"Right..." Rough trailed, adjusting their seating on the couch to listen better to what I had to say. "Canterlot."
I could go about explaining this several ways. If I chose the honest route, I had some idea that these not-minotaur would react in the same way as a pony would; outrage and fear. Nevermind that as a lowly tunneler, I had very little to do with the actual stealing of love itself. I simply lead the warriors towards the targets I had been told prior to the invasion. A simple task at the time that had turned difficult with that wave of pink from the castle itself. I could lie, as there would obviously be nopony or changeling around to deny anything I said, yet I was not chosen to be an infiltrator. That task required a complex mind able to manipulate and remember every lie they had ever said and every action they had performed. My standard tasks for the day were summarized as 'dig here'.
I rested my shapeshifted head on the table, my ears folding down as I looked up to Rough's face. How would I explain this without lying, but also without being discarded? They had only known me for a day, yet I was a novelty to them as well. I doubt if I simply left that I would find another not-minotaur that would be able to keep my secret, as I could only tolerate being transformed for short periods of time. Yet another ability of the Infiltrators: comfortable shifting. They could remain in the same guise for years at a time without removing their disguise, through both conditioning, training and practice. I had none of these skills, as I had only shapeshifted a few times prior to leaving the hive for the main invasion. Smaller gougers tend to avoid eating 'rocks' when there are other tunnelers to devour. Not that I liked being a rock.
"Blue, you alright?" Rough asked, waving a hand in front of my face.
"I don't know how to explain this..." I said honestly. "It is a very complicated subject."
"Just lay it on me, Blue. I'm sure it ain't that bad." Rough reassuringly replied.
I involuntarily whined in place of what would have been chittering, were I in my regular form. How do I explain this? Portray myself as a savior? I did technically prevent a roof from collapsing in, but that was only to ensure the nobility was captured later on. It also wouldn't explain how I landed here, either. 'Oh, you know, I was busy saving the day because I'm a good changeling. Then, all of a sudden, a giant wave of pink smacked me senseless and here I am!'... No, that wouldn't work at all. Even if that were to work, I would have to remember every detail and relay that story from then on, for the rest of my life. It's just not practical. I would be found out eventually.
"You two having some fun?" Soul asked, retrieving plates from Rough's side of the table. "Well, at least one of you is..." They tutted, a slim frown and sympathetic look directed towards me. "What's got Blue all sad?"
"Ah... she must be missing Maria, I guess." Rough quickly explained. "Did I already pay for the food, or did I forget again?" They asked, patting their coat pockets for something.
Soul placed a hand on Rough's shoulder, causing them to pause. "It's fine, honey. Ya'll ready paid me. You two should go outside and get a breath of fresh air or something. It's good for you!"
I hopped from the couch before Rough could object, as this would give me a final moment to decide before we were both outdoors. Rough slid from their seat and followed after me, thanking Soul for their time and good food before moving ahead of me to open the door with a chime. Exiting onto the street with Rough leading the way, I waited until no other listening ears were around.
"So... about Canterlot..." I hesitantly began, "I'm not trained to be an infiltrator, so lying to you would be pointless and just upset you."
"Lyin'?" Rough asked, stopping suddenly. "What do you have to lie about?" A smirk spread across Rough's face, "Blue, you're an alien from outer space. If you're havin' this much trouble tryin' to explain this to me, then how 'bout I tell you about myself?"
I looked at Rough in surprise.
"It might not seem like it now, but back when I was a kid I was a real trouble maker. Well, part of a gang of trouble makers, actually." Rough held up their hand, "Nothin' like robbin' old ladies or stores or anything like that, just petty stuff." They lowered their hand to press a button and continued speaking while we waited for a street light. "So myself and a few other guys; Ricardo, Jason, Vinnie and Andrews; we all got together after school to entertain ourselves. Tagging street corners with spray paint, printing out naked pictures to tape them over stop signs, things like that."
