This story is a sequel to Dressing Room
Deep Cover isn't Applejack -- but she does play her on TV.
Chapters (1)
GaPJaxie
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Actingverse continues.
The Actingverse strikes again in a positive fashion.
Deep Cover's being kind of a jerk at the start. Applejack might not be stupid, but she makes a show of being anti-intellectual, so thinking it's weird that she'd play Go is perfectly reasonable. But she leapt to 'you think farm ponies are stupid?' because she knew that accusation would make Star Power feel bad.
5493276
5493349
Yay!
5493417
Deep Cover isn't a sociopath, and she definitely isn't a sadist, but you're right that she is a bully. There are some hints as to why in the story, but there's more to it than just that she's a jerk.
Huh, so Deep Cover has just given Star Power the cliff-notes version of The Princess in Go form! Well done!
5493562
I loved that book.
Hummm. I'm not sure what to say.
I was kind of expecting a changeling transformation.
Pretty realistic take on morality, though.
Made me consider some life things...
5493621
She's not a changeling, she just has a cutie mark with some changeling imagery. And keep in mind, while her point of view is accurate, it's not the whole picture.
Half the fun of reading your stories is trying to read between the lines to understand not only the setting, but the characters too. All the tiny hints everywhere about the history of the world, and unanswered questions that you dance around (DAMN YOU! ARE CHANGELINGS A REAL THING OR NOT IN THE SETTING?!) is both frustrating but entertaining to dig around. Certainly gives a lot of re-readability in your stories, especially when you read an argument in the comments and reread the story to see if its supported or not.
Like your previous entry to this 'verse, I love all the emotes going on, especially it appearing to be a thing where ponies have to meet Star Power's eyes to get her to relax after she tries to turtle on herself after failing a conversation check. Deep Cover is a... complicated character who is certainly doing something with Star Power in the conversation, but it's not clear what. I'd assume it was like a teacher trying to impart a lesson to a student, but they are the same age right? Why does it feel like Deep Cover is running circles around Star Power then?
Interesting worldbuilding:
The sheep and possibly the bovines were part of a coalition , which lost a war to Equestria, and our now 2nd-Class Citizens to ponies. Libertarians run Equestria —— “¡I have mine! ¡Screw you if you cannot get yours!” —— so, Equestria does not have a social safetynet and has ponies reduced to begging. This Equestria is much meaner than the show, although Deep Cover is 1 of the ponies making the show nicer than reality:
Deep Cover tries to make the depictions of nonequines nicer on the show than in reality and tries to make the equines treat the nonequines better on the show than equines treat nonequines in reality.
Up until this point, Star Power only heard Deep Cover speak as AppleJack. Now, she heard Deep Cover do a perfect imitation of RainBow Dash. I have a feeling that Deep Cover would sound just like Ashly Ball.
5493674
I think it's the opposite, the coalition won but the farm ponies still control the land thus the 'freed' sheep and bovines have crap work still. Pre-civil rights movement stuff in America.
Very nice! :D
Wow, Deep Cover is really cynical. And a bit of a jerk. After the first story in this series I was hoping this one would show Star becoming friends with her fellow actors, but it doesn't seem like that's happening in this case.
5493630 Your damn cover art is her doing a changeling transformation. Now that's just baiting right there.
Deep Cover is a jerk.
I like this story a lot, but I can't help but feel as if the cover image is bait for people hoping for Deep Cover to be a changeling actor. Bait for people who really like changelings. Bait for people like me.
Like I said, I do really like this story. However, in the future, could you try to give a little more thought into the implications the cover art gives? If you are going to bother with cover art, please make it something relevant and not misleading.
5493670
Thank you! That's my intention here. I love having a well developed setting, but the Actingverse isn't about the setting, it's about the characters. So you'll get glimpses of it, and I try to make it feel rational and coherent, but it'll never be fully explained or put center stage. For example:
Canary.
Canary, come closer. Listen.
I'll never tell.
