//------------------------------// // Talk...time // Story: Do...You? // by Dr Atlas //------------------------------// “Alright, I spy with my fake eyes...something...blue.” “The sky?” “Nope.” “Um...that flag?” “Nu-uh.” “That pony.” The disguised Doomie shrugged. “Well, you’re on the right track.” Pinkie continued looking around as her, Twilight, and Doomie made their way back to the castle. “How about...hmmm...your eyes?” Doomie blinked twice, showing his completely blue eyes for a second before switching back to pony eyes. “You’re really close.” “Uuuuhhh…” Pinkie huffed. “Alright, I give up, what is it?” Doomie stepped closer to her. “It’s your eyes, Pinkie.” “Mine?” Pinkie said. “Why’d you pick that? That’s cheating! I can’t see that...well, I see out of it, but that’s still cheating.” Doomie smiled. “I chose them because they were distracting me this whole time, ya know...with how...beautiful...they are?” Doomie grinned nervously. Twilight rolled her eyes. “How corny.” Pinkie laughed. “Oh, come on, Twilight. I think that’s a pretty cute compliment.” “You do?” Doomie said, he immediately got a nose boop from her, making him blush. “Of course I did, Doomie.” Pinkie then rubbed noses with him, making Twilight almost gag from the sight. “Pinkie,” Twilight said. “What do you see in him?” Pinkie pulled away from Doomie. “What do you mean?” “You know what I mean.” Twilight said. “What’s so special about him? He looks exactly like all his other siblings. How is he any different?” Pinkie was about to speak, but Doomie pushed her away and went face to face with Twilight. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think we’re all the same?” Twilight looked away. “Well…” Doomie grabbed her by the face and looked at her straight in the eyes. “We aren’t just a bunch of mindless drones, sparkler.” “Sparkle.” Twilight corrected. Doomie let go of her. “Whatever, just listen to me when I say this. We are not all the same, we may have our...similarities, but we all have something different in us, something great, something beautiful, something-” “Alright, alright.” Twilight pushed him away. “I get it, you are all diff-er...special...b-but that still doesn’t explain why you love him, Pinkie.” Doomie opened his mouth to say something, but Pinkie literally zipped it shut. “You wanna know why I love him?” Pinkie said with Doomie sighing through his zipped mouth. Twilight nodded. “I’d really like to know, Pinkie. It’s just...strange that you would be into something like him, I’d expect you to love...oh...I dunno…” “Love what?” Pinkie said. “Some donut baker, or some accordion playing stallion, or some random pony off the streets?” “I-I didn’t-” “Well, let me tell you, Twilight.” Pinkie pulled Doomie in for a hug, his mouth still zipped. “Our love may be young, but I know, if I listen deep in his heart,” She pressed her ear against his chest and smiled. “It says he loves me...and I know if he listened to mine!” She pulled his head to her chest, burying his muzzle in her fur. “Then it would say that I love him right back. Right Doomie?...Doomie?” Pinkie looked at him, seeing him try to struggle out of her grip. “Uh...I don’t think he can breathe right now.” Pinkie blushed and quickly pushed him away from her chest. She then unzipped his mouth, making him gasp for air and fall to the floor. “Oops...heh..s-sorry Doomie…” “I-It’s...it’s fine...huff…” He got back up on all fours. “A-And like she said, Sperkle.” “Sparkle…” Twilight corrected again. “Don’t make this a running ga-” “I would do anything...anything!...” Doomie looked at Pinkie. His disguised hooves traveled down to hers and held them. “Just to be with her…”  Pinkie’s face turned scarlet. “Y-You really mean it?” Doomie leaned in, his nose touching hers. “I swear to the queen’s queen of queen’s that I do.” Twilight looked in the sky. “Speaking of queen, do you think that she’ll be back?” “Who? Chrysalis?” Doomie turned away from Pinkie. “Well, she got flung out by that magic blast pretty far away.” Twilight fidgeted. “So, do you think she’s...well…” “Dead?” Doomie finished, making Twilight gasp. “Nah, I’m sure she’ll be alright," Twilight sighed in relief, happy to know she didn't have a hoof in helping kill off an entire race of bugs, even if they didn't invade. "and knowing the queen," Doomie continued. "she’ll probably blame us for not winning, even if it was her plan.” Doomie craned his head to the sky. