Changing Times’ Notes: The prince was always reluctant to talk about his mother. I’m not sure he knows how to—with their relationship as it is, and this is one of the few reports where I got a rare glance into his true thoughts on Chrysalis, confused as they seem to be.
It was not the main purpose of this report when I interviewed him, yet I cannot help but think it overshadows the rest of the events contained herein. I think it might be because he had no reason to start this report where he did. He could have held the first part of this report back from me, and he could have begun at the party like I expected, yet he chose to speak to me on matters of a very personal nature.
I am honored to know he trusts me so: that I am his friend, and that he believes what I’m doing will change things for the better.
Proper Recognition: A Report by Prince Morpheus of House Sycadia
I would think it obvious by now how lost and out of my depth, I was during negotiations. I had not expected to make real friends with any of the Elements as fast as I was.
Frankly, it was a miracle, and changelings do not put much stock in miracles and blind faith.
Thus, my developing friendships were perhaps less of a boon than one would think. The analysts agonized over each day’s events looking for flaws that ve could not find. My subjects were growing wary of my overwhelming success, especially after my ban on love poison. The fact I had found an entire Hive of lost brothers and sisters—that I had secured from them a steady supply of love to supplement our losses—was unbelievable.
Hope dared to flutter in everyling’s hearts, and that invoked feelings of suspicion. After all, hope was the erroneous belief that an event or outcome was more likely than it should be. The Lords were calling me on a bluff that ve could not satisfactorily prove, and this made dealing with the actual problems I faced much more difficult.
Having the Elements as friends—well, two friends, two acquaintances, and two somewhere in between—helped to assuage my worried mind and to ease our doubts and fears. For about a week after Shining and Cadance’s visit, I continued to spend the day with one or two of the girls, getting to know them better.
The doors to Castle creaked open, letting the sun creep in to crawl upon my carapace. Twilight hoisted the basket beside her in her telekinesis and strolled outside—where she took a deep breath of fresh air before fluttering her wings, giggling as the breeze flitted through her feathers.
I lifted my own basket onto my back and followed. The wind danced between my fetlock cavities, and—with nopony else was around to see the distortion to my disguise—I allowed myself the luxury of buzzing my wings some to add to the sensation. The bits in my corbiculae thrummed with sugary happiness, and I chided them with a click and whistle too high for pony ears.
Twilight didn’t know they were with us, after all, scuttling around my insides, and I didn’t want her to hear them, because that would ruin the surprise.
“Enjoying yourself?” Twilight smiled.
“The breeze feels good today.” I blushed as ve thought of how nymphish I must have seemed, and the bits chittered quietly to themselves. A few fluttered between my ribs, and I tried to hold back a snicker as their wings tickled my insides.
“It does, doesn’t it? Rainbow said she wanted things to be perfect for our ‘date.’” Twilight’s smile became a laugh, and I took advantage of a reason to get the giggles out.
The dreaded date was nigh, but it didn’t seem so bad.
“Of course she did…” I chuckled. “What are the odds she’s spying on us for Rarity?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if she was doing it for all the girls.” Twilight turned to begin the walk to town, basket floating behind her.
My grin was a bit too bright as I followed—an intentional clue to let her know I was scheming something. Twilight wanted a ‘date,’ after all, and ve had decided I would provide.
I strained my ears and cast out my wind sense, yet could not hear anypony besides myself and Twilight. Tongue flicking out, I tasted the air for the salty tang of pegasus. The sweet perfume of lilacs and lilies from Twilight nearly drowned it, but I could taste Rainbow’s particular scent when the breeze came from the north.
It was an oddly fresh smell for such an athletic pegasus—like rain and an ocean breeze—and it let us isolate the group of clouds she was no doubt hiding in. There were too many to pick her exact hiding spot, but that wasn’t a problem. I could simply send a whisper of wind passing through the bunch to let her know where we were really going.
