Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction (Twilight) Part 3

Hearing that was the beginning of one of the many times the age old lesson that a pony shouldn’t judge a book by its cover would be tested for me as I came to know Morpheus.

It was slowly dawning on me that the pony and changeling concept of truth – especially what constitutes the truth – were very different. Ponies prefer a nice black and white for the truth that fits what they know. Changelings on the other hand use the entire color spectrum when thinking about the truth.

The Hivemind provides a veritable library in their heads, and they have a cover for every book – a mask for every occasion. They pick and choose the one they need, and the nuances of when and where I can expect them to have a particular mask or cover is hidden in a giant web of logic that’s entirely too convoluted for their own good.

Working with Morpheus would lead to me almost habitually questioning three things when dealing with changelings.

What is the mask they’re currently wearing?

How much of the mask is real?

Why would they pick that mask over another?

This, of course, makes it sound like changelings are always lying about themselves, but there’s often huge a difference between the masks ponies wear and the masks changelings wear. Ponies tend to think of a ‘mask’ as nothing but a means to conceal or hide, so that’s what it is for us when we wear one.

It is always nothing but a lie.

Changelings have been forced to live and breathe through masks for thousands of years though. An act they put on often blends into who they truly are, and who they truly are blends back into the act. It’s a constant two way street and an integral part of their society I doubt will change anytime soon because of their Hivemind.

Their language even has an entire grammatical construct devoted to describing the relative truth of words – with mask being one of the most variable – and Equish is woefully unsuitable at translating the context it provides. There are at least five basic intonations a changeling can use saying mask, and that’s not including all the subvariations those intonations have themselves. The shortest approximation I’ve been given for them is ‘full lie’, ‘partial truth to hide the lie’, ‘partial lie to hide the truth’, ‘positive double bluff’, and ‘negative double bluff’.

If that sounds overly complicated, it is. I have yet to meet a pony who can speak Chitri fluently, and I sometimes think the only reason changelings can is because they can just cheat and use the Hivemind.

I digress, however. As fascinating and frustrating as I find the changeling language, a lecture on it cannot truly give understanding to just how differently we see the idea of truth. It is something best learned through experience, and it was the following day where I began to understand the difference.

It was with utmost care I managed not to jump to the worst possible conclusions from Morpheus’ statement. I couldn’t simply assume he had been smuggling changelings into Ponyville. He had given me no reason to mistrust him, and had in fact given me several to think I could.

It was clear from Rainbow’s account from earlier that day that Morpheus couldn’t keep an act up under pressure. It was bad news for hiding him from the town until we were ready, but it made it much easier to believe he was sincerely sorry for earlier. Taking both that and the incident with Spike into account, I felt I had good reason to trust that he wouldn’t try anything with my friends.

The rest of the town was another issue, but he seemed as reluctant to acknowledge the possibility of other changelings as I was.

Telling my friends immediately came to mind, but I figured resting first would do some good. They still needed to adjust to the idea of Morpheus hanging around, and I was personally running on fumes after the last couple of almost sleepless nights.

Thus I called an end to the festivities – much to Pinkie’s disappointment.

This, of course, meant her post slumber party breakfast party had to be upgraded to compensate.

“Tell me again why we’re calling this brunch when it’s only nine in the morning,” Morpheus groused. His head was buried in his hooves, and he flinched at the light peeking through the holes. “It’s too early for brunch. It’s too early to be up for that matter given the past couple days.”

I couldn’t help but agree, although my concurrence came in the form of gurgling whimpers reminiscent of a dying dog – a dying dog choking on rainbows and sunshine to be exact.

Pinkie’s voice was as perky as a wood chipper – eager to savagely consume all conversation to venture near it with horrid glee. “Silly filly! Oops. You’re not a filly anymore. Silly col- Wait! Colt doesn’t rhyme with silly. That won’t work at all. Flingy ling? Clingy ling? Blingy ling? Ring-a-ding ling? I’ll come up with something. Anyways! Silly changeling-who-is-not-a-filly! It is totally brunch. Brunch means breakfast through lunch, and that’s what this is! It’s a breakfast fit to last through lunch.”