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a brother falling right back here.” Twilight raised an eye. “Really now?” Doomie nodded. “Yup, it’ll take a lot more than a magic blast to take us out.” Twilight shook her head. “But that still doesn't explain how you weren’t thrown out too, I know you and Pinkie were in a dumpster doing...things I’d rather not even think about, but how did you survive?” Doomie cocked his head. “Survive? What do you mean?” Twilight shrugged. “I just thought that a wave of magic crashing into you while you weren't outside would crush you..” Doomie shrugged. “Like I said, Twinkle-" "Twilight, I told you not to-" "I have no idea." Doomie continued. "Either you ponies have very strong dumpsters, or that love blast didn’t recognize me.” “I’m pretty sure that spell would’ve recognized you as a changeling since you...well, are one.” Twilight became curious. “Were you a pony when you guys were in the dumpster?” Doomie shook his head. “Nope, I was one hundred percent changeling, every part of me was bug.” He poked Twilight in the chest. “Every part.” Twilight backed up. “Oh-kay then...uh...nice to know.” Pinkie looked around Canterlot. “You think anypony is hearing this?” She asked. “I doubt it.” Twilight said. “They’re probably too busy cleaning up the green gunk you guys left behind.” She looked at Doomie. Doomie shrugged. “That stuff is pretty easy to get off...well, for a changeling it is, as for a pony, it’s pretty hard.” Twilight raised an eye. “How so?” Doomie stuck out his snakelike tongue for a second before sucking it back in. “For starters, we use our tongue to lick it off. Second, the stuff comes out of our body. We hack it up and stick it to anything...or, anyone in this case.” “Ugh…” Twilight shivered in disgust. “That...That’s disgusting.” Doomie shrugged. “Hey, it’s not that bad, it’s just some substance made inside us so we can use it for hanging our beds or help light up the cave.” “It’s still gross.” Twilight said. Doomie groaned. “Why is it that anything coming off a body is considered gross to you ponies?” Pinkie shrugged. “I dunno, it’s just how we act.” Twilight stepped closer. “It’s also because it’s waste that-” “Waste?” Doomie said. “What’s that?” Twilight and Pinkie were surprised to hear that. “Y-You don’t know what waste is?” Twilight said. Doomie scratched his fake hair. “Uh...is it a type of trash you ponies throw away or something?” Pinkie and Twilight looked at each other before looking back at him. “Don’t you guys throw away anything?” Twilight tried thinking of a way to word this. “You know, anything taken off your body?” Doomie rubbed his chin. “Uh...besides our ‘green gunk’, not really, we release the energy from our love we have to other changelings by doing the same thing with the green stuff, but other than that...” Pinkie held him. “You guys don’t even use a bathroom?” Doomie cocked his head. “What’s a bathroom?” Twilight dropped her jaw. “You don’t even know what a bathroom is?” Doomie tried to think about this. “Is a bathroom where ponies go to converse with one another?” Pinkie laughed. “No, silly. A bathroom is where you go to take showers, or clean your hooves, or where you-” Twilight coughed and pointed up. “We’re here!” Doomie and Pinkie looked ahead to see the doors to Canterlot were right in front of them. Doomie looked behind him to see the stairs. “We even walked up the stairs?” Twilight put her hoof on the door. “Well, come on, Pinkie. We have a wedding to get to.” “W-What about Doomie?” Pinkie pointed at her disguised changeling. “Is he coming too?” Twilight looked away. “I don’t really think bringing a random pony in with us is a good idea.” “But Twilight!” Pinkie whined while