Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction (Twilight) Part 1

Changing Times’ Notes: I studied changelings for a long time while collecting these reports. It gave me something to do when I had to sometimes wait weeks between each meeting with the prince or princess. I traveled from city to city seeing how various changelings faired.

I have forged new friendships with both ponies and changelings on my journeys.

And I have lost friends and colleagues – new and old alike – because of my studies.

I have seen many of the biggest steps forward and back – if not the beginning I’m sharing with you via these reports. Someday I might feel confident enough to share my own journeys in a separate work, but for now I only wish to share one of the most important lessons I learned from them.

No matter how solid the bedrock of a friendship is, it is still subject to the winds of change. It can erode, crumble, and break into dust if you aren’t careful. However, continue to care for it with the proper sentiments – and sediments – and it will not fall to even the mightiest storm.

A wise – and somewhat crazy – pink party pony taught me that at one of the lowest points of my studies.

I still can’t believe she comes from a family of rock farmers.

Now I’m rereading this report as I sort them all together: And I wonder if this is where she or her friends learned that lesson.

It seems every group of friends – even the Elements – fights sometimes. True friends can weather any storm though, and the best of friends are always willing to pick up the pieces to try again.

Food for thought I suppose.

Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction: A Report by Twilight Sparkle

The trip to Canterlot was pleasant.

The actual visit there was much less so.

On the train over Spike and I simply relaxed. We played Eye Spy and talked about his latest comic books. In hindsight, we were both avoiding the issue at hand, but it was worth it to scrounge up those last few hours of normalcy.

Once we reached Caterlot, however, I soon found myself swimming in a sea of half-lies.

My parents – in their usual manner – had let the mail pile up again and missed my very important letter with the royal seal explaining things. Thus what they thought was a lovely surprise visit quickly turned into a very depressing one.

To make matters worse Shining and Cadance were on a surprise visit themselves. They were not exactly at the top of my list of ponies I wanted to explain things to. I honestly couldn’t be sure how they would react to the news of Morpheus if they found out before the official reveal.

Thus the half-truths piled up as I tried to explain – without actually explaining – exactly what duties I had that were so important as to leave Spike when he needed me the most.

Spike’s quip about a sparkling vampony coltfriend did not help in the least.

I could appreciate Rainbows almost unhealthy obsession with staying airborne as I flew home. The wind running through my mane and fur took the tension out of my body as well as any massage would. There was just me and the beautiful night sky.

The beautiful night sky that suddenly told me I should have been home hours ago to introduce Morpheus to the girls.

I yelped as my flight path staggered slightly. As much as my body wanted to ruffle its feathers in agitation, that wasn’t exactly conducive to good flying.

“Tardy.” I grumbled to myself. “Nothing good ever comes from being tardy.”

The castle was approaching on the horizon. Flying really was much faster. It might have been more efficient to take Spike by air, but I had wanted the luxury of the train. Now I wanted the luxury of a bath I didn’t have time for.

I landed on the balcony to my room. Lighting my horn up I cast a favorite spell of Raritys to freshen myself up. I wasn’t actually clean, but I at least looked presentable. After a sniff of my foreleg, I also added a bit of prestidigitation to disguise the scent of my sweat with a low level illusion.

Now I was the only one who needed to deal with my dire need for a bath.

Opening the door I found myself in one of the hallways and not my room. A plain white sign hung on the wall in front of me with an arrow pointing right. I blinked in befuddlement only for writing to replace the arrow.

“I must beg your pardon, milady, but your presence is urgently needed at the study. There was apparently an issue today, and your friends are arguing over what to do with Morpheus while he works off whatever Pinkie drugged him with. –Friendship Castle”

I stared blankly ahead for a bit before shaking my head morosely. “Of course… Something always goes wrong when I’m tardy. Would you mind making some snacks for us, Castle? It’s harder for anypony to put their hoof in their mouth when food is already there.”

A flicker of light changed the writing. “Experience from Celestia’s Princess Lessons, milady? –Friendship Castle”

I chuckled as I turned to head for my study. “No, this is from Pinkie Pie’s Hoof in the Mouth special.”

The lights flickered again, but I didn’t need to look back. “Don’t ask! It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie!”

