A thousand scenarios filled my head as I watched my brother attempt to perforate Morpheus using only his eyes, each more disastrous than the last. In the end, nothing would have prepared me for what actually happened.
I opened my mouth to say something— anything— to stop Shining’s change of occupation to exterminator. My coltfriend was faster, unfortunately, cutting me off with a nuzzle before I could start. I eeped as Shining’s frown deepened, but Mo silenced me with a peck on the lips before turning to grin at my brother.
“Ah, Shining Armor! Ve were wondering when you’d join us! Come and have a drink with me and your father!” One of his corbiculae opened, and he pulled a bottle from within.
Is that what he’d wanted the cider for? I’d thought he’d wanted to—
Mo leaned into my side for a moment, and gave an almost imperceptible shiver. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, and he quickly pecked me on the lips again to silence me before pulling away. As he looked back at Shining, he gave a far too cocky grin at the intensity of Shining’s glare.
“You look like you’ve got a lot to say.” There was the faintest hint of an extra echo to his voice. “You certainly taste like you need some of Sweet Apple Acres’ best applejack to burn away that spiced wine of yours. Shall we abscond to the kitchen? Twilight,” Morpheus winked at me before continuing, “why don’t you tell the girls about Ponyville’s hottest new couple?”
What?! No! We were supposed to do this together! Why was he offering himself up like some sort of sacrifice to my brother? I opened my mouth to say something, but – Discord, damn it all – it was too late. Dad and Shining were circling like sharks. Wait…. Maybe that was just the room spinning as I thought about being left alone with my mom and Cadance to talk about my coltfriend.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
Okay. I was better now.
Cadance was certainly grinning like a griffon who smelled blood, though, pulling me into the living room as Dad showed Mo into the kitchen. “So... how long have you and your gallant prince actually been together?”
Cadance set me on one of the cushions and flounced onto the couch. She rested her head in her forehooves and kicked her hind legs in the air – her gaze hooked upon me. Mom settled into another cushion, patiently waiting for me to respond, while Flurry quickly lost interest as I stalled for time.
I kneaded the cushion beneath me, and she returned to playing with her stuffed animals. Her little tea party was just adorable to behold. I wanted nothing more than to join right in and discuss polo ticks with Doctor Professor Sir Lady Bearington Junior III esquire, but I knew I could only hold off Cadance for so long.
“Since Nightmare Night,” I sighed, smiling at the memory, but bracing myself for the interrogation to come.
“And how did it happen?” Cadance tittered. “Did somepony scare you right into his hooves? I did that for one of Shining’s guard buddies once. Scared him right out of his armor and into the embrace of the maid he had his eye on.”
“No, nothing like that.” I shook my head, blushing slightly. “It was our costumes. We decided to fake a couple’s costume and the line just kind of blurred from there.”
“Faked?” Mom arched an eyebrow. “How do you fake a couples costume?”
Whoops….
“Oh, Twilight was sick of everypony pressuring her into a relationship, so they decided to fake their relationship back when we first met.” Cadance waved a hoof dismissively. “Luckily, everything seems to have turned out for the best.”
“Faked their entire...” Mom shook her head. “Twilight, I thought we taught you better than that….”
“You did….” I groaned. “But telling everypony to mind their own business never seemed to work.”
“Did you do the big eyes, Auntie Twilight?” I blinked, looking down to see little Flurry gazing up at me from her toys.
“Big eyes…? Ah… no, I didn’t….” I bit my lip. “And I don’t think they would have helped any.”
“But the big eyes always work!” She pouted.
Cadance giggled. “Puppydog eyes work for you because you’re little, Flurry. Auntie Twilight’s a grown mare. She lost that magic power just before you were born.”
“What?” Flurry’s muzzle scrunched, and I had to resist scooping her up and booping her snoot. “But you give Daddy the big eyes all the time!”
“And they only work on Daddy.” Cadance laughed. “Twilight might be able to use them on your new uncle Mo Mo, though.” She gave me a wolfish grin, waggling her brow. “Or maybe you’ve tried a couple other more… naughty looks.”
“Naughty?” Flurry’s head tilted as the scrunch to her muzzle deepened. “Auntie Twilight isn’t naughty! She’s the bestest aunt ever!”
“Cadance! Can you not, please?” I blushed, looking at the cushion beneath me as I studiously kneaded it. “I’m not like you and Shining.”
“But Momma and Daddy can’t be naughty either!” Flurry whined. “They’re Momma and Daddy!”
Mom snorted as she tried unsuccessfully to hold in her laughter. “You and Night Light should exchange notes, Cadance. Show a little restraint for your poor sister. You don’t want her to panic like last time, do you?”
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Mom you’re the greatest!
“At the very least, we should wait for Flurry to go to bed.” She ruffled Flurry’s mane with her telekinesis. “That sort of gossip isn’t safe for little ears no matter how family friendly you make it.”
What?! No! I take it back! Don’t just tell her we’ll do it later!
“Besides, I’m still curious about how you two ended up together in the first place.” Mom smiled encouragingly at me. “After all, I know the last thing you’ll want to talk about is the crisis in Manehatten, but there’s a lot of rumors and gossip flying around. Something about how your coltfriend showed up out of the blue having gone through some grand magical transformation? I can’t help but notice the night you claim you got together is the same night you told the papers he entered his… Crystaling?”
“Chrysaling….” I corrected, smiling just a little.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t even think of that!” Cadance laughed. “Now you have to spill all the details!”
“Well…” I bit my lip, “...I guess it all began with our costumes. When he saw me dressed as Snow White, he sort of froze and he— he—“ I giggled as I felt a bubbly heat fill my breast and creep up my neck, “he called me ‘k’re-t’ched.’”