Doing so, I returned to watching Twilight as we continued onward, and ve considered Cadance’s advice. It was frustrating in a sense. Ve had millennia worth of memories in the hivemind relating to ponies in love, yet none seemed to hold that most important detail—the threshold between love and friendship. Every friendship was different, and every love was doubly so, and to try and isolate the catalyst that shifted a pair of individuals from one state to the other was madness.
Sometimes the process was mutual. Sometimes it was one sided. Sometimes neither party had the faintest clue they were head over hooves for each other. Where did it end?
There were too many variables, and while ve understood that I liked Twilight, ve were entirely unsure on how ve could evaluate if it was possible for me to feel something more for her. Ve could argue surprising her on our current ‘date’ counted as a romantic gesture, but friends went out of their way for each other all the time, and it was that ever elusive threshold that determined which my scheme was.
And that wasn’t even considering the time factor.
It takes time for actual feelings to develop, and ve doubted two weeks, five days, three hours, and forty-five minutes—give or take an hour or so—was enough to truly fall in love with somepony. Ve could admit I might have a crush, but even that was questionable, and Twilight certainly didn’t have a crush on me. Her emotions had yet to taste of buds and blossoms.
Truly, love was an enigma.
“What’s on your mind, Wicked?”
I blinked at the sound of Twilight’s voice—becoming acutely aware of all the other sounds I’d been missing in our musings. We had reached the town proper some time ago, and ponies were hustling about the streets lined with little thatch-roofed houses.
Berating ourself for the lack of judgement I expanded my senses once more. I needed context and needed it fast. Others stared at us when they thought we weren’t looking, and, when they saw we were, they did the worst possible thing by conspicuously studying something else. I could see the tension in their neck from them struggling not to look back, and I couldn’t help but sigh at the transparency.
What I didn’t see, I heard and tasted. There was a lot of gossip and rumor—most of it about Twilight.
“Good for her.”
“She looks happy.”
“Yeah, it’s about time she got over Flash.”
Rarity had been talking it seemed, and there was a sugary stew bubbling excitedly for Twilight throughout the town. If only the comments headed my way were as amicable.
“He’s a gangly thing, ain’t he?”
“Don’t be that way. He might have a brain under there.”
“Ain’t got room for much else. He certainly doesn’t have it where it counts with a build like that.”
When I focused on what others were feeling towards me, steely pins and needles crawled over my chitin. There was still some sugary happiness and goodwill, but it seemed a good portion of Ponyville was protective of their princess.
The bits writhed at the sensation, and I tried not to fidget. It was nowhere near as strong as Shining’s feelings on the matter, but it was still uncomfortable. Part of us entertained the idea of crafting an adonis to disguise ourselves, yet I quickly tossed that idea away.
I liked my Wicked Smooth guise, and there were plenty of times I was more comfortable in it than in my own chitin.
“Wicked? Is something wrong? You’re being really quiet.”
My ear flicked at the sound, and ve realized I had yet to answer Twilight. “I’m fine… better than fine, really. I’ve just got a lot on my mind recently.”
It was true, and yet here ve were adding the mundanities of life to the pile. My love life was hardly a pressing manner compared to the survival of the hive. Ve had bigger things to worry about.
“Don’t we all?” Twilight tittered. “Today we’re just having a picnic. Nothing big.”
I stared at her amidst all of the gossip and stares. There was no such thing as ‘just a picnic’ when on a ‘date’ with royalty. “Have you thought about what ‘going out’ with me really means? What others will think?”
“What do you mean?” She tilted her head back to look at me, continuing on with the self-assurance of one who had mastered the art of walking while reading.
Glancing at our audience, I snorted. “You’re a celebrity, a hero, and a princess. Ponies are going to talk, judge, and gossip about this. It’s going to shape opinions on you.”
