//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: One of Many // 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 Five One of Many Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. -Aristotle Change Change woke up the next morning in a good mood. He stretched before hopping off of the bed. His hooves clacked lightly against the ground, and he sent a quick glance at his roommate. Twilight shifted in her bed, but didn’t wake up. Letting out a silent sigh of relief, the stallion softly and slowly creeped out of the room after making his bed. No need to get Twilight mad at him for being messy, after all. As soon as his hooves clopped against the top stair, he regretted waking up that morning. Sitting at the bottom of the stairs at the table was the Captain of the Guard. Shining Armor’s head lifted up as he heard hoofsteps on the stairs. “Ah, Twily, you’re—” he stopped in the middle of his sentence, eyes narrowing in a glare. Change froze in terror. Uh oh “You aren’t Twilight. What are you doing in my little sister’s room?” Not surprisingly, the mute didn’t answer. After a moment of awkward glaring, Shining Armor yelled, “Twilight! Get down here!” Change took that as his cue to bolt down the stairs. After a few seconds, a groggy Twilight walked up to the stairs. Her eyes were half closed with exhaustion, and her hair was messy. “What do you want, Shiny?” she groaned. “Why was there a stallion in your room?” the such-named stallion asked. “Is there something you want to tell me?” Twilight spent a second computing what Shining Armor had just insinuated, before blushing furiously. “Shiny!” she whined, now awake, “nothing is going on between us!” She muttered just loud enough for the two stallions to hear her, “What is it with ponies and assuming that I’m dating Change?” Shining Armor looked over to the deflated stallion, narrowing his eyes. “If it’s not that, then what? He came from your room, I can guarantee it.” “He needs a place to stay, and I have an extra bed,” Twilight said. “Extra bed, Shiny. We were in separate beds. What are you even doing here, anyway?” “Princess Celestia gave me a mandatory vacation for the rest of the week,” he said, frowning. “I told her something big was going to happen while I was away.” Twilight smiled. "I can finally introduce you to my friends!" she exclaimed. "I've already met them, Twily," he reminded her. "Yeah, but that was during the whole wedding fiasco," Twilight said. "Now that that's over, we can introduce you for real." “The afterparty of the actual wedding,” he tried. “We met then.” “You were exhausted,” she said. "We met again at the Crystal Empire," he said. "Evil king bent on enslaving an entire nation," she reminded him. Change's eyes were wide and switching from one sibling to the other. "We held a party after we beat him," Shining Armor said. "Again, you were exhausted," his sister replied. "And now you're out of events you met them at." "And Change is in shock, I think," the Captain of the Guard said. The mute stallion shook his head swiftly to clear his head. Ice cream makes everything better, he thought, walking into the kitchen. "Uh, where is he going?" the stallion asked. "He's grabbing the leftover ice cream, I think," Twilight said. "Ice cream?" the baffled guardspony asked. "Why is he getting ice cream?" "He's overwhelmed," she replied as the childish stallion walked back into the room with a tub of vanilla ice cream. "It's something comfortable." ". . . That is very childish," Shining Armor decided. Twilight shot him a look. "Whatever he went through, and I'm assuming this includes the mind ream, he went through it as a foal. Who am I to deny him a bit of immaturity?" The mute made a face at her reference to his past. The Captain scoffed. "It couldn't have been that bad. Look at him, he's no older than twenty. He's your age, Twily. That means he went through that during either my tenure, or the tenure of Aegis." Twilight shrugged. "We can worry about it later," she decided. She looked over at Change, who was holding the empty ice cream container upside down, peering into it with suspicion. There was a bit of white stuck on the end of his nose. She giggled when she saw him, walking down the stairs and standing in front of him. "Missed a bit," she teased, wiping the bit of ice cream off with a hoof. The mute blushed furiously, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Shining Armor. "Hey, Twily," he said, "why don't you gather your friends? You said something about introducing us?" Twilight smiled. "That's a great idea!" she exclaimed. "I'll get them now." Change watched as she left, unable to stop her. He knew what came next. He swallowed his nervousness, and turned to the Captain of the Guard. As soon as Shining Armor opened his mouth, Change bolted out the door. —*~*~*— Shining Armor walked back into the library with a squirming Change on his back. “Stop struggling!” he exclaimed, exasperated. “I’m not going to hurt you!” Logic, however, is not the best weapon to use against somepony who’s panicking, and therefore did little to calm down the mute stallion. “Look,” the Captain of the Guard sighed, placing Change