“He called you what?” Cadance tilted her head, ear flicking.
“‘K’re-t’ched,’” I sighed, smiling. “He said I looked beautiful, and tried to pass it off as just another word for great, so I said he looked ‘k’re-t’ched’ too.” I chuckled. “He was so embarrassed that he couldn’t even hide his blush like normal, and his coat ended up all black for a bit. I guess I must have really made an impression or something, because he ended up overfeeding on me during the costume contest.”
“He did what to you?” Both my mom and Cadance frowned.
“Sorry. Wasn’t thinking about how that would sound.” I shook my head. “It’s not what you think. He knew I was developing feelings for him even before I did, and was trying his best to keep himself from touching them. He wasn’t sure if they would blossom, and was even less sure that he’d be able to return them properly.”
I looked towards the kitchen and ruffled my wings. “Something changed when he saw me in that costume, though. I don’t know what he saw, but he ended up indulging himself for the night, and it almost ended badly for me. He was so scared when he got me back to the castle – even more than I was – but I couldn’t find the words to comfort him.”
“So what did you do, then?” Cadance was leaning forward, her gaze intense.
“I poured my heart out to him, literally.” I smiled sweetly. “I couldn’t say anything to him physically, so I let my feelings do the talking. That was the last little push he needed to carry through: to crack the chitin around his heart, a kiss to wake the sleeping king.”
“Aww….” Both my mom and Cadance giggled.
“Eww!” Flurry had her muzzle scrunched again.
“Oh, dear.” Mom laughed. “Cadance, you need to be more careful around little Flurry. If she’s not ready to hear about a little kissing, then she definitely doesn’t need to be around for the good parts.”
“Good parts? There’s more?!” Flurry perked her ears.
Cadance smiled. “Yes, Flurry. There’s more, but I’ll make you pancakes for a week if you promise to wait until you’re older to ask about it.”
“Does being one week older count?” My niece smiled innocently.
“You might have to wait a little longer than that.” Cadance chuckled, running a hoof through her daughter’s mane.
“P-p-please?” Flurry pouted and turned on her puppydog eyes.
“Well—“ Cadance started, biting her lip.
“You did what to my little sister?!” The sound of glass shattering in the kitchen accompanied Shining’s shout. The clink of glass on chitin signaled another bottle coming from Mo’s corbiculae, and his insistence on bringing more than one bottle of Applejack’s reserve suddenly made a lot more sense.
Three bottles of the hard stuff had seemed a little much for just the two of us.
“Oh, Shining...” Mom sighed, looking towards the hall leading to the kitchen. “What are the odds he just found out about your little feeding hiccup?” She turned back to me, arching a brow. “Unless there’s something else we should be worried about?”
“Mom….” I groaned. “Mo told you we were taking it slow. We haven’t done anything.” I paused. “Well, almost. We certainly haven’t done anything Shining has a right to get mad about.”
“Just checking.” Mom began to move towards the hall. “We’d better go diffuse things before they get out of hoof. Come along, Cadance.”
I stood up only for Cadance to gently sit me down again. “You stay here with Flurry, Twilight. I don’t want her eavesdropping in on this conversation, and I don’t know whether or not Shiny will want to listen to you. Please don’t take it the wrong way, but if Morpheus really did overfeed off of you…”
“Right, right….” I looked to the floor. “Just try to help Shining understand, okay?”
“We’ll call you if we need you.” Cadance nodded, then hugged me. “With any luck, though, we won’t. It might not even be that bad. Shining’s been making real progress recently.”
“Thanks.” I hugged her back. “Please make him realize it wasn’t like him and Chrysalis.”
“We will.” Cadance pulled back to follow Mom from the room.
“What’s so bad about uncle Mo Mo eating you?” Flurry looked towards where the others had gone. “You’re like the best aunt ever, and Momma said he had to eat love to live. You must be super tasty and nu— nu-tree— nu—“ She stuck her tongue out.
“Nutritious.” I giggled. “And no, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. Your—” I licked my lips, “—uncle just needs to make sure he doesn’t eat too much or we both suffer from the tummy ache.”
Her uncle…. Oh, Celestia, that felt odd to say. It didn’t feel wrong – just weird. One day, someday, there could be more than just a hint of truth to that, and I wasn’t sure what to think about that.
Better to just enjoy the now.
Have a tea party with Flurry. Pray that Mo lived through whatever was happening in the kitchen. Make a mental checklist of all the things we needed to do in Canterlot.
Let’s see…. First things first, we needed to—
“I’m back!” A brisk, winter draft accompanied Spike through the front door. I shivered as it flew down the hall and into the living room, and my wings itched with the need to pull a particular cuddlebug closer.
“Close the door before you let all the heat out!” I settled for Flurry, letting my little niece snuggle up under my right side wing.
“You would not believe the line they had at Madame Butterhoove’s, Twilight. You owe me big time for this. Twilight?” He carefully waddled in with an enormous gingerbread house grasped in his claws.
It was easily as tall as he was and three times as wide. I had no idea how he made it here without tripping, and I quickly levitated it away, because there was simply no way for him to see where he was going.
“Thanks!” He ran up to hug me before turning to ruffle Flurry’s mane. “How’s our favorite little niece?”
“Hi, uncle Spike!” Flurry clapped her hooves together, bouncing up and down. “Want to join me and Auntie Twilight? Doctor Professor Sir Lady Bearington Junior III esquire—” there was a squeaky gasp for breath, “—invited everypony for tea!”
“Everypony, huh?” Spike faked a disappointed frown. “Guess I’m too lame for your party, then.”
