Changing Times’ Notes: Every friendship has its rough spots. As this report shows, even the Elements sometimes fight, but true friendship will always win in the end.
Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction: A Report by Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria
The trip to Canterlot was pleasant—my actual visit much less so.
Spike and I spent the train ride simply relaxing. We played Eye Spy and talked about his latest comic books. In hindsight, we were both avoiding the issue at hoof, but it was worth it to scrounge up those last few hours of normalcy.
Once we reached Canterlot, however, I soon found myself swimming in a sea of half lies. My parents had let the mail pile up again, and missed my letter explaining things, while Shining and Cadance were there on a surprise visit of there own. I had to explain—without actually explaining—exactly why I was forced to leave Spike when he needed me the most.
“Tardy. Nothing good ever comes from being tardy.”
I flew through the night, wind coursing through my sweat-soaked coat and mane as I hurried home. Dreams of a hot bath and a good book drove me towards the castle on the horizon, and I shivered at the thought of finally finding out what happened after the cliffhanger I’d ended on a couple days ago.
Too bad I needed to deal with Morpheus first.
Landing on the balcony to my room, I lit my horn and cast a few spells of Rarity’s to freshen myself up. They didn’t actually clean me, but I was presentable for Morpheus, and that was all that mattered.
Opening the door to my room, I found myself in one of the hallways. A plain white sign hung on the wall in front of me with an arrow pointing right. The arrow vanished as I blinked in befuddlement, replaced with the neat and tidy cursive I was coming to expect from my— from Castle.
“I must beg your pardon, milady, but your presence is urgently needed at the study. There was apparently an issue today, and your friends are arguing over what to do with Morpheus while he works off whatever Pinkie drugged him with.”
I shook my head and sighed. “Of course…. Something always goes wrong when I’m tardy. Would you mind making some snacks for us, Castle? It’ll be harder for anypony to put their hoof in their mouth when food is already there.”
A flicker of light changed the writing. “Experience from Celestia’s Princess Lessons, milady?”
I chuckled as I turned to head for my study. “No, this is from Pinkie Pie’s Hoof in the Mouth special.”
The lights flickered again, but I didn’t need to look back. “Don’t ask! It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie!”
My ears twitched at the sounds of muffled shouting coming through the thick, crystal door, and I rested my hoof upon it. This was not howI wanted this meeting to go, and Celestia was going to—
No.
I brought my hoof back to my chest.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Push my worries away, and open the door with a smile.
“Why can’t we just wake it up ourselves? I’m sure if it won’t tell us the truth we can—”
“Hoof in the Mouth special for Dashie!”
My smile grew a little too much as I walked in on a twitching Pinkie shoving a cupcake in Rainbow Dash’s mouth. All the girls turned to stare at me for a moment before they glanced at the snoozing changeling on the desk. Morpheus—sans his disguise—kicked in his sleep, flicking his wings as he let out a low thrumming snore.
“I told you to watch out for that combo, Dashie!” Pinkie removed her hoof and licked the extra frosting off. “Hrmm… a little too much lemon, but it’s still pretty good!”
Rainbow chewed laboriously for a few seconds and swallowed. “What the hay, Pinkie?! Where’d you even get that cupcake?!”
Pinkie’s muzzle scrunched as she contemplated her hoof. “Huh…. Where did I get that cupcake? I didn’t pack any lemon in my stash.” She looked back up, smiling widely. “Anyways! I get you’re mad, but that’s no reason to ignore the Pinkie Sense! You know that ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch means look out for opening doors!”
“I wasn’t standing by the door!” Rainbow threw her hoof into the air.
“Silly filly! Neither was anypony else!” Pinkie giggled, pulling some more cupcakes from places unknown and handing them to the rest of the girls. “I wasn’t warning you about being bonked! I was warning you we were about to have company! I mean, there was like, a bazillion and one percent chance it was Twilight, and if it was Twilight, then she totally wouldn’t like all the interrogation methods you kept suggesting.”
