling Queen looked after her young subjects, knowing what she now knew...
Twilight was left dealing with some inevitable cognitive dissonance. And unlike many ponies, she was well-read enough to recognize the mental phenomena as it was happening. With even this small amount of distance and calm, her thoughts cleared and she found herself recalling the events surrounding Cadence's Wedding. Twilight could see the juxtaposition between the monstrous individual that had turned her friends and mentor against her, and the imperfect, but-...complicated individual she had been around all day.
'It's not like Chrysalis' is anywhere near as bad as her mother...'
The young Pony Princess was given some pause by that thought. Not because she felt any confusion or regret about thinking such a thing of Manti. Twilight could think of some much more insultingly accurate assessments of the ancient changeling than that.
Manti had attacked Twilight, terrified her, and wished nothing less than death upon more than one of her loved ones.
Chrysalis' mother was dangerous, and maybe even insane.
And yet, Twilight had barely given her a second-thought since leaving her behind. Well, that wasn't exactly true. The ancient changeling had come up more than once, both in conversation and in thought, but there was still something off. It was like she was just so overwhelmingly impassive and apathetic, about the fact that Manti had tried to drive her insane with fear.
Like it didn't bother her as much as it should.
That was kind of weird...
Splash!
Twilight found herself shaking those thoughts away, as she returned her attention to the party game in-progress. It looked like Pinkie Pie had taken the liberty of joining in on the nymphs' game of Climb-into-the-Tub-of-Water, apparently deciding that was more fun than the game they were originally trying to play. There, glaring down upon the pink pony, was Chrysalis soaked by the resulting splash from, what Twilight assumed was, a pink pony cannonball. Suddenly concerned for her friend's continued welfare, Twilight was ready to attempt to intervene once more...
She came up short, as she reexamined that thought.
Certainly, Chrysalis seemed rather annoyed, but she had been annoyed before. The Changeling Queen had managed to restrain herself from harming Pinkie Pie before, despite making it no secret how aggravating she found the pink pony. And while it was true that Chrysalis even warned Twilight against trusting her with her friends...
...Twilight found herself sending an awkward smile the Changeling Queen's way, as she marched over towards the Pony Princess. Just behind Chrysalis floated the dripping wet Pinkie Pie, held in her telltale green magical aura, as she happily waved about the set of flippers she was wearing on her hooves.
“Hey Twilight!” Pinkie Pie enthusiastically greeted, apparently enjoying her time floating in the air.
“Hi Pinkie.” Twilight waved, a moment before Chrysalis abruptly dropped the Earth pony to the floor.
Chrysalis shook her own wet mane out of her eyes, incidentally sending a small cascade of water droplets Twilight's way, before stepping past her “We're going to be looking for a different activity for the little ones...”
“Oh, oh, oh! I know just the one!” Pinkie excitedly declared before darting past the Changeling Queen, quickly taking the lead.
A mix of wet and dry changeling nymphs quickly followed after her, leading Chrysalis to let out a sigh before trudging after them, with Twilight only a few steps behind her.
Wandering about the large cavern, watching the little changelings attempting to use their little wings to emulate Pinkie's trademark hops, Twilight couldn't help the burst of laughter that came rolling out.
Noticing the look Chrysalis was sending her, after the bout of snickering and giggling, Twilight quickly brought herself back under control “Sorry. It's just, they're really kinda cute...”
The Changeling Queen didn't give any sort of response at that, leaving the purple pony feeling as if she should add something to round out the thought.
“I didn't really expect you to be so gentle with them.” Twilight noted.
The royal changeling furrowed her brow at that “Why wouldn't I be?”
“That sounded better in my head...” The young alicorn sheepishly admitted, realizing how that statement came across now.
“It would have to.”
“Right. Sorry. I guess even you-...” Twilight abruptly stopped herself, preempting another hoof-in-mouth moment.
“Go on?” Chrysalis pressed.
Twilight tilted her head back and forth, as she tried to sort herself out of the hole she seemed to be digging for herself “I- That is-...You're just really good with your children. Surprisingly good, even.”
It took Twilight several moments to realize when Chrysalis came to a sudden stop. When the young princess turned back, she was met by an intensely scrutinizing look from the Changeling Queen.
“What was that?” Chrysalis sharply asked.
“What was what?” Twilight cleverly replied, looking for all the world like she was caught in some sort of trap.
“About-...” The Changeling Queen started before pausing. Tilting her head, as she considered the alicorn for a few moments “...Do you think that they're all my children?”
“...Not as much as I did a few minutes ago.” Twilight admitted, her ears drooping as she realized her mistake.
“So a few minutes ago, you were comparing me to a termite in your mind?”
“What?! No, no, no no! I just thought- I mean, with all the insect terminology- And termites aren't really that bad. I might have gone with bees instead, but-”
“You really are too easy.”
Twilight blinked at that, before facehoofing.
“It's almost like you're looking for opportunities like this to embarrass yourself. I barely even have to try.” Chrysalis observed with a smirk.
Twilight was tempted to ask the Changeling Queen to, at least, stop trying to do that to her, but suspected nothing helpful would come of it “So, I guess the little changelings aren't all yours then.”
“Do you have any idea how exhausting that would be? I do have other things that I need to do.”
“Right...so, I guess changelings are like ponies, in that they-”
“Breed with one another?” Chrysalis supplied.
“But where exactly do new changelings come from?”
Chrysalis shrugged “It's like you said, not really being that different from what you ponies have to go through, though there is an egg involved.”
“There's technically an egg involved when ponies do it too.” Twilight pointed out, unable to resist sharing a bit of information.
“Oh, is that so? I wouldn't think you were so knowledgeable about such things. Going by the way you fainted when I mentioned walking in on Celestia that one time-”
“That's entirely different! And that wasn't just about Princess Celestia!” Twilight blurted out.
The young princess realized how Chrysalis would take that, the moment it exited her mouth. Indeed, the Changeling Queen was looking at her with an upraised eyebrow and a near-predatory smirk.
“I'm not talking about that anymore.” Twilight abruptly stated before sealing her mouth shut. She was starting to realize that Chrysalis was never not going to find that incident hilarious.
Chrysalis merely shook her head, before glancing about the cavern. Easily picking out the distinctly pink hues associated with Pinkie Pie, she reset their pace to rejoin the energetic Earth pony.
Trudging along a few steps behind Chrysalis, Twilight found herself chewing on her lip a few moments later “I was being serious.”
Noting the look the Changeling Queen sent her way, Twilight cleared her throat before continuing “I honestly didn't really expect that, you taking care of them like that. I mean, not that I-”
“I understand what you are saying.” Chrysalis cut her off, before she could slip into another rambling attempt at explaining herself.
Twilight nodded at that “Right...was Manti ever like that?”
“She cared in her own way.”
“I guess it's not the most amazing thing in the world, seeing someone that cares about their children.” Twilight admitted.
The Pony Princess again found herself coming to an abrupt stop, as she bumped in the changeling's backside. Shaking her head and blinking away her confusion, Twilight tried to send a look towards Chrysalis “Could you please stop-”
Twilight quickly lost her train of thought, as she noted the stern look Chrysalis was sending her own way.
“As I said before, if you have a question you want to ask, ask it. Don't spend all your time trying to dance around the topic.” Chrysalis sharply demanded.
“I didn't mean to-” Twilight started, not sure how her comments had offended the Changeling Queen this time.
“Is there a question you wanted to ask, yes or no?”
“Not...particularly. I was just-...” Twilight replied haltingly, before coming to a pause. Furrowing her brow, she hardened own resolve, before taking a more confident stance “Actually, yes. I do have a question for you.”
Chrysalis merely tilted her head, to show she was waiting.
“What exactly have I done that has you so upset?” Twilight demanded, leading to a short silence over the two, as they stared one another down.
“...Nothing.” Came Chrysalis' abrupt reply, leading to some brief confusion from the young alicorn, as the Changeling Queen started to walk away.
“But-” Twilight began, reaching a hoof out towards the changeling.
“As I said, the process isn't that different from what ponies go through. We have to be a bit more conscious about how much energy we invest and most of the gestation takes place outside of the body, but it's otherwise the same.” Chrysalis calmly relayed without slowing down.
Twilight tilted her head at this, before cantering after her “What?”
“You were wondering about changeling children.” Chrysalis supplied.
“Oh.” It was a fairly obvious attempt to change the subject and Twilight was briefly tempted to call her on it, but couldn't really imagine that it would help things “...Go on?”
“What more is there? The egg moves outside the body, we supply it with nourishment, it eventually hatches. New changeling.” Chrysalis summarized.
“Nourishment? You mean the energy you collect from ponies?” Twilight asked.
“Yes. Any physical nutrients they need are already supplied by the egg.”
“Who takes care of the egg?”
“Sometimes the parents. Many are looked after communally, for the sake of convenience.”
Twilight looked up at that “Communally? Like a sort of nursery?”
“More or less.”
“Can I see it?”
“I imagine you're physically capable of viewing it. But, no, you won't be seeing it today.” Chrysalis quickly denied, before muttering “...this day has already run on a bit too long, as things stand.”
Twilight nodded, before glancing back towards the Changeling Queen “So, the little changelings just like you because you're nice to them.”
“Why is that so puzzling for you?” Chrysalis asked with a narrowed gaze.
“I- it's not! What I meant to say is-...” Twilight quickly blurted out, even as she tried to figure out exactly what it is that she meant. It took her a few moments to admit to herself that maybe there was no polite way to articulate her thoughts on the matter.
Glancing down at her hooves, Twilight swallowed before looking back up towards the waiting Changeling Queen “Actually...it is strange, for me...”
Chrysalis in-turn, pointedly oriented her ears Twilight's way, letting it be known that she was listening.
It took Twilight a moment to come to terms with the direction she had just committed to, but soon managed to let out the breath she was holding “That is...you're kind of intimidating...”
Chrysalis tilted her head at this.
“And, it is surprising. I've never seen you as being particularly nurturing till now...” Twilight pressed on a bit further, glancing up towards the changeling to gauge her reaction. Noting the impassive look being sent her way the princess continued “I mean, up till now you've come across as less nurturing and patient and more...”
“Does the Princess want to meet Mr. Skink?” Twilight almost jumped out of her skin, as the young, chipper voice piped up behind her.
