Pinkie Pie examines Twilight's notes, muffled giggles escaping her mouth.
Eleven days ago, Twilight stood up suddenly while her, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike were having lunch together.
"I've decided to make a new kind of magic," she announced.
Everypony present lifted their heads to look at her.
Pinkie titled her head to the side. "What kind of magic?"
Twilight smiled. "It's more an expansion on magic theory: taking theories and making them into reality through skipping a step. Teleportation is moving to another place, which can be solved trough momentum. It's a spell that cancels the time it takes to reach that place as long as you have the momentum from the theory and replaces it with just moving to another place. What I'm planning to do, is take mathematical concepts used to accomplish a purpose and be able to accomplish that same purpose while cutting out a step, only through concentration and knowledge of mathematic principle."
Applejack raised a hoof and Twilight turned to her. "Um. What?"
Pinkie Pie turned to Applejack. "She wants to use a mathematic theory like sugar plus heat equals caramel, to make caramel instantly and allow ponies who have little or no magic to use it, as long as they have good concentration and know the math."
The assembled ponies except for Pinkie and Twilight all nodded in recognition.
Twilight nodded. "Thank you, Pinkie. Though I'm surprised you understood the concept, I never took you for a mathematician."
Pinkie giggled. "I'm not a mathematician, I'm just good at explaining things." She shot a look over to Applejack who was then frowning.
Applejack turned to Twilight. "I think it sounds like a swell idea. Good luck to ya."
Eleven days after that, Pinkie Pie turns another page of notes, alone in the basement of Twilight's library. She crosses off a bit of the notes speculating on how it would be executed solely on willpower and draws an arrow to further down the page, where it talks about binding power to the functions themselves and broadcasting them, so use is done by a centralized source. She circles the relevant paragraph.
She hears a crash upstairs and then a sound like a flame being ignited.
Her eyelids lower when she realizes who it is. She turns away from the stairs and finishes folding Twilight's notes and putting them back in her desk. She hears four hooves clip clop down the stairs.
She doesn't turn around.
She hears him hesitate at the bottom of the stairs and then speak. "Chrysalis is going to be angry you're influencing the process."
She rolls her eyes. "Chrysalis can shove it. She's done more to 'influence' Twilight than I ever have. And it's still on her none of you told me about Canterlot."
He sighs. "You're still hung up on that?"
She turns around to face the blue eyed changeling. "Our contract said none of you come into contact with Twilight until she finishes PI magic and brings ponies up to our level. That was the plan. A peaceful meeting when they were ready. So Chrysalis decides to stage a hostile takeover as their first introduction because that's not going to make this harder." She says the last part sarcastically, fury in her eyes.
He raises a hoof. "It was testing to see if they could withstand an at-..."
"It was breaching the contract and you know it, Clyne. There's no excuse so I'd suggest you rethink your position."
Clyne stays silent.
Pinkie turns back to the desk, scratching symbols for a plus sign and then another symbol for lock, resealing the removed lock back into place. "What does the council think?"
Clyne sits down on the stairs. "They're reserving judgement until they assess the damage to diplomacy and to the PI magic progress. They won't be happy if they see you changing the notes."
Pinkie shakes her head. "I'm fixing the damage. Do you know how much time she lost while Chrysalis was 'playing princess'?"
Clyne stands up. "That's not the point."
"That is the point. The more time Twilight spends distracted, the more changelings and ponies die. She's decades ahead of any other pony in Equestria in this research. We can't have Chrysalis screw that up."
"Am I to take that as you won't drop the complaint you lodged against her?"
"If that's why you're here, you're wasting your time."
"She could lose her job."
Pinkie leaps over to him and presses her face against his, teeth bared. "Princess Celestia hunts down changelings indiscriminately as we speak and you talk of Chrysalis' position? We could lose everything, Clyne. They're looking for us. If they see five of us coming on a diplomatic mission, they'll think we're hostile. You think I give two shapes about Chrysalis' job? Think again."
