It was a calm summer afternoon when Nope, Sunshine and Blue Pine got together for a picnic in the local park. As they started chatting, Blue Pine brought up a topic that had been bothering Nope for a while now.
"So... how come you don't have a cutie mark? I mean, you're like, fifteen now, right?"
Nope shifted around uncomfortably on the picnic blanket. Cutie marks were tied to a pony's destiny, so it had only seemed obvious that, given her lifestyle, she hadn't gotten one yet. But she was getting past the age where people expected one, and she was starting to stand out.
"I... guess I should really get on with that," she said, reluctantly. "But, honestly, at this point, I'm not sure what to do about it."
"You know," Sunshine said, "there are three ponies specialising in that in Ponyville."
Nope gave her a hesitant nod. "I heard. Twilight told me about them a couple of times. But I don't know if even those three would be able to untangle the mess I'm in."
"Cutie Mark Crusader Pinions?" Sunshine replied with a huge grin on her face.
"Heck nope," the other girl responded. "You know I could just jump into any of these portals and get it over with, right?"
Blue Pine shook his head. "Or you could figure out what you're actually good at?"
Nope blinked. Huh. The colt had a point. Then she remembered her Evil Mirror Counterpart and grumbled. "I don't want that as a cutie mark."
"Want what?" Blue Pine asked.
Nope groaned. "Look, I've seen a potential future me, who, um, made a bit of a mess—"
"But of course you have," Blue Pine said, shaking his head.
"—and I've seen her cutie mark. And I know what it means." She slumped down on the blanket. "And I don't want it."
"Is it something you're actually good at?" Sunshine asked.
"Given the fact I got a lifetime of experience with it, I'm guessing 'yes'?" Nope grumbled from her prone position.
Sunshine sighed softly. "It's portals, isn't it?"
"Give the mare a medal; she figured it out," Nope mumbled.
"So... you know what would actually get you there?" Blue Pine asked.
"The spell she taught me," Nope responded. "The, uh, future me. A spell to block all portals around me, passively, constantly, until I specifically dispell it. Her cutie mark didn't mean portal creation... it was portal control. She told me the technical specifics, but I've never actually managed to do it, and, well, then I realised that if I actually manage to do that spell, which I got from her, I'd probably get her cutie mark. It just seems like I'd be copying her special talent, rather than finding my own, you know?"
"And what if that's the mark you're supposed to get anyway?" Blue Pine asked.
Nope sat upright and grabbed herself another sandwich from the picnic basket. "Well, yea," she said between bites. "That's exactly my dilemma."
"That, and the fact you don't want it," Sunshine pointed out.
"She was an evil overlord! Of course I don't want it!" She looked at the happy smiling sun on her friend's flank. "I'm kind of jealous at that... everything just happened so naturally, for you."
"Uh. Yea," Sunshine said, looking at her own mark with some measure of bafflement. "I'm... honestly not sure how that even happened."
Nope raised an eyebrow. "Wait. You weren't expecting to get a mark?"
Sunshine shrank down a bit at her friend's baffled stare. "...not really?"
"Are you a changeling or something?"
Sunshine gave a quick fearful glance at her boyfriend, and then looked down. "Or something," she mumbled.
"Wait... you're not a real pony?" Blue Pine asked, visible confused.
"Oh, I'm real, all right. Kind of didn't expect to be, but, the cutie mark proves it," Sunshine said. "I just wasn't always a pony." She turned to Nope, and sighed. "When you were six, you had never heard of me. When you were seven, I'd been your best friend your entire life. Of course, you never noticed that."
Nope blinked. It was a statement that was hard to disprove, of course.
"You've always had this mess following you around," Sunshine continued. "But, think about it. Before you were seven, it was a lot worse. You literally couldn't trip over a toy in your own house without falling into some portal. You had singing creatures, magical mirrors, nomes, fraggles, and breezies showing up pretty much all the time! And what do you have now?"
Nope nodded. "I don't remember that much from when I was that little, but... I guess it got less bad? Nowadays it's mostly just the occasional portal."
"Exactly. There you were, overflowing barrel of Destiny... and there I was, something not quite existing, on the edge of potential and reality. And you were lonely."
