Soft Has a Plan
Rough had barely finished their sentence when their clothing began to make alarming noises.
"Aaah!" I blurted, backing away from Rough.
They reached out a hand to calm me. "Hey, don't worry Blue, it's just my phone."
"The... the smartphone?" I asked in Rough's voice. There was nothing around to hear us aside from the passing beasts on the road, though they never paid any attention to us anyway.
Rough pressed their thumb on the small slab and held it to their ear. "Hey Maria; what's up?"
...What?
"What'd you go and do something like that for?!" Rough shouted suddenly. "You can't just go around tellin' everyone about this kinda thing!"
Another pause, and now I was becoming even more confused. Rough wasn't speaking to anything but themself... but, maybe it had something to do with the slab in their hand? How would that even work; enchantment?
"Oh, you got a plan, huh?" Rough sassed, rolling their eyes at me as if I knew what was going on with their sudden insanity. "Oh, not over the phone? Here, why don't you talk to Blue about it?"
Now the slab was being held next to my shapeshifted Winona ear. Rough was looking at me expectantly.
"You're supposed to talk into it, Blue." Rough explained.
"U-uh... hello?" I asked nothing but the air in front of me.
"Hey Blue!" Soft's voice replied cheerfully.
"S-Soft?" I hesitantly asked, jumping from the unexpected voice. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the car with one of my friends. I don't have any more classes scheduled for today, so I'm going to pick up you and Ricky and we're gonna go home. I got an idea!" Soft explained with excitement.
"A-an idea?" I stuttered. I still had no clue as to how I was speaking with Soft from just a simple slab of white and shiny held in Rough's hand.
"I can't talk about it over the phone; who knows who might be listening, right? I'll tell you all about it once we pick you up, okay?"
"We?"
"Yeah! I'm bringing my friend Karol to meet you." Soft was sounding very excited, though I wasn't able to sense any emotion from the slab and it gave me the 'Eugh'.
"Do... do they have love?" I asked. Affection was well and good... as a snack. I needed actual love to do anything important for long, however. Without love, my body would simply stop working. Much like if a pony were to stop eating, they would eventually wither away into nothing and fall over. It's very convenient that they don't have to live off of love, just baked goods and plaaaants.
"Blue? Are you there?" Soft asked from the slab.
"Oh! Yes, I'm here!" I was daydreaming and missed what Soft had said!
"I said that 'knowing Karol, I'm sure she'll have more than enough love for you once she meets you.'"
That seemed odd. "Why is that?"
"Because she loves... Winonas."
I looked up at Rough in confusion, and they returned a knowing nod accompanied with a frown of sympathy. Rough then pulled the slab from my ear and spoke into it again.
"Alright, Maria. We'll be waiting by Wal-Mart for you." A short pause... "Alright, see you then." Rough then pulled the slab from their face and poked it again with their thumb; placing it in their pocket.
"I have no idea what just happened." I stated plainly.
Rough looked at me in surprise. "What do ya mean? You just had a talk with Maria about her crazy 'plan'."
"But... how? There were no emotions; they weren't here. How was I speaking with them?" I was completely confused, and it must have shown on my Winona face from Rough's stifled giggling at me.
"Sheesh, Blue. For an alien from outer-space, I'm surprised you don't know what phones are."
"Why do you have a mart of walls as well? Do you need to build them often?" I had so many questions.
Rough waved a hand at me. "No, no, Blue, come on now. Wal-Mart is just the name of the store. You go to Home Depot if you wanna build walls. Or maybe Lowes..."
I blinked in confusion at Rough.
"Nevermind all that, Blue. Just follow me, okay?" Rough pointed a hand forward, as if asking me to walk ahead of them.
"How were we talking with Soft?" I asked, moving to the side of Rough and looking up at them.
Rough pulled the slab from their pocket again while we began walking somewhere. I was more interested in Rough than where we were going.
"This thing here is called a Smart Phone. It's your calendar, your watch, your phone, your internet access and your distraction causer. It has a whole lot more uses than that, but that's all I ever use it for." They explained, pointing to different points on the slab with their finger.
This was all very confusing. "So... that slab is enchanted?"
Rough stopped to look at me curiously. "I've been meanin' to ask; When you were explainin' your story you mentioned 'magic' a few times. Do you mean like, technology magic or magic-magic?"
I blinked. "Technology magic?"
"Like, you know... when your technology is so advanced that it looks like magic cause there's no other way to explain it?"
I was completely lost at this point. "Uhm..."