There were several muffled thumps from hooves quietly meeting faces at my words. That wasn’t good.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, but I don’t get the big deal. It can’t be that different than all the usual nonsense. The papers still call Fluttershy the future bride of Discord every now and then. You don’t see her making a fuss about it, do you? The rest of Equestria will have their field day and I’ll make do until it’s over. It can’t be as bad as Rarity’s matchmaking.”
I arched an eyebrow, but ve said nothing to refute her opinion. Her horribly skewed opinion. The Ponyville gossip was mild, true, but ve shivered at our projections for how the Canterlot nobility would react. Even if they weren’t changeling Lords, it was never a good idea to displease aristocracy of any kind.
At the least, it would provide a valuable princess lesson for her.
It was pointless to ruminate on it further, though. Ve were procrastinating—worrying about a future yet to pass. Cadance had told me to enjoy ‘dating’ Twilight in the moment, and that’s what ve planned on doing.
Thus I put my plans in motion.
Step one: confusion.
I passed Twilight with a spring in my step, pronking backward in a manner most befitting of the Pink Menace. The bits fluttered this way and that as I did so—the motion upsetting them—and I giggled madly as their wings danced over my ribs.
It was utterly unbecoming of me, and something I’d normally never do in a hundred years. Twilight, of course, knew this and was flummoxed as to why I was bouncing like a bumbling idiot. Her head tilted just so, while her face scrunched, and when she opened her mouth to question my sanity, it allowed us to take advantage of her lowered guard.
Step two: snatch.
There were many ways to redirect the picnic from the park. I could have asked, of course, but then Twilight would know I had something planned. Ve felt it far better to commit to acting silly and spontaneous. Romantic foals were, after all, prone to bouts of whimsy.
“Change of plans. I feel like tag.” Part of us cringed inside at how stupid that sounded, but I was committed to the act. I snatched her basket in my mouth and took off running. “Mine!” I shouted around the handle as I fled, stumbling a bit as the bits continued to tickle. I ran as fast as I could, though, looking back for any signs of pursuit.
Step three: lead the chase.
Twilight stood there and stared. She did not chase as expected and instead arched her eyebrow so high I could see it from down the street. “This isn’t one of Rarity’s books!” She shouted the length of the lane in front of what could well be a good portion of the town.
I stopped and set the basket down. “It will be if you make a scene!” I shouted back. Tensing, I readied myself to grab the basket at any sign of pursuit.
She rolled her eyes and massaged the bridge of her muzzle for a moment. Then, with a flash of magenta light, she teleported beside me. Before I could react with more than a hiss, she thwapped me in the back of the head with a hoof. “Tag. Now tell me what you’re really up to or so help me…”
I rubbed the spot of impact and frowned. There had been too much whimsy in my act it seemed, and Twilight wasn’t wasn’t going to take it. A fine fiery dusting of rainbows filled the air—not quite angry, but close.
“I—" Biting my lip, ve attempted to come up with a suitable half-truth. “I wanted to surprise you. A picnic in the park is one thing, but I found the most amazing place in Whitetail Woods.” I waved a hoof at her. “I figured a game of tag was a good way to lead you there without ruining the surprise, but I guess you aren’t one for silly games.”
She arched an eyebrow. “There’s silly and then there’s nonsensical.”
I snorted. “It had a decent chance of working until you assumed I was pulling a Rarity. I mean, really, does Rarity seem like the type to suggest this sort of thing?”
Twilight sniffed. “She might want a fairy tale romance for herself, but she’s a fan of all trashy romance.”
I stared at her for a few seconds. “Wow, ve— I really didn’t expect you to be this hung up on things.” Walking up to her, I gently set a hoof on her withers. “I thought you didn’t want to worry about Rarity anymore.”
Twilight’s entire body tensed. “I don’t…. It’s just... this is harder than I thought it would be.”
“You say that now. Just wait for us to start actually dating,” I whispered, grinning like an idiot.