Nope stared at her friend in shock. "Are you saying I created you?"
Sunshine shook her head. "No, no. I remember existing before that, but, not quite all there. Just, lying in wait, looking for something to feed on. And then I found you, actively pushing away the stuff I needed to exist—potential existence itself. So, then I was here."
"So... less of a parasite, more of a scavenger?" Nope asked.
Sunshine giggled. "Dear, I couldn't take destiny from you if I tried. It's like trying to drink from a hose."
Nope got up and paced around the grass. "This is a lot to take in, you know. You've just... always been there."
Blue Pine shook his mane in a dismissive gesture. "Imagine how I feel." He turned to Sunshine. "What about your parents, though? I've met them!"
"They... seem to fade in and out of existence as needed," Sunshine said, sounding somewhat uncertain herself. "They're more like, illusions, and not destiny-eaters like me. I dunno. I never actively created them. They're just... part of being a normal pony, so they appeared alongside me. I haven't seen them much since I got my cutie mark; I expect they'll vanish completely as I get older." She stared at the ground. "I'm sorry."
Blue Pine hugged her. "Hey... it's a lot to take in. But I imagine it can't have been that easy for you, either."
Sunshine tilted her head. "Well. Yes, and no. I'm kind of immune to all the weirdness surrounding Nope... so it's certainly a lot harder for her than for me."
Nope squinted at her. "Stop that, Sunny," she said. "I know you." She glanced around uncertainly. "Well. Not as well as I thought, I guess, but, still. I know this bothers you."
"Well, why do you think I told you?" Sunshine said, sagging into her boyfriend's embrace. "I've been trying to bring this up for years. I just never... found a good time." She looked up at Blue Pine. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Blue Pine smiled. "Hey. You are my special somepony," he said. "I just didn't realise quite how special."
Sunshine looked down morosely. "Yea, except I'm special in the sense of «Come gather around this cage, mares and gentlecolts, and witness the Mare Who Was Never Born!»"
Blue Pine planted a kiss on the top of her head. "You look mighty fine for someone who was never born."
He looked up at Nope. "Anyway, huge revelations aside, you kind of derailed the topic."
Sunshine blinked, and the two of then suddenly looked back at Nope, and her conspicuously blank flank.
Nope glared at him. "Oh, come on!"
"Way I see it," Blue Pine said, "You're not afraid of getting a cutie mark in portal control. I mean, you hate not being in control of your life."
"So what are you saying?" Nope grumbled.
"I'm saying you do want a cutie mark in portal control," he continued. "You just don't want the cutie mark of the version of you who made such a collossal mess of her life."
"Okay, so how does that help me?"
"That's easy," Blue Pine responded. "You already cheated. I'm betting it took her years of research to develop that spell, after she messed up so badly." He smirked. "You can have it before you mess up."
Nope stared at him. "What?!"
"Think about it. She never wanted that mess, did she? That's why she taught you that spell. She gave you an easy way out. Using that spell won't make you become like her; it'll prevent it."
"Agh!" Nope shouted, making some other ponies in the park give her worried looks. "I can't believe I didn't..."
She scanned around the park, daring the world to give her a portal. And, sure enough, a tiny purple swirl opened up in front of her. Through the haze she could see a breezie making its way towards her.
"Very well," she said, glaring at the portal while her horn started lighting up. "Let's end this, then. Let's take full control of my life."
The breezie, who was of the rather Godmotherly-looking kind, looked at her with an expression of dread on her tiny face. "Uh... is this a bad time?" she asked in a squeaky voice.
"Oh, look," Nope said, a mean grin appearing on her face. "Somebody finally asks!"
The breezie rushed back towards the portal. "I-can-see-you're-in-the-middle-of-something-I-can-come-back-later!"
Nope took a deep breath, and her horn blasted out some sort of ripple around her, erasing the portal from existence mere moments after the little creature had managed to get back through.
She sighed, and gave a satisfied smile in the direction where the portal vanished. "No," she said, matter-of-factly, "you can't."
She blinked, and noticed Sunshine and Blue Pine staring at her. She opened her mouth to talk, and suddenly realised they weren't looking at her face.