“Dragons are welcome too!” Flurry pouted. “You’re just the only one cool enough to come. Sir Slasher and Lady Lace Rations are always too busy jousting to join in.” I giggle-snorted as she pointed to the two dragon plushies sitting to the side with fuzzy armor and lances.
“Come on, Spike.” I carefully set my gingerbread mansion down and cracked a few pieces of the roof off for all of us. “I’ll even let you have the windows. I know they’re your favorite.”
“You’d better,” Spike huffed. “I got one for the two of us.”
“I thought you were getting each of us our own?” I arched an eyebrow.
“I was going to until I walked in and was reminded of how big they are.” He shrugged. “There was no way I could carry two seperate houses, so I just got the super-mega-deluxe mansion for us to share.”
He squinted at Flurry as she nibbled on the shingles I hoofed her. “I thought it would just be for the two of us, though.”
“Relax, Spike. It’s just Flurry.” I rolled my eyes. “Mo isn’t getting any.”
“Yeah?” Spike scratched his head. “And just where is everypony else?”
“Kitchen.” I pointed as some heated comment or other filtered through the wall. “They should be done soon… I think….”
“What are they arguing about?” Spike cocked his ear fin.
I frowned. “Shiny found out about Nightmare Night and didn’t take it well.”
“And you aren’t in there chewing him out?” Spike’s brow rose as he broke a hole in one wall to get at a frosted window.
“Cadance didn’t want Flurry eavesdropping.” I bit my lip. “She was also a bit worried Shining wouldn’t be too… receptive... to anything I had to say.”
Spike snorted. “I’m your brother too, and I listened to you without clawing through your coltfriend’s cocoon to gouge his eyes out.”
“You know it’s different with Shining,” I mumbled as I bit into a part of the stately wall that surrounded the mansion. “He’s still hurt by what Chrysalis did….”
Spike sighed and shook his head. “He’s still your brother, Twi.” He waved a claw towards the hall. “Now go on and try to talk to him at least. I’ll keep an eye on Flurry.”
“Thanks, Spike.” I smiled. “Try not to eat us out of house and home while I’m in there.”
“No promises!” Spike smirked, tossing a shingle up high before catching it in his mouth with a crunch.
I stood and levitated Flurry over to Spike before heading out into the hall and down towards the kitchen. I walked in to find my parents, Cadance and Shining all seated at the cramped, little table over mugs of hot applejack. Mo was leaning on the counter to the side – his horn occasionally lighting up as he took a sip from his own mug and looked out the window.
“Twilight!” Dad smiled, pulling a glass from the cupboard with his telekinesis. “I was wondering if you’d decide to join us. I take it that Spike is watching Flurry?”
I nodded as he poured me a glass from the bottle on the table, his horn flashing for a moment as he mixed in a few berries and spices – stirring with a cinnamon swizzle stick – and bringing everything to a boil. He levitated the steaming mug over to me and dropped it in my aura, toasting me with his own mug as I took a sip and hummed at the taste.
“So, how is everything?” I said, warily watching Shining.
“Just peachy.” He snorted. “Somehow I ended up the bad guy here.”
“Oh, honey… don’t say that….” Cadance nuzzled my brother. “We aren’t upset with you. Your reaction was perfectly understandable – if a little overzealous.”
“Yes…” Morpheus thrummed. “It was completely within reason given Mother’s—“ he coughed, “—tastes. I would appreciate it if you didn’t threaten me with kitchen utensils, though.”
“I grabbed a Discord-damned baster!” Shining put his head in his hooves. “What could I have even done?!”
“There’s a surprising number of uses for such a tool.” Mo shrugged, glancing out the window as he took another sip. “Hera would not have been pleased to see that. Be glad she isn’t here.”
“So… everything’s alright?” I arched my brow at my brother. “I don’t need to worry about you arresting my coltfriend?”
“Celestia’s sake, he’s fine!” Shining leaned back and downed the rest of his drink before beginning to mix another one. “I’m fine, too. He just ambushed me with what happened to you on Nightmare Night. You didn’t have to send in Mom and Cady to lecture me.”
The hiss of boiling applejack lingered slightly longer than necessary. “Honestly, it’s like you don’t trust me around him.” He sighed. “I’m not an idiot. I know he isn’t Chrysalis.”
“Sorry.” I looked to the floor, poking it with one hoof.
“Don’t be…” he muttered, staring into his mug. “Just have a little more faith in me next time.”
“Well, I had faith in you.” Mo toasted my brother. “You think I’d be crazy enough to leave Twilight’s side if I didn’t? When we first met, I could taste how much you wanted to kill me. Twilight even had to shield me from you, just in case. Sure, you still might have a few issues with me, but it’s nothing compared to before.”
He shrugged. “Really, what’s a few harmless threats compared to actual, murderous intent?”
Shining grumbled unintelligibly.
“Actually,” Mo thrummed, “threatening me with the basting brush would have been even worse than just waving the baster around. Every bristle can be a weapon unto itself.”
Shining rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be like that, Shiny.” Cadance pecked him on the cheek. “You’ve read enough of Twilight’s reports to know he’d be able to hear that.” She giggled. “I’ll tell you what, though. How about you, me and Flurry all go for a walk around the neighborhood? Flurry wanted to see if there were any new Hearth’s Warming decorations up, and I know you just love watching her get all wide-eyed this time of year.”
“Oh! Oh, oh! Can we go to Madame Butterhoove’s, too?” Flurry burst through the door – much to the chagrin of the dragon next to her.
“Spike….” I frowned, making him squirm for a moment or two. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but still!”
I looked to Morpheus. “And why didn’t you say anything?”