"Alright, nevermind. Karol will probably explain it better than I can, soon as we meet those two at Wal-mart." Rough grumbled while placing the slab in their clothing again. I followed after Rough as they picked up their pace, forcing me to... um... is there a Winona equivalent of trotting? In any case, we passed a few street corners and I got a few more waves of affection from other not-minotaur that we had passed on the streets and 'sidewalks' as the platforms were called. The hive didn't have anything like them, as we all just flew around the place to where we needed to go. Why secrete roads when you have wings?
Eventually, we rounded a corner and I saw an absolutely gargantuan structure looming in the distance. What must have been dozens of beasts were resting nearby, all arranged in neat lines in a pattern. Some were facing towards the structure like dedicated worshipers, and others were turned away as if to spurn the looming fortress. This entire structure, though mostly square in shape, was larger than most of the buildings I had seen in Canterlot. Honestly, it made me fearful to witness it. How would somepony or changeling even accomplish a feat like this? A building of that size could hold an entire army of Royal Guard or Changelings! We hadn't even crossed the street and I was shaking in my disguise. If I had been myself, I would be chittering non-stop!
"Hey Blue, you alright? You're shakin'..." Rough asked abruptly, placing a hand on my head and scratching behind my ears.
I motioned to the 'Wal-mart' with my nose. "That building is terrifying." I explained honestly.
Rough looked to where I had referred and gave a single 'hah'. "Blue, that's just a buildin'. Nothin' to be spooked about." Rough was being reassuring, and their mood gave no hints to any danger that would come from that place, but it still made me uneasy.
"You're certain? It's larger than almost any structure I've ever seen!"
"Blue, either we're gonna walk over there, or I'm gonna carry you." Rough stated with finality, removing their hand from my head and standing over me.
"B-but..."
"Nah, none of that. We've gotta meet up with Maria and Karol, so that means we gotta go to Wal-mart. No more fussin', alright?" Rough then walked off without me, looking behind themself and motioning for me to follow. Reluctantly, I decided that I didn't really have any other options aside from curling up into a ball until I couldn't disguise myself anymore from lack of love. As we drew nearer to the Wal-mart, I began to notice other things about it. There were cages on one side of the place, holding back what seemed to be a large garden and a separate entryway, and on the other side was a lumber yard. Not-minotaur were pushing around large wagons made from thin strips of metal in a mesh with wheels on the bottom, having fused the metal together in a pattern many times over and fitting all of them within the other. Finally, we reached the most curious part of the Wal-Mart. The front doors.
The doors that weren't doors. The doors that opened by themselves and shut when nothing was around. The doors that said Enter and Exit, yet opened anyway regardless. The doors that were alive yet held no emotion, much like the beasts waiting silently in the stone field behind us.
"Oh come on. Don't tell me you're gettin' spooked by the doors now, are you?" Rough complained, pushing me forward with their foot on my rear.
There were far too many not-minotaur around for me to speak, so my nervous chitters translated into a whimper as I was lead into the large structure. The doors opened and I was struck by a blast of cool air. Was the building alive!? How was it breathing? It was cooler on the inside of the structure than the outside... how was this possible!?
"Blue, if you don't stop bein' a nervous wreck then we're gonna have to wait outside where it's hot."
I looked up at Rough and nodded vigorously. Outside would be much better than in this Wal-mart of confusion!
Rough heaved a sigh and turned around. "Alright, Blue, We'll wait outside for them. Just try an' calm down, okay?"
I followed Rough outside and away from the scary not-building that was alive yet not-alive to an overhang that gave us shade from the sun. Getting used to the scale of everything here in Earth was taking a toll on me, and I was beginning to shake from the stresses of maintaining my disguise while having a mild panic attack.
"Hey, come here." Rough requested softly, their arms open towards me. "I didn't think you'd be so scared from just a building, but I don't really know much about aliens, do I?" they asked rhetorically. I gladly took the offered sympathy and concern as well as the warm embrace. I sat in Rough's lap while we waited for Soft and 'Karol' to arrive.
It ended up being a short wait, as the beast that Soft had taken to 'College' soon stopped in front of us, holding a new passenger in the front. They soon opened the side of the beast and hopped out quickly, darting towards Rough and myself. They were around the same height as Soft but with a longer mane of black. Their eyes wore glasses for seeing, a black rim over the top but missing from the bottom and rectangular. Their clothing was an oversized black... thing, with a hood attached to the back. They also had blue coverings for their lower half and white foot covers as well. I'm not really sure what to call them.
"Maria, Ricky, If this is some kinda joke, then I'm gonna be really upset with both of you." They warned seriously. Their voice was cheerful, but also restrained in tone. They didn't reveal any of their emotions on their face, but I could feel excitement, anxiety, eager joy and hopefulness tempered by caution and suspicion. "Cause right now, this is looking a lot like a random dog with... with really blue eyes."
