Nope Side Stories: A Tale of Five Changelings
So... whatever happened to those five changelings that replaced Nope? Let's take a closer look...
Changeling The First: Induced Cacophony
"Evasive action!" Prosoma yelled from her position in the gunner's seat.
Prince-in-Exile Allegro, formerly of the Grand Symphonious Empire, yanked the steering bar to the side, sending the spacecraft into a spin, and saw how the laser blasts narrowly avoided their hull. "Please tell me we finally got a lock on this thing!" he yelled back.
"It has some sort of refraction stealth shield! It's hard to pinpoint!" Prosoma replied. "Wait, if I combine the refracted images in the targeting computer I should be able to find a pattern... Yes!" She slammed a black hoof onto the big red button in front of her, and was rewarded with the silent flash of an explosion in the distance.
"Brace for shockwave!" she yelled. A few seconds later, the ship rattled from the forces released by the exploded stealth ship.
Allegro checked his instruments. "All clear!" he yelled back, and he let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the person sitting in the gunner's chair. His beautiful, brilliant, alien wife.
* * *
A mere week ago, he'd been hell-bent on extracting the raw magical power from his captive alicorn, and using it to subdue the entire planet. His father would be so proud! But, instead of giving him infinite power, the alicorn had burst into green flames... and revealed a small, rather pathetic-looking black creature.
He had been devastated. So much effort and planning had gone into this. He had observed the subject for years, ensuring she was absolutely perfect for his plans. And yet, after all that effort, he'd been duped like a fool, by what amounted to a cheap magician's trick. The old switcheroo.
His subjects had fled; they knew the wrath of Grand Emperor Fortissimo would fall upon him. He had spent vast amounts of resources on this, certain that the alicorn power would make up for all of it. But he had wasted the small window of opportunity during which the world's two celestial goddesses' prying eyes had been focused elsewhere. He'd never get a second chance.
Pity and compassion had come from the most unlikely source; his captive. Somehow, she had a fire in her blue bulbous eyes. An urge to do more with her life. To be more than a mere drone in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And so, they hadn't just fled his father's wrath. They had punched back against the Empire, dealing blow after blow, building a rebellion to liberate worlds from the Grand Symphony. And he had seen the things he had been blind to before; how all those who fell outside the Harmonious Tones were treated. The ones that did not fit the Perfect Melody of the Empire. The False Notes... hunted, oppressed, exterminated.
* * *
He released the clasp of his seat, weightlessly pushed himself towards Prosoma, and kissed her on that cute chitin mouth.
Together, they could take on the universe.
Changeling The Second: Coxa the First
Well. Here I am.
Coxa the Queen.
Queen of all the Land! Who'd have thought that?
But, how did I come to this, you say? And who are those strange fellows that surround my throne? That you also say! Well. It's a long story. Come closer and I'll tell you. It all started... yesterday. And what a day that was! It's what I call... a Bad Mane Day.
* * *
Don't give me that look. That stupid alicorn had some kind of weird wavy mane. I'd like to see you try to get it right! And as if the mane wasn't bad enough, she was below legal drinking age, and I really needed a drink. So, I might've... changed the shape a little. Made her a bit older, sure, why not. Surely no one would notice. And, indeed, they didn't! For an alicorn, she sure wasn't known in the neighborhood. Better for me, of course. It meant I had no trouble at all finding a joint that would serve 'her' plenty of booze.
When I woke up, though... everything was different. The Land I was in was certainly not Equestria; in fact, when I asked the weird animated scarecrow, he just called it "This Land" and started spouting some bizarre creation myth involving two dinosaurs. And my mane still looked all wrong!
That was the start of Coxa's Bad Mane Day...
Changeling The Third: Tarsus the Informed
It worked! It actually worked!
Tarsus looked at the portal that had appeared in front of him. As Nope had said, all it had taken was looking like her, and Destiny would follow. He was about to embark on a journey the likes of which he could only dream of before!
