11 - What Happened?
A frantic knocking came from the door leading out of the viewing room. Nicole rose to her hooves, trotting towards it, "You keep watching, your little babysitter just woke up."
"You open this door, you evil siren! You won't take David while I'm around!" came the muffled shout of Rough Draft through the door, "Come and face me!"
David rose to his feet but didn't interfere. The show that had been playing was some kind of romantic comedy, through the obvious lens of a pony. It was both fascinating and horrific as familiar tropes did battle with unfamiliar rules of social engagement. Rough Draft hadn't been wrong when he said the mares do the chasing.
Nicole pulled the door open at just the right moment to allow Rough to teeter forward under his own momentum. "He's right--"
"That's enough from you!" declared Rough Draft in a half shout, regaining his balance and standing up to Nicole, "Surrender him right now."
"Or what?" asked Nicole with an amused expression. "Maybe I decided I should keep him."
Rough Draft clopped a hoof down on the floor, "No! You can't do that! He's my human! Besides, he has a mind of his own. You can't just... keep him."
Nicole gave a small shrug, eyeing the male intently, "I've kept stallions before, why can't I keep him? I doubt he'll say no if I offer."
David stepped up to the arguing ponies and held out a hand, "That's enough arguing about me."
"Dave!" Rough Draft hopped past Nicole and circled quickly around David, "You're alright, and a lot less nude than I feared."
"Why would he be nude?" asked Nicole with a raised brow. "Dare I ask what you do to him when you're not in public?" She nudged the door shut with a hoof before joining the two.
David quickly assured, "It's nothing like that." He reached down and pat the relieved Rough Draft over his head and ears, "Anyway! Nicole here just wanted to show me some movies."
"Movies?" asked Rough, turning to Nicole, "Why did you cover the handle in knock out slime if you just wanted to watch movies?"
Nicole's horn glowed softly as a glass of something purple floated over to her, wrapped in her bright blue magic. "It's a matter of habit. I don't need to touch door handles, but many of my 'adoring fans' do."
Rough plopped his plot on the ground, "You're kidding. I got caught in a fan trap?" When Nicole nodded he placed a hoof against his face, "Well, fine, ok. Sorry."
Nicole smiled at him, then up towards David, "Dear, he clearly cares for you. Now that we've put all this nastiness behind us, we have a few more movies to watch." When Rough opened his mouth, blue magic wrapped around his snout, gently shutting it, "And no speaking unless you have fingers or a horn. I want his unaltered view of things."
Rough consoled himself with the popcorn bowl that had been abandoned and began chewing softly on the treats. Nicole strode along to the bar and soon mixed up a new drink with her magic to bring over to David. Though he didn't normally drink much, what's the harm with just one? The bright green concoction was a bit sour, but passable as he sipped at it.
The next movie was a coming of age tale about a pony that just couldn't get her cutie mark. The make-up was pretty good, as David couldn't see a hint of Nicole's usual mark, making her appear to be the blank flank star, raging against a world that puts her down for not having a place in it yet. It had a lot of the tropes he was used to seeing in such movies, with the 'in' crowd making fun of the blank flank that got relegated to the role of 'dweeb'. Oddly, even those that were 'nerd' or 'geek' like looked down their long snouts at blank flanks through the movie, until Nicole showed her stuff in a triumphant dance number that resulted in a dancing cutie mark adorning her. Cue credits.
"Huh, not bad," said David, "Nice work with your pelt. Compliments to your makeup artist."
Nicole smiled, "I haven't mentioned it, dear? Why that's my talent."
"To cover your cutie mark?" asked David with a perplexed tone, glancing down at the flank mark.
"Goodness no," she said with a titter, "Changing my pelt, cutie mark included. That's a secret." She held up a hoof to her snout, "So no spilling the beans, darling." As she said that, her cutie mark changed to a handful of beans and her fur darkened to a ruddy red color while her mane turned a bright cyan shade.
Rough paused in his snack eating, ears perked at Nicole, "Wow, so what's your real mark look like."
Nicole shook her head, tail swaying slowly, "Ah'll never tell, pardner." She was speaking with a bit of a country accent then. "Now what else can ya tell me, David?"
David rolled a hand, "Well, I didn't think cutie marks were quite that pervasive. I mean I heard of little foals being picked on, but in the movie it was everyone. Is it really like that?"
Rough bobbed his head quickly, "Can be. Depends a bit where you are and who your folks are friends with."
Nicole nodded towards Rough, "It's especially bad in big city schools. Ah donated thirty percent of the proceeds of that movie ta helping foals in distress." She sat down on a cushion lightly, sipping from her tall glass, "Shoulda used more apples."
David thought back to Babs Seed. Her behavior made more sense in this context. If he knew where she lived... he'd be a creepy biped thing trying to grab her, no, scratch that thought right out... "That puts the movie in a more serious light. That was very nice of you."