on the ground, “just listen to me.” Change bounced in his hooves, eyeing the door with interest. After figuring that he couldn’t escape with Shining Armor in his current position, he sighed silently. He sat down on his haunches, awaiting the berating that he was about to receive. “Thank you,” the older stallion said. “Now as I said, I won’t hurt you. I have no interest in hurting anypony, especially not one of my sister’s friends. However,” Shining Armor got inches away from the other stallion’s nose, “if you hurt her, whatever happened in your past will pale compared to what I will do to you, do you understand?” Change’s blue eyes widened, and the blood drained from his face. He started shaking, and his pupils dilated quickly. As suddenly as it started, though, his panic vanished. His head drooped momentarily, before coming back up. His countenance had changed completely. No longer was he Change, it was like he was a different pony. He let out an audible sigh, the first sound he had made since Shining Armor met him. “Now you’ve done it,” he said in a raspy voice. It sounded like he was an old stallion on the brink of death, in direct violation of his actual appearance. Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you couldn’t talk?” “He can’t,” the Change-that-was-not-Change said. “I can. You’re distracting from the point of this conversation, though.” “I’m not doing anything,” Shining Armor said. “I knew it. I knew you could talk.” “Stop changing the topic,” the not-Change said. “You stop changing the topic!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “You’ve been lying. This whole time, you’ve been lying!” “Shining Armor, sit down and shut the buck up!” Change yelled. “Let me talk!” The guardspony sat involuntarily. “Thank you. Now, he had gone years without using one of us,” the younger stallion said, “now you come along and pull me out without trying. Are you proud of yourself, Shining Armor? Are you proud that you terrified a colt so much that he honestly thought you were about to kill him?” “What are you talking about?” the Captain of the Guard asked. “What am I talking about?” Change exclaimed. “Are you seriously that dense? Change was traumatized, moron. He was beaten, abused, and experimented on. What do you think that does to a colt? Yeah, he’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows.” The not-Change started pacing. “He was getting better, damn it! He dealt with Warden and Boss by himself. By himself! He even confronted Celestia. Now you’ve undone all that progress in a single conversation. I hope you’re proud of yourself.” “Who and what are you?” Shining asked, standing and getting into a defensive position. “I’m Braveheart, and I’m the one that comes out when Change needs to be brave,” the stallion said. “Change made me. I’m old, and have come to terms with my death. Because of this, I can be brave when he hides. When he needs to hide. When he is about to die. Every time he sees you, he’ll try to bring me out. He doesn’t even know I’m here, and he’s going to beg me to come out and save him. I’m going to have to ignore the terrified cries of a colt. Do you understand what you just did?” “You’re trying to tell me that there are multiple ponies living in his head?” the guardspony asked. “Do you think I’m dense enough to believe that?” “Yes,” Braveheart answered without hesitation. “But it’s also true. He was nearly driven insane by your Princess.” He spat out the last word like it was poison. “We came out and saved him.” “We?” the guardspony asked. “How many of you are there?” “Enough,” Braveheart said. “Keep this to yourself, if you know what’s good for you.” “Are you threatening me?” the Captain of the Guard asked, looking the stallion in the eyes. It was in that moment that he noticed the green eyes that the younger stallion had. The eyes that had been blue earlier. He wasn’t faking. “It’s not a threat,” the stallion said. “But this is. If word of us gets out, I will make sure you won’t tell anypony anything again. If I can’t, I’ll just grab another who can.” —*~*~*— Twilight “Of course I’ll come, darling,” Rarity said to the purple unicorn on her doorstep. “Should I fix my hair? I’m afraid I didn’t take as much time fixing it up as usual.” Twilight looked at the other unicorn’s hair—it looked as immaculate as ever—before saying, “It looks fine, Rarity. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.” “Guess you’re right,” the fashionista said. “He is a stallion, after all. I’m sure he won’t notice how bad my hair looks today.” Twilight examined her friend’s hair again. Again finding not a single hair out of place, she said, “Plus, he’s married. You don’t have to worry about impressing him.” “That’s good and bad,” Rarity said. “Let’s talk while we walk, shall we darling?” As the two of them started walking, she continued. “It’s good because I don’t have to look impressive for him, and it’s bad because he’s such a handsome stallion and somepony else grabbed him first.” She let off a thoughtful hum. “Maybe I should look even more impressive? I don’t think I could compare to an alicorn, though.” “Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed. Rarity