Frequencies
Despite Spike’s criticisms of the practice, Thorax found the meditative moves Fly Leaf had taught him really did do wonders in helping him relax, and was again able to find himself capable of sleeping peacefully at night without incident. And with that peace, began to feel calmer about the idea that perhaps the attempted mental intrusion to his mental scape had been a one-time attempt, and as he had no evidence of a repeat coming, he was finding himself better able to set the matter aside. On the matter of the attempted intrusion, though he still didn’t like not doing more about it, upon thinking it further, he realized Spike was right; until they got more evidence, there was little else they could do about it. And as the days passed, there were still no signs there had been any second attempts on to invade Thorax’s mental scape, or anyone else’s in the area for that matter. It really did seem like that, whatever or whoever it was behind this, it had been a one-time thing. And thanks to the clarity of mind Thorax received from practicing guizhou fa with Fly Leaf, he felt more confident than ever that there had in fact been no further attempts to invade his mental scape, and that he was ready and prepared to catch it should it ever happen again.
But better still, these exercises also helped Thorax feel overall rejuvenated and refreshed in the meantime, making it all that much more of a positive experience. Thus, Thorax began getting up early and joining Fly Leaf practicing guizhou fa every morning, interested in learning more. Fly was happy to have the company, and it quickly became an ongoing ritual between the two from there on. Thorax also found that getting up earlier in the morning also had the benefit of enabling him to better use his time, and quickly saw why Fly had chosen to do it.
It had also left him with a little more free time throughout the day too, and of course, he put it to use.
For example, since he was still greatly enjoying the Sky Trek book series he had been reading, Thorax was quick to use the added time to check out more entries in the series from the library and started making massive progress reading through the lengthy series. Because he was going through them so quickly, he started checking out more than one at once, and soon they became the first books Thorax would check out to outnumber the number of magic books he would also check out from the library in one go. Like everything Thorax read, the changeling read them rapidly and often whenever he found a free moment…but remembering past events he was also careful now to not let himself stay up late reading either, for fear of a repeat. Though occasionally, Spike still had to assist by forcibly removing the book from Thorax in order to get the changeling to snap out of his “reading trance” as the dragon had begun to call it. And though Thorax never wanted to stop reading, he appreciated Spike’s efforts to keep him from getting carried away.
Despite this added reading, Thorax hadn’t forgotten about his favorite radio drama, and it was the one thing the changeling made sure to take time out of every day to listen to. Continuing to buy additional collections of the records in the series to listen to, it was the tradition in the evenings for Thorax to put on a record to listen to while Spike sat nearby at the desk, continuing his toying with writing (trying to bash out a single idea to focus on writing) while they waited for Fly Leaf to call them to dinner. But Thorax would also buy, apparently out of simple curiosity or because it was on sale, other records that often would contain the past year’s top music hits, and would occasionally play these too. Of the records Thorax played, these were the ones Spike generally liked the most whenever he was in the same room to listen. It made him think of his own small but beloved collection of records he had owned up until he and Thorax became banished, although admittedly, his musical tastes were markedly different from the music on Thorax’s records.
So after noting one day that records of interest to Spike were also on sale and weren’t too excessively expensive, Spike decided one day to go and buy a record or two of his own. Once he had done so, he was quick to pull it out to play the first chance he got during his lunch break the following day, and was soon jamming out to the more heavy-toned rock music. He was in the middle of doing so for one particularly enjoyable song when Thorax stepped into their room to begin his own lunch break.
“Thorax!” Spike declared to the surprised changeling entering the room while miming out an air guitar. “Check out the record I got!”
Thorax, however, immediately threw his hooves to his ears and staggered lopsidedly into the room as if thrown off-kilter by the aggressive music. “What in the name of acorns are you playing!?” he shouted louder than he needed to, surprisingly dropping his disguise to reveal his natural changeling form but doing so without first closing the door to the room like he normally did, instead leaving it hanging wide open.
Puzzled by this uncharacteristic behavior, Spike moved to close the door for his friend while watching Thorax continue to trot in a roundabout manner through the room, seemingly unable to walk in a straight line while keeping his hooves over his ears, eyes squinted as if in agony. “This is the sort of music I like,” Spike explained as he followed the changeling, trying to figure out what was wrong. “Is it too loud?”
