Two Background Ponies Quickie: "It isn't the Mane Thing About You" Aftermath · 12:26am Sep 22nd, 2017
"...And I said, 'I don't really care how big or small the fans are. I'm just wondering what you're plugging them into. Don't tell me those things run off of gas lines.' Do we even have gas lines in Ponyville? For that matter, do we need them? You can pretty much see in broad daylight even in the middle of the night. Come to think of it, when's the last time we haven't had a full-"
The green stallion held up a stopping hoof to his friend, having seen an opportunity to break up the conversation walking down the road. A rather surprised yet pleased white unicorn was hovering a magazine in front of her as she walked along.
"Oh, hi Rarity!"
The magazine hovered to one side, letting her look up and see the two stallions seated at their usual spot at the outdoor cafe. "Oh! Hello there, Sam!" She glanced to the side, and her smile faded considerably. "...Carl." She acknowledged with a short nod.
Trying to ignore that, Sam smiled and motioned to her magazine. "I see you got the big news from Vanity Mare, eh?"
Hearing that, she lit up again. "Oh yes! This is amazing! This was such a wonderful surprise! I can't believe I made the cover after all!"
"Well, no one deserves it more than you." The blue stallion shrugged.
Carl, on his part, gave a nod but reached for his shake. "You're welcome, by the way."
Sam immediately wheeled on him and gave him a look. Rarity, on her part, blinked. "I...beg your pardon?"
"Nothing, nothing." The green stallion quickly cut in. "He didn't mean anything by that..." He wheeled back on him. "Right, Carl?"
He took a sip, paused a moment, then shook his head. "Nope. Nothing. Nothing at all. Definitely nothing about how hard it was to get those pictures..."
Sam facehooved. Rarity turned her head. "Whatever do you mean?"
Six Months Earlier
A trio of ponies, a blue stallion, a green stallion, and a gold mare walked down the dirt road home from the market. The green one was in between the two with the blue stallion paying some attention to him and the gold one rolling her eyes.
"And another thing, you know pumpkin pies? That's not pumpkin in them."
"Really?"
"No fooling. It's a kind of specially-bred squash-"
"Inconspicuous background ponies!"
The three froze in their tracks and snapped up in surprise at the cry. A moment later, a strange fashion show beat began to play out of nowhere before a blue and white pony wearing a black and white dress and a maroon scarf with large, thick-rimmed sunglasses and tailed by an entourage of rather ostentatiously-dressed ponies walked up to them...seemingly out of nowhere. The three only stared in bafflement as she came to a halt in front of them.
"I, Photo Finish, am going for the venue of the indiscrete as I make the magics!" She practically proclaimed in a thick accent. "Normal assistants will not do! I need ones more drab! More ordinary! Ones that can fade seamlessly into nothing! You three will be perfect!"
The three stared back blankly a moment, before Carl turned to Sam. "I think she kind of just insulted us, dude."
"Enough!" She cut off, causing him to immediately snap back to her. "We go!"
Wheeling around, she began to lead the way. The three ponies turned and stared at each other a moment, before the gold mare and blue stallion shrugged and began to walk after her. Carl blinked a few times.
"So...we're just going to do what she says?"
"You can stay here if you want, man. But when somepony comes out of nowhere and barks at you in a thick German accent, you're taking a risk not going along with it."
"...Good point. Wait up."
At the line outside of the local market, Rarity stood in line sporting her new "punk" look, patiently waiting her turn for the asparagus. As she stood there, a gold mare slowly and uncertainly walked up behind her. She came to a stop soon after, and hesitated, seeming both uncertain as well as not knowing how to proceed. After a moment of looking about, she shifted forward and "accidentally" bumped into her.
The unicorn gave a bit of a start, then turned around.
"Oh, Rarity! I'm sorry!" The gold mare immediately apologized.
"Oh, that's alright Dawn. Think nothing of it."
"Oh!" The gold mare quickly exclaimed in faux surprise. "Goodness me! I messed up your makeup!"
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "I...don't think so, dear. You ran into the back of me..."
"Oh, I definitely did! Let me just touch it up! It'll only take a second!" Dawn said as she reached into her saddlebag. "Can't have your blush looking uneven!"
The unicorn looked even more confused. "Um...actually, I'm not wearing blush today, dear..."
Yet Dawn ignored her as she quickly went on and got to work, brushing up on her face furiously and all over it. Rarity was rather out of sorts by the time she was done.
"Oh, goodness me! Now I've messed up your eye liner!"
She quickly dove in again and got out the pencil, going to work with that even more furiously. Rarity was nearly blinded by the gesture, which was a good thing because Dawn glanced at the bushes while she was stunned with a look that asked if that was good enough. She sighed soon after.
"Really dear..."
"You know what, I should just redo the whole thing." She reached into her saddlebags again, this time yanking out a tackle-box sized case and putting it in front of her. Another flurry of activity went over Rarity's face, this time nearly gagging her, but after a solid half minute it was done. She looked again to the bushes, this time sighing in relief.
"There! Good as new!"
Rarity sputtered and gave her an upset look. "Really now, was it that bad that you had to-"
She was cut off as a series of bright flashes from the bushes went off, blinding her again. She put a hoof to her face.
"Now what in Equestria was that?"
Dawn quickly put away the makeup case. "Uh...twittermites. Oh, I just remembered! I can't buy asparagus today! I need to go, um...wash my mane."
Rarity began to blink and look up. "How are those two things in any way rela..."