There was a microscopic pause as she scarfed her own cupcake down and tapped her chin, smearring frosting underneath it.
“Well, she might’ve liked the waterboarding one, but that’s only because I don’t know what that is, and it sounds like surfing which is really really fun. Hey, Twilight! Can we waterboard with the changeling?”
“One Hoof in the Mouth special for Pinkie!” With some quick levitation, Rarity quickly stuffed her cupcake in Pinkie’s mouth. The fashionista’s sketchbook floated in front of her, and she had that look of ‘frazzle dazzle.’ As she continued to glance between Morpheus and me, her drawing tools maintained their manic pace.
“Well….” I kept smiling and tried not to bite my lip. “I take it you all know?”
Everypony nodded except Applejack—who was in the back corner, stenson over her eyes. Fluttershy was curled up next to her, patting her side and occassionally peeking at Dash.
“Then you know what comes next.” I nodded as politely as I could given my urge to just shrivel up with a sigh. “Rarity, would you do the honor?”
Rarity started looking around the room at anywhere but me. “Oh, we don’t need to do that, darling. I’m sure we would have noticed if you’d been replaced.”
There was a snort from the sleeping Morpheus, while Applejack flinched at the lie.
I stared at my friends for what felt like an eternity, letting the awkward silence grow. No doubt, they were waiting for me to insist on following the rules like I always did. It was different this time, though, and I shivered a little, saying nothing.
They didn’t know, after all.
In the back, a blue chitinous eyelid opened to stare into my soul. Morpheus, frowned as he looked at me, but was otherwise quiet. Whenever any of the girls turned even remotely towards him, he started feigning sleep, but he always risked opening his eye back up to look at me.
“Come on, girls. You know it doesn’t work like that.” I forcibly relaxed my posture, my mouth curling in that small smile Celestia loved to use on the nobles. Pinkie certainly looked at me oddly, but the others took it in stride.
A flash of blue accompanied a tingling sensation over my flank and head, and a sigh of relief escaped Rarity. “She’s clean! No changelings or mind control.”
As one, the girls ran to my side for a group hug, pelting me with question after question. They didn’t even give me time to answer, and—while I would normally ask them to slow down—they took my silence as a cue to just keep the hug going.
“Hive damn it all! I can’t watch this anymore. Give her some air! Do you have any idea what she’s feeling right now?!”
The others froze, and I broke away with my mask barely intact.
Morpheus had stood to glare at everypony. Fangs were bared, and wings buzzed as his echoey voice fractured such that the air seemed to swarm with angry hornets.
He pointed at me, and I flinched. “That face is a mask—something I’m quite familiar with as a changeling. It is a lie— No. A deception or façade. She’s trying to cover up how she really feels so you all don’t feel bad.”
Morpheus stomped, and I swore the floor cracked a little. “Masks are for changelings, though! You’re all supposed to wear your emotions on your sleaves, not hide them! By the Azure Veil, it’s not like you can taste it! How are you supposed to be friends if you don’t share your emotions?!”
“I— Ve— You— Argh!” Words failed him as he opened and closed his mouth a few more times before storming into the hall. It might have been just me, but I could have sworn I saw some tears on the carapace as he left.
The lights flickered and a tray of cupcakes appeared before me.
“Hoof in the Mouth special for all of us.” I dutifully levitated each of the girls and myself a cupcake.
“Were— Were we just lectured by a changeling? Because I know he wasn’t lying for any of that.” Applejack tentatively broke the silence after we all had our cupcakes.
I slowly nodded. “That is Morpheus. You could call him our changeling ambassador, and I think we all owe him an apology.”
Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Why the hay would we do that?”
I gazed at the door, biting my lip. “Well, I suppose the best reason for such an apology is he’s not only risking his life but his entire species by trying to negotiate peace with us.” My ears splayed back. “Also… his whole dream of peace only came about because he read our friendship reports.”
Rarity tilted her head. “Really, darling? I guess we’re going to need you to explain some things.”