You're very perceptive.
Star Power has had a very sheltered life. Deep Cover has... not. It's made Deep Cover wise beyond her years, but it's also had some other, more negative effects. As you can see in the story.
5493674
5493688
Yup. Once upon a time in this setting, non-equine sapients were slaves. There was a war to end slavery, in which the anti-slavery side won. The reference to "You know the Confederacy lost right?" is a reference to American culture in the deep south. The American deep south can be extremely racist (note that I say can be not is), and there are parts of it that are still rather proud of which side they were on in the American civil war. One way of making fun of people for either being racist, or for being proud of being on the losing side of a revolution, is to go, "Uh, you do know the south lost right?" or something to that effect.
5493773
Thank you!
5493799
In a way, that is what's happening. I'm not denying that Deep Cover is a bully, but the sad part is, in an unhealthy way, she and Star Power just bonded there. You'll see more of them growing closer (and developing) over the course of the series.
5493854
Me? Bait the fans? Never.
5493996
Yup.
5494048
I'm sorry, let me repeat myself:
Me? Bait the fans? Never!
Okay okay, more seriously. I'm sorry if you felt cheated—it certainly wasn't my intent to deceive the readers. The reason for the cover art is Deep Cover's cutie mark. While we'll get her cutie mark story in a later installment, she doesn't just have a changeling mark because she's good at impersonating ponies and sort-of a jerk. She considers changelings her "spirit animal," in a way. They're shapeshifters, they're clever, they're deep and they're nuanced. They don't have families. And they're heartless, which means that nopony can ever hurt them.
5493674
Well, given that the end is clearly a voice actor joke...
Wait, you're actually doing this as a series?
~Skeeter The Lurker
5494215
Yup. The fans wanted it, and I am a shameless whore who will do anything for a hit of those sweet, sweet Follows and Likes.
I mean, uh. I thought it really had room to grow as a series, you know?
5494230
I'm actually in the camp of "this is a worthy idea for a verse". Or series. Or whatever.
I'd say the follows and likes are a pleasant byproduct.
~Skeeter The Lurker
This seems a bit like it deserves a 'sad' tag.
Who's Deep Power?
Namely: Are changelings real or mythical creatures? Did they hire a bunch of changelings to participate in the Canterlot wedding episodes? If they are real, why aren't they playing every character in all movies and shows?
Any chance of seeing who plays Discord? Or maybe he's special effects? I can't remember, was it explained in the first story?
Anyway, awesome read (despite the spelling errors), and I'll keep on the lookout for more.
So, THOUGHTFUL!!!
Let me guess. If Deep can do AJ and RD? Her non acting voice prolly sounds like Ashleigh ball am I right
5494079
You're welcome. I do enjoy your work. :)
Though something has me a bit puzzled and interested: I've been reading the comments, and there seems to be a lot of talk, including from you, about Deep Cover being a jerk and a bully. I don't remember seeing that in the story, and a quick skim now didn't reveal to me anything like that either. So... would you mind elaborating, please? The fact that it seems to be obvious to so many other people is just making me more interested.
Though Deep Cover seems to be a jerk to others, to me, she seems more like a realist. She analyzes why ponies act the way they do towards other ponies in order to get into their mindset and understand their motivations. She knows that morality is never really a straight line or box that covers everything up with a nice "good and bad" label. I don't believe she is a bully and in fact think she might be trying to help Star in a way.
5494077 The sad thing is the Confederacy's really the only thing we Southerners have that the North regularly acknowledges, the Civil Rights Movement still being a 'black' movement. Combine that with the fact that we're still called slaveholders and segregationists and a lot of us have stopped caring about racism.
I am enjoying this series but I'm not seeing anything that justifies it being a separate story from the other one. A lot of authors have being doing this lately and it's legality in terms of the site rules is questionable at best.
Ah, yes... Machiavelli. The man who proved to the world that Irony is lethal.
This story shook my bones. Extremely well written and really creepy. Well done!