"You wanna hold her?" Rough offered, pulling themself from the ground while holding me. "She don't bite." They teased.
"You're both messing with me, aren't you?" The newcomer pouted, taking me in their arms anyway. "This is messed up, you know that?"
"Alright, let's all get in the car, okay? We can talk there." Rough reminded them, as there were far too many not-minotaur around.
Soft had remained in their beast the whole time, and now the Newcomer carried me after Rough as they climbed into the beast once more. Rough sat in the back, and the new one sat up in the front with myself on their lap, staring up at them curiously. With a slam of the beast's side, we were sealed off from the rest of the world.
"Okay Blue, you can talk now." Rough grinned from the back, leaning forward and placing their hand on the seat in front of them.
The newcomer and I stared at another for awhile. How was I even supposed to address them? I hadn't decided on what their voice sounded like the most, and they didn't say anything else when looking at me.
"This is just a dog." They wilted in disappointment. "I mean, it's a really pretty dog, don't get me wrong, but its still a dog."
I had it. They sounded... Anxious, maybe Shy, a little nervous... Timid. "I'm going to call you Timid." I stated with finality, looking up at them.
Then Timid's eyes widened in shock, looking between me and the others in the car. "T-this dog did not just talk. That wasn't either of your voices, was it? I-It couldn't have been! Y-you weren't even moving your mouths!" They were now becoming frightened, though also curious. "This can't be happening. There's no way!"
I looked at Soft and Rough. "Should I say something?"
Then Timid tensed up, fell backwards into the seat, and stopped moving.
"Um... I didn't do it?" I nervously added with haste, poking Timid with my paw.
"It's okay, Blue. She faints when she gets overwhelmed. We'll just drive home and re-introduce you two there." Soft explained, pulling a lever on the beast that allowed us to move forward.
"Timid will be okay?" I asked, poking the side of their face that was pressed against their shoulder from drooping.
"Yeah, Timid'll be fine." Rough snickered, "I just can't get past the fact you named her Timid!"
"Well it's pretty accurate. She is a scaredy-cat." Soft chimed in as our beast turned onto a main road.
"So... what was the plan?" I asked, turning around and adjusting my facing to see forward instead of looking at Timid's unconscious body.
"We're gonna make you famous!" Soft cheered with a wide grin.
"What!?" Rough shouted in alarm.
"I don't think that's a good idea?" I hesitantly objected.
"Trust us, Karol has this figured out. There's no way you're gonna get taken away by the government or anybody else after what we got planned!"
"Maria, you're scaring me." Rough objected as well.
Soft then scratched the top of my head aggressively, causing my ears to flop around. "We've got this!"
Have a chapter!
Hopefully this will help show a little bit of Blue's personality, though any and all feedback you have on the characters in the story would be Immensely appreciated! 
Thank you for reading!
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how i got to this story so fast i don't know
I think I found a mistake:
Getting used to the scale of everything here in Earth was taking a toll on me,
*here ON earth
"Why do you have a mart of walls as well?
Hahaha thats a good one
7642285 Blue thinks that Earth is just another nation, not an entire planet.
That went well.
Blue is just so, so adorable. *sends love for the ling*
7642289 ah ok, i wish they would explain more about earth to blue
I think my favorite part of this is that Blue is consistently not human. That sounds like it should be self-evident, but especially in fan fiction, it's hard to find alien characters that really and truly view the world completely differently.
moments like that, with Blue seeing something that we wouldn't even think to bat an eye at in such a different light, are what really make this story stand above its competition.
But as for the plan... I can't say they're wrong. The greatest shield from the government is the general public, after all. Get him internet famous and it'll be really hard for them to make him disappear.
7642398 And here I was worried that I made Blue un-likeable :o
Thank you so much for your comment ^.^
Why does nobody ever consider just Googling the nearest university with a good bio lab? No self-respecting scientist would ever do an autopsy of an alien when they can do a biopsy of the same alien. Governments also would never intentionally harm an alien being when they could benefit from not harming an alien being. Don't even talk to me about weaponization, the government would have to go Trump to truly be that stupid.
7642456
They might not immediately try to vivisect an alien or anything, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't try to make it disappear if they found one. I mean, we already do it to humans we don't want the public to know about or hear from, so why not an alien?
And it wouldn't even have to necessarily be for dark, nefarious reasons. The political fallout alone from having a confirmed alien show up on US soil would be HUGE. There are a lot of politicians who would go to great lengths to prevent that news from getting out simply because of that, even with no ill intent at all towards the alien.
"We've got this!"
you know these words if you watched Legend of the Everfree
I, I'm scared
No problems at all!
7642496 The smart money is always on being very nice to your alien guest(s). After all, if they can travel to your planet, then they can extinguish all life on your planet.