“Ooohh! I want to meet Mr. Skink! Can we meet Mr. Skink, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed a moment later, just as the young princess turned herself around to see a changeling nymph hovering in the air at her friend's side. Both of them were sending excited, hopeful looks her way.
Glancing to-and-fro for a moment, trying to take in the situation she found herself in Twilight focused back in upon the little changeling in front of her.
Putting on a smile that she thought seemed non-threatening, Twilight tilted her head to the little changeling flapping it's wings in front of her “I'm sorry?”
The little changeling briefly glanced towards Pinkie Pie, before rubbing its two forehooves together anxiously “Does the, uhm, Princess want to meet Mr. Skink?”
“Oh, you just gotta meet Mr. Skink, Twilight! He's the best! The best, Twilight! The best!” Pinkie helpfully exclaimed, gleefully leaning in towards the bemused Twilight as she did so.
“What's a Mr. Skink?”
“I don't know.” The pink party pony happily answered.
Furrowing her brow at this response, Twilight refocused on the bashful changeling in front of her with an encouraging smile “Do you mind telling me your name?”
“I'm-” The nymph began.
“This is Silky! We were just playing right over there, and then Silky was all like 'Do you want to play with Mr. Skink?' and I was like 'Sure!' cause I've never met a skink before.” Pinkie Pie giddily rambled over the little nypmh's words, excited to explain everything she could about Silky “And then she was telling how she'd love to introduce us, then I was like 'You know who loves meeting new friends?'...Well, do you?” Pinkie eventually trailed to a stop, evidently waiting for Twilight to provide an answer.
“...Is it me?” The young princess asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“It is! So then I was like-” Pinkie started up again.
“Pinkie!” Twilight interjected, before her pink friend could regain her momentum.
“What is it, Twilight?”
Sparing a smile for her friend, Twilight tilted her head towards Silky “Do you think perhaps Silky would like a chance to introduce herself?”
“That's a great idea, Twilight!”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, do you think-” Pinkie began again.
“Do you think she might like to do it herself, Pinkie?” Twilight gently asked.
“That's an even better idea, Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed, before stepping to the mildly annoyed Chrysalis' side to watch the two of them intently.
Nodding in thanks towards her friend, Twilight turned her attention back towards the still hovering changeling nymph. She momentarily found herself as hesitant as the young Silky, unsure how to continue. Twilight found herself smiling to herself, as she recalled her earlier attempts at introducing herself to changelings, how much effort she had tried to put into something that should be relatively simple.
She didn't need to make it complicated.
“I'm Twilight.”
“I'm...Silky.”
“It's nice to meet you, Silky.” Twilight earnestly replied.
“Can I touch your mane?”
“What? Why?” The princess immediately blurted out, surprised by the request.
Silky bobbed her head again, before turning her gaze towards the Changeling Queen standing just behind Twilight “I was wondering if it feels like Queen Chrysalis'...”
There were a few moments of silence, during which Chrysalis noticeably avoided making eye contact with Twilight.
“Uhm...well, sure. I guess that's fine.” Twilight awkwardly relented, before leaning towards the little changeling.
A moment later, she could feel the air being displaced by Silky's buzzing wings as she hovered over and began moving her little hooves through Twilight's mane.
Despite herself, the situation didn't actually feel all that strange to Twilight. Yes, if she thought about it, this wasn't something she ever expected to be doing, but as far as how she felt about it...
Actually, something didn't feel quite right.
Blinking, as Twilight took note of where Silky was hovering at the moment, it took the young princess a moment to realize she could feel another hoof moving through her mane. One that couldn't possibly belong to Silky.
Turning her head a bit, she quickly cast her eye to one side to try to take in what was going on. “Pinkie!”
Twilight felt a bit bad, when noting how she managed to startle Silky.
“What is it, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked, still happily pawing her own hooves through Twilight's mane.
“What are you-...why are you doing that, Pinkie?” Twilight quickly corrected, recognizing that she knew exactly what her friend was doing.
“I just wanted to see what the big deal was.” The pink party-pony explained in a chipper tone.
The alicorn had to pause for a few moments to collect herself, before letting out a sigh. It didn't make much sense to be upset about anything “Alright...but, please ask ahead of time when you're going to do something like that. Like Silky did. Okay?”
“Okie-dokie-lokie!”
“Thank you.” Twilight said with a nod before turning back towards the anxious changeling nymph hovering a couple of steps away “Sorry, about that Silky, I didn't mean to startle you.”
“It's alright...”
“...Did you, uhm-...did you want to feel anymore of my mane?” Twilight clumsily asked.
“No, thank you.”
“Sorry. I was a bit startled myself, so-” Twilight tried to explain.
“It's okay. I really liked your mane.” Silky earnestly replied, giving a small smile that the princess returned.
“Oh, oh, oh, Twilight!” Pinkie clamored, while waving her hooves around to garner her attention.
“Yes, Pinkie?”
“I really liked your mane too!”
“Thanks, Pinkie.”
“Can I smell it now?”
“What?” Twilight blurted out, understandably flabbergasted by the request.
“I bet it smells like grapes! Oh, can I, Twilight?” Her Earth pony friend continued to plead.
“I've never smelt a grape before.” Silky helpfully chimed in.
“Yeah, me neither!” Pinkie excitedly claimed.
“Pinkie...I'm fairly sure you've had grapes before now.” Twilight pointed out.
“But how will I know unless I smell your mane?”
The young princess was given some pause, as she struggled to unravel that string of logic. Quickly realizing that it was pointless, Twilight gave a vigorous shake of her head to dislodge those bewildering thoughts.
“No one is smelling my mane.” She authoritatively declared.
“Awwwwww....” Pinkie Pie moaned in an over-the-top display of disappointment.
“...I've never smelt a grape before.” Silky pitiably reiterated, sharing in the pink Earth pony's disappointment.
Seeing this, Twilight was left feeling a bit trapped, as she took in the easily readable expression of sadness the changeling nymph was sporting.
Twilight gave a heavy sigh “...Alright.”
Both Pinkie and Silky glanced up questioningly.
“Just one smell.”
“Yay!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
“Just Silky. You're still not allowed to smell my mane, Pinkie. Or my tail, for that matter.” Twilight declared, firmly setting down the boundaries between herself and her hyper friend.
“Awwwwww...”
Twilight just shook her head, trying not to smile at Pinkie's antics, before turning towards Silky.
“Alright, so...” Not knowing how to approach this, Twilight just gave up before leaning her head towards the hovering changeling.
A few uneventful moments later, Twilight could see Silky floating away from her with her wings, the nymph having apparently gotten her smelling in.
“So...”
Silky ended up tilting her head in apparent thought, before focusing back on the princess “I still don't know what grapes smell like.”
The young alicorn didn't know how to respond to that “Right...so, who is this Mr. Skink you wanted to introduce to me?”
“Oh, Mr. Skink is my pet!” Silky excitedly explained.
“Just like Gummy! Oh, I pet Gummy would have loved to meet you all!” Pinkie added.
Twilight just smiled at that “Well, I think I would love to meet Mr. Skink.”
“Really?”
Twilight gave an easy nod to the child.
“I'll go get him then!” Silky declared, before darting off through the air. Just out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noted Chrysalis making a subtle gesture towards another older changeling. A moment later, the older changeling was quickly following after Silky, presumably to keep an idea on the child.
“I can't wait to meet him, Twilight! I wonder what kind of pet Silky has! Ooooh, I bet it's a falcon! With great big wings and a-” Pinkie quickly started speculating.
“Somehow I don't think Mr. Skink is a falcon, Pinkie.” Twilight pointed out.
“Do you think Mr. Skink will be hungry when he gets here? We should get him something to eat! Oh, what about you two? Are you hungry? We've got treats!” Pinkie Pie babbled, before setting a pace towards a particular section of the party-cavern.
Once more leaving Twilight standing, more or less, alone with Chrysalis.
Glancing towards the Changeling Queen, the young princess tried to put on a casual smile, only to be cut-off.
“At this rate, if you have to force anymore smiles your face is going to become paralyzed.” Chrysalis observed, before following after Pinkie Pie.
Twilight tilted her head at this, letting her face slide into a more neutral expression, before quickly trotting after the larger changeling. Coming up along her side, the princess briefly cleared her throat before speaking “I wouldn't say that I was forcing any smiles...”
“Please, your discomfort was palpable. Though, I suppose you have to do that sort of thing a lot, for your pink friend.”
“Actually, I don't.” Twilight quickly asserted. Seeing that she had gotten Chrysalis' attention, she continued on “I admit, Pinkie's been a bit much today. But, most of the time I really do enjoy spending time around her...maybe she was feeling a bit nervous about today too.”
Chrysalis offered no comment to that.
After a few moments of...Twilight wasn't really sure what kind of silence it was. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but neither was it an oppressive silence. In any event, she found herself clearing her throat once more “So, I didn't know that changelings did pets...”
Chrysalis briefly glanced towards Twilight at that “Changelings that can do a good job taking care of pets are often considered for roles taking care of others, when they're older.”
“That's...practical.”
“Oh, did I forget to mention the joy and comfort that taking care of another living being cultivates? My mistake, for not bringing that up.” Chrysalis snarked.
“Sorry, sorry. It makes sense. I guess I've been realizing that most of the things changelings do have to serve some purpose or another.” Twilight explained.
“We don't exactly have a lot of room for frivolity.” The Royal Changeling agreed.
A few moments later the royal duo caught up with Pinkie Pie, finding the pink party pony excitedly waving them over towards a long table that had been laid out in the middle of the cavern.
“What have you done now?” Chrysalis unhappily intoned.
“I made cupcakes!” Pinkie exclaimed while gesturing a hoof to the table, which was indeed laden with some manner of cupcakes, among other things.
The royal changeling let an eyebrow climb upward, as she cast her gaze across the table “So you have.”
“Pinkie. Just what exactly are these cupcakes made of?” Twilight asked of her friend, even as she scrutinized one of the odd looking confectioneries.
“Lots of stuff! Here you go!” Pinkie replied, before hoofing over a rather odd looking cupcake. Topped with some fairly normal looking icing, the 'cupcake' was some sort of dark, mottled green substance, resembling...spinach? If spinach could be sculpted into the shape of a baked good.
Sporting a leery look as she accepted the cupcake, Twilight cast her eyes back towards Pinkie “What kind of stuff?”
“Stuff I found around here! And here's one with chocolate frosting, just for Chryssie!” The party pony unhelpfully answered, before shoving another such cupcake towards Chrysalis “Oh, wait here and I'll get you guys some punch!”
Chrysalis spent several moments looking over her own 'cupcake', before taking a bite without comment.
Twilight glanced back to her own treat, considering it carefully before finally giving voice to her curiosity “I don't suppose you know what Pinkie Pie used to make these, do you?”
“Changeling baby food, essentially.” Came the Changeling Queen's simple response.
“Baby food?”
“Yes?” Chrysalis replied, clearly wondering how the young princess could find her answer confusing “It's for young, still growing changelings. Baby food.”
Twilight briefly frowned to herself, before giving the substance an experimental sniff “...Is it safe for ponies?”
“I have no reason to think it isn't.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“It means I don't know for certain that its safe for ponies to eat, but based on what I know it should be fine.”
“But how can you not know something like that?”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes at this “Well, I've been meaning to to abduct a pony, hogtie them, then force feed them until something happens, but I've never been able to find the time. You know how it is.”
“Well, when you put it like that...” Twilight conceded.
“You know, you don't have to eat it.” Chrysalis pointed out, before deftly snaking her tongue out to snag the remainder of her own cupcake and pop it in her mouth.
“No, I-...it's probably fine. I was just...curious.” The young alicorn said in an apologetic tone, before focusing back upon her own treat.
“Whatever. I have other matters to tend to.” Chrysalis replied with an easy wave of her hoof, before stalking off, leaving the Pony Princess staring at her cupcake.
Swallowing down a bit, Twilight took the green cupcake up in her magic, steadily bringing it closer to herself. Letting out a held breath, she slowly opened her mouth, slowly inching forward to take a big bite...
It kind of tasted like a pickle. If a pickle had the consistency of bread pudding. And kind of tasted like...mushrooms? So maybe not a pickle. It was really hard to place, but she couldn't say it was bad, by any measure. There was definitely a veggie-taste in there, which was a bit of a relief, but it was also oddly juicy. And it had a bit of a melt-in-your-mouth quality.
Twilight wasn't sure whether the pink icing on top was a welcome addition or not, at this point.
Then it hit her, a sort of...warm sensation, that seemed to radiate outwards from her mouth. Twilight almost didn't realize when she swallowed her first bite, as a brief wave of giddiness overtook her, before settling pleasantly in her belly. Twilight felt like she'd just drank half-a-cup of coffee, whilst in the midst of a particularly cuddly hug.
Shaking her head to clear it a bit, Twilight sent a wide-eyed look of amazement towards the remainder of her cupcake “What-...what was that?”
“What was what?”
“Rainbow Dash? Where have you been?” Twilight blurted out, surprised that she failed to notice her friend's arrival. She soon turned her attention to her airborne friend “You look...clean.”
“Tch, yeah, right? These two really knew what they were doing.” Rainbow Dash easily agreed, gesturing back to the two changelings following her through the air, one of which seemed to be sifting through a small box, the other carrying RD's Daring Do book. Idly brushing her hoof against a worn set of goggles hanging around her neck, Rainbow Dash focused back on Twilight “So, what's up?”
“That's what I'm trying to figure out.” Twilight explained while holding out the cupcake for Rainbow Dash to see.
“Hey, cool. Pinkie made cupcakes?” The polychromatic pegasus eagerly asked, a flap of her wings carrying her over to the over-laden table.
“Sort of, yes.”
“Sweet!”
Seeing Rainbow Dash quickly snagging up one of the cupcakes, Twilight quickly reached out a hoof to try to stop her friend “Wait, Dash! I'm not sure-”
“Wha's tha', Twi?” Came the muffled reply, as the pegasus turned back towards the princess, her mouth full of 'cupcake'.
“I-uh...I'm not exactly sure what Pinkie used to make those...” Twilight finished, letting her hoof drop.
RD swallowed the majority of her mouthful, before shrugging “Eh, tastes fine to me.”
“Really?” Twi asked with a tilt of her head. They didn't exactly taste bad, but they certainly didn't taste like any normal cupcakes.
“Yeah?”
“You didn't find that cupcake...strange?” The princess asked.
The pegasus raised an eyebrow at this, before glancing back towards the table, where the twins were themselves prodding the unusual treats. The fact that even other changelings found them odd was a bit of a concern for Twilight. Picking up another one, Rainbow Dash considered the treat for a few moments “...I guess, they look kind of weird.”
“...I don't suppose you felt anything...strange, when you ate yours?” Twilight prodded.
Rainbow Dash just shrugged “How do you mean?”
“Like a-” Twilight began.
“I got the punch!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pointing a hoof to the two cups perched atop her brow
“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash declared.
“Hey Dashie!...Hey, where'd Chryssie go?” Pinkie asked, after glancing about for a moment, noting the conspicuous absence of the Changeling Queen.
“She had some things she needed to take care of.” Twilight easily explained.
“But, she never got her punch...” Pinkie lamented.
“I'll take it.” RD quickly volunteered, before snagging the cup off of the pink pony's head. Leaning back to swig down the beverage, the pegasus was given some pause, as she noted the looks Alate and Cryptic were sending her way. Glancing from the cup and back again “What? It's not like she would have wanted it anyway.”
The twins rolled their eyes at this, but didn't contest that point.
Sparing a look for the pegasus, Twilight quickly accepted a cup from Pinkie Pie “Uhm, Pinkie...what exactly did you make these cupcakes out of?”
“Oh, it's-” Pinkie began.
“It looks like what we feed to the younger changelings.” One of the twins observed.
“But, what exactly is it? I mean, it tasted...I don't know what it tasted like, but it felt good when I ate it. How do you make this stuff?” Twilight pressed, turning her attention to the twins in the hopes that they could offer an answer.
“By partially digesting a large portion of specially cultivated fungi, mixing in some water and grit, forcing your love-energy into it and then expelling it back out to be stored for later.”
“...What?” The young alicorn blurted out.
“Well, that's how I would do it.” Pinkie casually elaborated.
“Pinkie...where did you even get an idea like that?” Twilight asked, utterly perplexed.
“From Amanita!” Pinkie declared in a chipper tone.
“Amanita?” The young alicorn asked, recalling the name being mentioned by Pinkie earlier.
Pinkie gave an excited nod “Yeah! She's the one that helps grow the special mushrooms that they use!”
“So...what you're saying is, these cupcakes are-” Twilight began, giving a leery look towards her half-eaten cupcake.
Rainbow Dash darted over waving her forehooves to put a halt to the conversation “Wait, wait, wait-...you're not serious, right?”
“I'm always serious when it comes to cupcakes, Dashie. You know that.” Pinkie Pie replied with a laugh.
Rainbow Dash paled a bit at that, before turning to the twins “She's kidding, right? You guys don't do that right? Not with cupcakes.”
The changeling twins both shook their heads at that, before Alate waved off the question with a hole-filled hoof “No way, we'd never do something like that.”
“Oh, Sweet Celestia, that's a relief!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a relieved sigh, a sentiment that Twilight sympathized with.
“It's like she said, it's Amanita and her changelings that are the ones that take care of that kind of thing.” Cryptic quickly followed up.
“...What?”
After sharing a glance with her twin, Alate made a waving gesture towards the ground with a hoof “They grow a bunch of mushrooms and whatnot down below-”
“-some of which are the kind you eat-” Cryptic filled-in.
“-and then regurgitate them back up for the little ones, once they've soaked in enough love-energy into them.” Alate finished.
Cryptic noted the growing look of horror on Rainbow Dash's face “...It's kind of like what we do with the floors.”
“Only you can eat it.” Her sister added.
“Which you just did.” Cryptic finished.
“So...I just ate changeling vomit?” The pegaus quietly asked.
Twilight herself was processing this revelation a bit better. Having studied a wide variety of subjects in her time, including many fields that some would find gross, the young princess was quite capable of bringing a level of clinical detachment to certain things. It certainly wasn't as bad as her friend was making it out to be, she reminded herself, even as she found a few crumbs of the substance still stuck amongst her teeth. It was just something the changelings did to survive. It wasn't any worse than what some other animals went through to feed their young.
Looking at it through that lens helped a bit.
“Are you going to be alright, Dash?” Twilight gently asked.
“...I think I'm going to be sick.” Rainbow Dash admitted, before landing and holding her hoof over her mouth.
“What's wrong, Dashie?” Pinkie asked, not understanding where her grounded friend was coming from on this issue.
Twilight just shook her head, before coming up along side the cyan pegasus. Extending out a hoof she settled it over her friend's withers, before moving it lightly back and forth “It's not that bad, Dash. I mean, you didn't have any problem with it before, right?”
“Yeah. Before.” Rainbow Dash pointed out, before suppressing a bout of gagging.
“Come on, Dash. Lots of animals do things like this.” Twilight pointed out.
“Yeah! Like bees!” Pinkie chimed in from the side, before reaching over to the table to scoop up another of her improvised cupcakes.
“What? Since when do bees vomit-” Rainbow Dash began, bewildered by Pinkie's interjection.
“Actually, Pinkie's right. The process for making honey does involve bees regurgitating up nectar into honeycombs.” Twilight added, sending a surprised glance towards Pinkie as she did so. One can suppose that as a baker and a fan of all things sweet, the pink party pony would have picked up some peripheral knowledge about things like honey.
“Nopony ever warned me about that! What other things-...what?” Rainbow Dash started, before stuttering to a stop. Turning to her other side, revealed the twins at her other flank, each of them resting their hooves along her back. Much like Twilight had.
Picking up on the questioning looks being sent their way by Rainbow Dash and Twilight, the twins shared in a shrug.
“You seemed upset-” Alate pointed out.
“-and this seems like the thing to do-” Cryptic added, while gesturing a free hoof towards Twilight.
“-since we're friends now.” The duo finished at the same time.
For a few moments, it seemed like Rainbow Dash had completely forgotten about being sick to her stomach, as she processed the awkward gesture the two changelings were trying to demonstrate for her.
“I, uh...thanks.”
The twins nodded in tandem.