“It’s too everything!” Thorax shouted unhelpfully, again far louder than he needed as the changeling stumbled towards the record player, but the closer he got to it and the music it played, the more disoriented he seemed to get. “Turn it off!” he requested as he arrived at the player only to veer off to the left at the last moment, apparently without meaning to, and slammed face-first into the wall of the room.
Alarmed, Spike obeyed, hurrying over to the player and lifting the needle off the record, stopping the music immediately. Switching off the turntable, he then hurried to Thorax’s side where the changeling had sat himself on the floor, painfully massaging at his temples with his holed hooves. “What happened, what’s wrong?” he asked with concern.
“I’m not sure,” Thorax admitted, his voice falling back to more normal volumes as he shook off the effects of whatever it was, but his voice was still somewhat louder than it should be, like he was trying to talk over a noise that wasn’t there. “Whatever it was, it had something to do with that music—if you can call it that—you were playing.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, digging his hooves into the chitin around his temples while exhaling slowly to calm himself. “Whatever it was, it’s left my head buzzing, and for a second there, I could hardly focus on anything.”
Frowning, Spike glanced back at the innocent record player, realizing this went beyond a mere distaste for rock music, and that something about the music genre apparently bothered his friend’s changeling biology. “Was it hurting your hearing or something?” he hazarded to guess.
“No, no, I think it was more interfering with my praecognoscens nexum nerves…maybe causing some sort of disruption that—”
“Your what?”
Thorax sighed and tapped the base of his curved, pointed, horn where it joined with his forehead as he explained. “It’s a grouping of thaum-sensitive nerves located around here near my horn that are what enables a changeling to forge a link with the mind of another. Now, I’m thinking what might have happened is that your music was somehow aggravating—”
“Basically you think something about the music was causing interference in these nerves-things,” Spike summed up, cutting short what he sensed was going to be a long and technical explanation.
Thorax nodded. “Sort of like static.” He rubbed at his temples again. “And it was the loud kind.”
“But you’ve listened to plenty of other types of music before and not had this problem,” Spike pointed out, trying to puzzle this out. “So what’s different about my music that it’ll cause this problem to even show up?”
“I don’t know,” Thorax admitted. “Something in the audio frequencies, I would guess…I’m more worried if it’s potentially a problem that I could face again without warning, and if so, how can I guard myself against it.”
Spike sat himself down on the floor beside the changeling. “Any way you can figure it out?” he asked, having similar concerns. It wouldn’t do to have this happen again in the presence of witnesses that might discover Thorax was a changeling.
Thorax sighed. “Yes,” he admitted reluctantly. “…but it’s not going to be fun for me.”
Basically, the most Thorax could do was test and experiment with the music and gauge how it responded with his changeling biology. But as he only had himself to serve as a test subject, this basically meant putting himself through the whole reaction again repeatedly while starting and stopping Spike’s record as it was allowed to continue to play, attempting to figure out where the trend lay in what triggered the reaction and what in the music might be that trigger. It was very miserable for Thorax as it obviously wasn’t the very comfortable for him, but he gritted his teeth and bore through it. Spike, meanwhile, assisted by staying around to start and stop the record for Thorax in case Thorax himself couldn’t do it due to being in the throes of another bad reaction. At first he didn’t enjoy it either because it clearly made his friend uncomfortable, but later, after they had got the process refined to a science, Spike started to take some small and quiet amusement in it, if only because Thorax tended to make funny faces whenever the reaction was triggered.
The learning experience proved fruitful by the end of the lunchbreak though, as it revealed the severity of the reaction depended on Thorax’s proximity to the record player, how close or far away he was. And, more revealing still, they found the reaction also wasn’t continuously triggered throughout the whole record, but only seemed to be prone to triggering during certain songs on the record, or even just certain sections of the songs. Both Thorax and Spike noticed that tended to be around the more “hard rock” parts of the record.
“That suggests to me it’s the sound of a specific instrument, or maybe even a combination of instruments that are the trigger for this reaction,” Thorax reasoned, rubbing at his temples again, which naturally had gotten fairly stressed after putting himself through this so repeatedly.