As I approached the study, I could hear my friends through the door. It was just ajar enough for their voices to reach me, but not quite enough to announce my presence, and I wondered if that was Castle’s work.

“Why can’t we just wake it up ourselves? I’m sure if it won’t tell us the truth we can-“

I opened the door to see Pinkie shove a cupcake in Rainbow Dash’s mouth. Behind them was Morpheus in his disguise on the desk.

“Hoof in the Mouth special for Dashie!” Pinkie removed her hoof at licked the extra frosting off. “There’s a little too much lemon for my taste, but they’re still pretty good!”

Rainbow chewed laboriously for a few seconds and swallowed. Gasping for a few seconds, she glared at Pinkie. “What the hay?!? Why’d you do that, Pinkie? Where’d you even get that cupcake?”

Pinkie’s muzzle scrunched as she contemplated her hoof. “Huh… That’s a good point, Dashie. Where did it come from? That wasn’t one of the ones I put in my stash.”

Rainbow tried to retort, but there’s an issue with asking Pinkie more than one question at once in that every question asked has an indeterminate amount of nonsense to go with it.

Dash had asked three, and I knew – from very painful experience – there wasn’t a linear relationship in the answer to nonsense ratio.

Thus Pinkie continued and pointed at the door. “Anyways! I got a combo while you were talking, silly! Ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch means look out for opening doors, and the only pony who’d be opening the door – besides cat burglers who don’t count since they’re all cats – would be Twilight, and I really don’t think Twilight was going to like your suggestions on interrogation methods – even if they are from Daring Do books.”

There was a large intake of air, and I swear I felt a breeze as Pinkie’s lungs refilled. “Well… She might like the waterboarding one, but that’s only because I don’t know what that is, and it sounds like surfing which is really really fun.” She waved at me, blissfully ignoring my twitching eye. “Hey, Twilight! Can we waterboard with the changeling?”

A cupcake enveloped in a blue aura stuffed itself in Pinkie’s mouth. “One Hoof in the Mouth special for Pinkie.”

I turned to find Rarity and the others off to the side.

Fluttershy was curled in a ball in the corner. Her eyes darted back and forth between Pinkie and Rainbow. My brow furrowed when I noticed the barest of trembles shaking her frame. It had been a while since she’d done that.

Rarity was seated next to her – looking up from her sketchbook. Her normally pristine appearance was replaced with what she called ‘frazzle dazzle’. A smattering of drawing tools floated around her as she drew whatever next big fashion hit was on her mind.

I almost chuckled at that. Leave it to Rarity to see the fashion potential of changelings – even when she was probably rushed over here with Celestia knows what rumors flying through her head

Curiously, Applejack was separate from the others. She was just standing in the back corner with her head lowered.

I sighed. “Great… I take it you all know?”

Everypony nodded. Applejacks was more subdued.

I rubbed my temples as I felt the migraine from my parents returning. “Well, I know what comes next. Rarity, would you do the honor?”

Rarity started looking around the room at anywhere but me. “Oh, we don’t need to do that, darling. I’m sure we would have noticed if you’d been replaced.”

Applejack flinching in the back was all I needed to confirm the falsehood.

I stared at them all for what felt like an eternity. I let the awkward silence grow as they waited for me to insist on following the rules like I always did. Running the changeling drill was a lot different than living it though.

Because they didn’t know.

They didn’t know me well enough – or at least they didn’t think they knew me well enough – to tell when I might have been replaced. I’d asked for the changeling confirmation spell because it was protocol, and there was clearly enough misunderstood evidence here to suspect I’d been replaced.

They were supposed to cheerily oblige me, and then we’d hug and make up at the negative result, and they would say they knew I was myself all along.

But they didn’t know.

I noticed Morpheus’ limp form open an eye, and his head turned just barely to focus the widening pupil on me. As soon as he saw me watching, he went limp again.

At least somepony knew what I was feeling. His reaction wasn’t exactly encouraging though. There were emotions I couldn’t fully describe churning like a stormy sea inside me, but I kept them inside.

For now, I was going to wear the mask I’d been working on with Celestia – the mask I’d never thought I’d need with my friends.