Doomie thought about this situation. “We can’t just leave him.” Twilight sighed. “Look, Pinkie, I’m sure he can stay somewhere while we finish the wedding.” “But I can’t start a party without him now! I’d be awful to have him not come with us.” Doomie tapped Pinkie on the shoulder. “Um...Pinkie, I think it’s just best for me not to come.” “What!?” Both Twilight and Pinkie said, with Pinkie’s being louder. Doomie looked away. “I-I mean, I’m sure it’d be a great party and all, but...I-I’d rather not have one that’s...well, ya know...” “T-that’s what?” Pinkie started to tear up. “T-That’s not good enough...o-or one that isn’ that-” “No, nononono.” Doomie held his hoof under her chin, making her look up at him. “I just want one between the two us and not about two ponies who just blasted my entire family out of here.” To be fair, Doomie still had a slight grudge against the prince and princess. His family may have been jerks to each other, but they were still his family. “Oh...right…” Pinkie looked down while Twilight looked away and whistled, knowing she was apart of that. Doomie sighed, knowing this was gonna be bad. “You understand, right?” “B-But Doomie, I just can’t throw one without you being there, that’d be like baking a cake without all the ingredients, you need all of them just to eat it.” “Pinkie, I just can’t...I...I…” Doomie started trailing off one he looked deep into Pinkie’s eyes, seeing them start to water up and be as big as ever. He looked away and sighed, knowing that it was either dealing with being in a party about celebrating a wedding and the defeat of his kind or making his one true love sad. Doomie looked at her again, knowing what he had to do. “A-Alright, Pinkie...I-I’ll be at that party.” Pinkie immediately pulled him in for a hug, this time watching how hard she was doing it. “Oh thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Doomie was surprised by the non-death-grip hug. “J-Just tell me when and where...and I’ll be there.” Pinkie giggled. “It’ll be in the gardens at around nine. Nice rhymes, by the way.” Pinkie then realized something. “H-How will I recognize you?” Doomie pulled away from the hug and pointed at his flank. “I’ll probably be the only pony with a cutie mark trailing down his leg.” Pinkie looked at said cutie mark and sighed. “I still don’t get why you chose a vine for your cutie mark, it so doesn’t match your blue body...or your orange hair.” Doomie shrugged. “At least it stands out.” “Hey.” Twilight said. “Can we please get a move on?” Pinkie scuffed the ground. “You promise you’ll be there.” Doomie pulled her in for a hug. “I promise.” “Pinkie promise?” “Uh...yeah...you promise.” “Me promise?” Pinkie pushed him away. “What do you mean ‘me promise?’” “Well, your name’s Pinkie, so...it’s a ‘you promise’...right?” Doomie laughed. “I guess that makes sense.” Pinkie laughed and hugged him again. “Okay then, so it’s a ‘me promise’.” Doomie nuzzled the side of her face and smiled. “It’s a you promise, but only if you promise we have one together as well.” He moved his face away and touched Pinkie’s nose with his. “Just the two of us…” Pinkie smiled and rubbed his nose with her’s. “I promise.” “Doomie promise?” Pinkie laughed. “Doomie promise? Really?” Doomie shrugged. “Well, I want my kind of promise too, can’t I have one?” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Alright, it’s a ‘you promise' that I will make a party about us.” They laughed and continued their embrace until Twilight pushed them away from each other. “Pinkie, can we please get inside, I’m not the only one who’s waiting for you, you know.” “Alright, alright, I’m going.” She looked at Doomie. “I guess this is goodbye?” Twilight groaned. “Oh for the love of Celestia.” “Until I meet you again.” Doomie kissed her before he turned around. “I’ll see you soon, Pinkie!” Without another word, he walked down the stairs and into the crowds of ponies. “Bye bye, Doomie.” Pinkie waved, only to be grabbed by a magic purple aura. Twilight opened the doors and dragged her in. “You. Me. Castle. Now.”