"Hey Thorax?"
"Yeah, Spike?"
"Remember when you said you remember being different from the other changelings the day you were hatched?"
"...Yes?"
"Well, I asked Twilight about it and... Well, apparently nopony really remembers that far back in their lives."
Thorax flinched.
When Thorax made the plan to move to the Crystal Empire, he didn't think it would be so easy as it was. Then again, nothing ever goes according to plan. Thorax learns this the hard way. Having just convinced the rulers of the Crystal Empire, his first friend pops the question he did not want to hear.
Now, his story is quickly falling apart and his mind must work overtime to maintain his recent clemency.
After all, he's not a regular changeling. The ponies believe it too, just for different reasons.
Rated Teen for Language
Wait, so he's a time Traveler? I'm not sure I get it.
But I like it. XD
7504866 'Tis implied he's a human turned changeling. I wonder where he could have gotten information of the future from...
Huh. Interesting first chapter, and he's seems to be somewhat misinformed about what Queen Chrysalis is actually like, and his knowledge of calculus and the like while also seemingly not knowing them well enough to stand up to Twilight's scrutiny. Based on all of this, I thereby deduce-
Well. That's no fun-I was going to have fun theorizing on his actual origins-although time traveler and human turned Changeling were at the top of the list. Damn you curiosity and instinctive urge to reveal spoiler tags!
Well wasn't that a surprise at the end. Let's see if Twilight realizes who that mare was. Probably did.
Anyway, a pretty amusing read! He dug himself in pretty deep. Always fun to see others set themselves on fire like that
7504927 Ooooooh, that makes sense.
Sort of.
Why and how would a human be turned into a changeling?
This story not support to complete yet! We need more!
Considering Twilight's friends I'm not even surprised.
Well, that is clashing heavily with my head-canon. But it's your story, so I'll simply roll with it.
Two other things:
Where (beside the tag) it is hinted Thorax is a human? Or did I mess it up completely here?
And is this story supposed to be 'complete'? Or did you accidently click the wrong button? Basicially what he (7508223) said.
Also: Debugging Live.
I see what you did there.
7508715
Technology in Equestria is one of those hand-wavy things given the sheer number of apparent anachronisms in the show. Technology anywhere from 16th century to 20th century are clashing together that it seems technological progression appears rather sporadic/chaotic.
Given thus the pacifist nature of Equestria, thus no wars prompting technological advancement, one would almost think that scientifically, with exception in maybe magic, that ponykind is rather complacent and advances come in sparks or bursts of almost random nature (e.g. sudden inspiration where the end product may not be fully understood).
Then again, magic would also have had an effect, in effect having ponykind relying more on magic than cold tech.
So where does this leave the thinking? Most of it will be probably hogged up in magic studies, except for the more rudimentary parts such as algebra and geometry. Calculus is a bit more advanced (though by human standards, the basics are basically analytic geometry on steroids).
Numerical methods and analysis as a subject concern themselves more on the aspects of computation and approximation and regularization, where an algebraic solution is quite complex, impossible to find or simply infeasible to find in time. Most of this is only really useful with some actual computational power such as a basic computer, which we haven't seen in Equestria.
Linear algebra in essence is solving linear matrix equations, which are basically systems of linear equations that I'm sure Equestria has found out about. But since linear algebra relies on vector spaces that come with some pretty advanced stuff built in, I have doubt that it has developed into a full subject in Equestria. This goes doubly so for numerical methods and analysis that sometimes rely heavily on vector spaces, even though Equestria probably has seen some numerical methods such as Newton's method (basically difference between discovery and development).
Optimization, in its most basic form is basically finding the maximum or minimum of a function. No doubt Equestria knows how to do that, at least for unconstrained problems, in some fashion. Derivative tests of first and second order in addition to checking the boundaries. The optimization Thorax is referring to, however, is a bit more advanced than that in that the methods used are numerical (but based on the same principles if going by KKT-conditions.) Problems may now be constrained with many more variables, increasing the search space, with support for integer domains.
Considering the first basic method for large-scale optimization was done in the mid-20th century, I'd doubt Equestria has ever heard of it as a subject on its own. It would be something an industrial nation would have an easier time to discover due to the desire to optimize costs of complex processes (and not necessarily nonlinear either).
There are some that point that he's not what he seems to be. As for those that point out he's a human, you have his real name Thomas that he's kept hidden from the hive mind. Granted, Kevin, but given that the Mane 6 should have been able to see him through a window of the City Hall in Slice of Life, his canon status is debatable given the reactions in The Times Are a Changeling.
The second one is he mentions setting up his green card, AKA the US permanent residency card.
I wrote it as a one-shot, so...
I have a tendency of leaving the "true ending" to the reader's imagination.
WHERE IS THE REST!?!
7508929 I'm sorry, but a reader cannot infer a proper ending from this one shot.
If you had one or two more chapters as follow up, not going to deep of course maybe SOME explanation about past/maths and sciences.
Maybe a setup for the leaders talking or war , or something as that would really define an ending rather than leave it up to the reader.
7508929 also thorax must take spike in a chase to get that paper and destroy it!
If I am not mistaken DEFCON 1 is the most severe
Man, that was great. So, thorax of the empire was a mask of thorax of the hive? And the thorax of the hive has a mask for thomas? A guy from, presumably, earth? Man, that's deep. I love the concept, I might just have to take some ideas.
I really like the open-endedness of this.
There is one thing that bugs me though, where, before the end, did he mention knowledge of future events? I can't find anything other than that line at the end.
Hiff. Why do stories that seem like they'd be awesome to continue get left as oneshots? I wanna see the consequences of this!