dC/dt ≠ 0

by I Thought I Was Toast

Blood is Denser Than Water (Twilight) Part 3

My brother—thankfully enough—had not stormed Ponyville. I hadn’t really expected him to, of course, but I hadn’t expected him to spy on me, either. Instead, he had sent me a letter, and I had no idea what to do about it.

Said sending was not a particularly worrisome action in and of itself, but the contents of the letter weighed heavily on me—even before I even opened the thing. It could have been an apology or a condemnation or even an apologetic condemnation, and, as long as I didn’t open it, I couldn’t have been disappointed in my brother.

A disappointing brother was something I really couldn’t afford at the time, especially after all the idiotic nobles from the preceding weeks.

“Oh, give me that….” Spike mumbled and grumbled as he grabbed the letter from my hold. “You lost your right to procrastinate when I had to comb Castle for you to deliver it. Do you even know what time it is?”

“Midnight, I think?”

“Try six in the morning.” Spike huffed a tiny gout of flame, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Oh….” I blinked, looking at the letter. “That’s an oddly heavy letter for six in the morning. You think he stayed up all night writing it?”

“No. I think it’s heavy because you stayed up all night to read these blasted reports!” He slapped my rather encumbered desk only to almost wobbly tumble over. “You should be asleep right now. Hay, I should be asleep right now!”

I took a sip of my coffee—a godsend even cold. “Celestia wanted me to look over all the changeling files, and—"

“Don’t give me that!” Spike sluggishly tried and failed to grab the precious brew from my grip. “You and I both know that Celestia said to go through those reports when you had time to sparraaaghaagh….” He yawned gratuitously.

“Rarraaghaaagh….” Despite all the caffeine in my system, I yawned too. “Perhaps I did rush into things….”

Spike wordlessly grumbled in response, tearing open the seal and unfurling the scroll. His eyes slipped over the letter a few times before he set it down on the desk and began to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“So Shining’s invited you and flyboy to the Crystal Empire.” He gave an exasperated sigh.

I waited a few moments before prompting. “And?”

“That’s it.” Spike huffed, pulling two tickets from the scroll. “Your train leaves at nine. I mean, I get that he probably wants to sort things out in pony, but really? He could have just made a surprise visit. He didn’t need to send a letter at this Discord damned hour.”

“Spike, language!”

He winced. “Sorry…. It’s just way too early for this.”

“Go back to sleep then.” I waved him off.

“Not until you go too!” He crossed his arms once more.

“I have too much to do to try and sneak an hour of sleep.” My ear flicked, straining to catch the sound of chitin on crystal—or perhaps the faint buzzing thrum of wings. “I have to get ready for Shiny and Cadance, and that means waking Mo before anyling else does.”

“Huh?” Spike tilted his head.

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled. “Spi was lurking about earlier—probably on his rounds—so it wouldn’t surprise me if he saw you, followed you, and decided to eavesdrop.”

Spike blinked several more times. “Definitely too early for this....” He turned and shambled away towards his room—or perhaps simply a room. “Far, far too early.”

I giggled and watched him go before turning to my desk. The rest of the reports could wait, but my coffee couldn't. Draining the dregs from my cup, I set it down and grabbed the pot. A quick heating spell prepped it for transport before I teleported to Morpheus’ room in a flash.

Morpheus stared at the sleek crystalline body of the Empire Express—or rather the contingent of guards saluting us as we approached the train. “On second thought, ve’re starting to think Hera was right. Ve really must protest the necessity of going to the Crystal Empire alone.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I smiled, putting our luggage to the side for a conductor to grab. “I Pinkie Promise—" I carefully avoided poking out my eye. "—that I won’t let my brother harm you.”

Morpheus snorted, pawing the station floor. “You say that now, but ve doubt you’d actually pick us over your brother if it really came down to it.”

I shrugged. “It would be hard, but—if he’s that dead set against you—he’s not the brother I know and love.” I ruffled my wings. “It shouldn’t come to that, though. Shining isn’t anywhere near as rash as Rainbow.”

Morpheus pointedly looked at the guards—who glared at him in kind—as we passed them onto the train. “Ve’d honestly prefer it if your brother was as rash as Rainbow. Rash ponies make mistakes. It’s the cautious ones you need to watch out for.”

“He kind of has a good reason to be paranoid.” I sighed, sitting in a heated seat so extravagantly plush it almost engulfed me in its warm confines. I would have melted in bliss if not for the guards filing in to surround us.

“Doesn’t stop me from feeling like I’m on death row….” Morpheus muttered darkly in deep clicks and hisses.

