//------------------------------// // Incognito // Story: Of Stones and Roots // by Ignimbrite //------------------------------// Casting Call and Curtain Call both walked through the town, enjoying the scenery.  It was a kind of place they could stay a while if they had gone there on a vacation.  Alas, they were visiting for business instead.   The first thing they needed to do was find that filly and her aunt, along with the others in the picture.  Of course they weren't opposed to asking other ponies if they wanted to audition as well, but that could be later. They decided to check the school first.  If anypony could identify foals, it would be the local teacher. “Um, excuse me.  I'm Casting Call, and this is my wife, Curtain Call.” “Nice to meet you.  I'm miss Cheerilee.”  “We're looking for some ponies that we heard about recently.  Specifically we're looking for the parents of the two fillies and the colt that went to Canterlot a while back...” "Not again..." The door slammed in their faces. Simple.  It's totally simple.  Just go up.  Act like you belong.  You've always belonged.  Yeah… Naturally, Kind Face did her best acting when absolutely nothing was at stake, not when trying to sneak into her friend's family to pretend to be one of them.   How exactly did I think this was a good idea again? “Well hello there.  Are you lost, little one?” Well, no going back now. “Um, I think so.  I'm looking for the Stone family gathering.” “Well now, you're in luck, then.  Welcome to the gathering,” the older stallion chuckled.  “Nice to have a new pony joining us, although I can't quite say I've seen you before.” “I haven't been here before.  I found an old family photo album one time, and it mentioned a Stone family in it, so I went looking to see who they were.” “Ah, gotcha.  You must be from Little Rock's side, then.  A lot of his records got lost in that house fire back… oh, how long ago was that again?  No matter.  It was ages ago. “My name's Hard Place.  What's yours, little filly?” Horsefeathers.  I knew I forgot something. “Um, Emerald, sir.  Emerald… Rainbow.” Kind Face, you are an idiot. Hard Place laughed.  “Well now I know you're from his side.  He was a lot more inventive with names than the rest of us.  Come on.  I'll introduce you. “Oh hey, any others in your family come along?” “Uh, no.  It's just me.  Nopony else could make it.” He looked down at her, looking into her averted eyes, and paused.  “I see.  Very well, then.  Come on.  Let's go meet the others.” It was just Casting and Curtain Call's perfect luck that, with the apparent exception of Cheerilee, none of the ponies had much information on any of the foals. Thus, their best strategy was simply asking all the locals they ran into and hoping one of them would know something. The next one they saw was a florist just outside her shop. "Excuse me, I'm Curtain Call. Casting and I have been looking around for somepony we saw in the news." "Oh. Fluttershy's probably in her cottage with her animals..." Casting raised a hoof and shook his head. "No, we're looking for a filly who displayed potential talent as an actor." "Oh... I'm not sure who that might be. What did she look like?" Casting and Curtain looked at each other. "Well, we're not sure. She's a different color in just about every picture we've found." The florist's ears picked up. "Different colors?" "Yes." Casting Call sorted through the newspaper pages he'd brought. "And I'm pretty sure she's an earth pony, but she does have a horn in a couple shots, and she has wings in this one." "Are you sure that's the same pony? Does she at least have the same cutie mark between shots?" "Positive... and she does go by the same name every time. According to this, her name is..." They were interrupted by a loud shriek followed by the hoofsteps of the florist galloping away. "CHANGELINGS! THE CHANGELINGS ARE INVADING AGAIN!!!" “It sure has been taking a while.” “Yes it has.  She’s never taken anywhere near this long before.  I'll go check on her. “Of course.” Masquerade stepped backstage while Rising Star waited.  After several minutes and quite a few echoes of her voice calling for her niece, she returned with much wider eyes. “I can't find her anywhere.” “Tag!  You're It!”  Three steps into running away, the colt stopped and looked at his rather surprised target.  “Hey, wait a second.  Who are you?” “I'm… I'm Emerald Rainbow.  I just got here.  Who are you?” “Gold Leaf.” Emerald Rainbow couldn't take her eyes off the one feature a colt in a unicorn family gathering seemed to be missing.   “You're an earth pony?” “Yeah.  I got that from mom.”  He pointed to one of the mares that Obsidian's dad had introduced earlier, back when she was still Kind Face. “My sister Silver's an earth pony too.  She's over… oh there she is.  And… oh, there's my other sister, over with one of my cousins.” Emerald looked in the direction he was pointing to see a pink unicorn running around Obsidian. “Come on, let's say hi.”  Gold Leaf took a few steps forward, then stopped and turned back to Emerald.  “Oh, but there is one thing about my cousin.  Don't call him an alicorn.  He doesn't like it for some reason.” Emerald just barely suppressed a smirk, managing to replace it with a much more in-character eyebrow raise before Gold Leaf could notice. As they made it over to the others, Gold Leaf spoke up again.  “Hey guys!  We've got a new pony!” Emerald Rainbow now had to experience the joy of trying to introduce herself to ponies she already knew without letting them know that she already knew them. Looking back, she really should have planned this out better. “Hi.  My name's Obsidian, and before you ask…” “Let me guess, you're not really an alicorn?” “How'd you know?” She pointed to Gold Leaf.  “He told me.” That was when Gold Leaf's sister decided to introduce herself.   “Well I'm Princess Crystal Shield, Protector of Ponydom!”  She stepped up closer and tried to whisper in Emerald's ear, “and I still think he is one.” Judging by Obsidian's soured expression, Emerald guessed that he must have heard her remark anyway. Meanwhile, Gold rolled his eyes and sighed with the air of somepony who had watched her introduce herself that way far too many times. “This is my sister, Rose Quartz.” Emerald giggled at the introduction.  “Well it's nice to meet you two.  I'm Emerald Rainbow, from Little Rock's side of the family.” She bent down and grinned. “So,” she turned to Rose Quartz.  “Princess Crystal Shield?” “Yep!  Watch this!”   The unicorn closed her eyes and concentrated.  Her horn started glowing a pale silver, and a series of matching transparent segmented plates materialized at the tip, expanding and repositioning themselves until they encompassed her, locking together at the edges.  The barrier lasted about a second before disintegrating. “Like it?” Considering the filly looked quite a bit younger than Feldspar, Emerald was genuinely impressed that she managed to make a shield at all. “That's cool!” “Thanks!  I've been practicing a lot at it!” “So,” she grinned at Obsidian.  “What are you?  A unisus or a pegacorn?” “A what?…  I've never heard terms like that to describe it before.  I'm a chimera, and before you ask, I'm not a monster; it's just a medical condition.” Emerald giggled.  The disguise was working well enough her own friend didn't recognize her.  She just might be able to have some fun with this.