gave her friend a mischievous smile. “Am I embarrassing you, darling?” The lavender unicorn sighed, choosing to keep silent for the remaining walk back to the library. When she arrived, nopony else was in the main room. “Uh, hello?” she called out. She had expected at least Shining Armor to stay and wait for her. She was bringing her friends to meet with him, after all. “One second!” her brother called out. “I’m in the kitchen, and Change is upstairs.” A white-crested cyan head peeked out of the doorway upstairs, checking if the coast was clear. Seeing it was, the rest of Change followed its example before walking down the stairs. He smiled at Twilight before kneeling one of his forelegs on the ground in a polite—if brief—bow at Rarity. She blushed. “He’s a gentlecolt, isn’t he?” Twilight giggled. “He’s a goof.” Change held a hoof over his chest in mock indignation. “It’s not a bad thing, Change,” Twilight said, giggling again. “In fact, it’s adorable.” The mute blushed a deep crimson. “He’s perfect coltfriend material, Rarity,” Shining Armor said walking into the room, causing Change to lock up and stop breathing. “Twily, he’s a bad match. Don’t try it.” Change slowly turned to face Shining Armor and backed away. Twilight looked at the terrified look on his face and turned to her brother, anger written across her face. “Shining Armor!” she yelled. “What did you do to this poor colt?” “I just—” he started. His eyes flicked to Change, who was glaring at him with green eyes. “Did you threaten him?” she kept going, interrupting him. “Well, you see—” he started again, glancing back over at Change to see his eyes still rich green. Big mistake. “I can’t believe you!” she exploded. “Why would you threaten a traumatized colt? What could have possibly made you think that was a good idea? Then you do it and can’t even look me in the eye afterwards?” “It’s my job as a brother,” the guardspony said. “I’m supposed to threaten any and all colts you bring home, and even some that you don’t.” “Shining Armor, he is not my coltfriend,” Twilight said levelly. “He is not just some colt. He is a traumatized and terrified colt that is in unfamiliar territory. Cadance will hear of this, I’ll have you know.” The stallion winced. “Aw, come on, Twily! I didn’t mean to scare him that bad!” “But you did,” Rarity butted in. “You threatened him right as he needed to feel safe and welcome the most. Even if you convince Twilight to not tell Cadance about this, I will.” The Captain of the Guard hung his head. “Aww, man.” “Now go back into the other room so we can talk with Change,” Twilight said. Her brother opened his mouth, but she pointed a hoof at the door. He sighed and walked out. She turned to Change, who was noticeably calmer. “Are you okay?” He nodded before looking around. Twilight instantly got what he wanted, and levitated over some paper and a pen. He scratched out a note. He’s scary. “Don’t mind him none,” Rarity said. “He was being an older brother. He honestly didn’t mean to scare you that bad.” Twilight nodded. “That still doesn’t excuse what he did. What exactly did he threaten?” “If you hurt her, whatever happened in your past will pale compared to what I will do to you, do you understand?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Rarity, take him to the Boutique. I need to yell at Shining Armor.” “What about Rainbow?” Rarity asked. “She’s bringing back the other girls.” “If you run into them on the way, bring them. If not, then I’ll have an audience,” Twilight said, growling the last sentence as she stomped into the other room where Shining Armor was. The yelling started before the door even closed. “How dense can you be? I have half a mind to geld you, if I didn’t know that Cadance would do it for me!” Rarity blushed bright red as Change tilted his head in confusion. Geld? “Let’s just go to the Boutique,” Rarity squeaked. —*~*~*— Change Send me back to the library, Change whined silently. He was currently being used as a living mannequin for one of Rarity's many projects. He had to hold perfectly still, or he’d get poked with one of the multitude of needles floating around. Thankfully, there was a window he was facing towards, so he wasn’t completely bored. Rarity was smart enough, however, to face him away from the door to make it harder to run. "I'm so sorry about this, darling," the seamstress was saying, "but I almost never get the chance to work with an actual stallion, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm sure you understand." I couldn't complain if I didn't. He sighed silently, a fact not missed by Rarity. "Oh, hush. I'm not hurting you," she said, "so stop complaining." The stallion grumbled mutely as she kept working. “Not hurting you much,” she corrected, thinking back to the needle she accidentally poked into his leg earlier. The door swung open near-silently on relatively recently oiled hinges. Change turned his ears to face behind him to better hear whoever was coming inside. “Hi Rarity, Change,” a slightly hoarse voice said. “I think Shining Armor got the point. You can come back now.” Hot damn! Change jumped off of the raised platform Rarity had set