In an unremarkable city, in an unremarkable hospital, to two unremarkable ponies, a filly was born. A filly who was all too remarkable. A filly who radiated Destiny, and Adventure.
Her parents, however, liked their unremarkable life, in their unremarkable city, and wanted nothing more for their little filly than to have a nice, normal, unremarkable youth. So whenever Destiny or Adventure reared their heads, they made sure to nip it in the bud. Magical portals, foreign princes, time travellers and mysterious salesponies of magical musical instruments all got the same answer:
Nope.
Based on the Nope: The Anime joke (original posts) that went around on Tumblr some years ago. Expect silliness.
Covert art based on a picture by greyscale / Theponysketchguy, edited by me to change her hair and eye colour and make her look younger.
Spanish version:
Un poni llamado Nop on DeviantArt, translated by SPANIARD KIWI.
First comment reserved for the author!
Alright, so this is a bit of silliness I actually wrote years ago, in 2014... but I never quite knew where to take it, since it's just a silly whimsical thing, without any structure, point, or conclusion. But, still... it's a fun little ride, even if I only wrote four chapters. So I wrote slightly better endings to the last two chapters, expanded some bits here and there, and decided to go ahead and post it.
I'm going to go with one release per week; it'll give me time to review stuff more carefully and eliminate those last errors hiding under the furniture. After all four chapters have been posted I will mark this story as Finished... but if I ever want to revisit Nope and her silly, silly situation, I might write more of it. You never know.
Anyway, here it, is for your enjoyment: A Pony Named Nope.
[edit]
Copied the core of this post into the author's note, to make it slightly more obvious to the casual reader.
[edit again]
If you read this now, the story is actually, really, 100% truly finished.
Yes! This is my kind of story!
If a superhero comes to town, chase them out, because for each superhero, you'll get a dozen supervillains. You don't need that kind of drama in your city. Just say ”No” to Alicorns. Say ” No” to Nope.
Make our city safe again. Vote Lofty for mayor.
Love the father. He's being realistic, without being cruel.
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.
She's a protagonist.
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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
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Nope, sorry. Tragic backstory and all that
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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.
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no it would just be a very basic slice of life story
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The next chapter will actually go into that subject
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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.
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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
Oh God...
What is it with totally not deities and having good hair
i.imgur.com/HajnzvC.jpg
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.
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There are many, many, many stories that use the same concept.
As for the story itself, meh.
Ananke can sod right off with that mighty destiny buggery, it's more trouble than it's worth.
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.
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I'd watch the hell out of that anime.
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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
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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!
Alright, this single sentence will probably shape the whole story, I just love this kind of humor.
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To be completely fair, that one was stolen wholesale from the thing that inspired this
But yeah. Couldn't really not include it. It is indeed the kind of humour you'll see in this
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.
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Wh...
Why is this such a good idea?
But she is still missing an more-loved sister. And be (unintentionally) left by her boyfriend. And a few other things I'm probably forgetting.
It is fun to see someone who not only avoids destiny, but is constantly shooing it away with a broom.
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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
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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.)
Oh shit, protagonists!
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.
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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.
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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!”
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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
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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
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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?
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Fair enough. Shame it's only four chapters though, this shows hilarious promise.