Learning about Colors
When wondering if something interesting was going to happen during any given day, it usually didn’t matter what time of the day it was when one was in the town of Ponyville. Something, whether large or small, was always bound to happen one day. From one or two pony problems to an evil magic sapping centaur running amok and trying to rule everypony, the town and its inhabitants did see a lot of different events happen on a regular basis.
And today would be no different for Princess Twilight Sparkle as a spread out series of thuds alerted her to someone at the front door of her new palace. Setting down the book she was reading, she snuck a look at the clock on the wall as she walked out of the room.
“Hmm, it’s seven in the morning. I wonder who that could be?” she said as she picked up her pace to a slow trot, seeing as how she had to cross much more space in the castle.
Trotting over, she focused her magic on the door in front of her, opening it in time with her arrival. On the other side was a sight that puzzled her..
Two changelings, a load of luggage… and a log?
“Hello Princess Sparkle, sorry for being so early. We are-“ one of them started to introduce themselves.
“The new changeling ambassadors! Of course, come in, come in, just let me get one thing,” Twilight said, ushering the changelings in before teleporting out of the room in a flash.
“Well she didn’t go wide eyed, scream, or freak out in any way. I’d call that a good start, wouldn’t you, honey?” one said while smiling as she looked at the aesthetics of the room.
“Oh the times they are a-changing my dear. But as I recall in our briefing, she is the academic type; one to succumb more to curiosity than fear in certain situations,” the second replied as a bright flash and popping noise signaled Twilight’s return.
“Sorry, I was doing some quick reading earlier before I rechecked my schedule for the day. You are actually a bit early,” she said, half looking at them, half looking at the scroll she floated in front of her.
“Oh yes, our travelling went quicker than expected…” The changeling paused before his eyes went wide. “Oh, your highness, I’m sorry, we forgot to introduce ourselves. My apologies. My name is Opilio, and this is my wife.” The changeling motioned to the other next to him.
“Dotted Blue,” she said with a slight bow.
“Hmm like the type of crab and butterfly?” Twilight asked.
“Yes your highness. Our species has similar traits to arthropods, so we in turn take our names from them. We found it very interesting that you tend to do this with…well, everything. If you don’t mind me asking, can’t that be a bit confusing sometimes?” Opilio asked.
“Well it can be sometimes, what with some ponies having very similar names. I’m just glad no one is named Twilight Sparkles, or else it might mess up the mail,” Twilight joked, earning a chuckle from the two changelings. “Um, is it okay if I ask you a question?”
“Why certainly your highness,” Opilio replied.
“Oh, you can just call me Twilight. I’m not really one for honorifics and titles.” Twilight gave him small smile.
“Are all the princesses like that?” Opilio asked, forgetting about what Twilight had asked of him.
“Well Cadence is, and Celestia prefers it for more official reasons, but Luna is still catching up on the past one thousand years so it may be a while before she decides.”
“Fascinating,” Opilio replied simply, focusing on what the princess was saying.
“So anyway, I was looking through some of the information I was given on you, as to prepare for your arrival... and I noticed that it said that there were three of you?” Twilight said, trying to avoid being blunt.
“Oh, yes. Dotted, myself and our son.”
“Oh that’s right, we haven’t introduced you to our son, Scuttle,” Dotted broke into the conversation again after walking back over from their luggage, cradling the log with a leg before placing it gently on the ground in between the three.
Twilight stood there just staring at the log in silence for a while before Dotted finally realized what was going through the mare’s mind and laughed a little bit. “Oh, how forgetful of us. This must look weird from your perspective, Twilight. I’m truly sorry,” she said before leaning down and nuzzling the log. “Scuttle, honey, it’s time to wake up. You’ve got somepony to meet.” The softness of her tone gave Twilight a reminder of her own mother.
Still looking down at the log, Twilight watched as it began to move. A slight roll to the right, then to the left, and then, with a small series of pops and green flashes, the log was now standing on four little black legs. After a slightly louder pop, the rest of the log changed into the small body of a young changeling.
The little changeling yawned and stretched before slowly inkling his head and opening his eyes. Twilight looked into his bright blue eyes as Scuttle slowly got going, as most foals did in the morning. He blinked a couple of times before it seemed like he focused on the pony in front of him. With a surprisingly sudden burst of energy, he gasped.
