Chapter Eighteen
Changes
While I tutored Csharreee, I kept a bit of my attention on Jigsaw's monitoring spell. When her mood turned positive, I relaxed quite a bit. When it turned happy, I let my focus slip away, my own mood brightening considerably.
"Is this right?" Csharreee asked me, holding up her worksheet.
"Not quite," I told her, and made a slight correction. "Say! There's a really good way to remember this formula: You can sing it!" I hesitated, "Uhmn... you can sing, can't you?"
"Yes, it is part of our training."
O—kay. "I'll go through it once and then you join in, okay? We can even sing it as a round!" I took a deep breath and tapped out time with my hoof. "Neg-a-tive bee, plus or minus rad-di-i-cal, bee squared minus four ay-y cee, all o-ver two ay."
She sang it through and then I showed her how to come in after "radical". We flubbed up a couple of times, laughing, and then got the song going really well. We kept it up, grinning our heads off, until we were interrupted.
"Holy stars, Twilight! Are you guys actually singing math?"
We broke off and turned to find Jigsaw and Sesseressia in the doorway. "The quadratic equation, to be precise," I told her.
"You ponies are very strange," Sesseressia observed, dryly.
"Hey!" Jigsaw said. "Don't lump me in with the eggheads! I'm a jock at heart."
I made an attempt to apologize to Jigsaw, but she waved it off. "I understand, Twi. I was just embarrassed."
I didn't know what to say, so I just hugged her.
"So," Jigsaw asked as we broke off the hug. "What's the plan, Princess?"
"We only have a few hours until sundown, so I think you two ought to relax and enjoy yourselves."
"Yes, ma'am!" Jigsaw beamed.
= = =
The two drones showed up just after dark. Sesseressia explained to them about not needing to be fed, and while she was talking, one of them openly stared at her legs.
"Take a good look," Sesseressia hissed, shoving her hoof under the drone's muzzle. "And remember that even though I don't need to feed right now, I could still suck you dry just for fun!"
Jigsaw leaned over and whispered to me, "Isn't she cute when she's all forceful and menacing?"
The general was right. Ponies are strange.
We stayed up late, for several reasons. I think Sesseressia was nervous about what she was going to look like when she woke up; Jigsaw was having too much fun;[1] and Csharreee and I were called upon to repeat our musical performance, eventually convincing Jigsaw to join in. Sesseressia flatly refused. "I am the general of a great army," she said with immense dignity. "I don't do campfire songs."
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[1] I had no idea she had packed a flask of apple brandy. It certainly wasn't on any of the checklists.
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= = =
It wasn't surprising that I dreamed that night, but it was a bit odd that I knew I was dreaming right from the start. It had happened to me before, so I just went with it, curious to see what my subconscious would come up with. My good mood from the evening had certainly carried over into the Dream Realm.
I was in the Castle of the Two Sisters, back when it had still been completely in ruins. Nightmare Moon lounged on the dais in the throne room, idly swinging a hoof over the edge.
"Hiya, Black Snooty!" I called to her cheerfully. She looked up at me and, suddenly, I felt a lot less flippant.
"It's the little princess," she sneered. "Come to poke at me."
"Uhmn... I didn't mean to be disrespectful," I told her. "I meant it casually... like between friends."
She scowled, and her pupils slitted down to thin, vertical lines. "I think I will kill you now."
Despite the chill that ran down my spine, I replied calmly, "Sorry, but I know this is a dream. You can't."
"Oh, but I can! That is one of the few good things about being trapped in this realm." She rose slowly and paced toward the short stairs down to the floor of the hall. "I can kill you... not just once, but again and again!"
Oh. It was going to be one of those nights.
One of the most valuable things Celestia ever taught me is not to do anything without my whole heart behind the effort. So, when I decided that talking wasn't going to do any good, I flung a bolt of magical energy at Nightmare Moon's face in the very next instant. Without waiting to see if it struck, I teleported to one side, tripled the gravity around her, and then heaved chunks of the shattered roof into the top of the increased gravity field. The stones slammed down with horrific force, powdering on impact.