“Stop that.” Too far away to thwap him, I pinched his ear tube with telekinesis. The tube flicked, but was otherwise unresponsive. “Right. Chitin doesn’t pinch, does it?”

“Not unless I shift it to a more pliable state.” He continued to brood, barely looking at me as he responded. His sullen stare trailed from guard to guard, and they, in turn, were warily eyeing him—as if he’d lash out at any second. I could almost taste the tension between them, and I wasn’t the emotivore here.

“Come on, Mo. Turn that frown upside down.” I got up from my seat to cross over and sit next to him. Wrapping a wing around him, I gave a squeeze, and focused on thinking happy thoughts.

“You’re only going to scare them if you sulk—" I gave another squeeze. "—although I can’t really blame you with how their acting.” I momentarily glared at the guards. “Fun fact: distrust tastes like bitter poison, and you’re all oozing of it right now.” I arched an eyebrow. “Whatever happened to the legendary stoicism of the guard?”

They at least had the decency to look momentarily ashamed. Unfortunately, with a shake of their heads and a few snorts, they regained their resolve.

We continued on in silence after that, the muted hum of the train shooting down the tracks the only sound in the car. Morpheus stared out the window with glassy eyes as the countryside passed, while I focused on cheering him up with positive thoughts and feelings. It would have been nice to talk a little, but I knew what it looked like when he was filtering his emotions. Talking wouldn’t help right now. It’d just be awkward for him—maybe even make the situation with the guards worse.

Right now, he needed my silent support.

Thus, we quietly made our way north for the better part of three hours. For the most part, I simply sat next to him, rereading Daring Do and trying to channel all my warm fuzzy memories of the series into him. Every so often, though, I’d notice him start to shiver as his eyes got a little less glassy, and I’d need to wrap a wing around him.

He’d thrum appreciatively before his eyes inevitably became glassy once more, causing me to glare at the guards again. The guards would squirm for a minute or two before becoming wary once more, and the cycle would start over. It was only when we reached the heavy snow storms that marked the Empire’s border that Morpheus decided to break it.

“You know,” he droned, “ve have been trying our best, but ve do not think the filter will be coming down anytime soon—especially if the rest of the Crystal Empire is this way. Perhaps it would be best to retreat for now. Maybe visit some smaller towns to acclimate to the distrust.”

He turned to look at me with dead eyes. “Ve did not account for how overwhelming distrust could be in a group setting. In retrospect, none of the incidents in Ponyville except my initial introduction contained more than a few individuals at any one time. Indeed, the fact that our introduction—with the combined presence of the whole town plus Mother—did not trigger any regressive filters—unlike the mere twenty-four guards in this car—suggests that Ponyville is of too tolerant a temperament to acclimate to the levels of distrust ve can be expected to face in the future. In addition…”

The longer the prince continued to monologue, the more the guards cast uneasy glances amongst themselves, while steam was beginning to rise from my coat as I realized just how bad the situation had become. This was not how things were supposed to be going. I had worked very hard to stop Mo’s tendencies to sink into doom and gloom, and Shining Armor—my BBBFF—was undoing it all in a fit of paranoia. I didn’t even want to know what he was telling his guard to make them so hostile. What did he even think we were going to do on the way up? Hijack the train?

I had to restrain myself from blowing up at the guard. It… wouldn’t be appropriate. The Empire hadn’t even existed during the changeling invasion. They had no reason to be like this unless they’d heard stories, and—whether or not Shining had spread them—my brother certainly hadn’t done anything to quell them.

Wrapping my wing around Morpheus, I decided I needed to talk to Shining a little sooner than our train would let us. “If you’ll excuse us, gentlecolts—" My voice was quiet, but most of the guards flinched as I spoke. "—your services are no longer required. We’re close enough for a more preferable method of transport.”

With a flash of my horn, I teleported us to my second favorite place in the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Archives. Before I could surge in anger—damaging who knows how many books—I cast a second spell to conjure a bottle, and then I cast a third spell, pulling all the anger out of my head and into the bottle.

Gasping for air and completely drained, I slumped into a nearby chair and planted my face into a rock hard crystalline desk. “Sweet Celestia, Starlight didn’t exaggerate about the side effects of doing that.” Turning my head I got a sideways view of Morpheus. “Still better than what you’re going through, though. Can you lower the filter now? I don’t know if bottling my anger helped, but we’re at least away from those guards.”