Clyne retracts from Pinkie's face and pushes her back with a hoof. "I'm amazed you were chosen for the Element of Laughter."
Pinkie moves a chair she set askew back into position. "It may surprise you, but I do like to laugh; just not around you. Or Chrysalis, for that matter."
"I didn't come here to talk about Chrysalis."
"Could've fooled me."
"I'm not Chrysalis' lapdog. I work for her, I'm not her slave."
"You mentioned Chrysalis as the first thing you said to me. I'm not the one who suggested you were her slave, you did."
"I just wanted to talk to you."
"Now you have. I hope the door doesn't hit you on the way out."
"We used to be friends."
"I don't need friends like you."
"Who, then? You'll replace me with these ill-advanced ponies?"
"These ponies are my friends and unless you'd like to be discovered, you'd lower your voice."
"These ponies don't know you."
"They know me better than you."
"No they don't. They know 'Pinkie Pie,' the ebullient earth pony with a penchant for laughter and friendship. You think that's you? You've lost yourself in this masquerade. Don't you miss home?"
"You still don't get it. Right now, this is my home. When Twilight finishes, this will be my home. When we're accepted into pony society, I will reveal who I am and this will still be my home. You think I've lost myself in some invented persona, always thinking up ways to alienate the old me from the me I am now. Well, congratulations, you've done it: I am not who you used to know. If you haven't come to talk about Chrysalis and instead came to talk about me, we just have."
"No. I can't accept that you've just faded away. You're telling me you've just been superceded by coming here. That you get here a few years ago and suddenly lose what you've had your whole life? You were smart, you were brave, you were kind. Is all of that gone?"
"I'm still all of those things, just in a way you're not comfortable with."
"If by 'a way I'm not comfortable with' you mean 'a way that betrays our society' then yes, you have changed."
"I don't betray my society. I just enjoy my contract."
"Says the torturer to his countrymen."
"False equivalence."
"Prove it. Your contract is to watch Twilight and keep tabs on her progress while insuring nothing untoward happens to her. You've taken it a step farther by becoming friends with her and even a hero to these ponies, whom you sided with against your own people. In a sense, you're just like a torturer, cracking someone open and keeping tabs on their secrets. But you're worse because all the while you pretend to be her friend. Would you cut your friend open one day? Drag her into a basement and chop her heart out? Because that's what you're doing already, and she doesn't even know it."
"I'm gathering intelligence, the fact I've become friends with her, only makes my contract easier."
"What if something happens? What if the ponies still won't accept us? What if they go on an all out war against us? Would it make your contract easier, then? Would you betray us again?"
Pinkie Pie is silent.
"And here you have the gall to pretend you're the same when who I knew would already know the answer."
"If that happened, it would be Chrysalis' fault."
"I'm not talking to Chrysalis. I'm talking to you, something I regret more every minute."
"If you presume to question my loyalty, I'd suggest you rethink your position. What purpose could siding with Chrysalis have had? She would never win, she wasn't even attacking, just playing. If I'd helped, it would do nothing but compromise my position. You may notice I stuck around when the rest of you flew away, as well. I don't choose to subject myself to harmful magic, Clyne, and I don't make foolhardy decisions. You said I was once smart, then why question my loyalties when I made the only smart decision? You've said your peace, it's time you left."
He's silent for a moment. "Some other time, then."
Pinkie waits for him to leave and then sighs, crumpling slightly as if by an invisible weight. After a few minutes, she resumes her smile and trots over to the wall, scratching a circle and the symbols to represent PI times r to the second power. A circular section of the wall comes out and Pinkie slips through it, resetting the circle into place with symbols to represent negative PI times r to the second power.
Laying a final hoof on the wall, she hears Twilight enter the library and she skips into Ponyville.
Twilight will figure things out. she thinks to herself.
She always does.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading.