Return Snippet II: Just in the Nikki of Time · 12:57am March 6th
And we're back with another snippet! This time it's much older, all the way from version 0.5 of the story - back when I tried starting it out from the moment of Lapis' arrival to Equestria, instead of Twilight's arrival to Ponyville. This was the first version of Nikki's entrance to the story, as well as the first mention of Hot Cocoa, the waitress (who I'd forgotten was a unicorn in the first version). Enjoy!
A few moments later, Lapis was headed to the next job, one of his saddlebags jingling with new weight. He’d needed to rearrange some of his tools to balance out the sack of small, gilded coins - at this rate, he might end up heading back to his shop to drop off the goods.
Then again, he thought, making a beeline between the home of the mare who’s hunting me and my own house probably isn’t the best idea. Straight to the next job it would be, then - and back to the shop after that.
Good thing I’ve already brought the ladder with me. It was hovering lengthwise by his side, wrapped in the cocoa glow of his magic. He was still a little in awe that magic was a tool at his disposal, but none of the ponies around him seemed to be too bothered. Though, there were a few unicorns who glanced his way as he passed.
The building he was headed to wasn’t nearly as extravagant as Sugarcube Corner; it was just a normal-by-village-standards house, with wood-reinforced plaster walls and simple baked-clay shingles. This was the one that needed its shingles fixed, as Lapis recalled, and once he got up the ladder, it only took him one look to see why they were willing to pay so much for it.
“Who… crashed into these ponies’ roof?” Lapis muttered. He gaped slightly as he took in the door-sized spiderweb of cracks that marred the building’s shingles, and more specifically the distinctly pegasus-shaped outline at the crater’s center. “Are they alright?”
A soft flapping of wings from somewhere behind Lapis caught his attention, and he looked behind himself to see an almost normal gray-and-green pigeon flying over his head and landing at the center of the impact crater. The bird peered down at the shards of debris, its gaze seeming almost methodical, before reaching into a crack and plucking out a tuft of rainbow-colored fur.
Lapis’ surprise only grew as the bird strutted down the roof to him, dropped the tuft of fur at his hooves, and then - to his complete astonishment - shrugged, unfolding its wings and raising them in a distinctly non-avian gesture.
Lapis glanced back and forth between the rainbow-colored fur and the oddly expressive bird. “Can you… understand me?”
The pigeon gave him a distinctly annoyed look, rolling its oversized eyes.
“Uh… right,” Lapis said. It’s a cartoon, dumbass - of course you can talk to the animals. “Sorry, um, the last few pigeons I’ve met seemed to think I had a weird accent. Well, my best guess is that the fur belongs to Rainbow Zip, or whatever her name is - the town daredevil?”
The pigeon nodded, then mimed the crash with one wing, whistling like a cartoon bomb being dropped.
“Huh, okay,” Lapis said. “And she’s fine, I’m guessing?”
The pigeon nodded, now smirking - Lapis wasn’t sure how that was possible with a beak, but there it was.
“Right,” Lapis said again. “Thanks,” he added.
The pigeon nodded, then flew up to the top of the roof. Lapis watched it for a few seconds, then shook off his surprise and set to work…
…If I ever see a jigsaw puzzle again, Lapis thought, it’ll be too soon.
Putting the shingles back together had taken the better part of an hour. He’d needed to fix each shingle one at a time, pulling them out of the roof, putting their pieces together, and jamming them back in place. He’d gotten the process down to a rhythm, and had taken to blinking in preparation for the flashes of light. Even still, he came down from the ladder with a headache, which wasn’t helped by the pigeon now sitting atop his head.
It had landed there about five minutes in, grabbing onto his mane with its scaled feet and watching over his horn as he worked. The bird had been light and quiet enough that Lapis hadn’t really cared, but now that he wasn’t working, he was a little more aware of the bird’s presence. Oh well. He figured it’d get bored eventually, and if not, that just meant he’d need to force the issue.
Lapis knocked on the house’s door, and within a few moments, it was opened by a unicorn mare with a brown coat and cream-colored mane. She glanced over Lapis’ head for a second, seemingly surprised by the pigeon, then focused back on him. “Uh, can I help you?”
“Hey, I’m Lapis Print,” Lapis said. “I’m the new, uh, repair-pony in town. Was it you who left the order slip for your roof on my door earlier?”