The dust fell out of the air with the speed of raindrops, revealing a perfectly unharmed Nightmare. She smiled. "I've always loved mares with fighting spirit. I..."
I fed momentum into the flagstones beneath her and enough energy to make them go semi-molten, then I flipped the gravity field and they leaped skyward in brilliant red streaks. The rock spattered off of her like it was mere frosting.
"You can't hurt me," she sneered, advancing slowly. "My armor was forged in..."
Armor. Right. If that was the problem, then it was also the key to the solution. I hit her peytral with a surge of magic, sheathed in a blaze of force to conceal the true, analytical nature of the spell. I found that the armor was made of a magic-charged, crystalline metal-and-carbon lattice, insanely strong on a mere physical level, and when woven through with the right spells and thaumophobic traces, absolutely impenetrable. There was no way I could harm her while she was wearing it.
While she...
I teleported the armor off of her. 10,000 feet straight up put it out of play for a good long while, and was a place where she wouldn't be likely to locate and retrieve it. Not that I was going to give her time to do anything like that. I immediately winked in a five-point pattern around her and let loose blasts of fire, ice, electricity, cutting wind, and conjured spears each time I appeared for a fraction of a second.
Nightmare Moon gasped, "That's my girl..." as she collapsed to the floor.
I was appalled. I rushed to her side and picked her up in my hooves, but she was beyond help. My tactic had succeeded all too well. "I—I'm sorry!" I wailed.
"Never apologize for being strong," Luna said, as the body of Nightmare Moon melted away and sank into the stones of the floor.
"This is a stupid dream!" I shouted, whirling to face her.
Luna shrugged. "You conjured it, Twilight Sparkle, I am just here out of curiosity."
I stomped my hooves in frustration. "Why do I have to have anxiety dreams? I'm anxious enough when I'm awake!"
Luna tilted her head, considering. "Remember that the language of dreams is rarely direct. Perhaps this is more than it seems."
"Don't you dare go all pizza-mare on me again," I grumbled. "What I need right now are answers, not appetizers!"
Luna smirked at me. "But that is exactly what your dream has given you, Twilight Sparkle." And she vanished in a flash of moonlight.
I frowned in puzzlement for a moment and then turned my head straight up to see what was making the whooshing/whistling sound.
It was the empty armor.
= = =
I started awake, the clanging of metal on stone still ringing in my mind. It was full dark, and I had evidently not cried out, because everypony else was still asleep—and two of them were softly glowing.
Sesseressia and Csharreee were each surrounded by a pale blue nimbus. I slowly got to my hooves and moved closer to them, taking care to step as quietly as possible. Csharreee was closest, and I could see that the holes in her legs had become mere dimples. Sesseressia was behind her, and I craned my neck to get a good look at her. She was nearly completely equine, and she looked very like the tall unicorn mare she had imitated the previous day.
I stood and observed until the Eastern sky began to lighten and the glow around the changeling officers faded away. Then I nudged Jigsaw awake with a gentle push of magic, muffling her grunt of annoyance as she tried to roll over and go back to sleep. When she finally looked at me, I made a shushing motion and pointed at Sesseressia and Csharreee.
I touched Jigsaw's lips with a hooftip to keep her from exclaiming, and motioned her into the empty hall leading off of the rotunda.
"Okay," I whispered to Jigsaw. "Sesseressia is going to be upset when she wakes up, so you need to reassure her—"
"Upset?" Jigsaw whispered back. "Did you see those legs? And that rump! If the magic of friendship can do that..."
"Would you please be serious!"
"Twilight, I am deadly serious. I will reassure the living hay out of her!"
"Jigsaw, this is about more than your libido! How would you react if you woke up as a changeling?"
She held up a hoof. "Whoa, there! Twilight, she and I talked about this last evening before we came back for dinner. She's not stupid, and it was pretty clear where this... process might end up. She's not entirely happy about it, but... um... I promised her some things."
