//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Changing Emotions // Story: The Student and the Time Traveler // by Hidden Brony //------------------------------// Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did. Chapter Four Changing Emotions Those who realize their folly are not true fools. -Zhuangzi Change Change was sitting in the library batting stones between his hooves when Celestia walked in. Next to her floated a rolled up scroll coated in her gold aura. She settled to the ground a few feet away from him. He didn’t look up, just continued batting the stones. “Change,” Celestia spoke up softly. “I have something for you.” She flinched as his eyes raised. They were full of hate, like two smoldering pits of restrained fury. She levitated the scroll over to him. “I know there are others. Shining Armor took me to see Warden.” She sighed, “No matter how much I want to, I cannot pardon his actions.” Change swirled his hoof in a ‘hurry up’ motion, causing Celestia to sigh again. “This is a message telling them that they will receive a full pardon for most actions taken to insure their safety, and informing them of my intention to publicly announce my crimes to the masses.” She placed the scroll down next to him. “I know I can’t ask you any favors, but could you deliver this for me? Just take it to them and have them read it.” Change nodded, tucking the scroll closely. “It also informs them that there will be a public vote. If it passes, I will willingly abdicate the throne, leaving Equestria in the complete control of my sister.” Change coughed in surprise. What? “With crimes like mine, what else am I supposed to do? If my kingdom calls for my abdication, then I must abdicate. It is that simple. I will not rule a kingdom that does not wish me to rule it.” Celestia stood up and walked towards the door. “They will, of course, be allowed to join in the vote if they wish.” After she walked outside, Change heard her call out, “Shining Armor, you are to keep Warden under guard until the hospital clears you to move him, and then he is to be moved to the best kept cells in the prison.” There was a pause. “I won’t budge on this, Shining Armor. He deserves that much.” Change unrolled the scroll with shaky hooves. Inside, it read exactly as she said it would. She added nothing and left nothing out. He stood up, swallowed, and walked out the door, heading for the Everfree. “Change, wait!” He turned to see Twilight running towards him. He stopped walking to let her catch up. Once she was next to him, he started walking. “Change, I heard Celestia, at least part of it. Where are you going?” He tilted his head at the Everfree Forest. “The Everfree? Why would you want to go there?” He tapped the scroll. “What about the scroll, Change? What is so important that you have to go through the Everfree Forest?” Change paused for a moment, before scrawling into the dirt. Family. “Your family? Change, you could die in the Everfree Forest! It just isn’t natural!” Twilight tried to convince him. “You just can’t walk through there!” Did twice Tuesdays, twice today. Twilight was taken aback by his response. Taking advantage of her reeling he scrawled out more. Going. Safe. Can come, can stay. With that, he turned around and started walking. Just when he was starting to feel disappointed that she hadn’t trusted him, he heard galloping as she caught up with him. He smiled at her in thanks and reassurance. “I’m coming along so that when we do get attacked, I can teleport us back here,” Twilight cautioned. Change shook his head, tapping the scroll. “That’s not worth more than your life, Change.” Change nodded. It is to me. “Not to me,” Twilight sighed. Change’s heart soared, only to come crashing and burning at her next words. “You’re my friend, and I won’t let you die.” He shook his head once more, heading into the Everfree and, hopefully, bringing his family back with him. —*~*~*— Twilight Twilight sat at the base of a tree, checking every few seconds to where Change had disappeared to not five minutes ago. She checked his message scratched into the ground. Stay. Be back soon. Boss doesn’t like visitors. She sighed in frustration. She could feel illusion magic from over in the direction he went, but he had trusted her a lot to take her this far. She wouldn’t betray that trust by heading over to check it out. Faintly, she heard words floating through the air. She swiveled her ears over towards the source of the magic. “You don’t honestly believe this, do you?” a non-equine sounding voice shouted. “Calm down!” another voice interrupted the last few syllables of the first voice’s sentence, before adding something too quiet for her to hear at this distance. A third voice, belonging to a mare and somewhat familiar to Twilight, somehow, spoke up then. She strained her ears, but only caught some words. “—Change—Celestia—bitch—Captain—chance—back—” The first voice bellowed, “NO! This is a trap! We can’t, she’ll just take us back! Do you want that, B? Do you, Change? Ironhoof? No?” The familiar voice responded with a voice of iron, just loud enough for Twilight to hear her over the distance, “I’m going, and you can’t stop me.” There was silence until Twilight heard footsteps approaching. There was a quiet, one-sided conversation just drifting along the wind, “So there’s a mare, is there?” A slight pause. “Oh, please, Change, I know you. What’s she like?” The footsteps stopped for a minute, before the voice giggled, “Oh, Change. You’re smitten! It’s so cute!” Through the trees, Twilight saw Change walking up with an all-too-familiar blue mare. The two locked eyes at the same moment, and simultaneously jumped into a defensive posture. “You!” they shouted at the same time. Change looked between the mares in abject confusion. “What are