“Wicked…” Twilight groaned, putting her face in her hooves. “Fine,” she mumbled. “I’ll have a talk with Rarity later. For now, let’s just get back to things.”
I picked up her basket in my mouth again and waited for her to take the lead. We stood for a few seconds, bits churning inside of me, before she made shooshing motions at with her hoof.
“Go on then. You’re the one who wants to surprise me.”
Oh. Right.
Just taking her to mother’s— No. It was mine now. Taking her to my bit garden would ruin the effect. I needed another element of surprise. Something less whimsical. Ve had to ponder a moment until it came to us. The solution was quite simple.
“May I?” Pulling a napkin from one of the baskets, I gave the slightest bow to Twilight.
Twilight pulled back a bit at the formality. “May you what—"
With a bit of quick hoofwork, I wrapped the napkin around her face as a makeshift blindfold. Twilight squeaked, but made no more immediate forms of protest.
“Ready?” I asked, taking her hoof in mine.
“I guess….” Twilight hesitated, her emotions a mix of ice and orange juice with a hint of extra sweetener.
I checked the basket on my back was secure, and I picked up Twilight’s basket in my mouth. Leading her down the street, I was once more acutely aware of the stares and gossip of other ponies, but we made it to the outskirts of town soon enough.
As we entered the Whitetail Woods, I looked back to check for Rainbow. A cloud was drifting out of Ponyville —the tiniest flash of a rainbow colored mane visible through the condensation—and I saluted to it before taking Twilight into the woods.
The path to the bit garden was calm—almost silent. Every so often a bird would tweet or a frog would croak, but, for the most part, only the quiet chirping of cricket song bounced among the trees as I led Twilight deeper into the woods.
The smell of rain and dewdrops clung to the air from a recent shower, and the earth was damp but not quite mud. There was just enough moisture for it to suck slightly at the frogs of our hooves, and it left a cool tingling sensation in it’s wake. Twilight stifled a giggle every so often when the ground’s tingling evolved to outright tickling, but she see seemed content to follow in silence.
Not once did I taste a hint of bitterness to her emotions.
The farther in we got, however, the more cluttered the woods became. I had to be careful going forward, making sure Twilight didn’t trip from stepping on a stray root. The forest had faced a decent amount of rain here, and the mud sucked at our hooves as we neared the garden. With each splorch and splotch I could taste a hint of icy nervousness creeping into Twilight’s emotions.
Just as we reached the cave entrance, she spoke. “Morpheus. I may not be able to see, but I can tell we’re really deep in the woods. Are you sure we should be—"
“Shhh…” I interrupted, shedding my disguise to levitate the picnic baskets so that they wouldn’t get muddy. “We’re just about there, and it should be dry.”
Pulling Twilight into the cave, I brought her through the caverns to the hollow holding the glade. It took a lot of mental soothing to quiet the bits sleeping quietly throughout the clearing. With all the small puffs of sweet nectar being sent my way, they clearly missed me, but I needed them to stay still until the big reveal.
My insides squirmed as the bits I brought from Castle fought to get free of my corbiculae. They could sense their fellows in the glade, and they were excited to meet them.
Letting go of Twilight’s hoof, I set the baskets down on a dry patch of grass, and I walked carefully to the edge of the pool in the center. I almost tripped once or twice as my bits swarmed within me, and my stomach writhed with maggots as I worried over whether things would go well.
Twilight was fidgeting with nervousness, but she didn’t voice it, and once I reached the center, I yanked the blindfold off with a flick of telekinesis.
“Behold!”
In the still air of the cave, leaves and twigs stirred as if caught in a non-existent breeze. Swirling up and off the ground with a veritable army of butterflies, the cave was filled with cricket song. Cicadas buzzed, and bees bumbled, and an orchestra of wings filled the air, while Twilight watched in rapt attention.
Opening my corbiculae, the bits I brought swarmed from my insides. Flashes of green flame filled the room as old bits met new bits, and they shifted from one form to another while sharing the stories of their lives.