The table groaned in agreement as another plate of baked goods settled on it. It was bear claws this time, and I now counted 47 different kinds of breakfast pastry, 17 bowls of fruit, 12 pitchers of various kinds of milk and juice, and one pancake palace complete with a little pancake princess inside.

I looked at the empty thermos in front of me with lifeless eyes. There was no emergency morning elixir for me today. Castle didn’t think to refill all the emergency rations. Spike would have done it daily the instant I got a project this big, but the all-powerful castle apparently didn’t have the initiative to do it unless I asked first.

“Coffee’s ready!” Applejack trotted from the kitchen with several pitchers of bitter ambrosia balanced on a tray on her back. “Sorry it took so long, but your pantries don’t make a lick of sense, sugarcube.”

They were organized alphabetically just like everything else. Granted I normally alphabetically sorted things after first organizing them in a more meaningful way, but my kitchen skills were limited to coffee and burnt toast. I would have told Applejack that if I hadn’t been lost to the simple smell of coffee.

“Hey! I don’t even need to make the eclairs. They were under E!” Pinkie clearly understood the system.

A carefully practiced teleport spell between the coffee and my emergency thermos – which I knew the exact measurements of – saved a precious few seconds of time wasted pouring. A quick cooling spell made the first thermos hot enough to enjoy but cool enough to drink with abandon, and I guzzled it black without pausing for breath.

There was the shuffling of newspaper as Rarity lowered the Canterlot Times to glance at me before quickly raising it again. “Twilight, darling, can you please drink with some decorum? We all know you aren’t a morning pony, but you’re such a drama queen about it sometimes.”

“So says the queen of queens to the meager princess.” I could snark again. Soon enough caffeine would hit my system to actually allow real conversation.

Rarity huffed. “So declares the queen of queens to the meager princess in the presence of foreign royalty.”

“Don’t drag me into this.” There was a clicking noise, and the holes in Morpheus’ legs closed up further hiding him from light. “Twilight has my full support here. I have no idea how the rest of you are so chipper after a meager four to five hours of sleep.” He pointed at Applejack. “You especially need more sleep after yesterday.”

Applejack chuckled. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of it was your reactions. There’s something mighty funny about seeing Princess Celestia’s personal student grumble about the sun. Besides I’ve been working the farm since I was a filly. Getting up at the crack of dawn is in my blood.”

Rainbow grinned and puffed out her chest. “I don’t need sleep. I get by on power naps because I’m tough enough to be on call for weather duty twenty-four seven.”

Rarity folded the paper and rolled her eyes. “You mean you’re able to get by on naps because they save you mostly for the big weather but pay you all the same. I know how the weather system works, Rainbow. I was a weather unicorn once after all. Thunderlane did almost nothing but strut like a peacock around Flitter and Cloudchaser unless I was on duty messing up. No offense meant, darling. You are our best defense against rogue weather from the Everfree, and you do need to be in top shape for that, but your normal workday is by no means hard.”

She nodded towards Applejack. “However, I’m sure your marefriend is willing to attest to the many sleepless nights that come with being a tailor.”

“Why I ought to…”

I tuned out Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s banter. They had had this argument too many times for it to be anything but friendly ribbing by now.

Instead, I enjoyed my second thermos. It was the rule. Get the first coffee as fast as possible but savor the second as if it was my last. I poured this one slowly to maximize the amount of that incredible aroma filling the air, and I mixed in the perfect amount of milk to dull the bitterness to a comfortable level. There was no need for sugar. The bitterness is what gave coffee its unique charm. I didn’t exactly like my coffee black, but to completely kill it’s most noteworthy feature with sweeteners was anathema to me.

I sipped from the thermos and hummed in appreciation at the familiar warmth spreading through my extremities.

My ear flicked as it caught quiet murmuring from Fluttershy. I didn’t want to distract myself from the delectable elixir in front of me, but I wasn’t exactly sure who else she’d be talking to with Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack in a discussion and Pinkie in the kitchen.