"What did ya think it was, pardner?" asked Nicole, "Be honest."
David glanced at the blank screen and back at his two pony companions, "Well, I mean. I didn't think it was that big a deal, so I saw it as a personal struggle, rather than... a society one. You didn't show any other blank flanks, so I thought it was just her."
Nicole sipped from her drink again before nodding, "Ah can see that, but that's half th' trouble. Many blank flanks, and ya shouldn't go using that term, feel isolated like they're tha only one around."
David sat up a little, "What's the proper term? That's the only one I knew."
She held up a hoof, "Ah invited ya 'cause you're an outsida, no point being mad about it. The proper term is 'Pre-Marked'." The last sentence came without any accent in it, clear and clinical.
Rough Draft pointed up at the projecter, "You had another movie."
With a glow of her horn, Nicole brought over a new reel and soon had it loaded into the machine, "Just one more. This here's a sci-fi epic. Watch and share." Soon the projector was busily spinning the reel around, showing the movie.
The ponies in this movie were all dressed up in very reflective clothing. They went for space walks, but had no helmets or hoof coverings while doing so. They had lightsabres of a sort, but they wobbled as if flexible while they whipped them around in mouth or in glowing fields of magic. Oddly, the magic didn't seem to have colors on the screen. Whatever gave them a color apparently didn't get captured on the film. The movie seemed to revolve around some kind of space monster taking over this space station for no obvious reason. There were love interests and sword fights and a lot of running around before the evil monster, who's never actually shown on camera, was jettisoned into something like a black hole, except it was much more colorful.
Nicole had her eyes on David, taking in his reactions as things came and left the screen. He became amused at points when other ponies, Rough included, were startled, and even laughed at strange times. When the movie ended, she tilted her head at David, "You reacted very strongly to that one. Was it... good?"
"It's hard to say exactly," started David, "For one, science in Equestria is not quite at the level of where I'm from. I know ponies doing half the things they did would be very dead in an agonizing way."
Nicole swiveled an ear back, "Really? Have your people been to space before?"
David nodded, "Sure, many times. Science is kind of our specialty." He wriggled his fingers at Nicole, "We have to find new things to use these on."
Nicole suddenly wrapped David in the blue magic, lifting him up as the magic turned bright green instead, "You're not from around here," she said, "Where are you from, exactly?"
Suddenly bright green magic, color-shifting ability... David put the hints together and clamped his mouth shut in fear of saying something incredibly stupid. Rough Draft hopped up to his hooves, "Hey, put him down! We've been doing everything you asked for, no need to assault him."
Nicole gently set David back down, "Yes, yes you have. My apologies." Her magic shifted back to a gentle blue color. "I just got excited. Nopony's been to outer space before, except Luna, and that was more... metaphysical."
Mental note, comics do not appear to be part of the canon.
"So," said Nicole, staring at David, "Where?"
David settled himself back into place, looking between Nicole Foalman and Rough Draft. "That's hard to explain. I don't know exactly how far away it is."
Nicole raised her brows together, "You're lost?"
David quickly shook his head, "No, I wanted to come here, and I did, but I don't know how far I came to do that. Ok, quick question, what do either of you know about multiverse theory?"
Rough Draft held up a hoof quickly, "The idea that there are infinite other realities with every possibility. If you can think of it, it exists somewhere."
"Good enough," said David, nodding, "Somewhere in that mess, there's another planet, we call it Earth, and it has a lot of things like me on it."
"Not Terra?" asked Rough, sounding disappointed.
David snorted, "And I thought you lived on Everglow, not Equestria. We're even."
Nicole placed her drink on Rough's head, forcing him to balance it precariously, "As I was asking, so you're an alien? A true alien, not from another country, but bigger."
David waved a hand, "I really don't want to make a big deal about it. I'm not here to invade anything and there's only one of me. I come in peace."
Nicole tittered softly, "I'm not scared of you." She leaned forward, "I want to know more..." Her eyes flashed green, but Rough didn't seem to notice. Great...
Something's up with this celebrity pony! Can she be trusted?
What will happen to our heroes next?
The darkness of the screening may have resulted in a few mistakes, let me know.
Nicole:
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Ooh goodness, it's so good and the slice of life is amazing. And suddenly changelings. It was so heavily hinted by her "special talent" that I thought I'm just seeing things that are not there.
Sogood.
5615902 Thanks for the kind words and feedback! I'm writing the next chapter right now.
Tense change again. Also famous character is Changeling. Very obvious.
5625323 Master of subtlety I am not. :( Fixed!
Love the picture of Nicole. She's quite adorable. While I know that she's a changeling, I'm withholding my judgment. The only characterization of them we have is from the ponies' viewpoints, they might not ALL be evil.