But by the time she looked up, Dawn was already running away.
With a series of grunts, the two workponies hefted Rarity's new couch onto their backs and began to approach the single-door-only entrance to Carousel Boutique. From a short distance away, Rarity gestured to them.
"No, I'm afraid not. It will never fit in straightaway. You'll have to tilt it on its side. Oh dear, now the legs are sticking out..."
"Oh, Rarity! Glad I ran into you!"
The unicorn looked up on hearing her name and turned behind her. She saw an eager and faux-grinning Sam looking at her. She blinked a few times, and then looked around herself. As always, the field around the boutique was empty and clear. She looked back at him in puzzlement.
"Um...I think you must have gone quite out of your way to run into-"
"I need you to do me a big solid." Sam cut off. "I've got all of these new lamps and I have to go use the outhouse. Do you mind watching them for me so that no one steals them?"
Rarity looked more puzzled than ever. "You...purchased a large quantity of lamps, and you're afraid someone will steal them? And...you decided to bring them home cutting through the-"
"Fantastic!" Sam cut off. He darted away, and soon came back with a large photographer's lamp and set it up in front of Rarity. He ran off again and soon came back with another. And another after that. And another after that. Finally, he brought in some reflectors and set them up behind her one by one, occasionally glancing toward the nearest hedges and shrugging or making an adjustment. Rarity, on her part, grew more and more confused.
"Sam, I'm sort of in the middle of guiding a couch-"
"There we are! All done!" Sam finally called, reaching out his hoof and mashing a button that turned them all on at once. Rarity's pupils rapidly contracted as she was nearly blinded.
"Sam, why on Equestria would you be carrying all of these...'lamps'...around with a power-"
"Can't talk! Got to run to the outhouse!"
The blue stallion took off as another series of flashes went off from the hedges.
Still blinking a bit, Rarity rubbed her eyes while seated outside at Ponyville's outdoor cafe. A good thing too, because she didn't notice a green stallion with an earpiece watching her while holding open a newspaper in front of him nearby. As he waited, the waiter came by and presented Rarity with her order: a DLT on whole wheat. She smiled and thanked the waiter, then used her horn to levitate the sandwich and was about to bite into it.
"Um...excuse me?"
Rarity paused, looking over to who had spoken. She found Carl staring at her, looking rather uneasy about what he was doing but pressing on.
"Sorry, but...well, this is going to sound weird, but..." He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Could you, maybe...take a bigger bite than that?"
Rarity stared blankly at Carl a moment. However, after a moment, she opened her mouth much wider and tried again.
"Wait...what? Ugh..." The green stallion groaned. He coughed soon after, trying to get her attention.
Again, the unicorn stopped and looked to him.
"Sorry again, this is really weird, but...uh...er...could instead take a smaller bite?"
Now Rarity really did look at him strangely.
He grimaced. "...Please?"
The unicorn stared silently, and didn't take her eyes off of him as she pulled away her sandwich and slowly narrowed her teeth for a smaller bite. Only slowly looking away from him, as if she was afraid to, she tried to take a nibble.
"Wha...what? Are you kidding me?!" Carl shouted into his earpiece, immediately looking around thereafter to see if he had upset anyone. Fuming, he looked back at her. "You know what? Changed my mind. Please...take a big bite. Really big."
By now, Rarity was starting to look uncomfortable and wanted to hurry up and eat her sandwich and get out of there. She opened her mouth wide and nearly dove in...
"What the Tartarus do you mean 'small bite'?!" The green stallion screamed into his head piece. "Make up your mind, you Teutonic Titwillow! I look like a paranoid schizophrenic over here!"
That was enough for Rarity. She quickly dropped her sandwich, threw some bits on the table, and got up to get out of here. As she rose to leave, Carl quickly shot out of his own seat and tried to go after her as a bush on the periphery began to bounce after him.
"Wait! Just a nibble! Just one nibble! It's this or I have to try to get you to play hoofball!"
Sam sighed. "Well...now you know why Carl was acting so freaky that day. He had a good reason so you don't have to be upset at him anymore."
Carl blinked. "Oh, that's why I'm getting the cold shoulder? Phew...that's good to know." He smiled at the unicorn. "For a moment, I thought you were still mad about me setting out the cold, cruel facts of life about your relationship with your sister from a few months back."
Rarity gave him a frosty look. "Actually I had forgotten about that. Thank you so much for bringing it back up, Incarlsistency."
The green stallion grimaced. The blue stallion rolled his eyes and turned to him. "Carl-"
ARGH!!
All three ponies looked up in rather stunned silence at that.
"...What in the name of Celestia was that?!"
Soon after, Carl grimaced. "I think someone just found out the hard way Sia's new music video had movie spoilers in it..."
Good thing I haven't seen that video, then...
Excellent addendum to the episode. And what is powering all of those fans?
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Magic.
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This was awesome, thanks for making this.
4674867
You can look up just the song on Youtube without the music video. To be honest, it was...something I expected was going to happen ever since I first saw a certain character. (They actually kind of teased it in the first trailer already, to be honest...)
This was another one that stumped me all week. In the end, all I could think of was how there was no way somepony as boisterous and dramatic as Photo Finish would be able to secretly photograph anyone without trying to set it up at least a little.
Well...that and the point Carl was making. I did learn this past week that pumpkin pie is rarely made of pumpkin but rather a specially bred squash that tastes sweeter than pumpkin and is less stringy for easier mashing.
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Thanks a bunch.