Reorienting my ear, I found I could just barely hear her while continuing to savor my coffee.

“…So after that, I learned I needed to be ready to help nocturnal animals at a moments notice too. Being a scaredy-cat helped too for once actually. I’m such a light sleeper I can’t help but be a morning pony. At least… That’s what I think… If you don’t mind… I could be wrong…”

I turned my head to ask her for context, but Morpheus shrugged with his head still buried in his hooves, and I realized she was answering him like the others.

I smiled at that.

Turning back to my coffee, I listened. There was a nagging suspicion in the back of my head that I was forgetting something, but I was content with the moment.

“Oh… Good… Thank you for letting me be so quiet by the way…” Quiet was an understatement. It took almost all of my concentration to comprehend her. “It’s not often anypony bedsides my animal friends tries to listen when I’m this quiet. A lot of the time everypony is just too focused on everypony else to realize I’m speaking until I raise my voice, and as much as I’m used to it by now I still don’t like it, and… Oh… I’m sorry… I’m rambling, aren’t I? It’s just so much easier to talk like this since I’ve talked to my animal friends like this for years. You aren’t mad are you?”

There was a brief buzz from the prince’s wings. The others looked over at that, and my heart skipped a beat – buzzing having only signaled some form of stress or anger so far – but Fluttershy tittering on the threshold of my hearing stopped me from standing. Holding a hoof out to waylay the others I pointed to Fluttershy.

She hadn’t seen us tense. Morpheus had shifted subtly when I had started to stand, and she had immediately started fussing over him like he was one of her animal friends.

He was taking it calmly, all things considered.

He had undoubtedly felt my emotions fluctuating as my heart skipped a beat at his buzzing wings, and I doubt the others even considered trying to rein their feelings in.

I signaled the others to go back to what they were doing, and they obliged – casting an occasionally not-so-subtle glance toward the prince.

I went back to listening.

“I’m so, so sorry…” There was the typical unneeded apology from Fluttershy.

The corners of my mouth turned up at that. It wasn’t a full on smile, but it was close enough for me to actually begin eating while they continued.

“Did my laugh bother you? Was it too loud?” I almost laughed as Fluttershy said that. “My cheer sent Rainbow crashing into the library once. Don’t tell me I need to be more careful with my laugh…”

Morpheus gave another shrug, and Fluttershy sighed in relief. The prince hadn’t actually said a single word to her yet as far as I could tell.

I was seriously trying to puzzle out if that was good or bad.

Celestia knew he could talk when he wanted to. We had talked for hours just the other day.

In the end, there was only one way to find out.

“Hey, Fluttershy-“ I began.

Fluttershy squeaked and turned her head around fast enough that I was worried she might get whiplash. “Twilight! Don’t sneak up on me!”

“This is my castle, Fluttershy.” I deadpanned. “Why would I be sneaking up on you?”

She kicked at the ground. “Oh… Sorry… I guess I was just distracted. Morpheus seemed a little off, and you and the others were all doing something else so I tried to be assertive, and I got into a conversation with him.”

I smiled before letting through a frown. “That’s great! But Morpheus doesn’t seem to be doing much talking…”

Morpheus buzzed his wings once more, and Fluttershy smiled and nodded to him. A rather disturbing number of clacks and cracks came from his body as many of the joints in his exoskeleton popped while he stood. “That’s because ve weren’t talking in the traditional sense.” His voice came out an octave to low, and he stretched his jaw in particular as if testing it for faults. There was a quick flash of his horn and his voice was back to normal – normal for him at least. “It was somewhat one way, however. Ve must apologize, Miss Fluttershy. I haven’t had a heart-to-heart conversation since my Chrysaling. Most other Lords don’t trust anyling, and the common changeling wouldn’t dare be so informal with a Lord. It was a pleasant surprise to say least.”

“A what-to-what?” everypony chorused.

“Jinx!” yelled Pinkie from the kitchen, and we all started slightly. Tuning out the bubbly singing and the out-of-place construction noise had become automatic over time. It was sometimes disturbingly easy to forget Pinkie was around when she was just out of sight.

