Nope 02: Nope and the Time Travellers
"It's too much!" Nope's mother yelled. "I can't take it anymore!"
Noble Pinions, generally known as 'Nope', was three years old, and, so far, all things considered, she'd had a rather normal and unremarkable foalhood.
"Now, dear..." her husband tried, futilely.
"Don't you 'now dear' me!" his wife said. "You're not the one who has to chase off the magical talking cats, prevent her from following the will-o-wisps into some magical well that wasn't there the day before, or clean up behind the scores of cute fluffy animals that turn up on a daily basis. In a fourth floor apartment, no less!"
"We discussed this, didn't we? You can't leave! She'll just have a tragic backstory, to boot!"
"No," Nope's mother said, resolutely. "I'm the one who's having a tragic story right now. I've had enough."
And thus, at the age of three, Nope tragically lost her mother, and it fell upon her father to keep away the pixies, brick up the spontaneously appearing gateways to alternate dimensions, and chase away the breezie godmothers that wanted to offer magical gifts to the foal.
As she grew up, she learned to deal with situations like that. Don't talk to strangers. Especially don't talk to mysterious strangers. Don't make any foalhood promises with best friends. Don't make time capsules.
"You have to make your own story," her dad told her. "Don't let destiny sweep you away. Adventure generally just gets you hurt."
And she replied, "Okay," and helped him clean up the shards of the magical mirror that had somehow appeared in her bedroom.
"Daad!" Nope's voice came from her bedroom.
Her dad got up from the couch and walked to her room. "What's wrong, Nope?" he asked as he opened the bedroom.
The filly, who was now six years old, sat upright in her bed and pointed at the pony in the metallic suit. "I think it's a time traveller."
The pony in the suit looked at Nope's father. "Sir, it is of the utmost importance that I—"
"So," Nope's dad interrupted him. "Time traveller, huh?"
"Uh. Yes."
"From the future, I assume?"
"Indeed. Twen—"
"So, then you surely know all about time, don't you?" Dad interrupted him.
"Oh. Well. I am intimately familiar with the inner workings of time, y—"
"Good. Then you should know it's her bed time," he said, his eyes narrowing. "Little fillies need their sleep. If you insist on visiting her at this hour of the night, young stallion, I suggest you come back in about ten years."
"Good sir, you don't understand! I have to gi—"
"I'm tired," the filly said. "Just lemme sleep."
Nope's dad tilted his head. "You heard the filly. Now leave, or I will call the Guard."
"This is a matter far beyond the Guard!" the time traveller said, slightly panicky.
"Well, why didn't you say so?" Nope's dad deadpanned. "I'll just get a kitchen knife, then, and stab you until you leave." His eyes narrowed. "And if you just come back right away after taking the time to heal in the future? I'll just stab you again until you get the message."
"But... you are dooming the future to—"
This time, the time traveller did not get interrupted by Nope's dad. A blue flash appeared next to him, and out of it came another pony in a metallic suit. Notably, this one had a long scar on his left cheek, and an eyepatch covering his right eye. For the rest, he was completely identical to the other one, except for maybe looking a few years older.
"Hey," he said, to his younger self. "He's serious. It's not worth it. Just abort the mission. Maybe we can get to Twilight Sparkle instead."
The younger time traveller gave him a sour look. "Twilight Sparkle? You know how she is with time travel in this period! One botched time-loop turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy, and she stops taking it all seriously! We're months before the Glimmer Incident; trying to get through to her will be a pain!"
"Trust me. This was more pain," the older one said, pointing to his eyepatch. His younger self grumbled, tapped a few keys on a device on his leg, and disappeared in a blue flash.
Nope's dad looked at the remaining silver-suited pony and cocked an eyebrow. "Did you just cause a time paradox?"
"Psh. Those things are overrated," the time traveller said. "Anyway, be grateful. It took me six times getting stabbed to finally get the message. You don't go for the eyes unless you get really mad. I just saved us both a lot of trouble."
The stallion tapped a few keys on the device on his leg, just like his younger self had done, and disappeared in a blue flash.
Nope looked at her dad. "Time travellers are weird," she said.
"Indeed, they are," her dad said, while tucking her in. He gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight, sweetie."
"Night, dad."
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Yes! This is my kind of story!
Nopes dad is best pony.
I'm honestly suprised that most of her problems seem to be magical in nature. Most time in fanfiction the inciding incedent is time travel or somebody being displaced, at least on fimfiction. Then again, she's not a fanfiction heroine, but a standard one. Maybe that's why.
This is hilarious, why the hell did you wait so long to post it?
Okay, this is fantastic and I must have more of it.
