//------------------------------// // 5 Coming Out // Story: The Time Ponies and the Cutie Mark Thief Vs. the Queen of Hearts // by My name is R //------------------------------// >> Wrinkles. Time is like a cloth. Imagine, if you will, a stretchable fabric held in place over an empty area. If you were to place any load of sufficient weight in the middle of it the fabric will dip around the load. Similarly if you move at incredibly high speeds time is stretched thin. This is why when a unicorn teleports they feel no time at all pass, while it can take them as long as a second to travel. Taking this information, one can develop a manner of time travel. If you make something travel very quickly back and forth it no longer experiences time at any appreciable speed. Thus the vibrated object ‘goes into the future’. We have yet to manage this particular method of time travel in reverse, nor is there any reason to believe it will ever work in reverse. << “Starlight’s going to be here any minute! Is everything in place?” Inquisitor was pacing back and forth through the first floor of the Ponyville Sheriff's office, which doubled as the Ponyville jail and tripled as her and Perfect Timing's house. “Just like it was the last six times you checked. We’ve been preparing your presentation for almost a week, it is going to be fine.” “I hope so. But what if it goes poorly? I don’t think I could take it if I got ran out!” “Look at me!” Perfect stood up from her stool and stepped in front of her roommate. “You are the Inquisitor! I don’t care what anypony else says, you and I can make this work! I think Starlight will be understanding, and if not then I’ll stun her and then you do your little mindwipe spell and we’ll tell her she fainted. We’ve practiced this a dozen times, either she’ll accept it or she won’t. And fretting up a storm won’t help our case. So take a deep breath… and let it out.” Inquisitor took several slow deep breaths, and then sat down. “You’re right, it’s just frightening.” “Well, regardless of how she takes the revelation, the doughnuts and waffles will be a great way of perking up everypony. Father swears by throwing food at somepony until they come to your way of seeing things.” “Didn’t he mean that literally until two years ago when they had a huge food fight over territorial claims?” “But even after that he kept the phrase with its new meaning. Some sweets to get her in a good mood, then we tell her, then we-” Thump thump. Starlight was glad that it wouldn’t snow before their trip tomorrow. She doubted anypony would cancel over the weather, but having the first snowfall right before their trip seemed like it could be seen as a poor omen. Much better for morale to leave on a sunny day. Starlight reached her destination in under a minute of brisk trotting. It was in the ring of houses around the town hall. If it had been clearly labeled she would probably have noticed it sooner, but apparently Ponyville didn’t even feel the need to make finding the sheriff’s office easy. Maybe all the locals already knew where it was, and town square looked nicer without an obvious law enforcement presence. Putting it out of her mind Starlight knocked on the door and waited for a response. A green-gold aura enveloped the doorknob and the door popped open to reveal Inquisitor standing there, looking a little haggard. “Hello. Please come in and have a seat.” She beckoned Starlight with a wave of her hoof. Starlight walked in and saw Time Turner and Perfect Timing sitting on one side of a large table with waffles and strange breads shaped into circles with the middles cut out. “Doctor? I didn’t know you’d be here. Did Sheriff Inquisitor invite you too?” “Indeed. I think she should be the one to explain it.” “But first try one of my doughnuts,” added Perfect Timing, patting the seat next to her. “I bet you’ve never had one before have you?” Starlight sat in the spot next to her. “No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen doughnuts before. They look like sweets.” “They are. I got the recipe from my grandfather, on my mother’s side. Same for the waffles. I’ll get you a drink.” She stood up and Inquisitor sat down across from Starlight. “How are the doughnuts?” “They’re alright. So, did you want to discuss the changeling preparations or talk about politics?” “Neither. At least not directly. I wanted to show you something.” She stood and lit her horn with a blue aura. “Your aura’s blue. How did you do that?” Inquisitor just looked at Starlight and then closed her eyes. A swirl of blue magic came from the ground and obscured Inquisitor. When it passed she appeared to have cast a glamour or transfiguration spell, as she now appeared black with a smooth curved black horn, blue pupiless eyes, and a dark blue carapace with light blue glittery wings. “You know a race change spell! Those will be a great help on our mission, I learned one recently just for our trip. They’re really rare, how did you find one?” The others stared at Starlight for a second before Inquisitor answered, “I didn’t, my family taught me. I didn’t consider this in all my planning for this moment.” “This is a really high level spell, and as far as I can see it’s unrelated to your cutie mark. Unless, is your talent learning ancient spells?” Starlight’s mind was buzzing with the possibilities. She figured Inquisitor had probably been to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Anypony who could pull this off would likely have gotten an invitation. “See, that’s just the thing… This isn’t a race change spell. Well, I guess it is, but I just stopped using it.” Starlight blinked. She took a moment and looked at