“They were doing pretty well for amateurs.” He shrugged. “It didn’t seem fair to cut their fun short when I was the only one who noticed.”
Mom had the audacity to giggle. “Well, this does save me the trouble of fetching you from the living room. It’s about time to start cooking dinner, and your father and I would never dream of starting without you, Spike. You ready to cook a meal that’d make a princess weep tears of joy?”
“Ha! I do that on a daily basis!” Spike puffed his chest out.
I snorted. “I cry one time, and you never let me live it down.” I yanked Mo under my wing and pulled him towards the door. “Come on, Mo.”
“Where are you going?” Dad arched his brow.
“To share my gingerbread house with my coltfriend!” I stuck my tongue out at Spike.
“Good luck!” Spike snickered. “Flurry was hungry enough to eat a horse.”
“Flurry Skyla Heart! Did you spoil your dinner without telling us?” Cadance was not pleased and neither was I.
“It just tasted sooo good!” Flurry pouted as my sister-in-law frowned at her.
“And there goes our trip to Madame Butterhoove’s….” Shining lamented, following the two of them into the hall.
“Well, then,” I huffed. “I guess we’ll just cuddle until dinner is ready.” I grinned at my number one assistant. “We might even kiss, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us!”
“Noooooooo!” Spike fell to his knees and shook his fists at the heavens as I cackled and pulled Mo into the hallway.
As we left, I saw Mom and Dad rolling their eyes. “Kids.”
I cackled harder, and Morpheus cut me off with a gentle kiss.
“I love it when you’re evil.”
Dangit, I just had to read about characters walking through the snow on a day like today...
i'm having fun with this story.
Mo isn't the only one in danger of Flurry Heart Attacks. She was oozing such a strong aura of sweetness!
Oh, don't we all...
This is just precious. I was grinning the entire time I read this.
8590741
I somehow missed that now I am like a nutter.
One broken bottle of cider, but hey no one was impaled with the shards. A clear success.
Okay, now THAT was a rather fun read! <3
Not sure if I already told you but, among a lot of other positive things, your Spike is awesome.
I just realised that the title is the symbol for differentiation, after all this time I just noticed now, and I've been with the story since like the 80,000 word mark. And I'm studying maths right now, and we did differentiation both last year and a few weeks ago. I'm an idiot.
I love the part where Twilight calls Mo her cuddlebug.
Wow, this is pretty good - after seeing the story constantly popping up on the front page I decided to give it a go and now I'm sorry I didn't do so sooner. The writing is excellent on a technical level, dialogue and character interactions never cease to entertain, the humor is both prevalent and continuously genuinely amusing and obviously a lot of thought has gone in to the worldbuilding and construction of the changeling culture. And I love stories that explore alien cultures. All in all the story sucked me in and I didn't even feel the chapters flying by as I devoured them while having a constant grin of entertainment on my face, which is perhaps the highest compliment I know to give.
And Twilight and Morpheus make for an excellent duo through whose eyes to watch this all unfold and the way they play off each other is excellent. They are similar enough to land on the same wavelength yet different enough to both trip over and egg each other on. It's hard to imagine a better match for Twilight - some smart enough to keep up with her, different enough to keep the fires of curiosity and discovery burning and familiar enough that Mo's panic and manic episodes ought to feel pretty bemusingly familiar to her. While there is a lot of good I can say about the fic overall, the pair of Twilight and Morpheus is definitely your crowning achievement. It's just so much fun seeing the two act and interact around each other. I can't wait to see where their newfound relationship takes them ... I wonder what a changeling and pony hybrid looks like?
If there is but one thing that has left me somewhat perplexed though it's - how come the Changelings haven't taken over Equestria a long time ago? Because the longer the story went on the higher the impression got they could have done so pretty dang easily at any time they wished with nary an effort involved, either covertly or overtly. I mean they are super efficient, super coordinated and super competent thanks to the hivemind, know more about earth pony and pegasi abilities than earth ponies and pegasi do, have disguised changelings operating in all levels of society and, as Antipathy proved, can implant spells within a significant portion of the population without anyone being the wiser and could topple it all with but a flick and run circles around Equestrians in general in terms of espionage and intelligence gathering.
It feels like all it would take is the proverbial push of a button for Equestria to collapse in to an uncoordinated anarchy and that it would be child's play to replace any and all important government officials with changelings, or just simply assassinate them, without anyone being able to do a thing to stop them. Or just straight out invade, only without half-assing it like Chrysalis did (who probably half-assed it on purpose anyway so she would have an excuse to abdicate and put Mo on the throne). Who could hope to stop them? Equestria's guard ain't worth much, Twilight is sort of a glorified damsel in distress anyway who would go down to a single dedicated warrior ... AJ and Rainbow would put up more of a fight no doubt, but that's not doing much for the country as a whole. I mean, Mo obviously doesn't want to do that, but why hasn't it happened before?
Anyways, this has been a fun romp and I'm eagerly looking towards more
8603682
That’s actually an interesting question, and there’s a few reasons for Why they haven’t just taken over.
The first is a combination of tradition and evolution. Way back when they had just survived the Fall of Ichorous - and even before the Fall - staying in the shadows was key to their survival. One of the big weaknesses of the hivemind is that it can get stuck in it’s ways of approaching certain problems as it gets older, so generations worth of memories saying hiding and playing it safe was for the best actively encouraged changelings to continue doing so even when they had regained enough strength for houses to reform and schemes to be made.