I nodded. "Okay. I hope you're prepared to keep those promises, because I have a feeling that if she completely becomes a pony, it'll be permanent."
She frowned at me. "Don't worry, I'll... we... will be okay."
"Okay," I said. "Good."
"What about your little study buddy?"
"I'll talk to her when she wakes up. I'll explain the options—"
"Suffering stars, Twilight! You're hopeless!"
"What?"
She sighed and then told me, "Okay... here's what you're going to do..."
= = =
"Sesseressia?" Jigsaw said softly, reaching out to stroke her cheek gently. "Sessi? You should wake up now."
I lay facing Csharreee, pretty much copying Jigsaw's words, but with a lot less intimacy on the physical side of things.
Sessiressia's eyes opened and she smiled when she saw Jigsaw. Jigsaw put a gentle hoof under her jaw to keep her from looking down. "You've changed, Sessi. You're more of a pony now. A pretty impressive pony, in fact."
"Ah... I thought I might... " She pulled back a little. "Let me look. No yelling this time, I promise."
I helpfully summoned up a reflective rectangle in the air for her to use as a mirror, while I was breaking the news to Csharreee. She didn't take it nearly as well, but she didn't outright panic.
"It's all right," I told her, while wrapping a comforting wing around her. "I believe the change will reverse itself if you are away from my... influence, I suppose."
"I don't want to be a pony," she said so quietly it was almost a whisper.
It was weird. I felt bad about that. It was her choice, but... I mentally kicked myself. "When the queen gets here, I will ask her to take you back to the hive."
"But I like math!" she cried.
I chuckled, even though it wasn't funny. "Don't worry, Csharreee, I will send you lots of books to study."
"It won't be the same," she said shaking her head sadly. "I liked learning from you. I liked the singing. I... I liked... being your friend."
I was surprised to feel my eyes getting a bit misty. "I liked being your friend, too. And we can still be friends... just at a distance for now. There's no need to make permanent decisions yet."
"I suppose not."
"Twilight?" Jigsaw interrupted us.
"Yes?"
"Do you think one more day together will complete the transformation?"
I looked Sesseressia over. She still had little fans of wing material at her shoulders, ridged flesh where the flexible bands of her thorax used to be, and slightly jagged teeth, but most of the rest of her was entirely pony-like. "Yes, I think so... but there's one odd thing."
"What is it?" both Jigsaw and Sesseressia said together.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh for Celestia's sake, Jigsaw! Did you ever hear the expression about missing the forest for the trees? Have you really been so busy staring at the curve of her butt that you didn't notice she has no cutie mark?"
"Ah..."
"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" I smirked at her, and then said to Sesseressia, "I can see why you like her: She's really cute when she blushes."
"She certainly is." The almost-pony grinned back at me.
Jigsaw sputtered for a second, put on a show of annoyance, even though I'm sure she was secretly pleased, and then said, "What does it mean, then? Why no mark?"
That was easy. "A new life means a new destiny, and she hasn't found hers yet." I turned to Sesseressia. "How does it feel to have a whole world of possibilities in front of you?"
"Terrifying," she dead-panned.
= = =
Chrysalis arrived about an hour later. Once she saw Sesseressia, she went very quiet and still. The rest of us, even the drones, held our breath.
"She..." Her voice nearly broke and she took a moment to get herself under control. "Her wings are nearly gone. Why is that?"
"I don't know, Your Majesty," I replied, mindful of the drones in the room. "I don't even know why she seems to have an affinity for that particular body shape. She might just as well have become a pegasus."
"No," Chrysalis said, as if thinking to herself. "A unicorn is right, I suppose."
Huh? "How so, Your Majesty?" I asked.
"She is my spawn. My bloodline. It makes sense."
Not to me, it didn't, and I didn't think Chrysalis wanted to be pressed on the subject. But when has that ever stopped me? "I don't understand, Your Majesty. Could you explain it to me?"