Without hesitation, he jumped in.
* * *
The inhabitants of the derelict town could scarcely believe their eyes. An alicorn! One of the mythical fourth class of ponies, which hadn't been seen for millennia! A living being with the power to juggle the Sun and Moon would surely be able to liberate them from the tyranny of the Storm King!
Tarsus looked at the hopeful faces of the ponies around him as they told him all their hopes and dreams. His grin faded as he realised how out of his depth he was.
"Buck me. I'm the Thief pretending to be the Wizard," he muttered to himself. "I need to find me some other party members... and fast."
* * *
So much had happened since that disastrous arrival. Not even a week in, his deception was revealed. But he had been determined to go on. He had become Tarsus the Ghost, the uncatchable hero, destined to liberate the nations from the yoke of the Storm King! Together with his friends, he would succeed. He looked at the bulky Abyssinian, Tom, and the tall Diamond Dog, Dutch; the strangest pair of blood brothers he had ever seen. He looked at Thundercloud, the thin pegasus who, despite her frail body, could chuck down the meanest of lightning bolts. And he looked at Spark, the young green dragon who had saved him so many times, and who ensured he would never feel the Changeling Hunger in his guts.
Then, he looked at the thunderclouds ahead, and a grim determined smile appeared on his face.
"Storm King, here we come."
Changeling The Fourth: Shattered Expectations
Twilight Sparkle looked at the inert Amulet of the Two Alicorns in front of her, and looked at the 'Noble Pinions' standing next to her. She sighed.
"I should've known something was up," she said, sitting down on her rump. "The real Nope would never have agreed so easily. Guess I'll have to bother Cadance with this, after all."
The changeling slumped down and dispelled its disguise. "I only wanted to help..."
Twilight nodded. "That was your first mistake, yes. Admirable, but, quite out of character."
"Can I, um... ask asylum?"
Twilight rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "Sure, why not."
Changeling The Fifth: Escape from the Hive
They knew. They had to know, by now. She was the fifth one to do this. The Queen had to have her suspicions, by now. But, still, Nope had assured her that, if she acted fast enough, she might still get away with it.
She felt the eyes of the other changelings on her as she walked out. Some eyed her with suspicion. Other with pity. All of them were sure they'd never see her again, but some already suspected that foul play was involved. That the fate of the disappeared changelings wasn't quite as grim as others suspected.
She was all too aware that she'd been chosen because she was expendable. Practically useless. Barely worth keeping alive. It was a stroke of luck that she had been able to talk to Nope when copying her form, and had learned the truth about the disappearances.
But, the others had to have noticed the change in her. The change after that fateful talk, from fatalistic sacrifice, to hopeful volunteer. She didn't dare look back at the faces that stared at her. She just kept walking. She'd be out soon. Out in the open, away from the Hive, taking the place of Noble Pinions, and ready to be swept away by destiny.
Finally, she reached the exit. She spread her wings, and took off.
She didn't care what that destiny would be.
She would be glorious.
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Briliant.
Alright, I understood the others, but what happened to Coxa? That one just didn't parse for me.
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It's a bit of a cheeky reference to my absolute favourite Nintendo 64 game...
Basically, Conker's Bad Fur Day starts when Conker gets really, really drunk, and finds himself completely lost when he wakes up from his alcohol stupor. And it ends with him somehow having become the king.
This is the only game I ever completely played through on a N64 emulator, just because it's so freaking good. Go find a playthrough of it; it's great
(Also, the Coxa part has an extra super cheeky Firefly reference snuck in at the end)
A Firefly reference. Was not expecting that.
I actually forgot that Noble Pinion was Nope's actual name.
These are kind of entertaining. Maybe another author could take one of the ideas and expand them into their own full stories. Or even spin-off one of their own.
I wonder how Chrysislis felt at the end when she lost so many drones to this. Plus I hope the one who sought asylum can become a recurring character.
So went the most cliché romance-redemption story ever.