you doing here?” Twilight growled. “I could ask the same thing,” Trixie shot back. “Are you here on behalf of your mistress? Are you being an obedient pawn? I should have listened to that insufferable griffon!” “My mistress? Princess Celestia is a teacher, and a good one at that,” Twilight fumed. “She doesn’t demand obedience; she asks it and gives you reasons to give it!” “She definitely did some demanding with Change, here!” Trixie snarled. Twilight was about to respond when Change jumped in between the two of them. He looked at Twilight with eyes begging her to stop. She took a deep breath in, before exhaling slowly. Trixie had a smug grin on her face, “Of course he sides with me. That’s what family does, Sparkle.” Change whirled at Trixie and glared right into her eyes. She took an involuntary step back at the intensity of the narrow-eyed glare coming from the usually passive stallion. He scratched into the dirt. Not a word. Either of you. “But–” Twilight tried to say, only to have a cyan hoof covering her mouth. She took one look at the serious face Change was giving her, and sighed, nodding. Change removed his hoof and started walking back towards Ponyville, and some damn paper. —*~*~*— Trixie They were walking to Ponyville, Trixie knew this because it was the same path she had taken on that fateful day two years ago. The day those idiot foals brought an Ursa Minor into town for her to vanquish. Not her greatest hour, but she had tried. In the end, Twilight-freaking-Sparkle, Protégé of the Sun, had shown her up and nearly ruined her act permanently. Trixie couldn’t really blame her, logically. A rampaging monster was destroying her hometown, and she only acted out of desperation. Logic, however, often took a backseat to emotion. Trixie was not happy that one of Haven’s two supply lines was nearly severed, and by complete accident. As such, the walk to Ponyville was filled with glares from one mare to the other. It seemed that Twilight hadn’t forgotten that she was responsible, in an incredibly minor way, for the near destruction of Ponyville the last time she had been there. Of all the mares he had to fall for, it had to be Sparkle. Of course, how many ponies could “kind, beautiful, talented in magic, humble” describe? As they reached the edge of the woods, Twilight spoke up. “We need to be careful if we’re taking Trixie into Ponyville.” Change looked at her, slightly annoyed at her disobedience of his command, but curious. “My friends haven’t forgotten the last time she was here, and neither have the populus.” Change nodded, then planted his hoof into his face. He looked at Twilight and tapped his forehead, right where a horn would be if he had one. Twilight and Trixie both blushed. How had neither of them thought of using magic? With a flash, the trio were in the library. Change went straight for the pen and paper, leaving the mares alone in the room for a minute. “So, back in Ponyville, are you?” Twilight asked, trying for nonchalant as she sat on a pillow by the big table in the middle of the library. It didn’t exactly work. “For now,” Trixie replied, sitting on the other side of the table on another cushion. “I fully intend to leave this backwater little town for somewhere with culture and class as soon as I can.” Twilight narrowed her eyes at Trixie, “Well, I can’t say I’d be sorry to see you go.” Trixie sighed, “But if Change stays—oh, I don’t know!” Twilight’s curiosity overpowered her dislike of the mare she was talking to. “What’s Change to you?” “He’s like the little brother or son I never got to have,” Trixie settled onto the ground. “He never had any mother figures around him, so he latched onto me as soon as he could. Because of that, I became the ‘mother’ of the group.” Twilight looked at the door Change had left through with soft eyes. “I never had a chance to ask about his past since I thought about asking.” Trixie scoffed, “Well I’m not going to be the one to tell you. His past is his to tell to whom he wants to.” Twilight sighed, “I know, I know. It’s just that he’s damaged—broken even—and I want to help, I just don’t know how.” “You’re doing the best you can just by being there for him.” Trixie dropped all semblance of hostility momentarily. “He cares for you, don’t hurt him. Please.” Twilight’s response was cut off by the re-emergence of the stallion through the door, pen and paper in hoof. —*~*~*— Change To Change’s surprise, the mares were having polite conversation when he walked in and not at each others’ throats. He blinked in surprise, before pushing on and laying the paper on the table. After a bit of scratching, he had a message for the two. Good to see you two behaving. I was sure someone would be dead when I got back. “We still don’t like each other,” Trixie said, “we just decided to cooperate for now.” Change nodded, writing down another note. When he was finished, he placed it between the two unicorns. Better than I expected. Now, you two have a history. “I’m assuming you want us to tell you the whole thing, right?” Twilight asked. “It wasn’t that big of a deal, in the end.” “To you,” Trixie grumbled. Change knocked on the table with his hoof, giving the two rivals a small glare. Trixie sighed, “Sparkle can go first, so I can correct her inevitable inaccuracies.” “Glad to hear you have such a high opinion of me,” Twilight said, glaring at the other unicorn. She turned to Change. “Trixie came into town for a magic show. She made ludicrous boasts, including how she once beat an ursa major. After that, she humiliated my friends and called it a day. “During the night some local foals went into the Everfree forest to find an ursa for Trixie to vanquish. They ended up bringing one to town, and Trixie wasn’t able to live up to the expectations she set forth. Because of