She snapped out of her reverie to glare at me. Then she looked around at the rest of the room's occupants. "All of you," she snapped, imperiously. "Get out!"
I nodded to Jigsaw and she fled with the rest of them.
"You ponies value your word, do you not?" Chrysalis asked when we were alone. "Especially a noble princess such as yourself."
"That's true, Chrysalis."
"Then give me your word you will not reveal what I am about to tell you to any living being. Neither will you write it down, or..." She seemed to be grasping for some other way I could weasel around a promise.
I reached out with my magic, brushing her horn in invitation. She hesitantly called up her own tendril of magic and intertwined it with mine. "I swear to you on the sun and moon, on my own magic, and on my life and honor, that your words will be safe with me, Chrysalis. May the light in my eyes go out, if I betray your confidence," I said. The magic between us flared briefly and then went out.
She blinked at me, and then stood there, just looking at me for the longest while.
"I would not have asked that of you," she finally said.
"I just wanted to make sure you didn't feel any need to hold anything back."
"Very well, Twilight Sparkle," she said. "I will tell you how I came to be."
= = =
=
I was trying to figure out what tune to use. Good to know!
I am always so happy when this updates!
And soon the changeling will be a pony, can't wait to hear what Chrysalis has to say!!!
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I get the feeling we're not actually going to hear Chrysalis's story. Twilight did promise to keep it super-double-extra secret, after all.
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we are watching from beyond the forth wall your promises dont count here
nice :)
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I wouldn't be so cruel! A tease like that with no pay-off? That would be sheer eeevil.
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...
If you don't give us the story, I will gain electric powers from sheer hate and spend my days resuscitating and killing you in an endless cycle.
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Hey! That would make a cool idea for a fic! Oh, wait... Hard Reset.
(Don't worry, the chapter is half written, already.)
Fun fact (at least I think it's fun): 'Hey, Ho, Nobody's Home' is in common meter; so you should be able to sing the quadratic equasion song to hundreds of tunes, including Amazing Grace, Yankee Doodle, House of the Rising Sun, The Marines' Hymn, and the theme from Gilligan's Island.
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Just sang it to The House of the Rising Sun. Mind = blown!
That sounds an awful lot like the debt paying mentioned previously.
That is pretty unfair.
Huh, so the new plan will involve teleportation? Maybe making use of the cornucopia's teleporting abilities?
Woot, looks like we're plus one unicorn, minus one changeling.
...
...there's a song for the quadratic equation? I WANT IT. Do you have the tune for it available? Because man, that would have been SO useful in high school.
I don't know the tune you said it was; or maybe I know the tune, but just not the name.
3915640 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYngB-QWTZg
I find it odd how fast Jigsaw has gotten over Twilight and then found someone else. It is also odd how fast Sessi has come to like Jigsaw. I don't know, I love this story and it's lore, but Jigsaw's relationahip, Chrysalis' constant reappearance, and the fact that the subplot romance has taken an importance over the reason they are there is throwing me through a loop. It almost seems like you wanted to do too much and tried anyway.
But I want to reaffirm that this is great, but everything has gone far off topic.
And... Pop goes the weasel.
Typo "Perhaps this more than it seems."
Yeah, my math teacher used to have us sing it to the tune of the fight song of the college she graduated from. "X equals negative b, plus or minus the square root of, b squared minus 4 a c, all over 2 times a."
Hm...It kinda bugs me that Jigsaw would call herself a jock, but I guess she was willing to use an incredibly offensive slur regarding her own race.
I dunno, maybe it's just me, but the way I usually see it, jock is to athlete as stubborn is to determined, or egg-headed to studious. two words, one idea, one with negative connotations, one with positive.
Oh dear gods, I think I might have finally found something interesting in math...
It is not an equation but a formula. The difference (as I understand it) is equations you can solve for different variables that are input into it while formulas you put in numbers and get a result but can't work the process in reverse. God I am a nerd sometimes.
Comma and then capital letter. I'm pretty sure it was meant as a period.
