Silver Eyes and Rainy Skies

by Roadie

20. From the private journals of Dr. H. D. Charm; written spring 1377.

From the private journals of Dr. H. D. Charm; written spring 1377.

I had the strangest feeling this morning that I had some kind of dream but forgot about it. As it was, I overslept quite severely, and it took me some time just to get out of bed once I was awake. It was... embarassing. I haven't slept through an alarm like that for years. It's well enough that I only had a single appointment today, because once I did get out of bed the concussion headache kicked in at what felt like full strength again and I almost flew out of the bathroom window while trying to brush the tangles out of my mane.

I don't know how I got down the stairs without rolling head-over-flank and bumping my head on every step on the way down, but when I did the colt was cleaning the kitchen. From what I could gather he dropped a hot pan while cooking and the contents of it went everywhere. I must have been so deep asleep that the noise didn't wake me up at all. What he was doing trying to rely on his magic again so quickly after yesterday's events I don't know, but once I had devoured some coffee I helped him get the oil scrubbed out of the grout.

He was terribly nervous at first. Whatever's going on in his head—frankly, at this point, I doubt I could make anything like a sensible diagnosis beyond just labeling the whole situation as some kind of magic-induced shizophrenia—I think he spent the whole morning with the two personalities he's shown starting to bleed together, and that fumbly worry of Silversheen's was showing through the whole time. His accent shifted twice before it settled on something almost but not quite like what the colt had started with. A few times while we were talking over breakfast, this time cooked by myself, he stopped like he'd forgotten the word he meant to use.

I'm will admit to myself that I'm thinking that there must be some truth to his humans. But how do the pieces come together? There must be some magic at work here, some way to explain Silversheen and the lack of a cutie mark, but I don't see what it is. If it was solely for the strange knowledge, I might suppose by now some genuine but embellished contact with another world. But this... it seems almost too absurd to think about, either some great transformation or some transfer of knowledge or memory. I've written letters to some of the specialists I know in Canterlot—and a formal complaint to the palace, for whoever thinks they can get me to break confidentiality because someone's flashed a royal seal at me.

Of the canine there has been no sight today. I encountered Rarity while shopping for groceries, and after she had finished commenting on how haggard I looked (how she can be always so immaculate, I do not understand), she mentioned that the one with the name I can't manage to spell properly left on an early train to Canterlot. It must have been only a few minutes after I finally woke up. I can only think that she realized she wouldn't get anything out of me. Once I had gotten Rarity detached from her incipient unease as regarded my appearance—I wonder if she wouldn't have tried to bodily drag me to that spa if she didn't seem to have her hooves full with something else—I took a nap and tried to get a little more awake for my appointment.

S.L. remains one of my easiest patients here, despite thinking of herself as a dog half the time. It is, after all, a very straightforward problem. She becomes increasingly functional with each session, even when she's having an episode. I doubt she will be "cured" for some time, if ever, but she has responded quite well to even the few meetings we've had so far. Soon she may even be able to go outside without a handler from the hospital to make sure she doesn't suddenly start chasing after carts.

The colt's half-day at school went well enough, by his own estimation, despite a few moments where (I will quote his words) "Silversheen almost woke up, and then hid again". We had an early dinner of Neighponese food and he was able to offer little to clarify the situation, at least with the gentle prodding I was willing to use. He was, at least, willing to talk to that group of mares again about the machine, and about the "body" he had mentioned, but when we went out into town we couldn't find a trace of them. The six of them are spending the night at the Grand Galloping Gala, according to an orange filly called Scootaloo by the colt. The library was even closed again—whoever runs that place must really be slacking.

Scootaloo has some interest in his lack of a cutie mark, something he's rather more blasé about himself, and has invited him to her friends' "cutie mark crusading" tomorrow—her term for attempting to find ones' special talent. I've given it my tentative blessing, so long as he's feeling up to it. It should make for a convenient time to try and gather those mares, given Scootaloo's professed familiarity with Rainbow Dash and the others. So long as the balance of his condition remains stable enough, he could use more social time... after all, what's the worst that could happen with a few foals?

Comments

[Hyper Atomic]

This story:

I especially like it for the "narrative conceit" I believe you called it. It allows for a welcome perspective shift from the norm.

[Roadie]

3449239
You're thinking in the right direction.

Now consider the "perfect day" comment and you can probably figure out who Été actually is.

[Derpy_Dragon]

after all, what's the worst that could happen with a few foals?

The worst that could happen‽
I once read a story where the CMC literally brought about the apocalypse.

[TheGreatSako]

Yeah, call me dumb, but I can't follow this anymore. It's too much.

[Sorrowfulwinds]

Blagh this story is good but the way it's written to the audience makes me want to break something from the lack of logic.

[Minalkra]

3450027
Sonnuva bitch, it's Chryssy! This is pre-Wedding, HE was the source of the changeling invasion threat. It can't be past season 3 because this is LADY T. Sparkle ap af, not Princess T. Sparkle ap af - and the book was written three years after the story, thus three years after the invasion (when knowledge of changelings was hella wanted). It's particularly funny given how little the Elements actually did during the invasion. But it'd make sense that Chryssy would want them to be neutralized. I take it this won't follow comic-canon at all?

I think I'm right and if so, good on ya. It'll be interesting to see how human concepts of freedom, democracy et al. will have an effect on this new Queen. I'm assuming the gender is irrelevant here (but I could be wrong).