I relaxed my posture a little more than I normally did, and my mouth curled in a small smile that never left even if it never exactly grew. I repressed a shudder at how wrong it was to be using this on my friends before finally ending the silence.

“Come on, guys. You know it doesn’t work like that.” Pinkie was looking at me oddly, but the others took it in stride.

A flash of blue accompanied a tingling sensation over my flank and head.

A sigh of relief escaped Rarity. “She’s clean! No changelings or mind control.”

As one the girls ran to my side for a group hug and began pelting me with question after question. They didn’t even give me time to answer, and while I would normally ask them to slow down they took my silence as a cue to just keep the hug going. I felt myself sink downwards as I struggled to keep the mask up amid a sea of questions.

“Hive damn it all! I can’t watch this anymore. Give her some air! Do you have any idea what she’s feeling right now?!?”

The others froze, and I broke away with the mask barely intact.

Morpheus was standing and glaring at the others. His fangs were bared, and his wings buzzed. His voice was under that fractured echo effect again, and it seemed like the air was swarming with angry hornets.

This was bad. It may have actually been the worst possible option. I didn’t know what had made him so furious so suddenly, but it wasn’t doing anything to make a good impression. I could already see Dash tensing for an attack.

He pointed at everypony one by one, and we all froze almost instinctually as his attention centered on us. “Those faces are masks – something I’m quite familiar with as a changeling. They’re lies, deceptions, and façades to cover up how you all really feel.”

The changeling stomped and I thought I heard stone crack. “Masks are for changelings though. Ponies are supposed to wear their emotions on their sleaves, not hide them. By the Azure Veil, it’s not like you can taste them like me. How are you supposed to be friends if you don’t share your emotions?”

Somewhere in the shellshocked depths of my brain it suddenly occurred to me that Morpheus had read our friendship reports. He’d as much as said my friendship with the girls is what led him here

The prince pointed to Rarity and Fluttershy, and the buzzing almost felt like it was pressing down on us all. “You two were supposed to have learned that. I just don’t understand how you can all claim to be friends when I can literally taste all these negative emotions being tossed between you all!”

It seemed words failed him at that point. He tried to continue his tirade several times, but ended up simply storming out into the hall.

It might have been just me, but I could have sworn I saw some tears on the carapace as he left.

Slowly, I levitated a cupcake to each of us. “Hoof in the Mouth special for all of us.”

Applejack tentatively broke the silence after the cupcakes were finished. “Were we just lectured by a changeling? Because I know he wasn’t lying for any of that”

I slowly nodded. “That is Morpheus. You could call him our changeling ambassador, and I think we all owe him an apology.”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Why the hay would we do that?”

I gazed at the door chewing over my answer. I eventually decided to just make it quick and blunt. “Well, I suppose the best reason for such an apology is he’s not only risking his life but his entire species by trying to negotiate peace with us, and his whole dream of peace only sprang up from reading our friendship reports to begin with.”

Rarity tilted her head. “Oh my, I guess we’re going to need you to explain that.”

Fluttershy gave a squeak of agreement. That was somewhat of an accomplishment given her current state of shellshock.

I shook my head. “Yeah, I was so focused on Spike’s issues – which I’ll totally tell you about tomorrow – and Morpheus’ first impression. I never even considered the importance of our own…”

I sat mulling over how to explain the last couple of days, and the girls just sat with me in companionable silence.

“Got it!” Pinkie and silence were never really pals though. “Since Twilight clearly needs time to think it over, we should totally have her think it over at a slumber party! We can stay up all night until we get her to talk!”

“Interrogation by pillow fight?” Dash cocked an eyebrow and grinned.

“Totally!” Pinkie’s smile threatened to split her face.

I couldn’t help but laugh and pull everypony into a real group hug. “ Okay, but I’m gonna need to get to sleep at some point. I promised Spike I’d meet him. And yes I know that sounds odd. There’s just so much to explain. Castle! Prepare the royal bedroom for a slumber party!”

The girls stared at me. “Castle?”

The complete unison of their befuddlement caused me to giggle again. “I forgot I need to explain that too... I can’t believe it’s only been two days! It’s certainly going to be one hay of a month.”