“You seemed upset.” Cryptic explained, with another shrug.
“Can I touch your wings?” Alate asked, her hoof inching its way towards the feathery appendages.
“Okay! That's enough of that.” Rainbow Dash declared, before slipping out from beneath their hooves. Ears twitching, as she caught the sound of barely suppressed laughter, she found herself turning towards Twilight “What's got you giggling so much?”
The young princess waved off her pegasus friend as she got her little fit of laughter under control “Sorry. I'm sorry, I was just so worried when we started all of this.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“I mean, you made some friends, Dash. With changelings. That's- it just seems like that means a lot right now. I'm not really surprised with Pinkie, but-...” Twilight tried to explain, but was given some pause at the disgruntled look being sent her way by her pegasus friend “...It's good to know that you're onboard with helping them too....You are, right?”
Rainbow Dash blinked at the question, before glancing towards Cryptic and Alate “Well, yeah, I guess. It's really more your call, but-”
“But it can't be, Dash. I mean, it is, but it's also-...It is my choice, but I also want it to be everyone's choice. So, I'm glad that it's your choice too....does that make sense?” Twilight struggled, as she tried to articulate her feelings on the matter.
“Is it alright if I just say that I'll support you, no matter what, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked, with a tilt of her head.
“No! I mean, yes, but-...even if I'm a Princess now, that doesn't mean that everypony else doesn't get a say now.” Twilight tried to explain.
“Oh...why didn't you just say that from the beginning?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight was given some pause at that, taking a moment to rub a hoof along the back of her neck “Sorry. I guess that came out all wrong. I just wanted you guys to know that I'm listening, I guess.”
Scrutinizing her friend for a bit, Rainbow Dash flipped her polychromatic mane from her eyes as she considered her alicorn friend “Uh, you been thinking about that kind of thing a lot lately, Twi?”
“What?”
“Like, is this whole Princess thing bothering you or something?”
Twilight froze up a bit at that question.
“Do you, uh, need to talk about it or something? Cause we can totally do that, if you want?” Rainbow Dash offered, if a bit unenthusiastically. Which made it all the more annoying when Twilight burst into laughter at that “Hey! I was being serious!”
Forcing herself to calm down again, Twilight held a hoof to try to calm her friend, while stifling a bit more laughter “Sorry, Dash. I know you're being serious, and I appreciate it. I really do.”
“Then what is it that's so funny?” The pegasus demanded.
“It's just, I just got through talking about this- this whole princess-thing, with Chrysalis.” Twilight explained.
“Seriously?”
“I know. Of all pon-...individuals, I never would have thought, but...Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed.” Twilight conceded. No matter how hilariously weird her life became, that was no reason to laugh in the face of a friend that was offering a hoof “Really, Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry. It's just the way that you said it, and I guess I've been really stressed about everything-”
“Nah, I get it, I think.” Rainbow Dash waved off her apology.
“You do?”
“Not really.” The pegasus admitted with a smirk.
“Rainbow Dash...” Twilight groaned.
“What? Listen, it's like I said, I'll stand by you no matter what. If you want to get all buddy-buddy with the Queen of Mean, I'm sure you've got a-” The pegasus started to explain.
“Buddy-buddy?” The alicorn blurted out.
“Yeah, if you want to be friends with her, I guess-”
“But, I'm not- we're not friends.” Twilight haltingly denied.
This lead to Rainbow Dash lifting an eyebrow “What, really? You've been hanging out with her all day.”
Twilight shook her head at this “That- she's been showing me around the hive all day, Dash. So, I could learn more about her changelings. That's it.”
“Okay. What about the part where you ended up talking about your problems with her?”
“That's...the conversation took a strange turn. I was asking for a bit of clarification on-” Twilight started to explain.
“She gave you a book, Twi.” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Sparing a glance for the hefty tome floating just behind her, Twilight hesitated for a moment “...Lots of ponies give me books.”
“Uh-huh.” Came Rainbow Dash's skeptical reply.
Shaking her head again, Twilight looked down as she tried to form an argument against this notion “I'm serious, Dash. You've seen how she is around me, always teasing me and-”
“Yeah, and friends never do that to each other.” Rainbow Dash smugly countered.
“I'm not friends with Chrysalis!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Twilight's friends with Chryssie? That's great!” Pinkie declared, much to a certain pegasus' amusement and a certain Princess' exasperation.
The twins, still looking on from the side, both gave a tilt of their heads at the ongoing antics of the ponies.
“Ponies are weird.” Alate observed.
“Mm-hmm...Do you think the pink one would want to take a look at my collection?” Cryptic asked.
Her sister gave a look at this, before giving a sigh “Well, we've just established that she's weird...so probably.”
Cryptic gave a sharp glance at that, before muttering “It's not that weird...”
“Uh-huh...you want to try some of these weird pony-things, the pink one made?” Alate asked, gesturing to the cupcakes, eliciting a nod from her twin.
“Pinkie! I'm not friends with Chrysalis!” The changeling twins shared in a twitch of surprise, at another loud declaration from the Pony Princess.
“Awwww! But you two were getting along so well! What happened?” Pinkie asked.
“Nothing happened! I mean, I was never friends with her, and-” Twilight tried to explain.
“But, I thought you liked hanging out with Chryssie! You even spent all day with her.” Pinkie pointed out, unwittingly retreading the same ground that Rainbow Dash had already gone over.
Loosing another sigh of frustration, Twilight brought a hoof to her forehead before turning back towards her friends “She- she has a lot of interesting things to say, I admit. And, she's not as bad, as maybe I originally thought.”
“Great!” Pinkie cheered.
Twilight held up a hoof to keep her friend from getting ahead of herself “But, Chrysalis still did a lot of things that I'm not ready to forgive her for. Things she hasn't even tried to really apologize for yet. She basically brainwashed Shiny!”
“She did?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“What? Yes! You were there, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Oh, yeah, that does kind of sound familiar...” The pegasus admitted, after putting some visible thought into it.
“How could you forget something like that?!”
Rainbow Dash gave a slightly embarrassed shrug at that “I don't know, Twi. I mean, I never see your brother or anything. I guess I don't really think about him very much.”
Twilight had to take a calming breath at this admission, holding up her hoof to forestall her friends for a moment “Listen, I-I'm not saying that it's impossible that she and I will become-...friends. Chrysalis isn't really what I expected, and maybe in the future...But, right now, I'd like to try focusing on-”
“I found Mr. Skink!” The princess nearly jumped out of her skin, at the shrill, childish cry that had sounded just behind her. Glancing back, she half-expected to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders where little Silky was standing.
“What's a Mr. Skink?” Rainbow Dash asked aloud.
“Mr. Skink's my pet.” Silky helpfully supplied.
“Ah, Silky. You-you startled me.” Twilight admitted, around some nervous laughter, wondering how much of that conversation the little nymph had been privy to.
“I'm sorry...I was just really excited.” Silky sheepishly apologized.
“That's alright Silky! I get really excited about pets too! Just like Fluttershy. Oh, I bet you'd love to meet her!” Pinkie interjected, easily dismissing any worries that the little changeling might have had.
“Oh...I'm still sorry for scaring you.” The little nymph reasserted.
Twilight quickly put on a smile for the child, not wanting to leave her upset “It's really alright, Silky. I was just a bit distracted, but I'm definitely ready to meet Mr. Skink.”
“Great! Mr. Skink is-...Mr. Skink is-...” The princess found her brow furrowing, as Silky started glancing around her own hole-filled hooves.
“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked with a tilt of her head.
“Mr. Skink? Mr. Skink? Where are you?” Silky began calling out, having apparently misplaced her pet. Twilight was almost ready to offer to help find Mr. Skink, when the nymph's gaze made its way over to Twilight “There you are, Mr. Skink!”
“Huh?”
As Twilight glanced downward, she discovered two very interesting facts:
Mr. Skink was not a skink, as Twilight had initially assumed. Nor was Silky's pet any other sort of lizard or newt. Mr. Skink was a very large millipede.
And, much more pertinently, Mr. Skink was crawling his way up her leg.
“Gyaaahhh!” Twilight shrieked, rearing back and flailing her foreleg through the air, as she was briefly taken by a panic. Falling over backwards, Twilight quickly shifted her hooves back underneath her before darting her gaze back and forth.
This let her catch the sight of Rainbow Dash rolling through the air, holding her sides, as she laughed at Twilight's reaction “It's not funny, Dash!”
“Oh, that was priceless! The look on your face when you looked down!” The pegasus continued to guffaw.
“Where'd Mr. Skink go?” Silky chimed, bringing Twilight's focus back upon the matter at hoof.
“What? Where did he-”
“There he is!” Silky exclaimed pointing to a spot along the alicorn's back.
“What!” Indeed, glancing back revealed the millipede cheerfully crawling its way across one of her wings. Loosing another shout, Twilight couldn't entirely stop herself from reflexively snapping her wings open, again launching the arthropod through the air.
“Yikes!” Rainbow Dash's laughter was suddenly cut-off, as the pegasus took note of the creature flying through the air towards her. Loosing her own yelp, she ended up falling to the floor to avoid Mr. Skink's flight path.
Shaking her own head, as she picked herself up from the ground, Rainbow Dash looked herself over “Did he get-”
“Hey there, Mr. Skink!”
Both alicorn and pegasus turned towards a certain pink pony, to see the multi-legged creature crawling its way across Pinkie Pie's snout. Loosing a giggle, Pinkie Pie brought a hoof up to soothe the confused millipede “Awwwww, he's like a friendly little mustache!”
“What's a mustache?” Silky asked, even as she fluttered her wings over towards the Earth pony.
“It's this really great thing for your nose, that-” Pinkie began.
“Silky, that- Mr. Skink is a millipede?” Twilight eventually managed to ask, having finally managed to compose herself.
“Uh-huh! I've had him for three years!” Silky proudly informed.
“But, why do you call him Mr. Skink?”
“Oh. Because 'Ms. Skink' sounds silly when you say it out loud.” The changeling nymph informed in a matter-of-fact manner.
As Twilight tried to process this reasoning, Pinkie Pie stepped over, millipede still draped across her snout “Ms. Skink! Ms. Skink! Hey, she's right! It does sound silly!”