“So…what? Just avoid hard rock concerts, and you’ll be fine?” Spike hazarded to guess with a shrug of his shoulders.
“It’s a start,” Thorax agreed. “But I’d still feel better if I had a better idea just what specifically the frequency that triggers this is, just on the off chance it could pop up in other places too, other than music…unfortunately, that’d require experimenting with the actual physical instruments and the sounds they produce one-on-one…none of which we actually own.”
“Why not just go down to a music store and fiddle with some of the instruments they have on display there?” Spike suggested. “I know a lot of stores will let their customers demo instruments so to interest them in buying them. Just turn them down when they try and sell it to you.”
Thorax rolled his eyes, or at least the next closest equivalent his pupiless blue eyes could manage while undisguised. “Unfortunately, no shop owner is going to let one customer idly demo several instruments, play what would sound like nonsense to them, and then refuse to buy any of them without asking questions, not for a random customer off the street.” He turned to walk for the door. “So unless you actually know a famous enough of an musician skilled in more than one instrument, that a shop owner wouldn’t question over and would more just be glad to have the musician in their shop altogether, and in enough detail that I could devise an accurate disguise for said musician, then there’s not a lot we can do about it.”
But Spike remained by the record player, thinking to the contrary. “Well, actually, now that you mention it…”
So by afternoon the next day, after visiting the library to dredge up some additional information and photographs for Thorax’s reference, even finding by chance an archived record that happened to have a conversational voice sample, Thorax wandered down to a nearby, privately owned but highly reputable music shop, and casually slipped inside in hopes to have his chance to secretly conduct his tests. He went in keeping an eye out for the shop owners, but fortunately he didn’t have to look far; there were few customers in the shop at that exact moment, and both of the shop’s two owners, a pair of stallion twins, were standing behind the front desk discussing a stock order when he entered. They immediately looked up and their eyes went wide, stunned, when they recognized the pony Thorax was currently disguised as, walking in through their front door.
“’Sup homies?” Thorax greeted casually in the voice of the musician he was disguised as, named Vinyl Scratch according to Spike and happened to be native to the Ponyville area when not out on tour. “Just doin’ some window shoppin’, so don’t mind me.”
He then turned and walked to the side opposite of the store from the front desk to casually look at a display of drum heads, the idea being to act like this was a casual visit and that he didn’t actually have an agenda to fill here, letting the shop owners come to him. To add to this image, on top of the disguise Thorax wore his midnight blue hoodie—which happened to fit Vinyl’s image perfectly—and prior to coming to the music shop, he had stopped at Monterey’s and bought a piece of Wensleydale cheese to idly munch on while here.
Thorax actually didn’t like it too much and thought it was a bit too sweet in flavor for his tastes, thinking he should’ve tried the Stilton today, but it just meant he could keep nibbling on it throughout the visit instead of having downed it too soon and spoil the image. The only other thing he wore was a pair of fancy shades that he had bought that was a close equivalent to the pair Vinyl was often wearing in the photos he saw of her. But as the shades made it too dim to see what he was doing, Thorax had them propped up above his disguise’s white unicorn horn, and thought this only added to the casual image he was shooting for. His biggest fear was that he had overdone it and the shop owners would leave him alone, but instead, exactly as he hoped, the shop owners were soon hurrying over, trying to look calm and collected but weren’t really succeeding.
“Hello!” one of the two twins said as he was first to arrive, which seemed to slightly annoy the other. “Vinyl Scratch, right?”
“That’s me,” Thorax replied, turning to face the two stallions and giving them an idle once-over. They both had blond mane and tails, peach-colored bodies, and wore identical black polo-shirts with the store’s logo on them, and being obvious twins, they looked practically identical. Others probably would’ve had a hard time telling them apart, but being a changeling and thus having an eye for the finer details in a pony’s figure, Thorax noticed one of the two was somewhat leaner and there was a slight difference in their respective bone structures around the eyes.
“The DJ-PON3?” the other stallion asked, his eagerness not quite so concealed as his brother’s.
Thorax placed a white hoof to the chest of his disguise, feigning pride. “My reputation precedes me, I see.”