Her eyes widened, and she looked at her flank.
She had a cutie mark.
And it was not the green swirling portal that had adorned the sides of her 'evil' mirror self.
She looked back at Sunshine. "This is..."
"Not what you expected?" Sunshine asked, grinning.
Nope turned back to examine the wisp of blue smoke on her flank. To anyone else, it would just be a generic magic-looking thing, but she recognised the specific aftereffect of the disappearance of a class five, gravitic, one-way, void monster populated portal.
She smiled at Sunshine. "...nice. This is nice."
Suddenly she felt really dizzy, and swayed on her feet.
Sunshine quickly got up and supported her. "Dispell it, Nope! It's still active!"
Nope squeezed her eyes shut. "Aw, heck." A small spark from her horn once again sent a ripple through the area around her. She sagged to the ground. "I forgot about that part."
Sunshine lightly patted her on the head. "She had to work hard on that spell, filly," she said. "Casting it is one thing, but, keeping it up indefinitely? I don't think you're quite there yet."
Nope nodded. "At least I should be able to dispell any portal now." She nodded at her flank. "I mean, that one is one of the worst."
Sunshine gave the cutie mark a thoughtful look. "Ohh," she said. "Now I know where I've seen that before."
"Oh?" Nope asked. Suddenly she realised, and facehoofed. "Oh. It's..."
"...what it looked like after you were dragged into the portal where you met your older mirror self."
Nope nodded. "I guess that's fitting."
"Well, congratulations," Blue Pine voiced in. He exchanged a glance with Sunshine. "Hey, you know what this calls for?"
Nope got up just a little too fast to protest, lost her balance, and faceplanted before Sunshine had a chance to grab her. "Heck nope!" her muffled protest came from somewhere inside the tall grass.
"Heck yep!" Sunshine said as she helped her out of her awkward position. "A party!"
Why is Nope’s life so damn fun?!
Goading her to get her cutie mark was just an excuse for a party wasn't it.
I really like sunshine's backstory, it makes their friendship more symbiotic.
Edit: don't blink
The party was, of course, held in a drinking establishment she'd gotten quite familiar with over the course of her life.
And she got an awesome glass of chocolate milk. With a marshmallow. On the house.
10296761
I would love to see that crossover happen again, especially now that Nope has her mark.
Oh man, Sunshine's life describes secondary ponies to a T. Fluttershy's family? Never heard off, and suddenly she has both parents and an annoying brother who has a history with Rainbow Dash. Dash? Same story, never heard of her family and suddenly she has super-way-too-close parents who vanish as quickly as they showed up.
For an unknowable parasite that consumes potential energy, Sunshine is quite amicable.
10296883
If you'd like another story that tackles this topic, I can recommend The Fishbowl.
10296761
Well of course she'd have her cute-ceanera at the one interdimensional bar even her dad approves of.
Well, I sure enjoyed this tale and I’m sorry it’s over. Is Is the sequel called The Nopening?
10296915
It... might still not be completely over. Again, see the Author's Note in chapter 1.
This would be a nice place to end it, though. But there may still be more to tell.
...oh no
The word has been spoken and the Pink One has been summoned
Good job Nope! I think once she gets older she will have more then enough power so she can never again want portals.
10296951 I think you should write her cute-ceanera party. :P
10296891
Is that not how unknowable parasites that consume potential energy generally act?
*looks at one of her unpublished proto-stories*
I . . . I may have to revise something.
This was glorious!
10296909
OF COURSE! Don't you know about the Science of NOPE!!!!!?
10297085
And, as per usual, EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK converges in that same spacetime.
10297085
I second him.
~Skeeter The Lurker
If Nope had refused to use the spell, she would have eventually ended up meeting a gruff dragon equally annoyed with Destiny. He just wants to munch his gems and every couple days there's another interdimensional schmuck coming to slay him.
They are interrupted by one of said schmucks, and the dragon raises a single claw before torching them. No explanation is given, but Nope understands the gesture. It resonates within the core of her very being, and in a flash of light Nope finds her cutie mark.
In what? Well, fuck you.
10296951
There is SO much more to tell! I had an idea shortly after reading this.