Shaking off Pinkie's contribution to the conversation, the princess turned back to the hovering changeling nymph “But, why not call him Mr. Millipede, instead?”
This lead to Silky giving Twilight a funny look, the kind of look children always gave adults when they thought they were being weird “I don't know if Mr. Skink is a boy millipede...”
Twilight was a bit dumbfounded by the simple reply.
“Huh. She's got you there, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash observed.
"Where'd Queen Chrysalis go?" Silky suddenly asked, casting her gaze about for the Royal Changeling.
"Oh, she-" Twilight began.
"The Queen is probably getting ready to tell the story everyone wanted from her." A changeling abruptly supplied. Standing just a little ways away, he was very likely the same changeling that Chrysalis had sent along to escort Silky earlier. Noting the looks everyone was sending his way, the changeling shifted a bit on his hooves "She did say she was going to tell one earlier...remember?"
"She hasn't started yet, has she?" Silky quickly asked.
The changeling gave a helpless shrug, not knowing for sure "If we hurry, we can probably catch the beginning."
The nymph gave a quick nod, before fluttering over to Pinkie Pie, holding a hoof out to the millipede crawling its way across the Earth pony's brow now "Come, come, Mr. Skink. We gotta go now."
"Awww, it was really nice meeting you Mr. Skink." Pinkie said, as she watched the millipede crawl over onto Silky's outstretched hoof.
"Mr. Skink really liked meeting you too. Bye now." Silky quickly declared, every bit a child that was excited to go somewhere else.
The same changeling from earlier gave something between a nod and a bow "I'm sure the Queen would not disallow you, her guests, from attending."
"I want to hear the story!" Pinkie exclaimed.
The changeling gave a simple nod, before gesturing after Silky "If you'd like, you can follow us."
"Wooo!! Story-time!"
And Pinkie was off, eagerly bouncing after Silky and her guardain, leaving Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and the twins to share a look between one another.
"So...story-time?" Twilight asked.
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Both stories are TwiSalis shipping?
I don't see how Twilight can be friends with two of the biggest retards in the world and still be sane
6222717
I'm pretty sure dungeonguy88 ships Chrysalis whit Celestia.
dungeonguy88
If all of you chapters wiil be this creative and funny I don't mind waiting a month for the next one. But I hope you will write a chapter for the History Lessons, I'm realy curious about that one.
I feel that we are reaching the end.
6222717 It's not TwiSalis...well, maybe if you squint, but that's not really the direction I'm taking it in. But, yeah, right now it's CelestiaxChrysalis and BluebloodxTwilight, though none of that is set in stone. And Twilight's emotional relationship developing with Chrysalis is going to be a recurring element in future stories, though not really in a romantic sense. Unless, you want to view it that way and imagine your own outcome. I don't mind readers reading the story the way they want to.
6222818 History Lesson is another one that I'll be giving some attention soon. And I'm glad you enjoyed this latest chapter, I was worried about things with this one.
6223175 Pretty much, its just wrapping up a few more things and that will be the end of Intermediate Lessons. Though, naturally, the plotlines will continue in future stories. I feel like it's about time I advance my stories as a whole to the next step.
6222778 I'd hardly say they're stupid. Rainbow Dash actually proves to be rather insightful in this chapter and Pinkie has her own kind of intelligence. They cause trouble for Twilight, yes, but they also help her in many ways.
Well, that was a lot of fun all the way around. I will admit that I noticed some rambling, but it was confined to Pinkie Pie which is in character for her so it worked well. It is always amusing to watch Twilight freak out (yes, I know I'm a bad person
) and this chapter definitely delivered on that along with some fun expansion on Chrysalis and the changelings in general which is very important for this story. Mr. Skink stood out the most as a great junction between world building, storytelling, and fucking with Twilight, but it was all a lot of fun and I am very glad to see more from you.
6222778 Wow, it is very rare to see so many serious errors in one little line of text.
Starting at the back end, Twilight is most definitely nuts. She has loads of serious psychological issues (OCD, dependence on Celestia, general anxiety, a phobia of snakes, paranoia of Celestia's disapproval) which she is not getting any help with even after her explosive breakdown in Lesson Zero.
Moving on to intelligence, you are clearly implying that Rainbow and Pinkie are idiots which is totally absurd. While it is impossible to pin Pinkie down with any real accuracy due to how...strange...she is, the things she does do require some degree of intelligence so she is not an idiot.
Of course, the more serious error is calling Rainbow an idiot because she is actually the smartest character in the show. Intelligence is fundamentally the ability to use information to solve problems with greater intelligence allowing more complex problems to be solved more quickly and more accurately from data which is more removed from the problem to be solved. This also includes tasks like quickly parsing down data to extract useful information and identify underlying patterns. Rainbow is constantly seen to make accurate snap judgements using information gained in other contexts with most of her mistakes coming from making a decision and acting on it before contradictory data comes up. We also see how she can use this intelligence to cover for her social issues on many occasions because once she realizes there is a problem she applies that intelligence to logically work out what the appropriate response should be an act on it. She also shows classic high intelligence breakdown patterns when her mind goes into overdrive working out all the possible ways a situation could go wrong resulting in her locking down and shutting out the world in a death spiral.
This actually puts Rainbow ahead of Twilight in intelligence because Twilight takes ages and lots of information to do anything and has demonstrated sever limits in applying what she knows in other contexts which is a key component of that high intelligence problem solving and something Rainbow excels at. Twilight also shows the classic Hollywood coverup for a lack of intelligence with lots of memorized knowledge because that is something the American school system pushes despite the fact that it has nothing to do with actual intelligence, problem solving, or anything else that is really useful in the real world. This puts Twilight at somewhat above average (somewhere in the upper 20 to 30% of the population) while Rainbow is up in the genius range (no less than top 5%, most likely top 1~2%) leaving Rainbow as the clear winner in intelligence. For reference, Rarity is also somewhat above average like Twilight, Fluttershy is right around average, and AJ is somewhat below average (but not at all what I would call "biggest retard in the world").
6223645 I'm deeply relieved that this chapter came across well. As I mentioned in the Author's Note, this update was held back by not just real-life issues, but some fairly severe writer's block. I honestly wasn't sure how well things were coming along, or if I would spot any problems. Fortunately, this has been a huge load off of my mind, and I feel like I'm past my block now. And that was one thing I wanted to fill in in this chapter, getting in some world-building and showing off some of the more 'normal' changelings before this story gets wrapped up. I have plans for another story similar to 'History Lessons' planned for more world-building, but I like to fit in what I can.
And, the moment I cam up with the interactions surrounding Silky and Mr. Skink, I knew I had to find a way to fit that in there somewhere.
On the subject covered by the rest of your post, I find myself agreeing on a lot of points.
While I do have a great deal of fondness reserved for Twilight, you have done a rather excellent job of breaking down what I think is a fair estimation of her intellect. It's actually something I'd like to address in a future story, that while she's an excellent student by most rubrics, creative problem solving and pattern recognition are issues for her. Really, her strongest mental attributes are her abilities of recall and her ability to focus on a problem or issue. But she's not an especially intuitive thinker, taking her time to go from A to B to C to D to figure out solutions, and she can be very much an inside-the-box thinker. She's improved a fair bit on this count in the show, learning to use her abilities in more flexible ways and learning to solve problems without relying on her magical gifts, but still. It should be noted I rather think this makes her a better character overall.
Rainbow Dash is harder to place, because she very much doesn't focus on academics, or really much of anything outside of competition or flying. And snap judgments are an obvious issue she suffers with. But, we have seen ample evidence she is very capable of learning, with the main issue being that she finds most methods of learning unstimulating. And the fact that Rainbow Dash tends to favor simpler, more direct solutions shouldn't be necessarily taken as being a sign that she lacks intelligence.
And, as I mentioned before, Rainbow Dash is the one that's spotted the signs that Twilight and Chrysalis actually like interacting with one another, despite denials from both of them. I'm actually rather surprised that this is a chapter where Rainbow Dash is being called out for causing trouble. In the earlier chapters, sure, that was entirely intentional. But here, all she's done is make some rather astute observations regarding her friend, indulged in some light-hearted teasing, and gotten a bit grossed out.
And, yes, Pinkie is very odd, but I wanted to make very sure that I didn't downplay her odd sort of intellect. It bears mentioning, that she managed to organize a massive party with very little in the way of proper supplies, learned many of the changelings names, and has been the most earnest in pursuing the most ideal outcome for this mission from the beginning. It's too easy to chalk it up to Pinkie just being PInkie, but she's done a lot to help the situation, despite some missteps along the way.
6223835 Let's put it this way, your changelings are a lot more interesting and have more potential development than having them be evil monsters born out of a tree of evil growing from the hatred and murderous bloodlust of a battlefield... which kinda means they're basically LoTR orcs and utterly irredeemable and unsympathetic in every possible way.
Ugh, that villain comic for the changelings. Just, ugh. I hope the show gives its own origin story.
It's one thing to have villains chose to be evil no matter what. But to have them basically made FROM evil by an apparently random quirk of magic and have NOTHING good about them basically leads to 'darkness-induced audience apathy' for them. No one cares if they're completely exterminated, because there's nothing to feel pity over.
6223967 True enough. That's very much something from the comics that is not going to be a part of my main line of stories. I've been bouncing around some ideas about a short story for that version of Chrysalis that explores ideas of free will, predestination, good and evil, and challenging ideas of mercy. It's not something that's a main focus of mine, but I'm still tempted to see what I can work out of the idea presented by the comics. It would be firmly in the 'Sad' and 'Dark' territory, with Chrysalis being something of a Deathseeker.
From a philosophical perspective, a race literally being inherently evil offers up some interesting ideas. But from a long-term storytelling approach...well, it's like you said, how can you feel bad if they're wiped out then? How can they ever surprise you, if they are always going to pursue the evil option? Not a one of them can develop as a character, as they aren't really characters, just intelligent environmental hazards. It's just such a limiting way to use them.