“We’re the shop owners,” the first stallion offered, offering his hoof to shake, which Thorax accepted. “I’m Xylophone.”
“And I’m Metallophone,” the other added, also offering his hoof for a shake. “We’re big fans. You’re such a talent in music, it seems like there’s nothing you couldn’t do.”
Thorax just laughed politely and didn’t comment, but he was inwardly glad the owners were proving to be such fan boys of this mare. It also confirmed what he already knew; Vinyl was primarily a disk jockey by trade, but she also was practiced in a number of other instruments both inside and outside her typical genre, and was often featuring samples from such instruments into her work. It was why Spike suggested her and Thorax agreed to pose as her; because of the range of instruments Vinyl was known to be familiar with, no one would question her asking to demo a wide range of instruments seemingly at random.
“We just wanted to welcome you to our store, and ask if there was anything, anything at all, we could help you find,” Xylophone explained by way of offer.
Thorax made a non-committed shrug. “Just lookin’ at whatcha got, really,” he admitted, turning to idly gaze of the shop on a whole. “Was just passin’ through the area chilling between concerts, lookin’ to kill some time, and there was this groupie for a fellow artist I met awhile back that mentioned this place, so I figured I’d check it out while I’m here.”
“We’re flattered you’d think to do so,” Xylophone continued with an eager nod, and moved closer. “Is there anything in particular you’d be interested in?”
Again, Thorax shrugged. “Y’know, I don’t actually have a pressin’ need for any of this right now, so just kind of anything and everything right now. Anything that might catch my eye, y’know?”
“Well for such an honored guest, you’re welcome to have run of the shop if you want,” Xylophone generously offered. “You see anything you like anywhere in the store, and you’re welcome to give it a look.”
Thorax pretended to consider this. “And I’m good to demo it too if I want, right?” he asked.
Both of the stallions nodded. “Absolutely!” Xylophone said. “We certainly wouldn’t expect you to buy something you hadn’t tried for yourself first.”
“Boys, I was hopin’ ya’d say that,” Thorax responded with a grin.
And he made good on that offer. Bringing out a notebook to take notes in (all in his native changeling language of course, to avoid anybody being able to steal a peek at what he was writing), he proceeded to pull out the various instruments he wanted to experiment with, and proceeded to poke around with them accordingly, trying to simulate the audio frequencies he suspected were responsible for his problem. Because he was disguised so, no one seemed to question him on what he was doing, even though he was really only awkwardly producing random noise instead of music. He even overheard Xylophone quietly comment to his twin that the unusual tones Thorax was producing demonstrated just how much Vinyl was an “audio visionary, to produce such unconventional sounds.” All of which worked perfectly for Thorax and his plans.
There were still minor issues to the ruse, though. At one point, a fellow customer also recognized Thorax’s disguise and hurried over to ask for Vinyl’s autograph. For obvious reasons, Thorax tried to politely wiggle out of it by admitting he didn’t have a pen on hoof…but naturally the customer had one he could borrow. Vaguely recalling seeing a sample of Vinyl’s signature in a promotional picture he had found while researching her for the disguise then, he attempted to make a rough approximate of the signature from memory. Thankfully, that seemed to be good enough for the customer.
Unfortunately, the other minor issue Thorax faced wasn’t so easily resolved; he noticed after a few minutes that Metallophone had taken to ogling his disguise from behind. Naturally feeling embarrassed by that, especially since it was really the rump of another mare that the shop owner was staring at and Thorax knew he had no permission to borrow, so the disguised changeling began making it a point to either remain seated or have himself turned so to be facing Metallophone at all times for the remaining duration of his stay in the shop. He also had a small problem of trying to not pull a face whenever he hit the right note and triggered the negative reaction, as it at least once drew the baffled stare of one nearby customer. But despite these hiccups things went accordingly to plan, and after about a half-hour and calculating out a few final math formulas in his notebook to double check his work, Thorax had the information he was looking for and was packing up to leave.
“Anything interest you, Miss Scratch?” Xylophone asked hopefully as Thorax moved to head for the front door, finishing off the last of the Wensleydale cheese.