Second, Mo, Chrysalis, and Antiquity are all rather... pro-active for lords.... I know I talk of the lords all being brilliant masterminds, but the things those three do are pretty audacious even by changeling standards. Few lords would ever risk the fallout of being personably responsible for actions like implanting all the suggestion spells Antiquity did or pushing everyling into signing the Unbreakable Contract like Mo, or flat out invading like Chrysalis did. I mean, the setbacks for those types of plans failing are huge. Chrysalis’ failure worsened the food problem by raising security. Mo ended up the only one restrained by the Unbreakable contract when his plan was discovered. Both Antiquity and Carapace were forced to flee the hive when they failed to assassinate Mo.
Third, the infighting is distracting. Post-Fall, it was rare for the leaders of the Hive of the First Father to be strong enough to unite the houses. With the state of power almost constantly being tested or in flux, noling really had time to focus on subverting other nations to any large degree. Chrysalis is the exception to the rule, having united almost everyling in her desire for conquest. She swept them all up with dreams of glory, greatness, and never ending food, and the only reason she failed is her overfeeding. I’ve only really hinted at it, but she wasn’t in her right mind after taking in so much of Shining’s love and the general happiness surrounding the wedding.
Fourth, the corruption from the Fall of Ichorous has hindered them for generations. There was a sort of psychic wound throughout the hivemind following the fall. The infighting between lords is so bad precisely because of this, as is the inability to feel spousal love.
There might be other plausible reasons, but those are the main ones I can think of in story.
Out of story, it might be as simple as power creep. I kept giving changelings more without really elaborating more on ponies who are technically all much stronger magically speaking.
8603840
Hmm, so the overarching reason is that they are so focused on their internal power plays that no one has the time - or dares to - devote attention and resources on external power plays, as that might simply spell their doom in their own back yard? I can buy that. Reminds me a bit of Skaven from Warhammer (if you know about them ) - could take over the world, if they ever managed to stop infighting between the major clans.
I guess the Hive is less united than I had pictured it. I sort of assumed that, while the lords schemed and plotted, in the end they would still follow whomever is the overall king or queen at the time, outright civil wars like what we have now with Anitpathy and Carapace notwithstanding. I guess that makes Mo's objective all the harder than I had imagined.
Hmm ... though if Chrysalis was indeed a rare case that managed to unify the houses in a vision of glory (and assuming she didn't throw the invasion on purpose to manouver Mo onto the throne so she can focus on her schemes in the background) - why didn't she bring better troops with her to Canterlot? It was mentioned that her force consisted of throwaway conscripts basically. Why not bring something better with her, especially with all the other houses backing her and the takeover attempt full tilt? Given what we have seen of proper changeling warriors, the mane 6 wouldn't have lasted a minute.
---
And yea, now that you mention it, from an outside "meta" perspective it can be seen as something of a power creep :P I mean, if we look at it, Twilight's role whenever "the plot" kicks in is basically to be helpless to showcase the perceptiveness, ability and competency of the changelings, Rainbow doesn't have a snowlake's chance in Tartarus of beating Spi and, unless she catches them off-guard (ironically enough! - and with skills the changelings actually had to teach her first) AJ can't really match a single proper warrior in controlled conditions that play to her strengths. And the later two especially seem like the strongest fighters the ponies have (something to do with being Elements? I believe Morpheus has noted something to that effect). Indeed, now that you mention it and I thought on it, you haven't really given the ponies much to lead one to believe they have anything worthwile to bring to the table, while changelings get the proverbial kitchen sink :P Good for the ponies that this is mostly slice of life :P
8603872
Chrysalis did have better soldiers. They were all off doing other things in the invasion because for some reason Chrysalis was addled enough from all that overfeeding to not perceive the Elements as the true threat they were. I mean, they took on Discord.
Also, it’s not that ponies are powerless. It’s that I haven’t been showing pony capabilities enough. Ponies as we’ve seen them usually lack training and in hindsight it might lead to this horrible misperception that they aren’t powerful. No changeling will ever fly as fast as Rainbow — not even a Monarch or Shaepherd. Neither will anyling be stronger than Applejack. They can fake natural talent, sure. A changeling can calculate the perfect lines for a race course or observe the weak spots in a tree to properly buck it, but in direct confrontations without prep and/or heavy experience they’re liable to lose. Spi can beat Rainbow because Infiltrators always fight dirty, and Hera managed to beat AJ because Hera was trained so well — her purpose in life is literally combat compared to AJ who is a farmer. AJ was even handicapped in a sense... One good buck could squash a bug if she really wanted to, but that’s... messy.
In that same vein, noling is likely to ever replicate the kind of stunts RD and AJ did with the wind sense and tremor sense. Not even Third Eye - who is the changeling equivilant of an alicorn - can hope to hear conversations all the way from the Crystal Empire like RD did. Granted RD and AJ are getting a boost from her element like you said, but even if normal earth ponies and pegasi tried to master tremor sense and wind sense they’d easily outclass most changelings.
Twilight is a somewhat different issue, though. Her mistakes stem from never really dealing with the types of tactics changelings are prone to use. She could have squashed Antiquity like a bug if she wanted to when they met, but she was just too nice to think of that. That was what let Antiquity gain the upper hand by taking advantage of her. Now, though? After Manehatten? Well, who knows.
8605040
Aye, I guess part of the perception could be that we are mostly seeing changeling soldiers and the pony equivalent of adventurous civilians. But then again these are civilians (though superpowered civilians) who did considerably better than the actual guard during the invasion, so that's even less flattering for the pony aptitude in general - because in general ponies will do worse than the mane 6, right?. I mean, a changeling might never outfly Rainbow Dash in a straight race, but evidently said speed isn't helping her win actual fights. Mussing how it's good to be faster in a dragrace is small consolation when you are constantly eating dirt because your opponent outclasses you in every other way that's conductive towards a victory It does kinda sound like ponies are pretty one-dimensional and easy to work around.
