dC/dt ≠ 0

by I Thought I Was Toast

Those Who Walk Among Us (Twilight) Part 1

Changing Time’s Notes: Princess Twilight was rather adamant I include this report when publishing. She believes that seeing how interchangeable the lives of ponies and changelings are will only help us overcome our issues, and I personally find myself agreeing with her. Prince Morpheus is more wary of the reactions that might come from sharing this report, but he has given he gave his blessing nonetheless after talking it over with Princess Twilight.

.

Those Who Walk Among Us: A Report by Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria

It’s odd how easy it is to take somepony for granted. Even the most influential scholars of the ages can be overshadowed by discoveries inspired by their initial work. My hero Starswirl the Bearded is one such pony, yet I sometimes wonder if we all know somepony like that—a friend so close to the core of our being that we just don’t realize how important to us they are, or consider how critical the loss would be if they were gone someday.

It’s like a pony’s favorite book: They’d never give it up, and they’d never harm or hurt it purposefully. It’s something they know back to front, and they don’t expect it to suddenly change or become lost. It’s simply there, and it always should be—keyword being should.

For me that pony—or dragon—was Spike.

Until I spent the day of Morpheus’ bet alone within Castle, it hadn’t struck me how empty Castle was. Sure, I had Castle himself, but it wasn’t the same. The books he brought weren’t handed physically to me. There was no rustling of claws in the background to provide comforting reminders that I was not alone.

Worst of all, there was no voice I could give to Castle’s written wit. I simply translated it as Spike’s in my head, and in those moments I simply couldn’t imagine Spike saying Castle’s response, it caused my heart to lurch.

Spike sank into my coat, and I shifted my concentration once again to solidify myself in the dreamscape. For hours we had been sitting together and reading in each other’s company.

The fact that we had both read Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone at least a dozen times in the real world didn’t matter. It was a book I knew by heart, and one of the few I was confident enough to conjure in his dream.

We simply sat, enjoying each other’s company as we read—I in my undefined void, and he in his giant field of topaz hay fries. Every so often he would seem to pluck some from the void to eat, and a crunching sound would fill the air.

“Twilight?” he whispered, as I turned the page to a new chapter.

“Yeah?” I murmured back just as quietly.

“When do I get to come home?” His voice quivered slightly.

I sighed. “It’s up to you really. I want you to spend just a couple weeks in Canterlot, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted more to relax or if you were mad at me.”

The little dragon looked up at me from his place between my forelegs. “Do I look mad to you? I’m just glad you didn’t pick that bug over me like last night.”

I squeezed him. “You really should be mad at me though,” I sighed. “I never realized how much leaving you behind really meant to you! I would have gone with you to Canterlot—Celestia knows I could use a vacation myself—but I couldn’t with Morpheus here.”

I paused, then hung my head. “It’s always like that, isn’t it? There’s always something. It’s too dangerous. You’re a baby dragon. Somepony needs to take care of the library. I’ve given you thousands of excuses, and I never realized what it sounded like on the other side.”

Spike sunk further into his little nook. “I was the one stupid enough not to tell you. Look where that got me. I’m stuck in Canterlot while you’re off on another adventure again. Useless as usual…”

I nuzzled him. “Well, what if I said there was something you could do for me?”

“Really?!” His head bopped my chin as he looked up, and I chuckled.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “The problem is, if you said ‘yes’, the safest place to do it from would be Canterlot.” I felt him tense and rushed to reassure him. “Like I said though, everything is up to you. I want my number one assistant back; you don’t need to stay away. It’s just safer for you in Canterlot, since I’m betting if the changelings do choose to do anything, it will take place in Ponyville.”

“W-what is it you want me to do?” His voice quivered. “Y-you’re not just trying to leave me where it’s safer are you?”