The light changed to allow passage, and we began walking across the street. "So, one day, things get a little out of hand. Ricardo suggests that we do something a little more adventurous, a little more dangerous. Our usual activities aren't getting us the same thrills, ya know? He wants to get some homeless guy to buy us beer. Pretty simple, nothing too outlandish or criminal, aside from us being too young to legally drink. The problem came when Ricardo actually found a homeless guy. He asked 'em; guy didn't want to do it. We had money to pay him for when he was done, too. Well, Ricardo didn't take too kindly to being turned down after lookin' for someone all day, and things got more than a little violent. He started smacking the homeless guy around because he was upset; thought that maybe if he just roughed em up a little, the homeless guy'd see things his way, right?" We had reached the other side of the street by now, and were walking down along a path past several storefronts. "Well, turns out this homeless guy wasn't a pushover drunk like Ricardo had been expecting. Guy was a retired boxer. When things got ugly, Jason, Vinnie and Andrews didn't know what to do. Jumping in to help might get them beaten up worse than Ricardo, right? So they bolted, left Ricardo all alone with the crazy homeless guy." Rough then stopped, crouched and placed a hand on my back. "You know what happened to Ricardo?"
I shook my head in the negative.
"Well, Ricardo stopped getting beaten up after a while; curled into a ball on the ground to avoid the worst of it. The homeless guy didn't stop because of the kindness of his soul, no. He stopped because he was having a heart attack. Ricardo had worked up the poor guy's blood pressure and his heart couldn't take it. The old man fell to the ground, clutching at his chest and gasping in pain." Rough then looked me in the eyes, overwhelming regret and sorrow coming from him in waves. "Young Ricardo didn't know what to do, but he had a phone. He called the police, the ambulance, the fire fighters, anyone that'd listen and pick up the phone for that old man. He might've been beaten to a pulp, but he didn't want nobody dying cause he was a prick, right? Well..." Rough looked away and stood up. "Things didn't work out that well." They motioned for me to follow them as Rough looked away from me and continued their story. "By the time police and the ambulance got there, the old guy was already gone. They asked Ricardo what happened... and he just lied. Lied and lied and lied and lied. They never found out what really happened, or why Ricardo looked so beaten up and why the old man had bloody knuckles. Not from a lack of trying, but from a lack of concern. Nobody knew him, nobody had seen him in the city before. It was obvious that Ricardo had somethin' to do with it, but why bother? This was back before we had all moved here to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. No, this was a massive city, where nobody cared 'bout no one."
"So, little Blue, what's your story?" Rough asked abruptly.
"Ah-I... uh..." I stammered, being caught off guard.
"Come on, it can't be that bad. You kill anybody in Canterlot? I've known a few guys that've gone to prison for murder."
"I... well, I was part of an Invasion, and-"
"An invasion!? Nooo, I never would'a guessed that an alien would be part of an invasion, Blue! Come on now." Rough sarcastically interrupted. "Get any good lookin' 'mares' to probe-u-late?"
"Well, I was disguised as a noblemare before the real invasion would begin and--"
"Wait, hold up, A noblemare? You're messin' with me."
I shook my head again.
Rough waved me off. "Alright, alright. Go on, I'll stop interruptin'."
"I... was disguised as a noblemare just before the invasion was going to start. It was my job to go where ever the nobles would run away to and leave a pheromone trail for the warriors to find them. Their city's shields began to break, and the nobles retreated to an underground vault along with me. When we were there, the vault began to buckle from the debris and rubble crashing down from above along with large sections of the shield itself. So, not wanting to fail my mission, I reinforced the walls of the vault with my own magic until the warriors found us and began digging their way towards us. The guards with the noblemares and stallions heard them, and thought that they might be other ponies or rescuers and opened the vault. They found out they were wrong, and before they could close the door I held the lever in my own magic, allowing the warriors to flood into the room and subdue everypony there."
Rough frowned for a moment before replying. "So, anypony die?"
I paused, trying to remember if any had. "I don't think so?"
Rough leaned down to scratch my ears while I looked in confusion at them. "Well, that's a heck of a lot better'n I did."
Yay new chapter
Meanwhile I haven't posted ANYTHING in the last 2 years or so.
Stop worrying, it's fine.
I look forward to each and every update!!!