Morpheus looked from me to the bottle and back. His dull eyes momentarily lightened up with an almost sinister green glow—reminding me far too much of when my brother was brainwashed—as he glanced back and forth. “Fascinating.... Now ve really want to meet this Starlight Glimmer you keep mentioning. Ve have never seen a unicorn spell do that before. The spell matrix seems to—"

He blinked, the light vanishing from his eyes. “Oh…. Our apologies. Your concern took a moment to register because of the filter. To answer your question, yes, the filter can most likely be lowered incrementally now.” His eyes became slightly less glassy. “Ve suggest that you do not bottle your anger like that in the future, though. The spell appears to be quite hazardous to your health.”

“Don’t worry about me.” I sighed. “I already know it’s only meant to be temporary. Just… get yourself together and we can storm the palace together….”

“Hello? Is somepony there?” The familiar face of the elderly librarian poked around the corner of a bookshelf. “Oh, Princess Twilight, dearie! Prince Shining said you’d be visiting today, but I didn’t expect you so soon.”

Her gaze fell on Morpheus. “And I see you’ve brought a guest! Is this one of those changelings all the guards have been on about?” She wobbled over on creaky knees to take a closer look. “He certainly doesn’t seem like a soul-sucking monster. If anything, it looks like he had the soul-sucked right out of him!”

“Hi, Amethyst.” I smiled momentarily before frowning. “Sorry for the unexpected drop in, but the guards were giving us a hard time. They didn’t actually say anything—or do anything, for that matter—but they didn’t need to. Changelings are emotivores, so Mo here could taste everything they felt about him.” I bit my lip. “He really… doesn’t handle strong negative emotions well.”

“Oh, the poor dear. I know what that’s like.” The librarian patted the prince on his withers. “Sombra—" The mare shuddered. "—projected all sorts nasty feelings on us. Don’t you worry one bit about any trouble from me or the rest of the Empire. We haven’t really been paying attention to those rumors from the guard since Princess Cadance made her announcement, but I’ll go spread the news to be sure. Honestly, what kind of crystal ponies would we be if we forced all our negative thoughts and feelings on you like that.” She frowned. “I don’t know what those guards were thinking….”

“If the rumors in the guard are bad enough, they might not have believed me when I said distrust tastes like poison.” I groaned. “Just what has my big brother been doing?”

“He hasn’t been doing much of anything lately,” Amethyst sighed. “And that’s probably the problem, actually. He used to take time time for the guard. He’d do things like eat a meal with them every so often, or take time from his schedule to personally train one unit or another. I don’t know all of it—it’s my grandson who’s in the guard, not me—but I do know Prince Shining has been a bit distant lately. Honestly, I’m surprised he stopped by to tell me about your visit. It has the guard worried to pieces.”

“Great…” I mumbled, rolling my face back into the desk. “Now I feel bad instead of feeling mad. Are the guard blaming changelings for his sudden change in behavior?”

Amethyst nodded. “I don’t know much about the invasion, but my grandson could go on for hours about the stories he’s heard.”

“And thus, what else could the source of their captain’s change in temperament be but changelings.” Morpheus droned. “Clearly, we bewitched the royal couple during their trip to visit the Princess of Friendship—cementing our hold on all of Equestria’s and the Empire’s leadership so that we might rule you from the shadows as we pretend to play nice with peace talks.”

“Err… a bit overly dramatic, but yes, dearie.” Amethyst smiled awkwardly at the prince. “Most of those stories of theirs are probably full of the kind of overexaggerations that come with any good story.”

I sighed. “Well, it seems I might have got all mad at Shining for nothing.” Looking over at my bottle of fury I noticed a noticeable lack of menace to the red mist. “Guess I won’t be needing this.”

“What was that, dearie?”

“Nothing….” Opening the bottle, my anger just diffused into air. No dramatics. No possessed ponies. It was simply gone.

“Arraaaarraaaghss…” Morpheus stretched, hissing in pleasure as thousands of plates across his body popped and clicked. “Oh, by the Azure Veil, it’s good to be back.” He stood and turned towards me. A grinning flash of fangs was the only warning I got before he pounced, shifting himself to be almost twice as large as me mid lunge.

Pulling me into a monstrous hug, he thrummed appreciatively such that I felt the vibrations in my bones. “Thank you…. I couldn’t say it before, but thank you for what you did on the train.”

“I thought you couldn’t make yourself bigger!” I squeaked.

“I told you it took way more energy to increase my natural volume compared to condensing it or rearranging the density of specific parts.” He gave a rumbling chuckle that shook my whole body—ensconced as it was in the hug. “Personally, I think it’s worth the extra love. A normal hug couldn't possibly express how thankful I am right now.”