Who wants coffee?
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Well, that was the whole point of this. Remember, these are the fates Nope is keeping herself the hell away from
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Being the protagonist in a badly-written novel is a hideous fate. You might make the villain more likable than you.
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Anyway, Coxa is just a rather straightforward application of "ending up as ruler of some podunk kingdom" as Nope said in the previous chapter. She got drunk, passed out, got swiped by some portal and dumped into some other world, and through a series of (mis)adventures not explicitly mentioned, ended up queen
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Wasn't necessarily Chrysalis. Could be there are more changeling queens
No specific plans for that changeling, lol. I'm just making this up as I go though, so you never know.
The last one is actually very touching. I can sympathize with this Changeling.
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I thought it was in reference to Conan the Barbarian. We know he will become king one day but it is always another story.
aw.. its over already? that was so fun tho! congrats!
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So, if cats have nine lives, and squirrels have as many lives as they think they can get away with, what does Coxa the Changeling have?
Also, I wonder if she’d sympathize with Count Batula or Heinrich.
But when they got there, they found a strange biped with wild hair and deep green goggles standing over the mutilated body of their foe. "Oh hey," it said, wiping the blood from it's weird 5-digit extremities. "Just heard this lame-ass movie villain still existed in a few universes. Won't take long to clean the rest up." It spit upon the corpse with disgust. "I mean, Cozy Glow could take this loser out."
(Alondro is of the opinion that the Storm King was a horribly inadequate villain, by the way.)
Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal.
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Read the author's note on chapter one
Nope's father sat in his chair, reading the paper, when he heard the door open.
"I'm home," a familiar voice shouted. The door slammed shut, and the sound of hooves moving across the floor could be heard.
With years of experience, ones he really did not want, the old stallion was able to tell right away that whomever came in was not actually his daughter. He could be placed in a room filled with a dozen different Nopes, and be able to tell which one of them was specifically his. Although, he really hoped he did not need to go through that again. Once was enough.
Lowering his paper, he looked at "Nope" as she came into the room.
"And who are you?" he asked.
The pony which looked like his daughter stopped, staring at him.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "It's me, Dad. Your daughter. Noble Pinions."
Yep, definitely not her.
The stallion did not say anything right away. Instead he just sat there, staring at her. As expected, the filly began to grew nervous. He could see her shifting her hooves, ears flicking and eyes glancing around. That was what tended to happen when he just stared. Now he just had to hope that the next part went the same it normally did.
"Nope" started to chuckle nervously.
"I mean... who else could I be? It's not like I was abducted and replaced by a changeling or something..."
This was followed by more laughter.
Ah. So that was what happened. For a moment, he considered going out and trying to find his daughter. Then he thought better of it. First, Nope had gotten pretty good at dealing with problems herself. Second, if he did go try to rescue her, he would probably die in the process. A loving father sacrificing himself to save his daughter from kidnappers did seem like something that could be quite the motivator for a heroic adventure.
"Uh-huh," he finally said, then turned back to his paper. "Well, 'your' room is down at the end of the hall and to the left. Bathroom is across. Dinner is an hour, and we're having eggplant lasagna."
"Uhm... okay," the changeling disguised as Nope replied. She then walked past him, making her way down the hall.
Once alone again, a question suddenly came to him.
Should I give the changeling Nope's allowance for doing her chores?
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Best part was that The Bad Fur Day opening was a Clockwork Orange reference.
I LOVE this story I hope you get more ideas soon! Its always a joy when I see this story pop up in my email notifications!
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It's... complicated, apparently. Also, ridiculously cheaty. So, naturally, I wrote it all out, and put it in yet another blog post!
Blog: Coxa's Bad Mane Death
Hee. I could totally see her with Heinrich sitting at her feet in front of the throne, in the finale.
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I love it!