“OH MY GOSH! You’re that princess!” The changeling, with his newfound energy, started looking in every direction his body would allow him to. “And we’re in your palace! This is so cool!” His childish actions caused the adults in the room to laugh.
“Well Twilight, as you can see he’s… really excited about being here. It’s very rare that he wakes up and suddenly takes off. Usually it takes forever to get him up.” Dotted smiled as she watch her child zip around the room, looking at literally everything.
“Um…is it okay if I ask why he was a log while sleeping?” Twilight was still surprised by that. It reminded her of a comic Spike read, though she couldn’t recall the title at the moment. Something along the lines of Transformicons or something.
“Of course, Twilight. It’s actually something very simple. When changelings are born, they are born with all the traits and abilities that all other changelings have, but they do not yet have the knowledge to fully utilize them. When children first begin to grasp their powers, they start small with inanimate things. Sometimes it happens randomly in surges, and in somewhat rare cases like with Scuttle, the young ones transform when they are asleep,” Opilio stated as he kept his eyes on his son’s wanderings.
“Wow, I never knew that. I’ve only seen changelings transform into other ponies before.” Twilight felt the urge to take notes, but did not want to be rude to her guests.
“Well it’s not really a skill the changelings of the past revealed… but since the peace and everything, and how the situation is different, I think we changelings will have to… no pun intended, change.”
“Plus Scuttle’s ability has led to some funny incidents,” Dotted broke back into the conversation.
“How so?” Twilight could only imagine the possibilities.
“Well one time after dinner, Scuttle fell asleep and turned into a plate, and his father sure got a big surprise when he went to wash the dishes afterwards.” Dotted raised a hoof to her mouth to stifle her laughter as Twilight saw a blush on Opilio’s face appear.
“Moooooooooom!” Scuttle yelped as he ran back over to his parents. “I told you not to tell that story, it’s embarrassing-” He spun around to face Twilight in the second half of his sentence, lifting one hoof into the air in his defense. ‘-and it only happened once!”
His somewhat childish actions were what broke the dam holding back everyone’s laughter. Everyone laughed for a minute before having to stop and catch their breath. Opilio was the first to recover and speak again.
“So now that our introductions are out of the way, what do you require of us, Princess Twilight?” He added her title back in trying to keep the conversation serious.
“Well I just have the information on you and when you would be arriving. We have a house for you, ready to move in and everything. The paperwork for that and some other things you will need to go over is at the town hall. Mayor Mare will be in charge of that, so I think the best course of action is to get started on that.”
“Ugh, great. Boring paperwork.” Twilight looked down at Scuttle, his head hanging low while he softly scuffed the floor.
“Now Scuttle, we talked about this. Our first day in Ponyville might not be super exciting, but once we get settled in, I’m sure you’ll be able to have plenty of fun,” Dotted tried to reason with Scuttle.
“But what about today’s lesson? I was looking forward to it for forever, and now…” Scuttle frowned and just splayed himself on the floor of the palace. His parents looked at each other, trying to decide what to do.
“Ahem…I may have an idea that could help, if you don’t mind. If you want, I could watch Scuttle for you while you two head to town hall to settle everything. Everything that needs to be signed by me has already been. I made sure of it and checked it off my checklist,” Twilight told them, hoping to try and brighten the little changeling’s day.
Opilio looked off in thought for a bit before he answered with, “Well I believe that would be… acceptable.” Scuttle’s face lit up as his father agreed to Twilight’s proposal as he bounced around the place, a look of joy on his face.
“Now Scuttle, remember our rules before we leave you with the Princess, okay?”
“Yes mom… now go! Go go go go go go!” He pushed them towards the door slightly with his small hooves. They chuckled and gave Twilight a look that basically said “good luck” as they left. As the door finally closed, thanks to Scuttle pushing it closed with all his might, he slid down with a slight exhale of exhaustion. His fatigue was very brief though, because soon enough he was back in front of Twilight with a huge grin.
“Man, this is so cool! I bet nobody else has ever had a princess for a sitter before,” he said confidently, his eye brimming with happiness.