Out of sight means out of mind until you turn the corner to be blasted face first by party artillery.

Morpheus chuckled at everypony’s expressions – especially Fluttershy’s. “Did you not realize what you were doing?”

Fluttershy shook her head timidly, and Morpheus laughed. “How amusing! Ve figured it was kind of obvious since you’re the Element of Kindness. A heart-to-heart is just what it sounds like. Since ve can sense emotion, ve can communicate with it. You may not literally sense emotion, but you empathize with others so easily that you do it all the time with your animal friends.”

He stopped suddenly – shoulders drooping – as he saw Fluttershy sinking in on herself. “And this is why I didn’t actually voice anything when talking to you. Sorry… I’ll just go and run the preliminary scans.”

“Umm…” Unfortunately, the caffeine still hadn’t completely kicked in after so many restless nights.

The rest of my friends seemed to share my bafflement.

He started shifting into his disguise from yesterday. “I’m sorry everypony. It was really nice meeting you all, but Twilight and I potentially have an unknown number of rogues to deal with.”

“Wait a minute. Mor-“ I began, but he almost flew out the door. His sixth sense was apparently incredibly dense sometimes.

“Okay…” I began rubbing my temples to avoid my friends questioning looks. “I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I assume that means there was something I needed to tell you.”

“Nah, ya think?” drawled Applejack.

“You’re not helping,” I scrunched my face in contemplation. “What was it? What was it?”

“Ah don’t know. Why don’t you tell us?” One could hear Applejacks signature eyebrow arch.

Thankfully – or not – my blood to caffeine ratio finally hit optimum levels. “Sweet Celestia, how did I forget there might be other changelings?!” I prepared to teleport, but Rainbow flicked my horn. “Ow! What was that for?”

She glowered at me. “Well, you can’t leave us with just that.”

Pinkie spasmed out of the kitchen. “Yeah! I need to know how many extra parties that means.”

She looked at the mostly untouched table as her face was stuck with the look of somepony about to sneeze and she did an approximation of the potty dance. “Aww… You guys barely even started munching the brunch, although I guess it isn’t brunch anymore if we’re all leaving. We all know what wriggly nose, itchy whithers, and ballooning bladder means. I have to go check that my stashes are prepared for that before I can bolt myself in the shelter’s bathroom.”

Dash groaned. “Seriously! They told me we were done with the surprise emergency weather drills.”

Applejack chuckled. “They’re supposed to be a surprise, hon. It ain’t our fault Cloudsdale don’t buy into the Pinkie Sense.”

Dash snorted. “Yeah, but neither of us can stick around to keep an eye on Twilight and the fly if we’re busy prepping for that.”

“It’s so nice to know my friends had plans to spy on me.” I deadpanned. “Were you planning on telling me?”

Applejack nodded. “Of course we were. It ain’t spying if we’re open and honest about it.”

I returned to rubbing my temples. “Yes, that’s clearly much closer to stalking. Whatever, I suppose it’s better than blindly imagining him doing fiendish crimes behind your backs.”

Rarity tittered. “He doesn’t have the build for fiendish crimes, darling. Villains that commit fiendish crimes are always dreadfully ugly. And – unless he’s committing crimes against fashion – I doubt a shapeshifter would ever willingly be ugly. He’s more of a heinous villain than a fiendish one.”

I groaned. “What did I say about making this into one of your books, Rarity?”

A tinkling laugh answered. “I read more than trashy romance, Twilight. I just happen to prefer books that are a bit more risqué.”

“Umm…” Fluttershy tentatively interrupted, “Not to interrupt or anything, but I kind of need to go now if that’s alright with everypony. My cottage is kind of far and the animals…” Her voice trailed off.

“We all need to get going Ah reckon.” Applejack nodded. “And ah’m sure Twilight will tell us about whatever the hay Morpheus was talking about on the way.”

I sighed. “Come on then. We can talk about it while I see you all off, but I want a Pinkie Promise you won’t overreact until we all get a better idea of what’s going on.”