Fluttershy gave a squeak of agreement, still shellshocked from Morpheus.
“Yeah.” I shook my head and sighed. “I was so focused on Spike’s issues—which I’ll totally tell you about tomorrow—and Morpheus’ first impression that I never even considered the importance of our own….” I sat back on my haunches, mulling over how to explain the last couple of days.
“I got it!” Pinkie perked up after a few minutes of silence from me. “Since Twilight clearly needs some time to think it over, we should totally have a slumber party! We can stay up all night until we get her to talk!”
“Interrogation by pillow fight?” Dash cocked an eyebrow and grinned.
“Totally!” Pinkie’s smile threatened to split her face, and everypony else was quickly joining.
Still, a slumber party sounded… pretty good, actually. Just what I needed—not counting the bath.
I giggled, pulling everypony into a group hug. “Thank you, girls. I’m gonna need to get to sleep at some point, though. I promised Spike I’d meet him, and ye, I know that sounds odd. Oh, there’s just so much to explain! Castle, prepare the royal bedroom for a slumber party!”
The girls stared at me. “Castle?”
The complete unison to their befuddlement made me giggle again. “I forgot I need to explain that too…. I can’t believe it’s only been two days! It’s certainly going to be one hay of a month!”
If something else is interesting, the fact that we have one leaping to her defense of all things about this. But then again, the whole changeling thing is sorta a raw wound for them all.
Brilliant as always
so...Honest changelings, eh?
wonder how Applejack feels?
6426600
Only honest in their own way. Morpheus has already suggested in his chapters that most Lords are dishonest backstabbers, and changelings have been completely dishonest with other species for the most part because of the whole disguising and stealing love thing. When you actually have the trust of another changeling though... Well it might be appropriate to say their definition of friend is skewed because of both their additional sense and trust issues. Changelings don't have many friends, but a friend for them is probably more akin to a best friend for most ponies/humans and a best friend is something even beyond that.
If you'll recall, changelings literally share emotions sometimes. We saw that when Morpheus shared his approval of Twilight puzzling out the emotion sense. They have an entire extra way of communicating with themselves, so there's probably a bit of culture shock at the epitome of pony friendship hiding emotions from each other -- even if they're doing it to try and spare the others feelings.
Actually, I liked the extra dialogue here. It was also good to see you update in general!
Also, hi! Noble Cause of EqD here! Consider me your personal pre-reader if you're unsure of something and need a second pair of eyes on something for readability for future chapters.
6428387
Oh, awesome. I actually kind of need a prereader. I've been stuck self editing for the last couple chapters so there's no one to look at things and say "This is a bad idea." I don't even need a full editor since it seems I can self edit relatively well. All I really need is a second pair of eyes to stop me from writing myself into a corner.
Should I just message you a link to gdocs when a new chapters done?
6429676
Actually, I've seen VERY few errors so far. Like, I can count on one hand the number of errors I've noticed with the entire fic. So you're just fine there. But sure, throw me a link to a Gdoc or something when the time comes. Feel free to PM me if you even just want to chit-chat.
6442503
Actually Twilight is only semi-picky when it comes to grammar in this story. The in-story reason is that her number one rule for language is that the point of language is to communicate effectively, thus most smaller transgressions can be forgiven so long as both parties understand each other. She's only picky about things she feels will cause misunderstandings.
The out of story reason is that I personally don't like the the idea of writing someone that picky on grammar because I myself have a very... loose relationship with it. Like the pirate code in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, I see grammar and punctuation rules as guidelines not absolutes, and that makes it very hard to write grammar nazis. I still follow the rules as best I can, but I only use it to make my style understandable and to try and accentuate each character through how they speak and act.
As an example, I love using the en dash because -- in my experience -- it allows me to write much more similarly to how I think without frustrating readers as much. I tend to think and write in a very run on fashion, and ever since I started using the en dash I've noticed the extra variety makes the run on sentences feel less run on. I personally see no practical difference in how the en dash works compared to similar uses for the comma, but it helps myself and the readers reach a middle ground, so it is a worthwhile part of grammar and punctuation to me.