“No!” I engulfed him in a hug, enfolding him with my wings. “I want you to be my backup plan, my fail safe. With what happened with Chrysalis in the Everfree, I need to make sure I can reach somepony if something goes wrong. The other day, when Morpheus was telling me about changelings, he mentioned they don’t dream like normal ponies. I bet they can’t enter or view dreams either. It’d be a great way to secretly send messages, and I was thinking… maybe I could train myself to join your dreams without thinking about it. If I was captured or something, I’d only need to go to sleep or get knocked out, and then I could call you to call the cavalry.”

He shuffled in my embrace, hesitating. “Why do I have to stay in Canterlot for that though? I have my dragon fire.”

I squeezed him again. “You do have your dragon fire, and I said you don’t need to stay away any longer than the two weeks you’re going to be gone. It’s your choice this time. I only said Canterlot would be the safest place for you to be so you aren’t caught in the crossfire. If you were, how would you get your message off?”

“I don’t know… but I want to come home. I’ll find a way to save you if something like that happens, Pinkie Promise.” He broke out of my grasp, turning so I could watch him make the motions.

“Okay then,” I smiled. “We’ll all see you when you come back. I’ll make sure Pinkie makes a fire ruby ice cream cake just for your inevitable return party.”

“Extra sprinkles?” he asked, eyes sparkling, as I hugged him again.

“Extra sprinkles,” I confirmed.

We sat like that for a minute or two.

“So, back to reading?” my favorite assistent asked.

I awoke and simply lay in bed, breathing as slowly as I could to try and go back to sleep. When I realized that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon, I sighed and let the tiny flicker of magic maintaining my connection to Spike fade—so little, my horn didn’t even glow and I could maintain it in my sleep. With practice I could—no, I would—make it last all the time. Spike was never going to be left completely out again.

Groaning, I opened my eyes, only to find a bug on my ceiling.

“What are you doing, Morpheus?”

“Yes, well….” Morpheus kicked the ceiling as the plates in his leg clenchedopen and closed. “When I tried to enter your room to wake you, Castle said I wasn’t to get within three meters of your bed. When I closed my eyes as ve calculated how to stay within his restriction, he had shifted the dimensions of the room so I couldn’t just walk in. When I responded by crawling through the small safe zone of the threshold that didn’t fall within a three meter spherical radius, he decided to shrink the room the next time I blinked. I cannot leave the room now without violating his original conditions.”

I had tidied my room before going to bed, but now as I looked around I could see it was a mess. There was a house of cards at the door, a book fort sheltering Smarty Pantsat the foot of my bed, and two veritable armies of paper pony dolls warring between the two. Looking back up, I arched a my brow.

“By that point, I was having too much fun trying outmaneuver Castle to remember to wake you.” He shrugged, levitating a marvelous smelling cup down to me. “Coffee?”

I grunted, cautiously grabbing it in my magic and casting a small divination spell to tell me the ratios of its components. They were… perfect… and I smiled widely as I took a sip. “That all seems rather…”

“Passive aggressive?” he suggested.

I blinked, and saw Castle’s answer of “Creepy?” on the wall Morpheus couldn’t see.

“Yes?” I ventured. Trying to change the subject I jumped to the first thing that came to mind. “How’d you make the coffee? It’s exactly the way I like it.”

The changeling smiled. “Oh, that was only partly us. Ve never would have got it right if Castle wasn’t—and ve quote—‘always watching.’”

Yes. Creepy and passive aggressive was the perfect way to describe this. Were they fighting? Or was this just a game to them? Morpheus was certainly smiling, and I wasn’t sure a castle built from friendship and rainbows actually could fight, but this was weird—which is really saying something coming from somepony who is friends with Pinkie Pie.

“Okay then.” My smile was slightly bigger than it should have been. “Well if you don’t mind I’d really like some privacy to get ready.”

Morpheus advanced a small squadron of paper ponies. “I would love to help you with that, Twilight, but ve’d rather not lose after lasting this long. The room is still too small to exit while following the initial limitations.”

The lights flickered, providing a privacy screen folded up neatly against the wall.