9633076
Because I hoped to write more of it, but ran out inspiration and time after just four chapters...
I seriously dislike posting works that don't look like I'll ever really finish them.
AHAHA this is great. love it.
I hope her mother comes back
9633387
Nope, sorry. Tragic backstory and all that
9633401
it would make it less tragic and who knows if that mare is simply destined to have many protagonist who all have to team up to save the day
Generally sound advice, but I can’t help but feel that Nope’s dad’s advice and efforts are a surefire way to never have any story.
9633410
no it would just be a very basic slice of life story
9633410
The next chapter will actually go into that subject
9633483
Fun fact: me and my friends combined the idea of Nope-chan and The Adventures of Gaijin-kun into a single anime idea. Basically Gaijin-kun exists to comment on the weird stuff about Japan (from an American's perspective), and Nope-chan actually finds it comforting that someone else can notice some of the strangeness that goes on, even if he seems completely oblivious to the big stuff. While each episode revolves around Nope-chan avoiding another typical anime plot trying to find her, and also trying to protect the plots from finding him. And they keep instead getting shunted onto other classmates.
The specific scene I had in my mind is at the end of an episode, the two are on the roof of the school and Gaijin-kun is staring at one of those coffee cans that instantly heat the coffee when you crack it open, and comments "Japan is weird", while behind them in the distance a Kaiju is fighting a giant robot (Nope-chan having successfully deflected the duty of piloting that robot to another one of her classmates).
And episodes basically revolve on that. With Gaijin-kun finally becoming aware of the true strangeness when he becomes the target of a yandere classmate and Nope-chan is trying to save him. The last part of the series just involves the two of them opening the door to go into their classroom, seeing that everyone in there is either a Sentai member or a mecha pilot or a Childrens' Card Game enthusiast or a secret ninja or a Mahou Shoujo or an alien or whatever. Every single one of their classmates have become Protagonists of their own animes.
And Nope-chan and Gaijin-kun decide to just skip school and go get coffee.
9633506
There is actually an anime that comes pretty close to this whole concept, and that's Excel Saga, where, by sheer whim of the author/producers, there is a running gag that each episode emulates a different genre, going from scifi space adventure to romcom to action war B-movie (maybe more like C-movie; you see the strings on the helicopters, lulz). Only, instead of an unwilling protagonist, you get a completely clueless ditz who doesn't even notice anything is out of the ordinary in all these scenarios.
Oh, and those Gaijin-Kun comics are freaking hilarious
I freakin' love that Nope: The Anime thing.
Listen to your elders, Nope. Especially Fluttershy. She's hiding under her bed after the latest whatsit invaded Ponyville. Stay away from Pinkie Pie, though. She's likely to drag you, pronking, into something ridiculous.
9633506
There are many, many, many stories that use the same concept.
As for the story itself, meh.
Good. There's no such thing as immutable history or timeline-annihilation, just an ever-expanding thicket of parallel timelines and alternate universes. Trying to rewrite the course of history only gets you lost.
Okay now, THIS is going to be a fun ride!
I didn't stop grinning or laughing the entire time I read this.
Looking very forward to more!
Can you imagine the conversation Nope must have about Nope's name.
"Why did your parents name you that?"
"Oh that, they don't want me going on adventures and something about "fearing me be a protagonist" or something like that"
"That's stupid"
"Well, have you seen the OC protagonists around here? They all have TRAGIC BACKSTORIES and absolutely no personality. I am not about that life"
"...You're weird"
All seriousness, I love this story, I find myself wanting more, like a certain dragon who just find the gem stash.
9633506
I'd watch the hell out of that anime.
9633030
The time travellers weren't necessarily magical; they didn't use spells to go back.
The next chapters will go into quite different things, actually. She'll have to deal with those pesky portals eventually
(and Nope's dad totally is best pony
)
I sincerely hope her mother just got her bags and left in a completely mundane way, got a divorce and moved to saddle Arabia or something. She does love her daughter dearly, but she has issues. You know, like any completely normal and ordinary person
9634380
Well, yes, the "tragically lost her mother" was kinda tongue-in-cheek; she didn't even die or anything. That said, the next chapters move away from her early childhood and get into the actual fun stuff.
You know. School, friendship, aliens, dragons, portals to other dimensions... that stuff
Freaking hell, this is awesome!
Hmm, what if Nope had a 'good'(not best) friend that was also rather lazy, so lazy that they don't want to deal with Nope's random destiny calls as well. Maybe a unicorn named Sloth(or something related to that)? I just choose a unicorn since the levitation thing seems like something a lazy person would overuse. And maybe they have six other siblings representing the seven deadly sins... I mean she can't get away from everything that easily.
9634557
Wh...