Blue continued, "It's fortunate for the ponies that a magical love explosion blew us all away, or they'd all be stuck in cocoons for the rest of their lives being drained of all positive emotions until their very will to live withered away and they died."
Rough blinked for a moment before reaching for a tire iron which very conveniently appeared nearby, possibly placed by one Alondro the Troll King.
The lovely thing is that the explanation sounds very science fiction-y with all the details glossed over.
7639445
...and then they kissed!
Just picked up and marathon-ed this story and I just find it so adorable! Keep up the great work!
7639464 The best lies are those which include just enough of the truth to support your side.
Unless you're talking to idiots. Then flagrant lies work perfectly.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” -- J. Goebbels (who didn't have a convenient server to destroy so no one could find this quote in his emails.)
To be honest, compared to most stuff on earth, the Canterlot invasion is small potatoes, nobody died or was even seriously hurt among the citizens.
Blue is just adorable.
7639741 Hillary had permission from the state department to destroy those emails, and only three of them had any sort of classification marking; only one of them was nominally classified at all, and it was about something in the newspapers.
Well, Rough took that well... I guess he doesn't really care if Blue feels remorse for it though? I would be curious to learn more about Blue's personality first, but at least Rough didn't act irrationally angry or something.
7640973 Nice catch, thanks!
New chapter yay!
Now make more I already cfinished this one
MOAR
Huzzah new chapter! I will get to reading it in just a moment!
How could you !! You monster !!
No seriously, awesome work and I can't wait for the next update. And congrats on the Internet
Less words is fine! If you can get the same result out with less padding, then what's the problem?
Also, this story one of the rare ones that I constantly look forward to read. Keep it up!
7640142
It's a bad sign when a race of emotion-draining bug monsters is nicer than your own species.
Soft: "What did you do to traumatize poor Blue?"
Rough: "I just told her a little about humanity."
Soft: "..."
Rough: "Oh sure, girls say they want honest answers, but get upset when you give it to them."
Blue:
7641774 ... And now I imagined Rough poking Blue to see if she's alright and Blue just slowly tipping over and onto her back, with curled up legs, completely stiff from shock.
7640146 Considering she ran the State Department... and the federal law FORBIDS the destruction of sole copies of official emails (the reason why all federal employees of many departments are supposed to maintain a specific federal email account is so official communications and electronic documents are preserved as public record and CANNOT be so easily destroyed or stolen) makes this excuse as shallow as any other I've heard.
7641844 Except she got permission to delete the emails she deleted.
The FBI found NOTHING prosecutable, and only found stuff that, were she still working for the state department, might have gotten her fired. Are you seriously suggesting that you understand the law better than the entire FBI?
Here's proof:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/us/justice-dept-says-hillary-clinton-had-authority-to-delete-certain-emails.html
This is a scandal that has been debunked hundreds or thousands of times. This, benghazi, and her charity keep coming up without any actual proof of criminal wrongdoing on her part. There's...nothing there.
Character development all around. I've got no complaints. As for word quantity... I'd rather have word quality.
7642229
Not sure how this comment section got political, but I will point out that it's pretty hard to find incriminating evidence when it has all been deleted. There's a distinct difference between the evidence not existing in the first place vs. having existed only to mysteriously disappear when someone investigates. Hillary Clinton is a two-faced lying bitch who belongs in prison.
GOOD LEAVE OUT UNNECESSARY DETAIL
Too many stories go into great length of pointless detail for a scene or circumstance, never to be seen or referenced again.
It REALLY irritates me sometimes.
Thanks for leaving it out! Unless it's funny... I like funny ^^
Speaking of which, the comedy In This is very light
Not that I'm complaining, it's still a great story
Cheers!
I am very impressed how you handle Blue's telling Rough about his part in the Canterlot invasion. I am glad that you did not go down the route of having him lie and having a good part of the story conflict come from that. I think that's cheap in most case. But the way you went is very believable and it allows for more solid character development. I am glad that you took this route and looking foward to reading the rest of the story.
Y'all
I like it. Killing is a changeling failure.
The sspeakerphone screenshot spoof is a nice, tidy cover.