“Hrmm,” he thrummed. “Accepting that solution will probably cost us points, but I am willing to take it.” A green glow surrounded the screen, and it levitated to block his view of me. “It’s like I’m not even here.”

I kicked away the covers to rise from bed. Glaring at the ceiling, I pointed to the floor. “Down.”

As he fluttered down, his grin was smug. “Black prince from F4 to C1. Capture white rook. Break the Castle. Check and Mate the white princess.”

I cocked my head. “Are you serious?”

He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “No, chess is a poor analogy for what we were doing, but—now that I can leave your room—ve suggest getting ready as fast as possible for Lyra and her—” He grimaced. “—Gramps.”

I sipped my coffee, saying nothing as I savored the flavor.

“As it stands, I need to get to Rarity’s as soon as possible.” He rubbed the back of hishead. “Her skills are required for a number of reasons, the least of which is ve’d like to appear presentable tonight. Armor would be more traditional, but a suit is much more suited to our needs.”

“And what is happening tonight that you need a suit, of all things?” I asked as I levitated various things I’d need to get ready from my vanity, reorganizing them from the clutter caused by Morpheus and Castle’s disturbance.

He licked his lips— No. Chops? Chops seemed more appropriate. Stupid morning, making my brain all muddled.

“Well, I may have found at least one other changeling in Ponyville, and they may be coming by tonight at seven. I could just illusion up a suit, but that’s impolite. Ve wouldn’t want it to seem like ve were hiding anything.”

Taking a second to organize my thoughts, I finally responded. “Okay then. Is that why you were gone so long? When did you even get back from Sweet Apple Acres? Why do I need to come with you? Who is—“

Morpheus coughed, and I realized I had started rambling in my distraction. He opened his mouth to answer, and a song came out instead. “It is, indeed, an interesting tale~ Yet not the one you’d assume~ For I was struck down before noon~”

My jaw opened and closed a few times.

He put a hoof to my mouth before I could formulate a response. “Wait! Oh… nevermind.” He removed the hoof. “Ve thought it was going to continue, but I guess a song explaining ve’re cursed isn’t what the curse wants as payment.”

I arched an eyebrow as his statement shattered my befuddlement. “Did things actually go well then? I mean, I’m smart enough to know curses don’t exist, so you have to be pranking me. It’s definitely more Pinkie’s style than Rainbow Dash’s though, and Castle said you were going to Sweet Apple Acres. Did you change your mind?”

Snorting, he shook his head. “No, it’s a long story involving Rainbow and us making idiots of ourselves.”

He tilted his head for a second, eyes glazing over, before adding, “Of course, ve’re not quite sure exactly which of us were ultimately more idiotic, but ve’re sure Rainbow and Applejack will give you their side later. Ve’re honestly surprised you don’t know anything as it is. Ve would have thought Applejack or Rainbow would have come running to tell you.”

That didn’t sound promising. Raising a hoof to my chest, I breathed in deeply before exhaling and pushing my hoof outwards. I let go of the panic before it had a chance to build. Smiling, I half-joked, “You can’t give me a statement like that and not tell me more.”

He startled slightly, flinching at the words. “Forgive us. Ve didn’t mean to leave you without an answer there. The story is simply context heavy, and you would benefit most from hearing all of it at once. I was going to tell you as soon as you got up, but by now it would be more efficient to get to Rarity’s as soon as possible.”

Tilting his head, he thrummed. “Although, ve’re not sure why Castle was so adamant about not disturbing you….”

I sipped the last of my coffee and hummed in appreciation. “I was talking to Spike all night to make up for missing time with him the night I got lost in the Everfree. I promised him I’d visit every night, and I meant it. Plus, it’s been ages since we could relax together like that without something getting in the way. Now if you’d be so kind as to take this and go make some more, then I’ll meet you by the front door after freshening up.”

As he left grumbling, and I tittered to myself. “He might be an improvement over Castle’s silence, but Spike grumbles better.”