Finally setting me on my hooves, he shrank back to his normal size and rubbed his chest. “Oh… by the First Father, I am hungry now. I forgot just how much love that takes. I’m afraid I won’t be of any help if you’re still planning on storming the palace to chew out your brother.”

“Storming the palace?” Amethyst politely coughed, reminding me of her presence. I had kind of forgotten her while being trapped in a giant changeling—

Oh, sweet Celestia, the way that must have looked.

“Not important.” I blushed. “I’m not really mad at Shining anymore, so there’s no reason to waltz in and make a scene. If anything, I need some time to think about what I want to say.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then and go spread the news like I said I would, dearie.” Amethyst smiled. “So long!”

Left in the quiet of the library, I closed my eyes to collect my thoughts until a familiar buzz filled the air.

“Twilight?”

“Yes, Morpheus.”

“One hug wasn’t enough.”

“Twily?”

I opened my eyes again at the sound of my brother’s voice. Then, I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

I still didn’t know what to say.

“Twily, Amethyst told me you were in here. I’m sorry about the guards. I didn’t know it was this bad…. I didn’t think to tell them…” He trailed off, hoofsteps echoing through the shelves as he searched for us.

Mo looked at me questioningly, but didn’t say anything.

“They didn’t know, Twily…. It’s not their fault. It’s mine for forgetting to tell them. Please don’t be mad at them….” The echoing stopped. “Please don’t be mad at me….”

“Shining, I’m not—" The words caught in my throat. I had been really mad earlier.

Morpheus sighed. “She’s not mad, Shining. She was mad, but she’s not anymore. Thanks for asking about me by the way.”

“Oh….” The hooves started up again. “Sorry. I was just—"

“Worried about Twilight.” Morpheus chuckled. “Believe me, I know.”

“Yeah… can you not do that?” Shining poked his head around the corner. “This is hard enough as it is.”

“Yes, yes it is.” Mo grinned, fangs gleaming.

“Stop that.” I thwapped him with a wing only for Mo to hiss back with a smirk. “Sorry, Shiny. I guess he’s still a little sore about the guards.”

“Well, he has every right to be.” Shining kicked the floor. “I should have made sure the guard was properly debriefed.”

“Yes, you should have.” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to buy some time to think. “I don’t think it’s possible for you to really understand what you put Mo through today—not unless you someday experience it for yourself.”

“And I suppose you have?” He arched an eyebrow.

I sighed, closing my eyes as a number of memories that weren’t my own came forward. “Yes, ve have.”

His brow arched further. “You know, that response only worries me more, right.”

“Shining!” I stomped a hoof. “You had better not be implying what I think you’re implying.”

“No, no….” Shining snorted. “I read your report. I know you’re not a changeling, because only my little sister would be crazy enough to download somepony else’s memories in the name of friendship.”

“Someling.” I corrected without thinking.

“Someling….” Shining bit his lip, trailing into an awkward silence for a minute or so. “You know…” He kicked the floor again. “…I’ve been thinking lately, and—"

“Ve know I’m going to regret this, but have you now?” Morpheus was inevitably thwapped by my wing for that particular interruption.

“Yes, I’ve been thinking.” Shining glared at the lord. “It’s something you may want to practice.”

I thwacked Shining.

“Ve got far too much practice earlier today.”

Thwap.

“I can barely tell, perhaps you should have some more.”

Thwack.

“Call up the guards then, and ve’ll get started.”

Thwap.

“Maybe I will—"

Thwack. Thwap. Thwack. Thwap. Thwack. Thwap. Thwap.

“Boys!” I used Celestia’s ‘Mother Equis’ voice.

Morpheus stuck his tongue out at Shining—just having to get the last laugh. I thwapped him one more time, glaring, and he had the decency to sheepishly bow his head. “Sorry. Some of the guards emotions are still backed up in my system. You should be glad I’m able to keep it to teasing.”

I sighed. “Just make sure to purge it like you did last time.”

“Oh, believe me.” He hissed. “I have no intention of keeping them.”

“If you’re done, then,” Shining ground his teeth together, “I’ve been spending these past few months thinking—just spending time with Flurry and thinking. I may not be able to forgive Chrysalis for what she did, but I might be able at least try to give you the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? Maybe we can eventually be friends..”

Morpheus blinked both his eyelids and his haws. “Well…” He bit his chops. “...ve did not expect that. Now I kind of feel like an ass.”

I glared at him, just daring him to transform. After several seconds of donkey free conversation, I turned back to my brother. “Do you really mean that, Shining?”