Twilight laughed in the emerald inferno. She pranced from tree to tree—watching flames that did not burn washing over them—and tried to catch the bits dancing between the trees.
“Where did you get all of these?” There was a manic joy to her voice. Her emotions were a volatile mix of orange and cotton candy, and I found myself smiling as she bounced around. At some point, she’d summoned a notebook and quill, and I caught glances of half-finished sketches and notes as she moved too fast for the quill to follow.
“Don’t take this the wrong way—" the reveal was everything "—but they were a gift from Mother.”
“What?” Twilight froze mid-hop and looked at me. I cast my head down as her gaze bored its way through my chitin.
“S-she couldn’t look after them all in exile.” I squirmed as it felt like maggots writhed through my stomach. “And she wanted someling to watch them for her. I couldn’t just say no when I saw the place.”
“You ran into Chrysalis?” Twilight shivered as gravity reasserted itself.
“Not exactly….” Mentioning Discord by name would be bad. “I just wasn’t her first choice. She told her previous caretaker to show me this place.”
“Do we need to worry about this caretaker?” Twilight walked towards me, her emotions trickling concern towards me.
“No.” I hesitated before moving to join her. As the bits settled around us, I picked up the picnic baskets and began to lay out the spread we had prepared. “We don’t need to worry about him. I think… I think Mother just wanted to reach out to me. Some of my best memories were in her bit garden as a nymph.”
I scuffed a mud-encrusted hoof on the blanket before sitting. “She does care—at least I like to think she does—in her own twisted way. She wants me to succeed, but she sees me as weak.”
I sighed. “She sees friends as nothing but tools to use, and—no matter how I tried to explain it to her—I couldn’t get her to believe me that Equestria could be more than just food to us.”
I clenched and unclenched my stabilization plates. “And the worst part is, she was right…. I was weak. I couldn’t work up the nerve to throw a coup when I knew she was wrong, so she was forced to abdicate—to exile herself—so some other Lord wouldn’t steal the crown.”
My fangs tore into a sub roll piled with various vegetables. Baby tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, and a squash of some sort were cut down to size and smothered in cream cheese between a loaf of seasoned Istallion bread. I wasn’t looking at Twilight, but I could taste her concern like a lemon-flavored wine.
“I—" She stopped, but then I tasted a bit of steel slice through the air. “I guess I can see that…. That she cares, I mean.”
I looked over to see her face scrunched in thought.
“She saved me—" Twilight gave a strangled whinny. "—in the Everfree forest. She saved me, and she had no reason to do so. It’s bugged me, wondering why she would even bother, and the only real reason I’ve come up with is you. She wants you to succeed.”
A contented silence settled between us as we ate among the soft lullabies of every bug under the sun. At some point, my wings joined in. I chirped whatever tune crossed my mind. The chorus of bits followed. Twilight pulled out a book, and we simply sat and enjoyed each other’s company in the glade until the light from above began to darken.
With a fine vintage of regret in the air, we packed the leftovers away and left the cave. The orange light of dusk struggled to break through the trees, but Twilight lit the area around us as I donned my disguise once more. As the emerald flames faded from my chitin, Twilight had wrapped her hooves around me for the briefest of hugs.
“Feeling better?”
“Yeah...” I thrummed appreciatively. “Sorry for ruining the surprise.”
“It wasn’t ruined.” Twilight shook her head. “I had fun, really. You can’t help that your mom makes for such awkward conversation.”
I snorted. “Ve could have been more tactful about it. Ve thought ve had it all figured out, yet ve were not a sentence into our planned explanation and I let my emotions get the best of me.”
“Emotions aren’t a weakness, Morpheus.” Twilight set a hoof on my withers. “You. Are. Not. Weak.”
I shook my head, smiling. “Ve’re learning that. I’ve simply yet to find a balance between the logical and illogical.”