up to put him on, quickly shimmying out of the fancy clothes she had been creating around him. As soon as he was free, he trotted—smile on his face—to Twilight at the door. “Change,” Rarity whined. “I wasn’t done!” The mute winced and slowly walked back over, sullenly sitting down back on the platform. Twilight giggled at his reaction. “You can borrow him later, Rarity. Right now, I think he should come back to the library. He should meet the girls, and he needs to spend time around Shining Armor to make him less afraid.” Change’s eyes widened and he started shaking his head quickly. No. No. Nope. Uh uh. Not happening. Twilight sighed, frowning. “Please, Change? For me?” she asked, sticking out her bottom lip. Rarity chuckled as Change sat still, eyes looking between Twilight and the door, before sighing. He nodded, standing up and walking over to the lavender unicorn. As the duo started walking out, Twilight’s eyes caught a small pile of emeralds. “Why the emeralds, Rarity?” “I was certain that his eyes were green when I picked him up,” the seamstress said. “I don’t quite know why, but I saw him with dull green eyes.” The two mares looked at his bright blue eyes. “Those are blue, Rarity,” Twilight pointed out the obvious, bringing each of their attentions back to the other mare. “Oh, I know that now, darling,” Rarity said. “That’s why I went to the back for sapphires.” She looked at the stallion. “He cleans up so handsomely, if he’d only let me do more work on him.” Change’s stuck-out tongue was enough of an answer for the mares. “Doesn’t look like that’s happening,” Twilight said, giggling lightly. Rarity sighed. “He needs a good bath. He looks like he hasn’t spent any time cleaning himself more than necessary in his life.” The stallion shrugged. I haven’t. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Not everypony spends an hour cleaning every day, Rarity. He cleans enough to look nice and not smell.” She leaned close to his shoulder before making a face. “Change, how many days has it been since you took a bath?” The stallion looked up in thought. Let’s see, today is sunday, and so that means. . . He tapped his hoof on the ground once, then twice before pausing. After a moment of thought he tapped the ground twice more before nodding in satisfaction. Twilight and Rarity looked at him in shock. “Four days?” Rarity asked. “That means the last time you washed was Wednesday.” He frowned momentarily before tapping once more. “Tuesday?” Twilight asked, bewildered. The mares looked at each other before nodding. Change yelped silently as he was enshrouded with a swirling aura of purple and light blue. The two mares dragged him in tandem up the stairs to Rarity’s large, extravagant bathtub. It took a bit of work—and Twilight bringing up some paper and a pen—but eventually the mares were waiting outside while Change agreed to wash himself until Rarity was satisfied. The two mares looked at the note he had given them inside. I am not a child. I can handle washing myself without getting myself hurt. The two mares were giggling at how he phrased it, Twilight more than Rarity. The mares waited patiently outside the door waiting for the colt to turn on the bath. After about five minutes a note was shoved under the door. I don’t know what half of these bottles are. What is a "hair serum" and how does it work? Where did you hide your shampoo? “I can come in and help you, you know,” Rarity said through the door. Another note was slipped through the gap between the door and the floor. I’m naked. Twilight planted her hoof onto her face. “Change, we’re always naked.” After a momentary pause, another piece of paper was passed through. Only Twilight. “Change, Rarity is much better at this than I am,” Twilight explained patiently. “I think it would be better if you let her in.” After another pause, he repeated his message. Only Twilight. “Why only Twilight?” Rarity asked. I’m embarrassed. Rarity sighed. “Just go in, Twilight. I’ll be downstairs when you’re done, or if you need assistance.” Twilight waited until Rarity was on her way down the stairs before opening the door. As soon as she entered, she gasped in horror. Change stood holding a note in his mouth. Don’t scream Laying on the floor in front of the stallion was what looked like a pile of fur in the exact shade of the stallion’s coat. What she had been gasping at, however, was the stallion himself. The coat on his torso was sparse, sticking out between strips of milky-white flesh. It looked as if he had been completely wrapped in thin strips of cloth in a grotesque fascimile of a mummy. It took Twilight but a moment to realise that these were scars. These scars spread from his torso down his legs and up his neck, leaving a lot of room for her imagination to fill in how he got them. Her eyes widened as they roamed his body. She wanted to look away, but for some reason couldn't. She just kept staring at the colt's mutilated body. Change shifted his mouth to drop the piece of paper while still holding up the one behind it. Please don't scream. Her eyes were wide, locking with his pleading blue orbs. Please, they seemed to say. Please. She screamed.