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Yeah, I honestly don't know where that came from, hee. I got all sincere there at the end, and didn't even end up writing whatever Destiny had in store for her, because this piece was a lot nicer without that
I had a weird thought but how old is Flurry Heart in this story? Cause if she old enough I wouldn't be surprise if she tried to use Nope for a imporp adventure.
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I imagined Flurry Heart being like, eight or something at the time of the Reluctant Princess chapter.
Of course, Nope does grow up throughout these chapters; in Potential High School Drama she was confirmed to be fourteen, and at the time of Abducted Changelings I'm figuring she's about sixteen (it's the age I set her at in the Yet Another Freaking Isekai blog).
So if you take Nope's age at fifteen in the Reluctant Princess chapter, there's about seven years of age difference between the two. Nope's at a self-proclaimed "hormonal teenager" age, while Flurry Heart is a kid on that edge of "still cute, but clever enough to start getting the better of adults".
Do note, I'm not making any real effort to correctly fit this into actual canon in terms of time line, and Reluctant Princess was written before the finale, so it's best to disregard the fact that Flurry Heart being an eight-year-old would probably be after Twilight's coronation. Matching this story to events in the series is bound to be a bit wonky anyway
Damn that was a beautiful closing statement.
Also dang, didn't expect a Conker ref!
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)
I freaking love CBFD
(and, as the Author's Note says, more Conker shenanigans can be found in my blog
Glorious indeed. I know nothing about CBFD beyond NCS fighting the poop, but I love it.
From how much others around her seem to be reaching fates apparently meant for her, I almost feel as if it's her destiny to basically lead others to their destiny unintentionally
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Got it open in a tab to read it soon :P
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"And we shall call it... This Land."
"Well I call it Your Grave!"
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Actually, re-reading the chapter, it specifically states that Flurry Heart is ten years old there. So a five-year difference.
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The whole texture of the chapter was unexpected, but totally in character for Nope. A typical story would have her finally take sides or find adventure, but nope. She's is and finds a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nice. Nicely done. Logical and illogical. I really cannot give you another up vote, so don't ask.
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Ah, hee. Yeah, I had to go into the subject of those portals eventually, and the fact she can't escape all of them. But she knows better than to actually get duped into saving the world.
All things considered, though, she might have had some positive influence on that particular world. After all, Evil Overlords do need a sympathetic non-minion ear to vent to, every now and then
Hmmm...
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I can always count on you for the most insightful and in-depth of comments
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Gotta avoid the banhammer.
Lol
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Tell her dad that, he would have a heart attack
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He could have been written better
That's not a bad idea those changelings had. I mean they wanted something more than being disposable drones. Plus they had the drive to do it. I'm happy for them.
Could be a business idea now that I think about it.
Are you bored with your normal average life? Want to be somebody? Want to be pulled in by Fate and Destiny to go on a perilous adventure for a potential life jackpot at the end? Talk to Nope, pay for the privilege to be dumped into some random portal for the adventure of your life! If your kicked out, returned and don't get the heroes adventure you were looking for there are no refunds.
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Also no refunds if you get horribly maimed and/or killed. No one ever said adventures were fun.
10105353 Or not existed at all and just made Tempest the main villain, which would have left more time to develop her character.
Kinda like how actual quality writers do it.
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True, than they could have made a sequel and introduce the Storm King in the next movie
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Well if their dead they wouldn’t be able to go for a refund anyway. Even if they do comeback as a spirit of some sort it’s not like they would have a use for bits at that point.
God, I would totally read a ton of these "I impersonated the Destined one" Stories.
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They're really cheap run-off-the-mill hero journey stories though. I could write a dozen more of those in a few hours
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I would read those.
Wait, why didn't Chrysalis take Nope place? She would certainly get the great destiny she was feverishly want.
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Hm? Who? There's no Chrysalis mentioned anywhere in the chapter. It might not even be her hive.
And the whole point here was that no one told the queen what was really going on. Everyone assumed the changelings met a grisly fate.
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How many of those have the one disguised as the hero as the hero's killer/BBEG