that, the ursa ended up destroying half the town before I could stop it.” Twilight leaned back on her cushion as she finished in a clear sign that she was done. Trixie gave a long-suffering sigh, shaking her head. “Oh, Sparkle. How wrong you are. Let’s fix this story. “First off, she was actually partially right as to why I came into town, no matter how wrong she was about the rest of it. I had heard that Ponyville had some high-profile residents—the Elements of Harmony themselves, if you believe it—and decided that it would be a good idea to make some connections, despite the dangerous proximity to Haven. I’m not quite sure why I was lied to, but whatever. I came in with my usual theatrics to impress both the plebeians and the Elements. Not three minutes into my show, however, I got heckled. “Being a stage performer, I have standards for a crowd. I must say that Ponyville had the most boorish, insensitive, ill-mannered, impolite, discourteous, and uncivil group I have ever had the misfortune of performing for. Of course, I couldn’t let that stand, so I gave the town a challenge. Anything anyone could do, I could do better. It’s actually pretty easy, all you have to do is embarrass them somehow related to their talent, and nopony mentions that you actually didn’t do what you said you would. “After I showed up some of the residents, apparently some of Sparkle’s friends, I retired to my wagon. I was planning on doing another show or two the next day before announcing that I would be accepting donations, as was the usual for these stops. Two of the local foals decided they needed to wait on me hoof and tail, and I tried to get them to leave me alone without telling them off. They were foals, after all. I’ll admit that I got a little rude with them in the end, though. They just wouldn’t take a hint. “Next thing I know, they’re banging on my wagon, yelling at me to vanquish the ursa they had brought into town. Since that was all theatrics, I couldn’t actually do it. It would take a unicorn of Starswirl the Bearded’s levels of magic to do so, after all. I tried my hardest, and only lost my wagon for the trouble. “Turns out that it only takes a unicorn of Sparkle’s talent to vanquish an ursa when they’re young, since she ran out and showed me up. I didn’t handle meeting someone better than me very well, and left. Within weeks, a version of the story blaming me alone for the negligent near-destruction of an entire town—which was not, in actuality, my fault—got out. I couldn’t perform anywhere for nearly three months before the truth got out.” Trixie hung her head, saying quietly, “Sorry for the lean times, Change. I tried my hardest.” Twilight sighed, bringing a hoof up to massage the bridge of her nose. “You were showing off and making yourself seem better than you were.” “And what was I?” Trixie snapped. “A braggart who was too big for her own horseshoes,” the purple mare responded. Trixie stood up, slamming a hoof onto the table in anger. “Yes, I exaggerated my abilities! That was my job! Excuse me if I had eight mouths to feed at home, Twilight Sparkle. Forbid that you would ever have to care for a family while traveling around the country.” “Maybe you should have—” Twilight began to retort. There was a loud slamming sound as Change slammed his hooves on the table as hard as he could. In the moment of stunned silence, he scratched out a note. Stop arguing! “But she—” Trixie started. Change glared at her and tapped the note. Twilight sighed, “Fine.” Now you wouldn’t happen to have ice cream, would you? “Wha—?” Twilight asked, confused. “He prefers vanilla over chocolate,” Trixie said as if this was a normal occurrence. “I can’t see why.” —*~*~*— Change sat with a pleased look on his face, holding a tub of vanilla ice cream in his hooves. Half of the tub had already been shoveled down his throat, and he was taking a break to avoid a brain freeze. “Okay, so what do we do about you?” Twilight asked, looking at Trixie. “I don’t like you,” the mare in question said, “but I respect you. I trust that—even if you don’t care much for me—you’ll do the best you can to help me get settled in.” “You’re staying?” the purple unicorn asked. “Why?” “At least until the proclamation, if it even happens,” Trixie said. “After that, it’s all up for grabs. I’ll figure it out later.” “ ‘If it even happens’?” Twilight exclaimed. “Princess Celestia said she would do it, so she will!” “Excuse me if I don’t trust her,” Trixie scoffed. “How could you not trust her?” Twilight asked. “What did she do to you?” “First off, she pulled us off the streets, then she—” the mare stopped mid-sentence, looking over at Change. Twilight followed her eyes to see him shaking his head back and forth swiftly and repetitively, rocking slightly with a face that suggested that if he could, he would have been whimpering. “Nevermind. You’ll learn later.” “It was bad, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked softly. “Very,” Trixie said. “I’m surprised that his mind made it through. He got the worst of all of us, and he was only a foal at the time.” Twilight shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe it, myself.” “Do,” Trixie said. “It happened, and we were the lucky ones; we lived through it.” Twilight sighed. “She’ll tell everypony soon. I’ll figure everything out then. For now, I only have one spare bed, and I’m giving that to Change.” Change’s ears perked up at that. “I’ll have to talk with my friends, see if any of them are willing to give you a spare bed.” “I only need an open spot on the floor,” Trixie said. “Wood is much softer than stone, and I spent years sleeping on that stuff.” “You’re telling me something about what happened when Change isn’t around,” Twilight stated. “I can tell you something now,” Trixie said. “Nothing good.”