Blinking as I gathered my bathing supplies, I asked to nopony in particular, “Did I just compliment Spike’s ability to complain?”

The lights flickered, leaving a piece of paper on the vanity.

“It’s always the little things, Mistress. —Friendship Castle”

Author's Note:

Have some fluff and expectations of future Rarity!

As usual comments and criticism is appreciated. If you do criticize, however, please try and include at least one positive criticism amid any negative ones. It doesn't need to be an even ratio. I just prefer being criticized by those who can tell me I'm doing something right in addition to whatever I'm doing wrong.

Also, as usual thanks to Flink and Stainless Key for editting, and reprovedhawk for being on standby.

Huh... Made it to the bottom of the feature box with this chapter. Never really thought it would happen.

Obligatory Patreon Link

Comments

[Noble Cause]

Two things: one, yay chapter update!

Two, when it comes to the bottom 3 slots of the feature box, those three are basically picked from a pool of 'these were popular before and they've just updated! Go take a look!'

[Betshet]

I love seeing Twilight and Morpheus interact

Huh... Made it to the bottom of the feature box with this chapter. Never really thought it would happen.

Why not? This story's awesome!

[Krazyfan1]

I’m smart enough to know curses don’t exist

she's still on that?
can't someone just tell her the truth? maybe slap some sense into her?

[I Thought I Was Toast]

6943371
To be fair, she didn't see Zecora cast it, and thus has no real proof they exist. Even the "dark" magic she's seen hasn't involved curses -- as I'm defining them in story anyways -- because curses are both good and bad.

[Morphy]

6943384

Aren't Curses and Enchantments the same thing really? It's more your point of view that provides the label; good is enchantment, bad is curse.

[wlam]

Of course, ve’re not quite sure exactly which of our actions were ultimately idiotic

Me neither. From my perspective, it still looks like Rainbow arbitrarily being an asshole. We'll see how that's eventually resolved, I guess.

Blinking as I gathered my bathing supplies, I asked to nopony in particular, “Did I just compliment Spike’s ability to complain?”

It's amazing what you can learn to miss about someone, isn't it?

6943926
It depends on how any individual story defines the difference. I read a story that decided curses were a special kind of enchantment that autonomously fed itself from the magic of the target and illegal on that basis, even though they could technically be beneficial in nature as well. That was actually pretty interesting, but I can't remember what it was from.

[I Thought I Was Toast]

6943926
Normally yes, but curses as I'm using them aren't like traditional enchantments. An enchantment has one good effect or one bad effect. Curses are best thought of as a trade of sorts you get a really good effect for perseveringing through a really bad effect. I believe the example I used in story was the Princess and the Frog. Getting cursed into being a frog is bad. The upside is when you're cured you get the love of a princess. Normal logic would suggest that the two are separate events, but that's not actually the case. The curse usually causes both. So there is both an upside and a downside to curses.

This is why curses are usually cast in fairy tales and stories. The follow a different sort of logic than an self respecting magus would expect, and so they often fall under the category of old pony's tale because they're so rare.

[Star_Fall]

Huh... Made it to the bottom of the feature box with this chapter. Never really thought it would happen.

Any story that would normally be capable of being featured, but is to old or has already been featured, appears on one of the last three slots of the feature box when they update.

[I Thought I Was Toast]

6945774
Oh, I know that. I just never figured my story would be popular enough for even that. There's probably still some sort of time factor to the secondary algorythm for older stories such that too much time passing excludes the story. I figured I was beyond the ability to get featured because the story was over a year old and hadn't been featured yet as far as I knew.

[I Thought I Was Toast]

6955660

“Well… There was the line about me wanting you as a pegasus mare… Not that you meant anything by it, but a lot of ponies might misinterpret that...”