Very thought-provoking story. Deep Cover makes an astute observation that when you love someone, when you care about them, you are giving them the power to hurt you. It's almost like you're divvying out little pieces of your heart and entrusting them to others for safekeeping.
The alternative, of course, is to keep all the pieces to yourself. If you didn't care about anyone, no one could ever hurt you. I think that might be what hell is actually like: complete isolation and rejection of love.
This story made me think about who I'm trusting my heart to, and whether perhaps I should give more of it away.
5494152
It seems like a VoiceActressJoke to me:
¿What is with the loss of pretty feminine forms?:
In a group devoted to Doctor Whooves, after the Master regenerated into the Mistress, I commented that we can have a Doctrix soon and looked forward to future Doctrices. I had to explain Doctrix and Doctrices.
Silly Star, it's practical advice for a lot of things. Making friends is not one of them, Deep Cover.
I thought I'd get the satisfaction of Deep Cover getting called out on this. Instead I got the satisfaction of seeing her get away with it. Well played.
They're not bad, they're cursed. That's why they're the SADists. Because they're the sadDEST. They're DESTined to be SAD.
... I'll stop now.
No, cynical is the thought that people can't recognize their own motivations and end up making themselves act "rationally" towards ends that only cause them grief, because if they can't understand their intuitions then their intuitions must be irrational, and irrational things are wrong wrong wrong. Go hug your friend, Star Power.
OH YOU!
You know when you laugh and get that twisting feeling in your stomach telling you that you're doing something wrong, and the sheer awkwardness of laughing with that feeling makes you want to laugh just a little bit more? It's like the Mandelbrot Set of bad jokes.
Is it wrong that I already ship them?
I had a story like this, except that it involved a changeling taking a job as a porn star as community service.
Wow, that was really good.
But Deep Cover is kind of a jerk.
Maybe I skimmed over it or am far too tired from studying to understand it completely but Deep Cover has the ability to be a very utilitarian pony, down right viewing the world from a "third person" standpoint and manipulating the way it is to her advantage. "Cynical" might be a rather accurate way of describing and aspect of Deep Cover's personality.
I like MLP's universe, not the cold, harsh world this one is portraying. But I like this AU, the writing and the depth of it all. I look forward to anything else in this universe. Totally turns the MLP I know on its head, and if taking it really as the way it is? I'm really hurt.
And I noticed some are disappointed that
Applejack*Ahem* I mean, Deep Cover isn't a changeling...now, who is to say she isn't...? What kind of Changeling would she be if she dropped her disguise immediately after a thoughtful conversation withTwilight*cough* Sorry, Star? Hay, when I read Deep Cover's perspective on the world, I was actually entertaining the thought Chrysalis would come and pick up Deep Cover5495252 What better changeling cover than a pony who flaunts her talent to think and act like a changeling?
So... Deep Cover just gives a long explanation about how Applejack's family controls her but she uses Twilight to engage with a wider world and treasures that enough to seek out excuses to engage with her, while using an excuse to engage with Star Power but unable to stay too long because of family obligations (and a mention of fearing her own mother's temper)? While the conversation parallels both the progression of the board game and the lessons of the book she was reading?
I think that conversation worked on a lot more levels than Star Power was receiving.
I also think this is more interesting than her being a changeling, though I agree the cover art is a little deceptive.
5493799
I was pretty sure it did just show Deep Cover becoming friends with Star Power. Or starting to, anyway. They sat down, played a board game and discussed philosophy. And Star Power did say she'd enjoy doing so again. Deep Cover's personality flaws don't make them not friends.
5494095
Was it that unhealthy? It was probably a step in the right direction for Deep Cover, from the impression I'm getting of her personality. Not there yet, but a step.
Interesting views. Reminds me of the Monkeysphere. Though refocused towards power relations as opposed to depth of understanding/connection/relation etc.
5495285
I know, right? The best way to hide: In plain sight.
I wrote a review of this story. You can find it here.