My version of Chrysalis is not nice, not by most conventional standards anyway. She's prideful, cynical, and honestly enjoys feeling superior to others. She also has severe self-esteem issues, is deeply conflicted about her attraction to Celestia, and often lets her own doubts about herself overcome her better nature. Her changelings are very different from ponies, emphasizing certain standards of morality very differently from ponies or us. They are xenophobic, paranoid, pathologically loyal, and acknowledge that lies and parasitism are parts of their very existence. They are also extremely self-sacrificing, social creatures, that are very willing to put the good of their fellow changelings ahead of their own. They are extremely caring and defensive of children and they as a matter of philosophy feel a deep sense of inter-connectedness between not just one another but the whole world. They're different, sometimes in ways that seem wrong to outsiders, but not evil. I'm not too modest to say that took a lot of effort and thought to work out.
sooooo when is chrissy going to have the immortality talk with twilight?
6223835 Thanks, it's good to hear things are going better for you and that we are on the same page here so I just have a few little comments.
First, I am very much with you on how Twilight's flaws make her a better character. She does not have to be brilliant to be a good character that is fun to watch, and her shortcomings work very well. I just think it is important to acknowledge that despite what the show tries to tell us from time to time, she is not actually all that smart.
Honestly, it is really not hard to see that Rainbow is brilliant once you discard the horribly warped view of intelligence the school system presents. It is blatantly obvious in the way she acts and solves problems that she is an absolute genius who could have been a brilliant engineer or something if she had had a teacher that worked with her to get her interested in things beyond flying.
Also, finding effective direct and simple solutions like she does is actually much harder than working out overly complex plots because you have to get so many different and frequently contradictory things to happen at the same time. I remember hearing a great line on this a while back that went something like "A good engineer will create a complex solution that solves the problem. A great engineer will make you wonder why you didn't think of their solution first." which nicely sums up the kinds of miraculously elegant solutions it takes a truly brilliant mind to create. Rainbow has that kind of mind, and her clean, simple, direct solutions to highly complex problems are very clear proof of her brilliance.
Honestly, I think that is a very good way to describe what "Pinkie being Pinkie" means. She is strange beyond belief, but she has everyone's best interests at heart and her own unique way of making it happen which works very well despite all appearances.
6223967 I have two things to point out about those comics. First, they are directly contradicted by Chrysalis's singing lines in the show about her being small which kills their canon status. Second, Chrysalis is telling that story to the ponies under duress so it is almost certainly a lie.
Also, changelings do not need an origin story any more than ponies or humans do. They are just critters doing their thing and are the product of natural evolution. Sure their evolution would be an interesting academic field because of the close evolutionary coupling between them and ponies which would drive their intelligence up to match or exceed ponies for infiltration, but it is really not something that needs to be discussed in a story.
6224151 The problem there, is that Chrysalis has gone through similar issues, having once been a normal changeling, as well. As such, she really doesn't want to have to be the one to have that conversation with Twilight. She'll still end up supplying Twilight with her own brand of advice, but only when she feels it's inexcusable for her not to do so.
6224168 On the subject of the changelings, that is actually another point that stuck with me on the issue of their origins. Indeed, my version of Chrysalis very much was once a young, mostly normal changeling. I actually used a lot of that song as a basis for figuring out my version of Chrysalis' personality, looking for alternative ways of viewing the various lines in that song. I could go into detail, but it's getting late and I have work in the morning.
And, incidentally, I do have an origin story in mind for changelings, one that I'll be getting into the earliest stages of explaining in an upcoming story. It's not the natural evolution angle, and their exact origins will be somewhat vague at first, as it was so long ago that even they don't properly remember the details. But it will feature in some of the more epic stories I have planned.
6224225 Well, on the one hand I am very curious to hear about your thoughts on Chrysalis's personality and that song because I am sure it will be very interesting, but on the other I am a bit worried about you not making them naturally evolved creatures. Natural evolution is the simplest and most sensible solution which makes it preferable by Occam's Razor, and every artificial creation story I have ever heard has made them feel more like an accident or abomination rather than living creatures with their own desires and feelings which kinda cheapens them as a species.
That said, there is no reason you cannot give them a mythological origin like what many religions have done with humanity. You will just have to make it clear that it is a myth rather than history in the way you formulate and present it.
6224087 Some really famous writer dude put it this way, or some version of this, "It's fine to have your characters fail, so long as they are failing legitimately." Characters are best at failure when they fail on their own terms and it's not the trope The Universe Really is Out to Get You, where everything leads to failure and everything is set up to make the character fail, including the use of Idiot-Balling and making sure they avoid asking pertinent questions or following natural lines of rational thought via Poor Communication Kills or some other form of intelligence avoidance.
This works for heroes and villains alike. Now, we all love a 'good' archetypal villain now and then, but they aren't the sort we can really take seriously and EVERYONE roots for them to get taken out as quickly as possible by the hero. In fact, that mutual audience hate is used as the hook, and putting the hero in peril is the common gimmick to lure the audience to the edge of their seat with the gut-clenching fear that this horrible villain could win. Examples of such villains would be Freeza, Agent Smith, and every Bond villain ever.
But, those villains are only good for those sorts of campy, outrageous types of stories, and are only effective when pitted against a hero skilled at some form of heroism.
In the comic, the changelings were turned into a Big Bad race, existing only to be despised. But they were pitted against ponies who seem progressively to become stupider. This latest comic, with Twilight being tempted so easily by a book... that was simply agonizingly absurd. It reduced Twilight to a caricature, a farce of her television version, and left the tone very warped: a cartoonishly exaggerated failure for the hero, contrasting sharply with the very grim tales of the changelings.
I give credit to Tirek's comic for at least maintaining a consistent tone throughout. His was the one backstory I could completely buy into, even if it was very straightforward. Sombra's lost me at the end with his instant conversion to evil (he had no choice, no serious mental battle with himself... nothing. Just zapped by patented Insta-Evil brand dark magic) and his mother's rather ridiculous plan. If we're to buy it, she threw him as a foal out into the snow on the off chance a Crystal pony would happen by before he froze, and would decide to keep him in the Crystal Empire rather than shipping him off to Equestria for the alicorns to examine his odd magic... worst plan ever, succeeded only because the plot said so. And the Sirens... that wasn't even a proper backstory, just a weird extended rehashing of the summary of their banishment we'd already been given in Rainbow Rocks. It gave no information on where they came from, how they came to be, and where they got their powers (which we know came from those crystals they wear... and where did they get those?)
Ah well, enough with the comics wasting potential. You've done well with the changelings, even explaining why Chrysalis' plan was so poorly conceived (which requires explanation in the show too...) and I wish they'd give an explanation of where the mysterious warning came from of a threat against Canterlot. Chrysalis wouldn't have done it. How could it help her plans to make the ponies alert? And the shield slowed her invasion forces, so that would be counterproductive. If she'd played her role better and went with the flow, Twilight wouldn't have noticed anything and she could have married Shining and drained him dry, then assassinated Celestia and taken over, flooding the city with disguised changelings all the while beforehand. It would've been a hopeless situation for the ponies, really.
Though, I suppose in that respect we should be relieved Chrysalis wasn't too clever. With her kind's powers, it'd be easy to take over any unsuspecting land if the changelings employed a little covert infiltration strategy and exercised due patience.
But then if we raise up the changelings intellect to a realistic level, we must also do so with the ponies to adjust to this grittier fantasy world; and that means they'd be more competent at security, know about changelings already, and lead to radical changes to the story of "Canterlot Wedding", so much so it'd be virtually a different story save for the wedding taking place.
Ah well, I could drone on about plotting, pacing, world-building and characterization for YEARS if I went into full-fledged hyper analysis.
I'll just point to Redlettermedia's brutal molestation of the Star Wars prequels as the place to go to for a delightfully dark comedic lesson on both writing and filmmaking 101, since it covers how to do everything right... since the prequels did everything wrong.
Given you've been producing a lot of things set after this and it had ended on a big party, I'd forgotten that this wasn't technically finished.
I thought this chapter turned out alright. Not a lot happens but there is some character development and enough humor and cuteness to remain entertaining. Plus, you squeezed in what looks like ominous foreshadowing about Twilight's emotions perhaps being messed with pertaining to her attack by the old queen.
6224168 No, they don't NEED one, but the comics decided to do one... and did a pretty weak job of it.
I'm not sure if the comic writer remembered that Chrysalis gave a few subtle hints about her past in the song. Also, I didn't like the outrageous idiot-balling of the ponies, especially Twilight. Honestly, only someone with severe mental impairment would have fallen for such a pathetic ruse... especially from a lying villain she'd already faced TWICE and knew she couldn't trust.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm either an idiot or I need a better writer!
6224499 While I am very much with you on all of this, I do have two minor things I want to add.
While you are right on the money with this in general terms, there are a few cases where the idiot ball stuff works because it is consistently built into the character, usually for comedic effect. The best example I can think of is abridged Goku who is basically the living embodiment of the idiot ball and constantly fails basically everything you mentioned at all times. At that point it is really just proper characterization rather than externally enforced stupidity.
The unfortunate truth is that this kind of writing is starting to become a feature of the show as well lately. All the characters have started to feel like caricatures of themselves which is why I did not bother watching most of the second half of season 4 and am only watching season 5 episodes after I get strong recommendations from trusted sources and enough information to know if the plot is painfully stupid.
6224522 Well, I have not read the comic because I have heard from a lot of people that it is painfully stupid so I cannot say anything for sure, although Twilight has always been a bit of an idiot and I can definitely see her falling for the same tricks again and again. That said, the comics have always been a bit hit or miss on quality which makes me think some of the writers genuinely like the show and put real effort and love into their work while others are either just doing it for a paycheck or are complete and total morons so their comics suck.
Kinky.
6223645
What? Twilight takes ages to tackle a problem?
We must have watched different shows then. Twilight Sparkle is the one everypony goes to for advice because she can organise quickly and think on her hooves. The problem often lies with the fact that her solutions don't work out because the plot demands it. Saying she's slow compared to Rainbow makes absolutely no sense at all, especially since you contradict your own points with what you claim about Rainbow:
That's precisely what happens to Twilight over and over, more so than Rainbow Dash.
6225487 Organization is not problem solving, it is applying known routines to a situation. Every time Twilight has had to think on her feet to solve a problem, we have gotten things like parasprites eating buildings because she is not capable of anticipating potentially dangerous side effects of her actions. You can call it plot convenience all you like, but the fact of the matter is that we consistently see Twilight make those kinds of errors in converting data to solutions which is a clear sign of a lack of intelligence.