But that's not what he said. What he said was:

“You wanted us to be able to run as fast as possible, right? Pegasus mare is the way to go then. A female pegasus is more aerodynamic. I can’t use unicorn teleportation, and I’m not strong enough as an earth pony to bust through crowds.”

How could anyone misinterpret that? He did not say what Twilight is quoting him as having said. "You wanted me to be able to run fast, and pegasus mare is the way to accomplish that" is very obviously not "you want me to be a pegasus, babe!"

Not three paragraphs later Twilight said she realized that after she got more context. She misinterpreted:

Is there something wrong with that choice? I figured you’d want that body type over a pegasus stallion.

Then gained proper contest. From the paragraph you mentioned. That wouldn't stop her from being flustered though, just transition embarrassment from what she thought she heard to embarrassment that she had misinterpreted things. And even if she wasn't flustered from that line, she was already flustered from Morpheus' casual discussion of sex swap. That was kind of the point. Ponies like humans can't simply go "I want to be a girl instead of a boy now." Or rather they can but the process is mostly cosmetic and very arduous and usually controversial to some people. The idea of casually flipping back and forth would be alien to most ponies and humans, thus Twilight's trouble processing exactly everything he's talking about.

(Also, remember that since changelings feed on love, making a disguise Twilight finds attractive is not an unreasonable thing for Morpheus to do. The issue is he wasn't even considering that in his disguise, but Twilight couldn't know that.)

“You might want a different color. You apparently can’t pull pink off like Chrysalis could. Even Celestia didn’t look that silly when she decided to give pink a try.”

All it took was a single paper proving the average pony simply doesn’t care enough about coat color to judge any difference between obscure and common colors.

So ponies don't care about color, yet Twilight is shocked and apalled at how silly his color is? Not sure how to reconcile that unless the point here is to portray Twilight as an unreliable observer when it comes to her own species.

She's not shocked and apalled though. A human might go "You look better as a blonde than a brunette." but would most actually care to think "Gee that's a lovely Strawberry Blonde/Dirty Blonde/Sandy Blonde/Bleached Blonde/etc."?

Granted, given Twilight's OCD might actually make her an outlier, and she might be aware enough to classify ridiculously absurd colors. Rarity definitely is as a fashionista. But one or two outliers does not disprove anything.

“Isn’t that awkward for you? You are kind of…” The rest of her sentence was too quiet for me to hear.

“I am kind of…” I repeated, prompting her.

“You’re kind of a boy…” She was looking anywhere but at me as she said that.

I'm far more surprised that Twilight would be surprised or awkward about this. Why would she expect any different? The whole setup seems implausible.

And what does she know (assuming most of what she knows is from the invasion) that could possibly have her expect it? For ponies and humans the sex of a body is usually tied intrinsically into the gender of a body. It would be extraordinarily implausible for her to expect them to be comfortable swapping sexes and yet still identify as one particular gender.

...so, a changeling price, the leader of his hive...the guy who brazenly ordered his entire hive down to the last hatchling to sign a magical scroll that would genocide their race if things didn't work out...and who incidentally apparently has access to the combined history of memory of the entire hive...is embarrassed about sex?

How do you justify that?

It makes more sense for virgin to be shy about sex than somebody who's actually had sex, right? Ok, so...this guy potentially has access to the combined memories of sex of his entire species going back since long before he was born.

What possible reason could he have to be embarrassed by it?

There are bunch of weird little things like this, that again, it seems like you really wanted to have a specific exchange, but didn't justify it happening.

Some of those things, but this in particular, are breadcrumbs. Some I will address, Morpheus' reluctance to talk about changeling reproduction in particular should be happening in the arc I'm currently writing. And some are there as things I may address, but leave to the reader to interpret until I do.

[EchoWing]

“So, back to reading?” my favorite assistent asked.

I think you meant "assistant".

[Rammy]

“It’s always the little things, Mistress. –Friendship Castle”

[djthomp]

Nice to see the Spike interlude.

Twilight's reaction to the Equestrian changelings is going to be so good.