Thorax shook his head. “Nothing I have a pressing need to get right now,” he admitted with a hint of regret in his tone so to let Xylophone down easy. “But ya’ve got a nice place here…I’ll definitely keep it on my radar for the future, and maybe pass word on to a few friends that are more often up here in the Vanhoover area than I usually am.”
Xylophone beamed at this news, no doubt already envisioning a massive boon to his and his brother’s business. “That’d be wonderful, thank you!” he declared. “Do come again, though! You’re always welcome.”
Thorax winked at him. “Catch ya on the flip side,” he said as he slipped out the door.
Once he was outside though, he let out a deep breath, relieved that part was over and done with, and quickly trotted off. He headed over to the arcade that was on the next block over and ducked inside the busy little building. After a moment of looking around though, he spied Spike sitting at one game machine located in a quieter corner of the arcade, killing time while waiting for Thorax, and strolled over to him.
“Well, I’m back,” he announced to the dragon as he pulled his notebook back out, flipping to the notes he had taken. “It’s definitely a case of it causing an unintended thaumic feedback in my praecognoscens nexum nerves.”
Spike glanced away from his screen and at the disguised changeling for a second, and smirked. “That’s very interesting to hear, Vinyl Scratch,” he quipped as he looked back at the video game he was playing.
“Huh?” Thorax remarked blankly, then looked down at himself and realized he had acclimated to it so much he forgotten to switch out of his disguise as the DJ pony. “Oh! Uh…” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching then quickly ducked behind Spike’s arcade machine. A brief flash of cyan light later, he stepped back out on the other side of the machine, back in his usual Thornton disguise and looking sheepish. “Well, that’s embarrassing,” he confessed, back to using his normal voice.
“I’ll bet, especially after you whined so much about having to disguise as a mare,” Spike quipped, jabbing at the controls of the video game with his claws as he played.
Thorax blushed. “Hush,” he said.
“How had you had put it when you tried to get out of it…something about wanting to wear a cloak or something to cover up so you could “fudge the anatomy” and get away with it?”
“Hush, I said,” Thorax repeated, but he couldn’t help but grin along with Spike’s light-hearted teasing.
“So…feedback loop sort of deal then?” Spike summarized, not taking his eyes off his game as he got back on topic.
Thorax nodded, watching Spike play. “Basically what happens is that the specific audio frequencies in the rock instruments that commonly play like in your music mixed in with the magical-based distortions their attached sound systems exploited create a sort of magical side-effect. It’s harmless to ponies and probably most other creatures…though I suspect that this might be the real reason birds tend to fly away at the sound of such music when played too loudly…but it happens to have minor adverse effects on parts of changeling biology responsible for our mental abilities.” He tapped the screen of Spike’s game with one hoof suddenly. “Get the thing already, Spike.”
“I know, I know, I’m working on it,” Spike grumbled, struggling with the controls of the game.
“Anyway, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t create any lasting damage, it just severely disorients any changelings within range while it’s playing, but immediately bounce back once it stops, or at least that’s how it’s worked for me,” Thorax continued to explained. “But to play it safe, so long as I stay away from rock concerts and aren’t in the same room every time you play your record, I should be fine.”
“So basically exactly what I had suggested you do yesterday,” Spike summarized as his character in his video game died and the game ended.
“Yes, but now we know that for certain,” Thorax pressed.
Spike turned and smirked teasingly at his friend. “You’re satisfied with that, then?” he asked.
Thorax grinned proudly. “Quite.”
Spike shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat then,” he said, patting Thorax on the leg and heading to leave. “C’mon, we need to start hoofing it back to the shop anyway, or Fly’s going to start wondering what happened to us.”
“Right,” Thorax said with a nod, and followed.
This all probably seems like a purely filler chapter, but in reality the subjects it touches upon will be relevant in a much later chapter, and I needed to address it at some point in the story prior to that. I had wanted to address it attached to a much earlier chapter than this, but plans for the chapter in question changed last minute and I was forced to move the relevant material later into the story. As I didn't have any remaining chapters that would meld well with the subject, I thus had to flesh out the subject a bit more so to make a standalone chapter that you see now.