[Roadie]

3450534
Apt observations.

I'll say that Queen Chrysalis' plan for the wedding is going to be a bit different than in canon, being simultaneously more audacious and even more screwed-if-this-fails crazy, and that a central element of it will be the Elements of Harmony being fired at full blast at her.

There'll also be the oddity of the plan only being different because the plan is different, but funny ontological things happen when even partial visions of the future are involved.

I might roll random stuff in from the comics when convenient, but I'm not assuming them as part of things.

[bitbrony]

for whoever things they can get

for whoever thinks they can get

[Roadie]

3450750
Whoops! Thank you for catching that.

[Sky Hooves]

after all, what's the worst that could happen with a few foals?

Ten seconds later...
thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/explodierende-todesplanet-erde-4545679.jpg

[Jack Kellar]

3450534 I don't know what you must've been drinking, but it must be the GOOD stuff. Because I still don't follow your logic.

[Minalkra]

3450973
... I was sober, man. Rare day when I'm not at work.

Ok, so there was a letter-chapter from Celestia to Twilight asking her to find the unnamed person who slipped some form of warning or other into one of Twi's regular reports that was pretty damn specific. That mirrors the show itself in the form of Shining's admission that Canterlot has a threat against them. From the 'Mind and Mirror' portions (especially the second part), we can guess that the colt is a changeling conglomerate being made up of a colt named Silversheen and an unnamed human mind who is on the cusp of changeling nobility. Ete (cause screw ASCII characters not present on my keyboard) and the colt have some sort of relationship/history where Ete sees colt as a tool, similar to how Chryssy has been shown in fandom as well as making Ete a 'higher level' creature to colt - a noble of some description.

Now, this isn't conclusive at all but various things kind of sort of fit together.

Now the thing to wonder about his how the inclusion of this human into the world has changed things from show canon. The only thing I can think of that would make Chryssy want to have the EoH shot at her is to either power her up (if that's a thing) or to 'cleanse' her. The last is more common but goes outside of Chryssy's apparent personality. I'm not really guessing at how the invasion has been changed because there are SO many things that can be different and lead to another outcome, it boggles. So I'm just going to wait and see.

[Roadie]

Incidentally, for the folks concerned about that interlude, etc, I'm thinking of doing a rewrite of it. 3451421 is pretty well on-target with that analysis, but it's increasingly obvious that the way I wrote it just plain didn't work for some people, so I'm thinking through ways to rework that interlude to work better for people who the hinting and implications pass over their heads (and that's not a complaint, just me looking at the different thought processes). The plot aspects I originally intended to use won't be going away, but I'll be looking to unpack and smooth out the introduction of them.

I also want to emphasize that, for the time being, the stuff the interlude covers isn't that important—it's setting up plot elements that will be used in the royal wedding, but it's not really going to have a huge affect on anything leading up to that, beyond the questions of identity that the unnamed colt has been dealing with the whole time anyway. It's not something that's going to cause a sudden 180 in the story, because it's not intended to really start a new plot development as much as start explaining what's already happened and why (and connect from there into the royal wedding plot later).

3455338
Oh, it's not a facsimile reproduction, it's a spell named after its inventor, the dragon Flamefax. Originally there was a longer name, but increased colloquialism of the term turned it into just "flamefax". (It really is just a coincidence, though I might use it for a throwaway joke later.)

[Zanec]

ack

[Archmage Ansrit]

The... worst?

Hmm...

"Oh God my everything!"

"It's on my face! It's on my face!"

"Get it off!"

And assorted mayhem, chaos, havoc, pandemonium, catastrophes, shenanigans...

[Blazing Shadow]

3768810 and tree sap

[Trambles]

The vibe I'm getting is that you're trying to tell too many stories at the same time. There are too many mysteries crowding the foreground. Half of what I know in this story has a big question mark attached. Suspense is a powerful tool, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the old adage "When all you have is a hammer..." might apply here.

[Roadie]

4785377
Correct.

Feel free to use it, I got the general line of thought myself from a few other fics.

[Ralfil]

I really like this story and how it's written. However, I do feel that the interlude gave away too much. It would probably work better if it were moved to later where more information from it has already been revealed. Then it would probably work very well as a callback chapter right before the climax. That's just my opinion though. I look forward to the next chapter.

[ferret]

Wait, so... Bruce got vaporized, and the changelings knew it all along, so they impersonated him to get close to ...someone? And some kind of flux capacitor? And there's this dog... fox that the psychologist knows for some reason, that ...escaped? And Lyra's been possessed by raccoons with pre-industrial steam technology? And everyone has weird names with accented vowels? And the Doctor is Derpman?

[Roadie]

5453325
Honestly, just consider that interlude canned. Whenever I get back to continuing this I'll be replacing it entirely, since it became obvious in retrospect shortly after I wrote it that literally none of my too-clever attempts at setting up stuff worked as intended.

[ferret]

5456987

It's alright, I cherish every chance I get to use that Sweetie Belle emoticon.

[Nopetrain]

I just found this and I hope there are more updates somewhere in the future.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

I would like to voice my approval of this story. It's highly enjoyable and I hope it continues some day.

[Mix-up]

Too bad their isn't any more of this story, I would had love to read more of this story.

[Texus]

Do you continue this story?
Someone gave me the link here and a psychological story sounds nice enough, but I saw the date.

[Geminii]

I realize there most likely won't be any further updates after more than four years, but gosh darn it, I'm putting it in my favorites anyway.

[Ranakastrasz]

One of those Truely great stories. It might be dead, but still worth rereading sometimes.

[Zanec]

Holds up relatively well.