Two things. First, I never said Twilight didn't have breakdowns. Second, Twilight's breakdowns happen significantly slower as evidenced by the fact that her mouth can keep up with it rather than totally locking down into a shaking mess like we have seen Rainbow do because her mind is running far faster than her body can keep up with.
End of a long work-day, so I'll be keeping this brief for now. Though, I appreciate and will look over everyone's comments when I have a bit more energy.
6224416 Well, hopefully, I can manage to avoid any of the pitfalls you mentioned in my portrayal of their origins. I should mention that it is my personal stance, that regardless of the their origin, they are their own people now. They're no more abominations than dragons or talking ponies, in the world now. But, that being said, the more of your own thoughts you offer on the topic, the more I can put into getting a strongly balanced portrayal. So, by all means share your thoughts. And, for that matter, I welcome any specific questions you might have about my changelings. There will be a few things I won't give away for concern of spoilers, but I have lot material that isn't directly pertinent to my stories, things that let me iron out the fine details of personality, culture, and the world at large.
That really goes for anyone, that has any questions about my stories, the changelings in particular.
EDIT: Oh, and I'm thinking I'm going to do a blog post specifically for describing my version of Chrysalis. If I do, I'll be including my thoughts on that song that shaped my portrayal of her, you have my word.
6224506 Yeah, like I mentioned, this chapter is mostly to serve in letting this story wind down to its finish. And let us all kneel before the power of foreshadowing. It knows what's coming.
In any event, I'd really like to wrap up this story soon, so I can focus entirely on future stories, as much as I've enjoyed this one. If you got any questions or concerns feel free to toss them my way.
6227199 Yeah, I know how that goes with work. It is one of those unfortunate things we just have to deal with sometimes.
Anyways, I am not really sure how exactly to articulate my issue with having changelings be created rather than naturally evolved, but I think 6223967 did a decent job in laying out the overarching problems. It is obviously not as serious a problem with a less insane story, but the underlying issue with the comic is still there in any kind of alteration story. Warping the changelings into what they are now makes them monsters to some extent which colors the entire story with shades of "how do we deal with these things" rather than "they are people just like us that we need to learn to get along with" which puts things on a much more even footing. The story is about the changelings getting over whatever evil you threw at them with the ponies showing them a better way, not the changelings and ponies learning from one another to benefit both sides. It sets up an inherent moral high ground for the ponies which makes the whole situation much more black and white than it needs to be and makes the story as a whole much less interesting because you know exactly how it will end. Good will win in the end, the evil changelings will become funny looking ponies, and nothing else will really change which is not nearly as interesting as reading a story where the ponies realize they have also made serious mistakes and need to reconsider their own worldview as well which leads to an uncertain future. I am sorry if this is not as clear as I like to make my advice, but hopefully you will be able to figure out what I am trying to get at with some thought and come up with a better way of formulating it for yourself.
Also, I am very much looking forward to that blog post because I have seen a lot of different views on Chrysalis and generally do not have a particularly strong view myself because what we see is so open ended.
6227158
It depends on what you mean by 'intelligent'. Twilight has an insane learning curve that allows her to blow by much more experienced individuals in many ways in relatively short periods of time. Her issue is that she's rigid and doesn't think well on her feet a lot of the time (though occasionally she does, like when she realized what the elements were when under a huge amount of pressure).
Twilight shines when she can apply something she memorized ahead of time to the situation and excels at memorization so much that she can cover more contingencies than anyone else that way, but when she has to improvise under pressure her success rate goes down (though not to zero).
6228023 While definitions of intelligence vary, they all basically boil down to the same thing. The ability to think. Memorization is not thinking and memorizing vast quantities of information should not be confused for a sign of intelligence. In fact, it has been my experience that the smartest people frequently have relatively poor memories because they can usually use their intelligence to re-derive knowledge on the fly if they forget it. This means there is less need for them to work on their memories so they are not as good as less intelligent people, especially because strong thinking and problem solving skills make it easy to set up an effective system of reminders for important things.
What Twilight shows is a common method Hollywood uses to attempt to mask a lack of intelligence with massive amounts of route memorization which is always given away by the poor problem solving outside of the specific memorized scenarios.
6228367
Learning speed is a part of intelligence. Anyway, Twilight's pretty good at thinking and planning, too, she just has a tendency to fall apart under pressure sometimes, which has less to do with intelligence and more to do with her emotional instability.
6227950 Some very helpful thoughts there, actually, particularly on the idea of moral high-grounds and both sides being able to learn from one another. You've given me some interesting things to ruminate over and double-check in my mind, as I want to make sure I get the proper portrayal down.
6229158 I'm glad I was able to help, and feel free to let me know if you have any more questions or want someone to bounce ideas off of.
6228432 Yes learning speed is part of intelligence, but memorization is not learning. Real learning is building the understanding necessary to support thought which is something Twilight's rote memorization is completely useless for. This is clearly visible in how she repeatedly makes the same kinds of mistakes and fails to learn the same friendship lessons over and over again. This lack of understanding in the more academic subjects she supposedly knows is also clearly visible in the way she screws things up on a regular basis because she just throws her memorized square box at a round hole without the understanding required to see why that will not work.
6223340
Blueblood Twilight?
6232413 Again, the current pairings are not necessarily set-in-stone. I mostly consider BluebloodxTwilight an opportunity to explore something that isn't tapped very often, examining both of their characters in-depth, while also taking a loot at Twilight's first attempts at being in a relationship. It's hardly pointless, but don't let yourself think it's going to necessarily be permanent.
6224606 I should have added the caveat that my comment relates to 'serious' stories, not comedies/satires/farces/parodies and all things silly.
But for drama, adventure, science fiction, or any straight alternate drama where comedy isn't a major thematic element, then strong characterization is a must.
Which is why the characters in the "Star Wars" prequels sucked.
6227950 There is also the case that the changelings could be given a tragic backstory, and STILL end up choosing evil, because i's their' choice.
Nothing has to end with the changelings becoming good or at least learning to live with the ponies. It's simply better to give a character the choice to be what they will be rather than a programmed irresistible compulsion to be evil.
As I mentioned, making an entire race evil by default drastically limits what you can do with them in the story. Changelings in the comics will always be one-dimensional characters, evil for the sake of evil. Not just Chrysalis, but ALL changelings. And, as we've seen, each 'escape' by them becomes more and more feeble as the only way the ponies can keep losing to them is to learn NOTHING about their enemy, or in Twilight's case, to be tempted by the most deceitful enemy you've ever encountered... with a book she could have simply grabbed in her telekinesis.
The comic changelings are basically the Skrull from the old Fantastic 4 comics: 100% evil, and pretty boring because even their abilities aren't used by the writers to a strong impact.
So really, quite a few aspects of that origin comic were pretty weak from a writing perspective.
6242082 Yeah, I figured. I just wanted to point it out before someone did something stupid. As for Star Wars, it really says something about how bad Anakin was that he managed to keep Jar Jar from bothering me.
6233334 Hey, don't let him get to you. What you are doing with Blueblood is awesome and if he has a problem with it then he needs to go read the earlier stories which show where that came from. He is probably just buying into the fandom stupidity about Blueblood despite the fact that it never had any rational basis in canon and the creators went out of their way to contradict it way back in season 2 when they showed him getting along with Rarity on several occasions.
The first rule of anime, there's always someone
more powerfulworse.Hahaha.
It must be hard to talk around that hoof, Twilight.
Really, Twilight, you should have known that would happen as soon as you gave Silky permission.
Or lordy, Twilight, do not eat those cupcakes without determining all of the ingredients, not to mention the ingredients of those ingredients.
There's never enough time for all of the important testing and science.
Yeah, figures. Definitely curious about why Dash didn't report that feeling of warmth that Twilight felt.
Man, these changelings are so hoofsy, they gotta touch everything.
Let the friendship with Chrysalis in, Twilight, it'll be more convenient long-term if you can stand to be around Celestia's significant other.
Neat.
6242243 Heh, yeah, Twilight always seems to have a bad habit about tempting fate. And the interesting thing is, as things stand now, Manti isn't actually that big of a threat. Jut standing up for an extended period of time puts a huge strain on her, so it really just comes down to not being within her limited reach. Manti is dangerous, but she's also delusional and kind of senile. And if Chrysalis really chose to, she could be a lot scarier than her mother, despite what her mother might think.
And Twilight blurting out things and being a bit too frank when speaking with others has always been a problem for her in the show. She's even managed to offend Pinkie, once or twice. It'd be hard to let that trait of hers slide.
I'm actually rather surprised the changeling 'baby food' hasn't gotten more questions. I rather thought some would be curious about that. As for them being hoofsy, they're aren't particularly used to seeing manes or feathered-wing, outside of when the changelings that mingle with ponies come back and transform for them. It struck me as something that a fair number of the changelings that don't leave the hive regularly would be fascinated by.
EDIT: It's also a matter of Changelings being really social creatures, and very used to living in close proximity to one another. They like being close to one another, so much so that they probably only live in about 10% of the usable space of their hive. They don't see getting 'hoofsy' with another particularly invasive. Most of the tunnels hardly see any use and serve more to deter potential invaders.
And the funny thing about a friendship between Chrysalis and Twilight, is that Chrysalis would actually agree that Twilight should be free to carry a grudge. Though, this is partially due to her own anxieties about such a friendship, as Chrysalis isn't that comfortable with the idea of friends, in general. Especially with Twilight.
EDIT: Oh, and I attribute RD not commenting on the warm feeling, as just being a matter of her not really giving it any mind. She's eating a cupcake, so of course she feels good. Even if that cupcake tastes kind of weird.
6242139 Eh, it's his prerogative. I'm not going to hold it against him/her, if their turned off by the pairing, as I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few that I just couldn't...I don't know, jive with? Anyway, thanks for the support.
6242122 You raise some points I agree with here, quite a bit, in regard to the comic book treatment of the changelings. Honestly, a race coming into existence that is just plain inherently evil and never going to go beyond that...well, it seems more pitiable and tragic than anything. I mean, it suggests that even if they know the best course for them is to get along with others, they can't help but follow the most sadistic and petty of courses. They are sapient, but lack free will, essentially. Worse, they might even be capable of realizing it. Their very nature pits them against every other species, and they can't even help it. Such a situation almost makes genocide seem kind. What's imprisoning going to amount to with them? Best case, they eventually escape exactly as bad as before. Worst case, they break out and are going to be personally coming after those that imprisoned them, now resentful and bitter. Such an enemy is never going to learn, never choose not to be 'evil'. They're basically doomed as a species.