“Well I’m not so-“Twilight wanted to tell him, but…
“Yep, definitely the first. I should get that on a plaque and put it where everyone can see,” he cut off Twilight unintentionally as he continued talking to himself. Twilight watched him as he walked in a circle, talking about anything and everything.
“So Princess, what do you do for fun around here?” Scuttle finally broke out of his little monologue and stared up at Twilight.
“Well lots of things Scuttle, but is it okay if I ask you a question first?” She smiled at him, curious about something he said to his father.
“Well, I mean it is your palace, and you are a princess. You can kinda do anything you want,” he said with a shrug, stunning the princess with his childish logic.
“Well yes, I am… and it is… but it really isn’t…” Twilight fumbled for the appropriate answer but couldn’t find it. Instead, she chose to just go ahead with her question. “You said something to your dad about a lesson?”
“Oh, well I’m… I believe the phrase for it is ‘home schooled’? We don’t have an educational system in the changeling world… not yet, anyways, so it’s put upon the parents to teach the kids. But with us moving, we’ve had to cut back a little.” Scuttle’s smile faltered, knowing that he didn’t want to fall behind.
“Um, do you think maybe I could help you? If you don’t mind, that is.” Twilight always liked to help others learn. She had Twilight Time with the Crusaders, and this was sort of the same thing.
“You would do that?”
“Sure I would. Let’s head to the study and we can get settled.” Twilight trotted towards one of the exits of the main room of the palace, Scuttle following behind her.
Scuttle looked around at the room. When he thought of a study, he didn’t think it might be a two story room practically fully lined with books. He had never seen so many books in one place before; it was a surprise to him.
“That’s…That’s a lot of books,” Scuttle said, still a little dumbfounded.
“I don’t get why so many people say that when they first come in here. It’s only a small section of the Canterlot Archives,” Twilight told him as she ushered them over to some cushions where they could sit.
“So where do you want to begin?” Twilight started to get into here teacher mode.
“Well today I was finally going to learn about colors!” he said happily.
“Yes, colors…wait, what exactly do you mean by that? Don’t you already know what they are?” Twilight was confused by his statement.
“Well actually, I only know three. Black, white and gray. Until we manage to be able to change into objects and creatures with fine detail, we younger changelings don’t really know about colors,” he said, craning his neck, still amazed by the sheer number of books.
“But don’t you see in color?”
“Well when we are young, our parents use their magic to set our eyes so we only see in those three colors. Once we get a better hold of our abilities we can switch them to normal like you ponies have, but we’re told to so that we can be learn colors slowly, so we don’t go all…” He stopped talking and waggled his forearms around in circles while rolling his eye.
“Wow, that’s… interesting,” she said while chuckling at the child’s antics. “Okay then, so how about I start you off with a few easy colors and we’ll move on from there?”
“Sounds like a plan, teach.” Scuttle nodded enthusiastically.
“Oh, I think I might actually have some flash cards for this!” Twilight quickly got up and moved over top one of the desks in the room, searching for something in the drawers.
About an hour later, the princess and changeling were still going strong; Scuttle was a quick study. He used his magic to allow his eyes to focus only on the color he was shown. Once he had it memorized, Twilight moved onto the next one. Scuttle was amazed at the amount of colors he was being shown. He was told as a younger child that ponies basically invented color. He didn’t know whether that was true or not, but now it didn’t matter to him. Although he almost blew his metaphorical lid when Twilight told him about combining and mixing colors; the concept of infinity was very hard for the child to grasp.
“Okay, time for a quick quiz. I’m going to hold up some cards and you tell me the colors in order. I won’t use anything too complicated, just simple colors. Are you ready?” She used her magic to shuffle a bunch of cards together.
Scuttle stood up and saluted, signaling his readiness. Grabbing 14 cards in her magic, she floated them in front of Scuttle and watched as he rattled them off. “Red, yellow, green, red, blue, blue, blue, red, purple, green, yellow, orange, red, red,” he said with a little bit of musical flair.
“Very good, Scuttle. Now for something a little more complicated,” she complimented him while floating over six more cards, flipping over the first three.