And yeah, Hera is obviously a soldier and AJ is not, despite the later's superstrength. Though - unless I am misunderstanding something (which may well be the case!) - Hera isn't anything particularly special as far as warriors go, right? Just your run of the mill warrior that changelings have a whole caste of, so you have ... thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands of Heras running around ready to be unleashed if need be? And if each of these can give AJ a good fight, who is significantly stronger than your average pony, then it doesn't look good for the ponies in a hypothetical conflict Tremor sense on the scale AJ does isn't even something that's particularly useful during a fight, because you are liable to knock more of your own allies out than changelings, all of whom are airborne, kinda like blowing up a flashbang in your own face :P
As for Twilight though ... hmm, I guess I might be heavily misunderstanding her or what she is intended to be portrayed as, but she hasn't come across as anyone particularly powerful or useful thus far. I'm trying to imagine her, as you said, squishing Antipathy as a bug - or even winning in a fight with her at all - and the mental image sort of throws up an error screen :P Obviously we haven't seen Antipathy fight directly so I might be imagining her as more potent than she actually is, but being better than Twilight doesn't seem to be a particularly high bar to cross.
I mean, Twilight can be seriously threatened by an infiltrator who uncloaks in front of her, spends time doing an evil monologue and then charges her head-on (meaning all in all a much less threatening situation than if a warrior was doing this, given how much stronger warriors have been portrayed as compared to infiltrators) - and she would have been taken out just like that if another changeling wasn't there to save her flank. Couple that with the Anitpathy debacle (drinking the tea at all was a serious brainfreeze moment in general from her, seeing as she was warned about Antipathy's poisons in particular) and she hasn't had a flattering portrayal so far.
She's just ... sooo slow on the uptake, so slow on the draw and so easily distracted in many a situation that I can't really imagine her winning a fight with anyone. She's just not coming across as a competent person in general. I legitimately can't image her winning a fight with AJ or Rainbow - the impression I get is that she'd do something dumb, fail to react in time and go down like a brick in ten seconds flat - much less put up a fight against the types of changelings that are giving AJ and Rainbow troubles. Between Rainbow, Aj, Spi and Hera she's probably the last person you would want at your side during an actual emergency, is the impression I've gotten from her thus far And when you consider that Antipathy is probably stronger than any of the aforementioned 4 ... And then you have the 8 enhanced warriors that Morpheus went up against. And won with a proverbial flick of his wrist. If that had been Twilight facing them, feels like the next arc would be about a rescue mission to get her back after she got clobbered and kidnapped
---
I'm sorry about the long post and I hope these aren't bothering you. It's just been a while since a story has had me this excited and I evidently can't help but keep thinking about it, analyzing the details and trying to get under it's hood
8605587
Nah, they aren’t really bothering me. If I seem defensive, it’s more that I’m playing devil’s advocate. You’re raising perfectly valid points about how I wrote things. I’m just giving you some insight on how I meant to portray things.
Let’s see, though.... There’s more to RD’s speed advantage than winning a race. It’s just that even in the show, her fighting style is to fly up in a burst of speed and punch things. She lacks good training, but we’ve seen that she can actually be dangerous in the Sombra AU in the Season 5 finale. In fact, a true, prolonged war with changelings might end up just like that. Changelings are good at alpha strikes and setting up ambushes, but as ponies both learn all of the changeling tricks and how to fight because they need to, they’d win a war of attrition.
I mean, I haven’t gone over it because the training got moved to the background until I need it, but by this point in time AJ routinely beats Hera and RD has probably a 50: 50 shot of beating Spi.
And yeah, Hera’s a common example of a warrior, but the Hive of the First Father has a really small population compared to Equestria. Thirty-three thousand something if I remember the first chapter right. They’ve been on the decline, after all, and even at their full power - not counting before the fall - I’d imagine the numbers to be around only 200k maybe 30k-40k of which are warriors. That’s nothing compared to the millions of ponies in Equestria.
Before the fall of Ichorous they might have had the numbers, but they were lead by shaepherds then, meaning they recognized the power of friendship. Uniting all the Hives into one might also give them the numbers, but that brings up the whole in fighting issue again.
Come to think of it, the numbers difference is the other big reason taking over Equestria hasn’t happened. Chrysalis doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, but it really is. If she had taken Canterlot, the only thing that would have protected her and the other changelings would be the fear generated from taking down the Princesses and the Elements. If ponies in all the rest of Equestria decided to actually fight back? It’d be like a reverse of the invasion of Canterlot. She overwhelmed Canterlot by bringing her entire freaking army. That numbers advantage wouldn’t last long if Equestria managed to consolidate. Maybe that’s why she went for the capitalfirst, though... to take out the viable leaders....
Anyways, as to Twilight, she’s still as strong as the show makes her out to be. I mean, her fights with Tirek and Starlight are a pretty good example of what she can do if she’s motivated to deal with a threat rather than befriend it, but that’s not really who she is. She’s slow on the uptake precisely because of her ideals - that friendship will always triumph. It makes her kinda naive, and changelings can really take advantage of that. With Wyrman, for example, she was almost attacked because the idea of him throwing himself forward in a suicide rush was madness to her. He was surrounded and completely outclassed, so she expected him to surrender. When he didn’t, she froze with indecision because she didn’t want to actually harm him.