the Doctor and Perfect Timing, noticing the tension in the room for the first time. Then she put two and two together. “Oh! You’re a changeling! That’s why you wanted to talk to me in private. I assume Perfect and Turner already knew?” “Yes. Both of them have known for years. And no, there was never a ‘real’ Inquisitor. I built this life from the ground up when I moved to ponyville ten years ago.” “Are you still in contact with the hive?” “No. I cut all ties with them before I moved here. I even faked my death to keep them from looking for me.” “Well, ten years is more recent than the point of divergence anyway. Are you planning on telling the other volunteers?” “What? That’s it?” “Well, that will change how we proceed. Should I ask you to explain the inner workings of the hive now, or can you explain it to us all tomorrow? Oh, you mean why am I taking this so well. Like I said, I’ve never had any particular issues with changelings, and we were already allies before, plus you revealed yourself. It seems like this could be a very convoluted plot, or a rather simple coming out.” “Okay. Positie naar beneden.” “Poe cici nar benada? What does that mean?” Perfect Timing sat down next to Starlight and set four drinks down on the table. “It means we can relax. We were all a little nervous how you would take the news. And the plan was that if you took the news well then we would tell the other volunteers.” Inquisitor nodded. “And I wrote down most of what I know. I thought it would help make sure I didn’t miss anything when the time comes. We can be reasonably sure Chrysalis is still in charge of the changelings, so I included a profile on her. I have one for Pharynx too, he’s the captain I knew best. Chances are he’ll be in a higher position now than when I left. The others I didn’t know well enough to bother with a profile.” She passed a sheaf of papers to Starlight in her blue aura. “This is great! I was expecting to have hardly any information on the hive. This will help us greatly, thank you for sharing.” “This probably goes without saying, but please don’t tell anypony about this. You’re the fourth pony I’ve told about this. I would much prefer for it to stay a secret.” “Of course. And we probably shouldn’t tell the natives about it either, at least until they already trust us.” “Yeah, changelings are mistrusted plenty here, I can only imagine how bad it would be if the queen had succeeded. Don’t worry about them figuring it out, I’ll make sure it stays a secret.” “Well, if everything is good here then I’ll be off. Rose offered to help me tidy up and she won’t step inside if I’m not with her. Allons-y.” “Yeah, I think we’ll be good Doctor,” answered Timing. The Doctor got up and walked outside. “So, I’ve been thinking, do you have a nickname? Inquisitor is a little long for casual conversation.” “Well, I like to call her Inky. It plays off her name and her natural colors.” “Inky is fine. Though I’d have liked it if you’d asked first.” “I knew you wouldn’t mind.” “Can I take these papers home to look over? I’ll bring them back tomorrow.” “Of course.” “Alright. I’ll see you at the sendoff.” Starlight walked back out and headed back to Twilight’s castle. She wanted to read over everything about the changelings. After all, there was nothing written from an insider’s perspective available in the libraries. The better she understood them, the less likely anypony would get hurt tomorrow. Roseluck was standing outside of the Doctor’s house, staring at it. On the one hoof, she had promised to help him clean up for his guests tomorrow, and the sooner she started the sooner she would finish. But on the other hoof she really didn’t want to wander in alone. She couldn’t understand half of what he got up to in there, but she knew that some of it was dangerous. Like his flameless fireworks, which not even he had known what would make them explode. Her roommates had never dared set hoof in his house, but she had always been the bravest of them. So she would enter his house… as soon as he came back to guide her. “Hello Rose! Sorry to keep you waiting, but the sheriff called.” Rose turned around to see Time Turner trotting up to her. “Inquisitor called you!” Rose gulped. “What for?” “Moral support. Family matters, nothing to be concerned about.” Rose sighed. “Thank Celestia. I hope everything went well.” “When I left it looked like everything was well in hoof.” He walked up and opened his front door. “Now I believe it’s time for some spring cleaning. Why is it called that? Spring cleaning, it’s the middle of autumn, that’s the opposite of spring.” “Because most ponies do their cleaning in the spring, since that’s when the weather is best for it,” Rose said as she followed him in and started opening the windows. “We can handle a little chill coming in while we air out your house though, right Doctor?” “The basement needs to be cleaned the most, since that’s where most of the mess is. Why don’t we start there?” He started to walk towards the back of his house. Rose froze and tried to think of a solution without panicking. She could stay in the relatively safe above ground, alone, or she could follow the Doctor down into the dangers of the basement. Scrape! Rose jumped as the infernal contraption to the basement woke and began its thundering and clumsy ascent. Scrape! “Rose, are you coming?” Scrape! “I think I’ll clean up here!” Scrape! “Very well,” Scrape! “I’ll be in the basement,” Scrape! “if you need me.” “And I’ll be up here.” There was a clattering of metal as the doors opened and then closed behind the Doctor. Then the machine started its screeching descent once more. “Alone but safe. I hope.”