If it helps, this will probably the last chapter of this sort featuring a sort of "self-enclosed" adventure in it for the remainder of the story. All chapters after this point (unless I'm overlooking one, which is possible as I don't have my notes in front of me right this second, but I doubt it) will tie in to the greater main plot of the story in some shape or form.
In other news, since I figure people might start to ask by this point, no we're not done with the matter of the mysterious "mental intruder" a couple chapters back. Never fear, we will be getting back to that in due time. 
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Huh. So changelings have weird problems when it comes to sounds/music. Interesting. Also, I hate the author's note in this chapter. Its okay to have filler chapters, this is SLICE OF LIFE! Pete's sake, Slice of Life is supposed to be half filler, how else is life gonna happen unless you examine the smaller moments?!
Well whatever, its the author choice and I like both the plot chapters and the filler chapters in this story. Please keep this awesome story going!
I can imagine Spike sitting outside the changeling hive with a record player playing really loud rock music to incapacitate all of the changelings while Thorax watches from a long distance away.
Now I'm imagining shining armor playing a power ballad that forces the changlings away like the love barrier did
8118354 It's not that unrealistic, various militaries are experimenting with weaponized sound. Less music and more high-frequency sound that's supposed to rapidly give you a headache, but hey, it's a work in progress, not to mention that rock music is used in sleep deprivation, so it's literally a part of torture.
8118348 Honestly, I prefer the current format. The many slice of life chapters make great character development and world building, but also keep me on edge knowing something may go horribly wrong in seconds. You don't see very many stories like this, so I'm glad the author is taking full advantage.
8118745 Thank you! I hate it when commenters just rag on Slice of Life stories when they do just basic life things instead of plot all the time. I love the plot stuff and the slice of life, just living life stuff in this. They're both great!
I'm so nervous, ahaha
I'd like to think it's cause changlings can't handle the guitar virtuoso. Too awesome for them.
FORESHADOWING!
Am I the only one who feels like disguising himself as Vinyl is hilariously risky? Like if those two are big fans, maybe they happen to brag about her coming to their shop, only to maybe discover she's like across country on a tour.
Just seems like an oddly risky move to test a non life threatening suspcision
I'm so hyped for the next chapters...
pbs.twimg.com/media/CGgrk9uVIAIBvLj.jpg:large
8113067
Late response is late:
Well, I would like to see that elaboration, then. I've never actually seen someone interpret Spike as a future writer then actually show his creative spirit. To make it seem like he cares and wants to improve and such. Instead it feels like, well, they just threw it in.
Anyway the latest chapter:
I was listening to Power Metal as I read this chapter, and now I am sad Thorax will never rock out.
Great chapter, but I get the feeling that this chapter is going to be important. some FORESHADOWING .
8118348 8118745 8118807
That said, the author's note was more for the readers that are a little less on board with the continued slice of life, as an attempt to try and keep them reading. Also, I have still seen an increasing number of comments from such readers telling me to basically "get on with it," and past experience has told me that when you start getting more than one comment urging the same thing, it's worth looking into, so I am doing what I can to keep things moving and building towards the end now.
Comments like these always hearten me greatly to see and read. Glad you're still enjoying the story for what it is.
But to clarify, this doesn't mean the slice of life is ending per say, just that it'll start being more closely tied to the main plot that got the story rolling in the first place now.
8118942
I admit that I'm not much of a fan of hard rock myself, but I can definitely hear what you mean by that clip of music you linked there.
8119036
It really kind of is honestly, and I did think about that while writing the chapter. I had wanted to address the subject in some manner, but wasn't sure how to do it without shooting myself in the foot in the process, and I figured that, even if the real Vinyl Scratch herself stepped into that store and was told of her supposed previous visit, she'd just shrug it off as some kind of honest mix-up and not worry about it...or even play along with it for, you know, the lols. Because it's Vinyl. She's a very chill sort of mare.
More importantly, it's really a significant danger to Spike and Thorax only if someone figures out they were the ones involved, and both usually have made it a point to ensure that doesn't happen.
8119391
Spike and Thorax will talk about where Spike's at with his writing in an upcoming chapter that will repeat much of what I had conveyed in that past comment, and I have been planning more in-depth touches upon the subject in later still chapters, so give it time.