8605870
Nah, you aren't defensive at all, so all's good
And sounds like AJ and Rainbow have been making some progress behind the scenes - that's good! And yeah, higher speed would obviously have some combat applications. I was just saying that the average pegasus being faster than the average changeling wouldn't necessarily translate to a readily usable inherent advantage over changelings specifically - it didn't do much for Rainbow after all. And if it took numerous training sessions with changelings themselves doing the teaching (including them teaching things like wind sense and who knows what else that ponies themselves don't know) to bring the fastest pegasus up to a 50/50 chance against a simple infiltrator ... well, your regular run of the mill pony looks pretty much boned when comparing him to a regular changeling, if speed is all he has going for him.
But yeah, that numerical advantage sounds pretty bad. But like you noted, I think Chrysalis' plan of cutting off the proverbial head of the snake could have really worked. I imagine ponies are especially susceptible to the decapitation of leadership - for thousands of years they have followed an alicorn princess. For generations no one would have even imagined anything else.
It's the nation's symbol of unity, strength and what gives the ponies a peace of mind and a rallying point; nothing else in their culture would even come close. To suddenly lose that ... I mean, I guess it's possible they manage to rally regardless and push ahead and bring their numbers to bear, but I'd put my money on it creating the ultimate headless chicken scenario instead and the country would probably descend in to chaos, uncertainty and panic. Even if some local community leaders would manage to rally their local ponies, I imagine large scale coordination, cooperation and restoration of order would be neigh impossible - especially if the changelings took further steps to sow panic and discord, which Antipathy proved as very easy to do. I mean, Chrysalis plan was clearly crazily ambitious, but due to Equestria's cultural quirks and how it's structured I imagine the crazy plan could have worked if she took all the princesses off the table.
Though obviously at present it should no longer work, if Discord actually stays true to his word and actually stops such a serious threat. Hmm, speaking of which, where was Discord during the Manehattan incident? One would think actual deaths being involved would rank as serious enough to warrant his intervention
As for Twilight though ... hmm, I would have to disagree that said description (and thus the way Twilight is presented in-story) lines up straight with in-show Twilight. Twilight in the show has never shown inaction for fear of harming the enemy. She has never been a pacifist and has never been shy nor hesitant about resorting to limited violence when faced with a threat. That's not to say she's hotheaded like Rainbow or even AJ of course, or that she wouldn't value a peaceful resolution instead or that she likes violence, but freezing up to the point of inaction and thus putting herself or her friends in danger because she is afraid of giving the enemy a few lumps has never been an in-show characteristic of her or her morals. Not to mention that there are options she can take that don't result in any physical harm.
And I guess that's what makes your Twilight subtly different - somewhere along the few years that separate this from the show's timeline she has apparently lost that bit of steel in her spine. Perhaps her relationship with Flash changed her? A few years of no adventures made her complacent? Or something else that caused said subtle shift in philosophy? Regardless, the difference can be clearly felt. If you asked me which one of the mane 6 I'd want at my side in a fight from the show? I'd answer Twilight without hesitation or second thought. At the present point in the story? Either AJ or Rainbow without a doubt - I couldn't trust this Twilight to have my back, or to pull her own weight.
Regardless, I hope she learned something from the Antipathy incident and will reflect upon it. She messed up badly - and ponies were harmed because of it. Ponies died because of it. Not because Antipathy did anything all that smart or devious - but because she refused to take the threat as seriously as she should have, did something amazingly dumb (drank the tea at all), didn't have any contingencies and thus ended up putting both herself and her citizens at an enemy's complete mercy. She can't afford to do that as a leader and protector of her people. It's my hope that the story touches upon this at least a little bit or that someone brings it up, because so far Twilight herself doesn't seem to have offered introspection or indication that the incident really affected her all that much
8606629
Twilight’s characterization is a bit weird in that I started the story years ago — before even the opening of season 5. I don’t even think Tirek had been defeated when I started. Back then, Twilight was still unsure of herself as a Princess, and I still tend to think of her as being unsure of her role of princess. It makes sense to me that she’d kinda bumble about trying to get used to it for years.
In that line of thought, Twilight the hero would never drink the tea. Twilight the princess would feel like she has to. During the beginning of Manehatten, Antiquity hadn’t actually done anything. There were no crimes to Equestria Twilight could pin on her. All she had were stories from Mo that made her wary and paranoid. Her big mistakes weren’t that she didn’t drink the tea; it was assuming her magic would be able to detect everything and failing to notice that Antiquity wasn’t drinking the tea. One of the things the scene break didn’t show was the overly long niceties and platitudes before their actual talk. If I remember right, I started the scene with Twilight drinking the tea as the got down to business, but there was probably a good fifteen minutes of awkward small talk where she avoided drinking while Antiquity egged her on.
In addition, Twilight managed to almost stop the riots all on her own. The only reason she didn’t is Antiquity had a back up plan, and even then Twilight rallied all the sane ponies in Manehatten, began relief efforts, and then flew off into the thick of things to charge into a burning building to save ponies while she was literally running on the dregs of her strength. This, in turn, inspired the very same ponies who set the building ablaze to feel so much shame that they helped put it out before it could spread.
EDIT: Wait... Tirek had to be defeated because I have Castle. I must have started in the season 4 hiatus.
8607108
Yeah, if you have Castle then things obviously have to be post Tirek :P
And it's certainly true that Twilight went through a phase of uncertainty regarding what she is meant to do as a Princess (and it's by no means a bad plot point if she still does so) - but her uncertainty as to her role as a Princess in everyday life really shouldn't be presenting any dilemmas when it comes to proverbially punching an enemy in the face when one is charging straight at her. Even at the height of her indecision, I don't believe the in-show Twilight would have ever hesitated to punch an attacking changeling, because those things don't really overlap. Unless she has let the anxiety become so bad that it's crippling her in other ways and is bleeding through to other aspects of her life in unhealthy amounts.