5674348 She's as cute as a button!
"Knock-out" should be hyphenated... poor, discriminated-against little hyphen.
EDIT:
And so should "sci-fi."
Clearly I spoke too soon, at least as far as the lack of peril and problems.
Also,
obvious changeling is obvious,
and I am totally ok with that.
It certainly explains the knock-out goo.
That should be "seemed," in the past tense.
"Color-shifting" should also be hyphenated.
I am the Hyphenator!
5678015 All fixed!
While the multiverse is less paradoxal and makes much more sense then the faulty, paradoxal, and stupid String Theory, it is still flawed in its own way. If I recall, it says that universes overlap each other, which creates paradoxes when relating two universes with different laws of physics. Furthermore, minor modifications to a reality are not drastic enough to warrant an entirely new universe.
5705573 I make no claim to understand either of those theories.
Drat, when I'm right, good golly Wat!
Hurray for changelings. And now my lunch break is over and there's warehouse stuff to be done.
"Just one more. This here's a sci-fi epic. Watch and share." Soon the projector was busily spinning the reel around, showing the movie.
Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who Please be doctor who
Wait... Green magic, and flashing eyes? This reminds too much of my Queen at an infamous Canterlot wedding...
5674348 We thank you for withholding your judgement.
lens
projector
Also, ceiling-mounted projectors are only feasible when you don't have to load them...or, I suppose, when you can telekinetically load them. Carry on.
that makes it sound like lightweight sabers. Lightsabers (or laser swords, if you fear Disneylucas)
I see i was right about her.
Nicole looks like pumpkin cake
6812540 Maybe they should be light-whips, in this universe anyway. Side note to Silver: there is another besides changelings who can shapeshift & has green eyes & magic although I can't see him elaborating in movies too get at his goals, or am I wrong? Guess we'll see.
Am I seriously the only one that suspected she was a changeling moment she managed to track David down and slip the note under his hotel room door?
7056055
I didn't suspect that she was a changeling untill she changed her cutiemark.
*sighs and faceplams* annnd she's a changeling..
Oh damn, I was actually caught off guard by her being a changeling. I need to pay closer attention
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/5f/4b/74/5f4b74f96de9eb37a034bbaab24cbcbb.jpg
You know, if mares chasing stallions is canon in this story, when it is rather uncommon that Rough was asking Greasy out. Shouldn't Greasy than chase him, if she was truly interested?
It also makes me wonder if no mare ever chased after him. Are there more stallions than one might think? If stallions were scarce there had to be at least one mare be interested in such a lone stallion.
It's a changling hug it then run away
7951562 A valid tactic, but that just may make it want to chase.
Obvious changeling is obvious.
That looks like one of the ponies on the YouTube channel animatedjames
Mm. So Nicole is likely a changeling. I dig it.
Called it.
I like how he didn't immediately call out that she was a changeling. And the magic color thing was only seen by him. Consistent, and not what Fimfiction tropes lead readers to expect.
Her eyes at normally green. Of course they're going to flash green in green light.
Yep, my thought that she is a changeling came right when Rough got knocked out with that gunk on a door handle. No, seriously, secluded area, some sleep inducing gunk. Kinda enough hints on it's own. So, waited for the rest of them. :)
I would like it noted that Rough Draft was correct that our world ic called Terra. Terra and Gaia are just latin and Greek for Earth, or rather, their names for the celestial entity that is named such who later became known as simply Mother Earth. Its rather old fashioned, but it IS our planet name. Dirt is Earth, or more commonly known as Terra in a scientific aspect like Terraforming (translates to Earth Shaping), Just like how our sun is named Sol, and thus its known as a Solar System. Though, Sol is the Nordic entity of the sun, which is female as well, so our sun, moon, and planet are all actually feminine.
9549915
I personally like "Terra Firma"
Her eyes flashed green . . . Sea-green . . . Seapony . . . Ahhh, Nichole is a SeaPony in disguise! RUNNNNN!!!!
10371190
I personally like "Urt"
9549915
Except Egyptian. Geb was earth nut was sky, and the mood is male, not sire of the original sun god but ra was, of course, male.
It is also a cultural thing.
I wonder, and i haven't looked, how females were placed in ancient Egyptian society.
Obvious changeling alert
She must not have been trained very well
10962954
... or not expected something to see the magic aura, or know what it means. For some reason it looks like ponies in this universe aren't keyed-in on changelings all that well, either. Yeah, there are some big clues here and there, but all that are visible to everyone can be explained away with magic and cutie mark talents.
I think most people can deduce Nicole's true species, lol. Now watch the next chapter subvert all expectations.
11249598
She was a hippogriff the whole time.
10909144
Nah, you're right about the male thing with the sun god, the original sun God of the egipteans was amon and he was male