The unicorn blinked. “Oh! Yes, that was me. I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting… well, it doesn’t matter. I’m Hot Cocoa, I own this place. Here, let me get the shingles for you.” She turned to the side, displaying that her Cutie Mark was, in fact, a steaming mug of hot cocoa with whipped cream and a candy cane.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Lapis said, raising a hoof. “It’s already done, the shingles fixed right up.”
Hot Cocoa paused, her head pulling back into the doorway. “Wait, really? I thought clay shattered if you baked it too fast, even with magic.”
“No, I just put the pieces back together and used a Mend-All spell,” Lapis said.
The unicorn froze, her eyes widening. “Wait. You used… a Mend-All? On my roof?”
Uh-oh. “Um, yeah. Is that bad?”
“No, not really,” Hot Cocoa said, looking around. “I’m just surprised you’d go to so much work for something like that.”
“Just doing my job, miss,” Lapis quipped, grinning. “Even if I did have to do it one shingle at a time.”
Hot Cocoa’s jaw dropped. “You what?! That’s… How much energy do you have?!”
Lapis was starting to get the feeling that these ‘Mend-All’ spells, whatever they were, were a much bigger deal for other unicorns than they were for him. “No, really, I’m nothing special. I, uh… My Cutie Mark kind of gets me a discount. I’ve been able to cast them almost ever since I could levitate things.”
“Oh,” Hot Cocoa said, nodding and smiling as if he’d explained everything. “That makes sense. It’s just… whoa, that’s one heck of a talent!” She shook her head. “Anyway, guess I better get you your bits, huh?”
A few minutes later, Lapis was headed back to his shop, the pigeon now having decided that the ladder made for a better perch than his head. Good thing, too - even if it’s light, it was pulling my hair every time I moved. It was watching the town go by, but it was still shooting him occasional glances whenever it thought he wasn’t paying attention.
“So, are you just gonna tag along for the rest of the day?” he asked, addressing the pigeon. It shrugged again, shooting him a curious glance. “Well, as long as you keep out of the way, I don’t really mind.” He chuckled. “Honestly, I could probably use someone to talk to.”
The pigeon raised an eyebrow and cooed, and Lapis grinned. “Sorry, figure of speech. Although… I’m gonna need to call you something. You’d probably get sick of me saying, ‘hey, pigeon’ after a while, huh?”
It smirked again, making a “so-so” gesture with one wing. Lapis thought for a second. Pigeon names, pigeon names… who likes pigeons? Nikola Tesla was a fan of pigeons, right? “How does Nikola sound? It’s the name of a pretty famous inventor.”
The pigeon narrowed its eyes in thought, and Lapis went on. “He was called the Wizard of- ope!”
It had slapped him, right across the face, with one of its wings. It hadn’t really hurt, it was more like being unexpectedly smacked with a pillow than anything else. But it had still slapped him, and now it was glaring at him, its eyes narrowed and glittering beneath its eyelashes…
…Huh. Eyelashes. Cartoon logic. Right.
“Oh, you’re a girl pigeon, aren’t you,” Lapis said. The pigeon raised its eyebrows without widening its eyes, giving him the clearest ‘ya think?’ look he’d ever gotten from a bird. “Yeah, sorry about that. Um, tell you what, let’s make it Nikki instead. That’s still a girl name, will that work?”
The pigeon rolled her eyes, then nodded. “Right. Nikki it is. Well, Nikki, I’m headed back to my shop to drop off these bits, and then I’ll take care of the third job on my list and get some lunch. After that, I’ll work on whatever else popped up while I was out until dinner. You still sure you want to hang out?”
Nikki shrugged again, and Lapis chuckled. “Guess we’ll figure it out, then. Well, I’m looking forward to working with you, Nikki.”
The “cold opening” for lack of a better term was the better choice for the story. At the very least it sets it apart from the vast majority of HIE which start off with the human arriving in equestria and reacting to that. That’s a played out trope in an already played out genre. Still a fun snippet nonetheless!
Yeah, current version is leagues better. Though an earlier introduction to Hot Cocoa is interesting, this introduction to Nikki is much more awkward.
It's almost sereal seing a post from you, I only checked the story on a whim and I find three new posts and am now filled with exsitment.
Also, I like the snippet. :D
This is amazing.
I love both openings, tho I suppose the other one is better.
You know, I don't often go to a page to read a story to the end. And if it happens, how do you appear and publish a new chapter. It's funny, isn't it?.. But I'm glad that activity hasn't disappeared.