Why is this such a good idea?
It is fun to see someone who not only avoids destiny, but is constantly shooing it away with a broom.
9633387
9633401
In that case I can forget my theory that her mother will become the villain to prevent other, ill-intentioned villains to go after her daughter.
Anyway, I'm curious how long Nope will manage to stay an background pony.
Maybe she sould ask Applejack for advice.9634601
That's a tasty back story
9634601
Now that would be even more tragic! Too bad she's a perfectly ordinary earth pony with no villain potential whatsoever
(Not to mention, she left to get away from all that, so that wouldn't make much sense.)
Holy shit I love this!
What I see coming?
Timeframe for how far "off course" the Bolo managed to knock itself the first time may vary.
9634591
I tend to think of things outside of the box. Also, it's impossible to not have at least one friend. Twilight Sparkle is the perfect example.
9634402
She just said "fuck it, YOU deal with the shenanigans!" to her husband and didn't even leave the house, right?
I don’t think breezies are tough enough to handle such a task. They’re fragile, eh? And kids are pretty rough. Those must be some stupidly brave breezies.
I wonder if in any of those time travels, the time traveller got fed up with being stabbed so much he tried to have a knife fight with the dad. And probably got stabbed anyways.
If the mom returns, her returning will trigger Nope’s repressed memories of being left alone, causing her tragic story to happen. Or, y’know, Nope might not be affected and be like all, “Oh hey Mom. Been a long time, eh? Yeah, not much has happened since you went on that stroll you never came back from.”
And then Dad comes out and shoves this pony giving out cheese samples ten feet away from his daughter into the bushes. “Eyup. It’s been. Absolutely. NORMAL.”
“Also I don’t have many friends. I don’t really know why. I’m kinda lonely I guess. I don’t think that’s a thing that’s been normal, huh? So what’s up mom?”
“I think I’m going for another stroll in the park. Catch you guys some time k thnx bai!”
9634660
No, no, she left all right. Says so in the story. Tragically lost her mother. If she hadn't actually left, I wouldn't just skip three years without mentioning that, you know? I'd just make a joke out of it right away
9634672
I think he already flattened a few on the hospital window in chapter 1
But eh, plenty more where they came from. Probably. I mean, wherever that is
9632967
What happens when you get a single supervillain, then? They wouldn't bother being a supervillain if your paramilitary forces could stop them. What then, mayor-candidate?
9634687
Fair enough. Shame it's only four chapters though, this shows hilarious promise.
It's like my father always said: "STABBY STABBY!"
It’s an interesting story, but I can see why you didn’t get too far with it; not much that you can really do with a story featuring a character who doesn’t want to be in a story.
9635144
Well, I do think you're simplifying her a bit too much. It's not that she doesn't want to be in a story, it's just that her dad thinks she isn't ready for it yet. He's basically trying to arm her against turning into the hero-equivalent of a child star. Because, if you think about it, that kind of nudges dangerously close to "child soldier" territory. While certainly exciting and adventurous, it might become quite traumatic, in the end.
He really is quite a good dad, time traveller stabbing tendencies aside.
With some more free time, I might turn this into an interesting coming-of-age story amidst bizarre circumstances. It's just that I got little time for writing, these days.
Oh my God, I love this story so much already! Hook, line, and sinker!
The dad is my favorite pony right now.
Turns out the dad was the protagonist all along! And his daughter was just a clever Chekovs gun the entire time!
And because of her life kept away from everything interesting and prevented from ever accomplishing anything... she ends up becoming a hopeless drug addict with no purpose in life who ends up dead in a ditch after ODing on salt.
And so her father learned to hard way why you can't run from Fate.
So tragic.
Oh, and villains won and created the Sonic Movie. (LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!)
9635431
Keep yer [Dark] tag outta my comedy story!
Shoo! Shoo!
Whoo! You're featured! I'm glad to say I found this before it was featured.
9635144
Actually...
There is one particular Naruto fanfic (just about the only one starring an original character as the principle character that I have found that ever really succeeded) which hit over 350000 words (it's technically not over, but the author sometimes has long gap between updates) which dealt with the main character trying extremely hard NOT to be a character and completely avoid The Plot (and the canon main characters) - she could essentially SEE the narrative.
(It's called Unsung Story of the Inconspiuous if anyone is interested.)
So, with a clever author, you really can.
One trick could be to find someone who's an even stronger protagonist and latch onto them. It'd still get you sent on adventures, but you'd be able to exploit your narrative focus to shift all of the attention away from yourself and onto the other person.
9635144
9635929
Consequences of Unoriginality right here on fimfiction. It's about a Gary Stu who's desperately looking for a way out.
It's really damned good.