Which is certainly possible - but certainly not in line with how the in-show Twilight would have reacted at any point of any season, which is all I'm saying :P Which, in part, is what makes it hard to reconcile the idea of this Twilight being able to overpower Antiquity in a direct fight or being an asset during combat in general based on her in-show showings. Because she's evidently not as good as the in-show Twilight during such situations.
--
Regarding Antiquity, drinking the tea at all was definitely the biggest mistake, because she had no reason to do so and every reason not to. If Twilight had convinced herself she had no choice because of excessive show of hospitality in face of reason (and the changelings are still in a de facto state of war with Equestria, which would apply for anyone not explicitly aligned with Morpheous peace efforts - and doubly so for anyone he has pegged as an enemy ...) ... well, I guess that comes back to those aforementioned insecurities that she has allowed to develop in to unhealthy weaknesses. Which is fine of course, as long as the narrative acknowledges it at some point.
Conversely, her not noticing that Antipathy isn't drinking too much of the tea - that's not too much of a failure on her part. I mean, she certainly doesn't get any brownie points for not noticing, but that would be a bad way to gauge whether something is poisoned anyway so it matters less. The poisoner could have taken an antidote previously. They could have an antidote on their person which they could consume once the effects start kicking in. They could have long since developed a resistance to their own poisons by slowly ingesting small portions of it over the years, making the amount that's safe to drink for them versus anyone else very different. The poison might straight out not work on Changeling physiology. Their cup could have been laced with things that neutralize the poison. Trying to judge whether something is safe to drink or not based on whether the known poison master is drinking it as well is just asking to get poisoned while they get to prance off in the sunset laughing all the way And she was convinced that a spell for checking poisonous plants out in the wilds is sufficient for checking for processed and subtly purpose-manufactured poisons ... that one doesn't really flatter her intelligence either :P
And aye, Twilight did manage to contribute something by the end of it. But how much praise is one due for cleaning up a small part of a mess they themselves enabled, a mess that ended up costing lives by the end of it? If she hadn't been dumb and served herself up on a silver platter, Antipathy (presumably) would have never got a chance to start the riots because Twilight would have never been absent or in a position of weakness - or would have been strong enough to put a stop to them then and there.
I mean, obviously it's ultimately Antipathy who is responsible for those deaths and has to answer for them, but there is no question that Twilight failed as a princess and a defender of her people there. And the price could have been higher still if Antipathy would have simply felt like it. Twilight made the wrong choices, had bad priorities and didn't think things through - and the city paid the price for it. Her pulling a number of ponies out of a burning building by the end of it isn't a show of strength or success - it's a minuscule silver lining on the closing of what is the biggest failure of her life that she mostly has herself to blame for. Because it's not like Antipathy did anything amazing as far as villains go. It's that Twilight approached the situation exceptionally poorly.
At the end of the day it's not like all of that is anything bad or hinders the enjoyment of reading in any way. Twilight being somewhat incompetent isn't bad in on itself. If anything it's an interesting issue for Twilight to work through - because if she is still struggling with how she should act as a princess, Manehattan riots should serve for a very interesting learning experience. An expensive learning experience on things not do do and how not to conduct herself, but an interesting experience all the same - and it will be interesting to see what she takes away from it and how it's going to affect her future performance. The only way it could be disappointing would be if she failed to learn anything from it :)
8607108
"Before tirek was defeated?"
But you already wrote about Crystal Castle being her home?
8654314
Lol, yeah, I noticed that too. There’s an edit at the bottom of that comment, but it had to have started in the season 4 hiatus then, because I remember starting the story only vaguely considering having Chrysalis steal other Cutie Marks before Starlight Glimmer came along.
(October 2014 I started writing and didn’t publish until a little into 2015 it looks like. Season 5 aired in April of 2015.)
"We’d better go diffuse things before they get out of hoof." - defuse?
8654481
Aha... that explains that little loopy hole.
About Twilight drinking the tea, I believe you are still right making her do it.
Twilight has several reasons not to dissapoint Celestia in such a fickle situation. She doesn't want to make a mistake and abides by the rules set for diplomatic encounters (by equestrian standards), so unfortunately she fell for the trick since the bug lady (there is the "b" word I'd prefer for her) didn't acually cause reason for "acting" aggressive, distrusting or outright violent. Doing so would have been, in her opionion according to law, cause for conflict and outright antagonistic behavior, eventually ending in a declaration of "war".
So she tried to play the part, but that backfired greatly. It does fit her profile as beeing the adorkable purple princess pony she is.
But honestly, coooomee oooooonn! How dense can Twilight be sometimes? She was outright antagonistic to begin with and the trap with the poisoned tea was so freaking obvious, with the whole situation happening right after Moe's cocooning none the less, Why would she even consider drinking it?
I mean that "conniving bug lady" smelled like old cheese, mixed with cow dung, boiled in skunk urine, and served with foul fish wrapped in 4 weeks old worn socks.
Nothing against being forgiving, but that Black Widow practically asked for blood being spilled. It was a murder attempt at one of the princesses and she was proud at it, plus she put civilians, especially pony children, in life threatening danger, with high chances of no survival.
Criminals have been denied forgiveness and got shot/hung for less.
But then again, Starlight Glimmer also screwed time up to the point where all life in equestria was erased...
It's hard to be Twilicorn sometimes I guess.
Meanwhile I'm boiling hot oil in my cauldron of torture for a very naughty female changeling.
Problem is, I ran out of Chili... hmm what to do?
Lace Rations, man that is perfect.
I have just realized that being my family's black sheep has advantages. I won't ever have to be Twilight.