Not to say that a cover-up wouldn't happen, of course...
I DEMAND MORE!!! I mean if you would please.
7642456 Azirapheal makes some goo points, I'd also like to ad that there's supposedly a law buried somewhere in the US code that basically boils down to it being illegal for US citizen to interact with aliens. Mostly because John and Jane public not only have zip in the area of diplomatic training, but they could also pass on any bias they have against the government as well. If and when Mankind meets visitors from the stars we can't risk any screw ups, a bad impression could have us pre-emptivly booted from the galactic community, marked for invasion witch could end up from total destruction to enslavement or even just exploitation of our natural resources, to being bought and sold AS resources and more.
And that's just average people interacting with them. The fallout of the government screwing things up could be just as bad or worse. However aside from cases who would go to any lengths to cover up the fact that we aren't alone there are other issues, after all who knows better then the people actually running our nations what the political situation of the world truly is? Sure the internet make a LOT of information available if you know how to go about it but the people in power know how things are really going down. Think about how messed up things are now from what you know about the current state of the world, then think about how much more the president knows. Then envision all the ways that knowing mankind is truly not alone in the universe truly is upends the table.
As for Self respecting men and women of science and medicine? Well I don't know I can think of some in Germany several decades back that would take an alien apart alive just to see how it works. Then let's go back to agendas, there are people today who still think eugenics is a good thing, or those who take their religion and infuse it into their work, or their political agenda. Aren't the fields of psychology and sociology in the middle of a candle about research being done improperly to push agendas? the truth is people, while not enheartly good or bad are flawed and while they can choose to minimize or maximize those flaws depending on how they choose to act. Those parts of them still influence their actions one way or another and well being the new kid on the galactic or inter-galactic block, and likely the only one without al the shiny toys everyone else has, that's a bitter pill to swallow. so yeah while going to the nearest trusted academic, or the government seems like the best choice, and very well is, they're kinda just the lesser of x number of evils situation.
I love this story so much
Oh God no. She has spoken the words of the apocalypse...
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7642367 They don't really know what needs to be said and what doesn't. Ricky thinks that their new "alien" friend has advanced technology and Blue doesn't even know that humans don't use magic.
What a pickle they find themselves in.
I'm loving this!
7643389 Just to be sure though, allow me to perform the ancient ritual:
What could possibly go wrong?
7643348 Which is why I suggested going to a major university biology lab. The more people there are, the harder it is to cover up. I suppose going public is a better idea to avoid a cover up, but it's harder to cover up something shown to specialists than internet videos. Sneaking into a spectator event would likely get you shot. Since the SCP Foundation doesn't exist, the best thing to do it just to go to a place where there are a lot of mostly-independent experts who will be able to do research which will prove the extra-dimensional origin of the being in question. It can't be explained away as a hoax, and you get useful information. Like which dangerous earth infections can/cannot affect them.
Ah shit. Their gonna introduce the world to "a real talking dog!" Aren't they?
7643651 You fool! Nothing could possibly go wrong!
7642446
And you did just the opposite.
I love the how simple things confuse him, while magic is just something normal.
I like how the story is unfolding. Maria is the classic case of having a plan that she thinks is good for Blue when unknowingly it is actually good only for herself. Why can I say this? She knows that Blue needs love but diesnt know who he is. She has decided for him how he will get it. Rough has a much better idea at this point what Blue's personality is.
7643712
Pls no!
That would actually be cringe worthy. Maybe it would work with somebug more charismatic, but it seems like it can only fail horribly here.
Besides, why introduce the world to a talking dog, which would probably get ignored as video editing or something, when you can introduce the world to an alien shapeshifter and its genome/proteins/etc.?
Now that I think about it, a stranded alien could live their entire life happily by accepting large sums of money for experiments/information.
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Uh, last time I checked, the D.H.S. did not need anybody's permission to do whatever they wanted within or outside of the confines of the law. This cannot end well.
7642456 Maybe this takes place after the election?
7644562 an old cartoon: someone tells the talking dog, "say something!" and the dog replies:
"BOW."
"WOW."
No, no, no, no, no!!! It is the WORST. Possible. Thing. They are invading the changeling hive! The all-powerful overlord! It is.... plaaaaaants!!!!
I GOT THIS
7707749 That is exactly what I thought!
... With Trump as the President, yes... we will have to make a mart of walls...
?
Seriously? Not only have animals known how to ventilate for millions of years, termites being a prime example, but humans have been doing it for thousands of years. For changelings, they would sufficate in their hives if they didn't have a method of ventilation.
7642456
Oh, to be that young and optimistic.
8251368
I think its because of movies that we think that way
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