I couldn't care less for proper semicolon use though -- despite its similar relation to the period -- because I don't really need them with how I think.
That kind of thinking is why I don't trust myself to write Twilight as a full on grammar nazi. It wouldn't make sense for her to not care at all, but there's no reason that she wouldn't be more obsessive about some things compared to others.
6442815
The report excerpts at the beginning of most chapters are actually meant to be much less professional than a real report would be. Changing Times flat out said he was not composing this as an unbiased account of history. If one wanted to be cynically technical, this is probably akin to pro-changeling propaganda. I'm actually unsure what Changing Times talent is. He could be a historian who is making a plea to the people for the future in one work while making a much less biased account on the current state of things on the side. If he doesn't do history, some form of social science might make sense. Regardless, I feel that the "reports" are not really meant for professional academia. They're meant for the common pony, and they are something he gathered on his own initiative during his real studies on changelings because he thought convincing the populace that integration was possible was the right thing to do. Ironically, I view him as prioritizing this over his real studies because I see this as the motivating factor for his studies regardless of whether it's professional
6446458
First, thanks for being both positive and negative. As much as I'd like to be unbiased when looking at critiques, it is far easier to evaluate negative critiques fairly when it's 100% clear that it's a critique and not bashing.
Let's see then...
I portrait the canon characterization too well? Forgive the confusion, but how is that bad? That seems like a compliment more than anything else. I might understand such a stance if there was a larger break from the canon universe, but I haven't broken from canon in any way that would affect Twilight's character (that I can think of).
Hmm... I suppose the Contract is somewhat of a Deus Ex, but I always try to look at Deus Exs on a case by case basis. I mean, it didn't even occur to me the contract might be a Deus Ex because of how negatively I portrayed it. To me it was first and foremost a hindrance to negotiations. It angered Celestia, and causes issues in later chapters. Even if Twilight's predictions of possible doom were true, I don't mind Deus Exs as much when they are obstacles to the heros. Overcoming a larger challenge feels more rewarding after all. Of course, I normally imagine such things as a dastardly move on the villains part rather than the desperate mistake of one of the protaganists.
As to how it came to be? I don't know. Keep in mind that many technologies and discoveries can start off harmless until humans find a way to use them for harm (Planes come to mind as an example of this. They were born from the Wright Brothers dreams of flying, but they clearly had potential military uses.). It's entirely possible it started as some form of oath of fealty or honesty and escalated into unsavory territory over time before it was lost to the ages.
While the chapter is enjoyable, I did notice a bit of a discrepancy. I believe that you said earlier that Morpheus could neither drop his disguise, nor tell somepony else that he is a changeling without receiving Twilight's permission to do so first, on pain of death. However, here he does both and yet lives. Twilight's friends may have already deduced for themselves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Morpheus was a changeling, Twilight may have even essentially admitted as much,
but she still neither expressly said that he is a changeling, nor did she give him permission to confirm his identity. She most, certainly didn't give him permission to drop his disguise. From how she had to say a specific phrase to allow him the use of magic, it would make sense that she would have to do the same to give Morpheus the same permissions in this case.
The instance of, "the" that I italicized should also probably be, "his."
So with all of Castle's flickering lights, what happens when Twilight has to entertain an ambassador sensitive to seizures?
6702981 install bells in every room, and a few etch-a-sketch pads here and there as well.. castle etches message, rings bell. Pony gets Castle Mail.
The mood of the story has gotten a lot lighter as of this chapter.
6484534
This is what would be considered a loophole. Morpheus didn't technically reveal himself as a changeling, at least not of his own volition. The other ponies basically figured it out based on certain cues. Also once they knew, I figure the contract/orders with Twilight basically became moot, but ONLY in terms of the Mane 6 who figured things out.
Dammit, Fluttershy!
It's funny because he's a changeling.
7341847
You got mail.