I admit that a problem I keep finding is that writing about, well, writing, honestly doesn't make for the most exciting of reading, so on occasion I admit to struggling on finding ways to address the subject while still keeping it interesting, while also still keeping Spike's progress on his writing realistic.
I'm curious to see what the real Vinyl Scrath would do or say.
Hmm mm. This means that if I push him one more time he'll cave in and skip straight to the climax! *gasp!*
GET ON WITH IT!!!
Only joking
I hope we follow spike and thorax till their old and grey!
8119712
So basically I'm pretty much committed to every chapter to come after this point in the story.
Actually, I couldn't skip straight to the climax even if I wanted to at this point without at least going back and editing past chapters, because of everything I've done to set up for things in-between and leading up to it.
8119684
I... sorta understand? It's hard to construct a whole scenario around it, but it's a good topic to have little bits about from time to time.
And I think that exploring Spike's creative side can be done... I understand it's a stretch of a comparison, but Rarity has several episodes where it's clear she has a passion for excellence and her craft. It's clear she loves what she does and does it a lot.
Of course, dressmaking is a bit more glamorous than writing, but I think the basic concept still applies.
Still, I look forward to it.
8119684 Dude, write the story the way you want to. Don't listen to the impatient commenters, they don't control your story, you do. Do it at your own pace.
"... Get the thing already…" as he points at the screen
I appreciate things like this
8119804
Obviously, I have failed to convey the importance of the thing.
Chekov's Electric Guitar?
Not bad. I have a feeling that Spike looses the player by using it as a sonic granade against changelings. Who knows, it might even lead to downfall of Chrysalis herself.
I also belive Thorax will become the Moose King he is in the show but much slower. Unless his transformation was strictly because of something in the Crystal Heart, then it might not. Or thus he could change to something sensibly looking...
derpicdn.net/img/2017/2/9/1358889/full.png
8121353 Yeah, I have to agree that they could've handled the new aesthetic better, but the Beetlemoose design works for me. At least they're still recognizable as Changelings. Keep this in mind: they definitely could've done worse.
8123076 Actually the only real problem are the rad colour schemes. And the fact that Thorax didn't get dragon eyes, the rest is pretty much how changelings would look like IF THEY WERE A HEALTHY RACE.
Doesn't that make him even more suspicious?
I mean, how many ponies are taking notes in changeling language?
In chapter Great Icky Purge (44) they found out the hive can be destroyed with cleaning supplies.
And now they learned changelings can be defeaded by rock music.
Even Chrysalis should hope that they will never get caught...
Good chapter!
Can't wait to see what happens next.
(Chapter 48 already? How time flies ...)
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True, but how many ponies would even recognize the changeling language by sight, let alone read it? Not many. Spike is quite possibly the only one in Vanhoover (other than Thorax himself) that would recognize the language for what it is. Others would recognize it's obviously a foreign language, but not what kind, and just because it's a foreign language doesn't immediately say anything suspicious. At any rate, Thorax was more thinking of ensure that, should said notes wound up in the wrong hooves anyway, they wouldn't be readily translatable.
Besides, I'm sure Thorax works better in his native language for these types of things anyway...I think that was what my original inspiration for the idea stemmed from...if so, I admit it kinda got lost in translation, but oh well.
Is it really 48 chapters? Heh, I haven't even been keeping track.
One Mare Band will bring changelings down like parasprites then.
You know, it would make sense to use a sound dampening spell that could cut off all sound that the changeling hears, I'm sure Thorax could do it at his level of bookworm nerdness.
*SNORT* Oh my god
If I was writing this, the real
Slim ShadyVinyl Scratch would show up. Good thing I'm not writing this.As much as this is filler, I would say it is the good kind. It is the kind that sets up a new “status quo” to show the life that is interrupted by the conflict in the story.
It is hard to pull off, but I would say you did quite nicely.
Nice touch adding Vinyl into this
.
I think I know how this is going to be applied in a later chapter.
Dj pon3 the changeling hunter
Who knew the changelings could be defeated simply by cleaning their hive while listening to rock music.