“Cerise, chartreuse, aqua.” Scuttle’s brow furrowed. She was throwing some difficult ones. Even in the middle of it though, he questioned the sanity of said ponies who came up with these names; some sounded so nonsensical. He was brought back from his thoughts as Twilight flipped over the last three cards. “Mauve, beige, ultramarine,”
“Very good, Scuttle. I think I can say that you’ve passed my classical color clarification class,” Twilight said with a flourish, only to have Scuttle give her a look. “Too much?” she asked, only to be met with a shrug in return. Before she could retort though, a flash of magic dropped a scroll in front of her. “Oh? What’s this?” she said as she opened it to read, leaving Scuttle to his imagination.
Scuttle looked around the study again, but this time it was a lot more different to him. With knowing colors and all, he could now really see the room for what it was… and there was a lot of brown. He wondered that with all their colors and everything, why would ponies choose to make a majority of their book covers brown? He guessed the rest of the room made up for it, with the somewhat purple walls and floor, and the other cool things in the room.
“Scuttle… Scuttle?” He was brought out of his thoughts by Twilight still holding the scroll in her magic.
“Yes, Twilight?”
“It appears our presence is required at town hall. Unfortunately, their notary is out sick today and apparently I’m the only other one in town. Jeez, ponies today and not taking civil responsibilities seriously,” she huffed. Scuttle didn’t exactly get it, but laughed anyway.
“Okay, let’s get going so we can help your parents finish their paper works.” She nudged Scuttle to get him to walk.
As they walked to the town hall, Scuttle’s jaw hung open in awe. He had seen a lot of the place when he and his parents were travelling, but now that he knew colors and such, it was a whole new experience. His surroundings were different as he could see the green grass, blue sky, and white clouds, although he could swear there was a pink one every once in a while. And then once they hit the town square, things took a different turn.
Scuttle saw the ponies, and this time it was different; colors moved in all different directions. Left, right, up, down, forward, backward and he saw one pony in particular that was upside down. His mind raced to keep up with everything he was seeing, and it was lagging behind just a bit. He wondered how the ponies kept up with it. Could it have been since they saw it like that all their lives? Could it be because of their magic, or something else?
“Alright Scuttle, here we are town…hall. Scuttle?” She found that Scuttle was not next to her. Turning around, she found Scuttle not only a few feet behind her, but walking backwards. “Uh, is everything okay, Scuttle?” she asked as he finally caught up with her.
“Uh huh,” was the only response she got as he kept staring at where they had been. She waved her hoof in his face and it seemed to snap him out of it. “Oh, what? Where are we?”
“We’re at the town hall. Are you sure you’re okay, Scuttle? You’ve been really out of it since we left the palace.” She hoped nothing had happened to the little changeling.
“Well… I guess it’s just that… I don’t get it. How do you ponies do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean all the colors and everything. How do you just get it? There’s just so much to look at and it’s insane! I mean, I was fine when everything was just standing still. I mean like the rock, trees and everything, but then I saw all those other ponies and all their different colors walking around and it blew my mind. All the colors moving around like a rainbow in a blender! I just don’t get it.” He finished his little rant as he sat on his haunches.
“Well…” Twilight tried her best not to laugh as she answered. “There’s no real easy answer to it. I wouldn’t say I don’t notice it all the time. When Rainbow Dash zooms by too fast, it hurts my eyes a bit and sometimes trying to keep up with pinkie gets me dizzy, but I think it’s how all the colors work together that helps us adjust to it. The harmony of the colors, along with the harmony inside all of us, combine and allows us not to be overwhelmed. It just takes some time… I’m sure it’ll happen to you too. Once you get used to it, it will make more sense. I’ll head inside and let you think about that,” she said, leaving him to think on her words.
Scuttle just sat there staring at all he could see. The colorful building, the colorful ponies and the colorful scenery. It just blended in a way that he couldn’t describe with words. It was familiar but distant, new yet old.
“I get what she’s saying… sort of. I just hope it isn’t one of those ‘You’ll understand when you’re older’ kind of things,” he said to himself before he got up and went inside the building.
Author's Note
my entry for the EQD writing contest... just a little something thought up of and raced to get finished cause i'm an idiot
oh and there's a really old Disney reference that ...if you can name it then props to you my friend