I think there should also be an "is" in that first sentence.
Oh boy. I have to keep going. I honestly have so many ideas, but not a single clue as to what is going to happen next.
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I disagree, I can get A, B, and C from it, as well as X. Also I can determine if it's a real number.
Nerd for life!
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A formula is just a kind of equation where one variable is expressed in general terms of the others.
You can solve for any of the component variables in the quadratic formula (effectively turning it into a formula of them instead). It doesn't often make sense to do so since they're more easily accessible in the original polynomial, but you can. Once you get to classical mechanics and start dealing with rotating reference frames though, the coordinate change uses a lot of quadratic-ish terms where it helps to be a bit flexible with the formula as a more general equation.
This totally jibes with my changeling headcanon. :D
I literally just learned that today. Not the song but the math.
I think that the story to come will be filled with darkness and horror on a level Twilight has never encountered before. I also think that there is going to be a curse. Could it be Twilight's destiny to save the Changelings?
I take it that was a Dresden Files-esque promise at the end there? If Twilight breaks her word, she loses her magic? You should mention the significance of it in the chapter it's brought up in, or at least the next chapter.
Haza! Can I do the singing math?!
Luna because no emoticon for her...
Celestia's
reverie
room's
OH look the quadratic formula. I learned it through the story.
My class sung it to "Pop goes the weasel"
The story goes
"The Negative Boy(-B) Couldn't decide (+/-) wether to go the the radical dance(Square rt) The boy was a square(B^2) and missed out on(-) four awesome Chicks(4AC) and the dance was over an 2AM (2A).
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I've heard a song about Pi like that.
But that ones much more impressive.
And this comment is hardly relevant, and a year late so I don't even know why I'm making it...
I figured it out several chapters ago. Bugs stay or return to places they were born at multiple points in there lives.
Math is fun. Also, happy Pi Day!
Was that the 'unbreakable bow' from HP?
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Not that I know of.
Okay that is so awesome, I got taught to sing the quadratic formula in the 10th grade. And everybody thought I was crazy. XD but then again almost 10 years later I still remember it. Amazing how well singing things works huh?
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Yup! I've had some foreign words that would just not stick in my head until I came up with a few notes to sing them to... and years later, when I've forgotten half of the language through disuse, I can still remember those words!
I'd like to see a fanfic all about iisaw's Magic Theory
Smart tactic
Ooo! Changeing genesis story coming up! I’m so excited!
Oh, and the quadratic formula? I hated that with a bright, burning passion in high school. Ugh.
Hey, you gotta have something for when you're on a dig and find a really REALLY great discovery! But this also counts as a good reason to break the stuff out too.
somehow this reminded me of a weird story where Sunset Shimmer had created a magical virus that was turning people into ponies...Twilight found a cure, but it wouldn't work on anyone who had a Cutie-Mark!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Yeah, that is...that is reasonable.
You know...thinking back, this story is not quite turning out to be what I expected from reading the recap. But I am enjoying myself greatly regardless.
Okay, Twilight singing MATH to a changeling is something I never thought I'd see. Goodness I love this purple bookhorse.
Action Twi go!
God this is great. *takes notes*
*MORE NOTE TAKING*
Ooooooooo.
I might pause here for the night, but I've been completely sucked into it. The Changeling subplot is just as great as the ancient civilization! Hopefully I'll finish the rest of the story tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on available freetime!
Yep, we sang the quadratic equation, too— we did it to 'Pop Goes the Weasel'.
And I love what's going on with this changeling transformation stuff. Can't wait to hear Chrysalis's origin story. Oh wait! I don't have to!
Gosh darn jocks
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yea, i'll bet on the line: "I swear to you on the sun and moon, on my own magic, and on my life and honor, that your words will be safe with me, May the light in my eyes go out, if I betray your confidence," is a Blood Oath type deal, creepy, it basicly states Break the oath and you'll die. the Name part mey have to be said so the Spell knows who to bind with?
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Yes, those were not just empty words.