What happens to all those stories that Nope nopes out of? My theory is there is a poor colt who suffers Compulsive Hero Syndrom and gets roped into them all.
Basically same world, different perspective.
He tries very hard to be seen as a completely normal pony, but through the course of adventures, is actually a horrible Mary Sue.
I shall call him Nip. Nopony in particular.
10021558
"Curse your sudden and inevitable betrayal!"
Well, I see the sequel is Nopen For Business, in which a portallin' pony learns how to make a living that's palatial from controlling the dimensionally spacial.
10297085
10297185
I think I might just attempt that :3
10297286
Well now, I already went into that in the Side Stories chapter.
10296752
You just had to ruin it
(but it kind of fits I guess, lol)
10297452
I suppose so. Maybe I'll try writing his story when I get home tonight, if that's okay with you. I've got a load of character ideas for him that are probably a lot less funny than I think they are.
10297310
*"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
You know, if I was some sort of mythical creature trying not to be discovered, I think hanging around Nope would be the best possible place to hide. No in her friends group, just sort of lurking around in the background. Being so close to her means that Nope would have to be the one to discover it, but as that would be a plot hook, she would never do it... so the creature would be perfect safe.
Someday in the future Nope is going to have perfect control over her life and it will be staggeringly banal. My bet is she will go crazy in a week.
something in Sunshine's backstory made me curious so I reread the Isekai chapter to confirm some things theorize others. It seems that, based on the time line, that Sunshine did not come into the picture until after Nope visited Sunsets bar the first time. is it possible for Sunshine to have come from the bar itself?
Is it alright if I call her species Paradoxicans?
10298097
I think chances are a lot higher she'd end up doing something like delivery runs for Sunset's bar
After all, dispelling portals is really only a first step when you're specialising in portal control
10298198
No... she's unrelated to the bar. Nope sees enough portals to come in contact with some Creatures from the In-Between.
10298237
They're not, though. They are perfectly linear. Not even time stealers like the Weeping Angels.
Call them whatever you want, but Sunshine thinks "Devourer of Destiny" sounds a whole lot cooler
Ha! Nice. I like the revaluation about Sunshine, as it’s fitting for Nope’s strange life. I also like that she takes it in stride, though.
10298393
Destinus Consumus, then?
10298389
You can make a generic storyline, but the fact that it's already based on "This person is NOT the Destined Hero, but by gods they're trying" Gives it good subversion. Like, the first one is like Galaxy Quest, except the lead has zero clue, and that's not at all bad. The small twist of knowing that you where mistaken for some great being and going on anyways is really good.
It's less that the little snippets you presented are strictly amazing, and more the concept as a whole is fantastic.
10297151 Well, if you call being a Brit 'living'....
*And FINALLY Alondro gets to use the punchline to the joke set up eons ago!*
What even are Sunshine and Blue Pine's cutie marks?
10302864
Uh, Sunshine's cutie mark is literally mentioned in the chapter.
As for Blue Pine, no idea! It must be something absolutely completely normal, anyway
I'm not gonna lie and pretend I LIKE Nope's Mom anymore now than I did before, but when it's put like this, I can't pretend I don't UNDERSTAND her decision to leave either.
10330062
Oh, yea. It was really more than any sane person could deal with. It was of course a tragic thing to happen, but Nope, especially when she got a little older, definitely understood that too.
Nope is just lucky she has a dad who's got a serious streak of good old stubborn tenacity.
Damn... Her Titel should be cheater of destiny...
So she take destiny for a ride for onces and chose a fate. A fate of a common mare
11296659
Sunny is perfectly happy being a common mare
10298904
Sounds like one of those super long titles for modern dime-a-dozen light novels that get adapted into generic anime.
"I am NOT the Destined Hero, but I'm giving it my best shot anyway."
Then again, any premise can be given a title like that. This story's premise for example.
"I refused the call to action, and now Destiny won't leave me alone."
11448943
I freaking loathe those "let's describe the premise instead of coming up with a nice sounding title" titles
11449159
I feel like that is borne out of how in Japanese it's...somewhat easier to do such a giant title in fewer words.
It's just in English, welp