They can't even be self-serving and selfish, because often the 'evil' course is entirely self-destructive and self-defeating.
Of course, as you point out, from a narrative point such ideas also quickly lead to the story being backed into a corner. The only way they can get anywhere seems to be by deception, but anyone with the ability to recognize them for they are would never believably fall for their deceptions. More and more often, the protagonists will have to grab the Idiot Ball just for them to be a threat.
6242359 Fair enough, and you know I am always happy to help.
Honestly, this just makes so much biological sense that it is really not worth commenting on. A lot of animals from all over the tree do that so it is really not all that shocking. Sure it is a little gross to think about eating it yourself after talking to the creatures that made it, but it is really not that big a deal and I would honestly rate it below bugs on the eating weird shit scale.
6242122 Yeah, I just wish more people around here would get that. The mindless/pointless/stupid evil shit is infuriatingly common and ruins tons of stories that could be great. I think the most personally aggravating example is the Winningverse stuff, although that was more because it went down the drain after I was already invested in the story than anything else. Of course, it does not help that I get bitched at by a mob of morons who try to defend the stupidity every time I point it out even if I maintain a calm, respectful tone and back my points up with these kinds of logical arguments. What makes it even more bizarre is that the show directly contradicts it in way the changelings behave during the invasion and the fact that the changeling's skills make intelligence mandatory, but we just keep getting more of the same story-ruining garbage at every turn.
6242519 True 'fanbois' are the worst sorts of fans. They'll defend even the worst sort of garbage, such as those who defended Terminate Genisys lately, despite it's incomprehensibly convoluted plot which introduced so many paradoxes even in a multiverse scenario that the entire universe should have collpsed on itself! Redlettermedia tried to make sense of the timeline in one of TWO review they made about it. Bother were hilarious.
The changelings had promise to be an interesting race: why did they look like insectile ponies? Why and how did they feed on love? Why was Chrysalis seemingly bent on revenge against the ponies specifically?
There was a STORY there. Heck, I have a magnificent story idea in which they were once Flutterponies and made a deal with Discord afer the pony tribes fled and left them to face the Windigoes on their own. Assuming my current hospital stay ends soon, I shall have to begin working on that.
At any rate, the comics stripped them of any hope of an interesting backstory. They were simply the products of an evil tree, which even as I was reading it made no sense. Is it possible Chrysalis lied about everything? Possible... she is a consummate liar. But then, what was the point of telling all the readers a bunch of lies, without giving us clues that they were lies?
Of all the villians backgrounds, Tirek's was the only one I could whole-heartedly buy into. He made the choice to lust for power. He didn't have any melodrama, or bizarre curses or mind-control with evil. No, he saw power, and he wanted power... which is how virtually ever dictator on Earth became what they were. Even Sombra's was ruined because the choice was taken from him in a single instant, and since Sombra's story came from his own journal, again, can we truly believe it since he was hastily writing it just before being atacked by the Princesses, and therefore even that could just have been a pity ploy.
NMM's and the Sirens' weren't even origin stories. NMM's took place after her banishment, and the Srein's told nothing of where they came from, which is kinda the whole point of an origin story. Not to mention it devolved into yet another corny battle of the bands with music utterly out of place for the time period.
Ugh, it would take so much time to go over hat makes a good origin story and why the comics squandered the villains' stories, save for Tirek's.. which was solid, but a little bland... and why was Discord there? Honestly that NEEDS explanation.
6244592 Yeah, I know exactly what you mean and that is why I try to maintain perspective on things I love. I refuse to be one of those blind fans who cannot see what the shortcomings of things are which is a big part of why I have become so critical of the show lately.
This could be interesting if you focus on the events where this actually happens rather than using it as a backstory, just be wary of what we have both said because even if they made the choice willingly, they do not necessarily escape the problems associated with making them a created race.
6244592 6244645 I'd read that story. Maybe you could tie it in with the Founder ponies or use it to explain Celestia's and Luna's conspicuous absence in the Hearth's Warming Play? I've personally had a lot of fun exploring ideas like that in my History Lessons story.
6244645 It's going to be a proper origin story, not just some flashback or journal. It will exist as a story by itself, told within the time period it occurred in.
My ultimate idea for it was to use it as the opening portion of the second movie in my planned FiM trilogy of animated films.
Which I shall finance with the hundreds of millions I'll win in the Powerball Lottery! it's a flawless plan!
Anyay, the main reason I haven't written it yet is I keep going over the synopsis and the key scenes I have written and making little edits here and there. I'm still not sure it properly ties everything nicely. Recently, I made the development that Discord was an outworld entity who needed to be 'invited' to enter Equestria... and gained the ability to whisper through the failing Sunstone thanks to the disharmony amplified by the windigoes. Thus, it explains why Discord seemed to have suddenly appeared from nowhere in the show's history sometime after the tribes united.
6244701 The issue of Discord's origins have always been a bit of an issue. Your idea has some merit, I think, as it's not clear whether or not he ever had any history before then. It's just a great big blank spot in their history. The only issue I think it would raise, are questions about this otherworld; having it serve as the one-off origin of Discord could feel a bit...flat? My first thought is that it would need to tie back into the story somehow later on.
EDIT: It's pretty well-established that Starswirl the Bearded dabbled in some pretty high-end magics that would leave even Celestia in the dust. And cross-dimensional travel is already established with things like the mirror.
And, I was actually going to say that it might be a good idea not to use a framing device, but to show the events as they are happening. Yes, certain things would be foregone conclusions, but there would be a lot of wiggle room left over in that story.
6244726 My idea for Discord does eventually tie into Starswirl, but with regard to the same dynamic as seen with Q and Captain Picard. Discord would find Starswirl amusing, and entertain himself with the pony wizard for a time, leading Starswirl into deeper realms of magic.
After Starswirls deah/disappearance, Discord then becomes bored anbd decides to just take over the world and FiM established history begins as the Sisters go on their quest to find the ancient magic of Harmony, from which Mr. Moochik gained the small piece of rainbow used to defeat G1 Tirek, which would then tie up that little plot hole of how the Sister's found the Tree of Harmony, and stay with the history tying G1 and G4. (G4's Tirek doesn't exist in my timeline. He was so unlike the Tirek I remember, he was essentially a different character. One of my pet peeves is when a chracter name is just thrown in for nostalgia, while having nothing to do ith the original. My feeling on it is, if the character is going to be so different, why not just use an original name and design?)
6244897 I do think that there is something to be said for re-inventing a character, from time to time. The trick of it though, is that in remaking them you should be discovering new depths and aspects of a character as you do so, rather than simply replacing who they are with some ground down caricature. It's the difference between the evolution of Batman and the PG-13 remake of Robocop. One gained something from the transformation, the other very distinctly lost something.
And I'm with you on not catering to simple nostalgia, for no reason.
Incidentally, I like the direction of your ideas so far, with the tie-in between Discord and Starswirl really selling it for me. Starswirl is another of those characters that has been hinted at in the show, and just completely mishandled in the comics, I think. His characterization in my stories is very much going to be a major departure from what was found in the comics. I also lean in the direction, that he's more disappeared than dead, owing to his well-established credentials in time and dimension-hopping magic. Essentially my current thoughts for him are of him having moved onto dealing with issues that even Celestia and Luna can't address, apart from, but still monitoring the world. That seems more in-line with the hinted at characterization thus far in the show, of an extremely powerful, protective figure, that was nonetheless isolated from others.
Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier, but I hope your stay in the hospital is wrapped up soon and without issue.
6245367 Thanks! I also hope I'll be out of the hospital soon. But one never knos with bacterial infections these days.
At any rate, I hope to have time to really sit and write once summer is over.
It's a bit rambly, but it fits nicely. It's a rambly sort of situation, of different characters interacting with each other so it has very nice flow to it.
Here's hoping writer's block doesn't return!
6902135 Yeah, I decided to take a slightly different turn on Changelings and not just mate then paranoid and secretive, but actually kind of timid and fretful. Approximately half of their numbers never even venture far from their home, much less see a pony or anything, so it's actually kind of a fun notion that many of them don't understand ponies any better than the other way around. Probos is actually one of the OCs that I really like in this story, as he gives a real good idea about what 'normal' changelings are like.
6902270 And Manti. Definitely meant to be a strong contrast to Chrysalis. Not only is she bitter and more than a little bit bigoted against ponies, but she's also given over towards some narcissistic and sadistic tendencies. She's a also slipped a bit into senility, but I don't think that detracts from how frightening she is.
Mr Skink best pet.
Oooooh, reading about how Chryssie behaves around nymphs and how she let then clung am over her was just d'awwww worthy. And the image of one hiding in her mane was just hilarious.
Needs moaaaaaaaaar chapters!
6902353 Yeah, it's especially hilarious watching him react to meeting Pinkie for the first time. Nobody is ever ready for that.
She is so terrifying, she offhandedly considers doing stuff that's so cruel that Chryssie would probably never even think of it.
Sooooo... Any hints as to when is the next chapter coming?
i just finished going through all your changeling stories again, gonna check out dtgtbc now.
6982878 I've kind of changed up the way I write. Instead of focusing on a single update at a time and not working on something else till I finish, I'm letting myself move between different stories as the mood strikes me. I'm hoping this will let me avoid future issues with writer's block and the like. So, I have about four different updates, ranging from about half-done to three-quarters done.
It's is taking me a bit longer overall to put out new stuff, I should be able to get a lot more out in rapid succession soon.
6986257 Ah, I getcha. Take your time, just happy to know that it isn't dead.
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The warning about an oncoming attack by an unspecified enemy would however draw attention away from enemies already in the city who would be almost impossible to detect unless you already knew what you're looking for; even Twilight just thought Cadance was not herself, but not that she actually was someone else. Also, Shining's shield was a good excuse for his exhaustion and made "Cadance" working her magic on him seem legit.
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Actually, didn't Chrysalis say in Advanced Lessons that they don't have a useful love storage method?