Shining stared at Morpheus. “I won’t promise anything.” He snorted, stare turning to glare. “I still don’t like changelings as a whole, but I’m willing to try and judge them on a case by case basis. Keep being snarky, and you’ll find what little trust I’m willing to give swiftly evaporating.”

“Oh, Shining….” The Prince of the Hive of the First Father grinned a grin only his mother would love. “When you say it like that, you’re just begging for that to be the defining feature of our love-hate relationship.”

“We don’t have a love-hate relationship.” Shining growled.

“Yet.” Morpheus cackled. “We don’t have a love-hate relationship yet.”

“Discord damn it all, Shining. Don’t encourage it.” I groaned as pony and changeling continued to bicker. “You’re just making it into a game for him.” I massaged the base of my horn. “For Celestia’s sake, I already get enough of this when he does it with Castle.”

Neither of them seemed to hear me.

“Well,” I sighed, “it’s better than tearing each other’s throats out.”

That was the beginning of Morpheus’s rather interesting relationship with my brother. I’ve already touched on how adaptive Morpheus is when forming his relationships, but this is perhaps both my most and least favorite example.

He is downright fun and friendly with extroverts—like when it comes to Pinkie Pie or myself most of the time—but he’s also capable of being quiet as a mouse when Fluttershy is around or my more introvertive moods strike. For those with competitive spirits or sharp minds he plays games—roughhousing with Rainbow and Applejack, or playing matchmaker with Rarity.

He’s a bit of everything and nothing, and it is incredibly frustrating sometimes to figure out how much of it is an act versus how much of it is truly him, but I can normally rationalize why he acts like he does whenever he is trying to be friendly.

Morpheus’ relationship with my brother is not rational. He continues to poke at my brother to this day. He teases to the point of borderline mocking and makes a point of cackling extra maniacally. I wouldn’t stand for it if not for the fact that Shining responds to it positively for some reason.

Maybe it’s a stallion thing….

Regardless, I’m calling it here for now. If you want more, you might want to talk to Morpheus about the rest of the trip.

Author's Note:

We're almost at the 200k milestone, folks. I can hardly believe it. I mean, I thought I was about a third of the way done back at 100k words, but I'm not even through fall here. I've planned for the story to last about a year longer in story -- ending somewhere during Equestria's next fall season -- and there's a lot of potential goings on between now and then. Phase three of the story might easily take up over half of the story depending on which arcs I write.

Anyways, yeah.... Not completely sure about the direction things are going with Shining, but we'll see. I'm hoping it won't end up like Rainbow where people thought I made her lash out too much. Also hope people don't think I'm resolving Shining too quickly, because -- besides the several months he's had to think on things -- there's also the fact that ponies are naturally friendly. That's not an excuse to say they'll always pull 180s or something, but I like to think that they're capable of seeing how unfriendly they're being and trying to correct that with varying success. That is to say, they pull a changeling without realizing it and will try to bluff -- not that they'd call it that -- the act of being friends on the chance that bluff becomes reality.

Regardless, thanks to Malefactory for editting, and feel free to leave critique. Just try to some at least one positive thing amid the negative stuff to make it actually feel like a critique rather than a bash.

Comments

[Serpent_Underscore]

So many updates in such a short time.

[Weeb trash]

Impeccable work, as always.

[EchoWing]

Dang these were rapid-fire. No complaint about that, mind you, but still.

[Adjier]

This is fun. Morpheus is fun.

[Always Breakfast]

I keep looking at these chapter names out of the corner of my eye and expecting one called "Blueblood is Denser than Twilight".

[Valkyrie]

Dear author, because of your shenanigans this is now third day in a row when I open fimfiction in the evening with the intention of reading the latest chapter of one other fic and can't do it, because this one here updated, and I'd rather read this one first. :<

“You’re only going to scare them if you sulk—" I gave another squeeze "—although I can’t really blame you with how their acting.”

they're (or they are)

There was one more typo somewhere below that with a double word, but I am too lazy to search for it now.

[TheStratovarian]

The fact i can picture this as well with morpheus's side just as easily shows how well written both sides of this are. Very well done!

And keep up the amazing work, it truly shows!

[DualKitsune]

8286497
That's a bit obvious so I don't think it would be a good title. No real interest, you know?

[djthomp]

So many stallions that need thwacking, only two wings with which to thwack them. Being a princess is exhausting work.

[Honey Lavender]

8288553
This is Twilight we're talking about. She'll find a way to make her thwacking that much more efficient!