And There They Go Again On Their Own...
This story is written in front of a live studio audience.
“Whaooouuuooouuuoouuoouuuuu… wwwhaoouuuuuu… kh-khaokh! Brrrooooohr...”
“Hey, guys,” Sandra said, walking up to the bar in the mostly still club in the middle of the day, looking back at Lloyd sitting in a booth by himself, who was utterly lost to the world around him. “What’s he doing?”
Barney the changeling was resting his head on the bar with his eyes closed, smiling slightly and tasting the air as Sandra sat down.
Lloyd stared into some sort of project, surrounded by little bottles, a broken beer keg, pieces of an old curtain, and a pile of popsicle sticks.
“He’s making a miniature replica of the Spencer Mansion,” Francis said.
“Oh, cool!” Sandra said, her eyes lighting up.
“Wheeaoooouuu…” Lloyd continued to himself.
“... And providing his own ambient score,” Spencer added.
“So I hear the purple wizard got her hooves on you guys,” Sandra noted, taking the glass of sparkly water that Francis offered her, and taking a sip. “How did that go?”
“Hard to say, actually,” Spencer said. “I mean I think we explained clearly enough, but there were clearly some misunderstandings from some previous interviewees, and they probably thought they expressed themselves clearly as well.”
“What misunderstandings?”
Spencer and Francis looked at each other.
—
“So, I also want to ask you about this... grease deity,” Twilight Sparkle said.
“Grease deity?” all three club owners echoed from the couch opposite Twilight.
“Yes, my previous interviewee said that many ponie- excuse me, people, where you come from worship The Lard.”
Twilight looked up from the scroll she was writing on to see three absolutely puzzled expressions.
“Who was it that said that?” Lloyd ventured.
“Pat, he said his name was.”
After a moment of thinking, the three former humans’ faces relaxed from understanding and slight exasperation.
“Ooh,” they said in unison.
“What? What does that mean?” Twilight asked.
“Pat’s Irish,” Francis explained. “He said The Lord.”
—
Sandra shook her head and smiled. “Pat.”
“Yep. By the way, Spence,” Francis said, and slid over a piece of paper to his colleague.
Sandra glanced over at the slip, and saw the… letters, spelling out what seemed like gibberish.
Doo-doo-dooo-dooo-dooo doo-doo-dooo-do-do-dooo
“Jurassic Park,” Spencer said, hardly looking at the writing.
Francis just shook his head helplessly, as Spencer scribbled some gibberish of his own on the paper. “How do you do it?”
“What? This?” Sandra asked.
“We’re playing guess the score,” Francis explained. “With text.”
Sandra rolled her eyes, but she still looked when Spencer slid the paper over so both she and Francis could see.
“... Highlander?” Francis guessed.
“The uh… the motorcycle chase music from Last Crusade?” Sandra said.
“Robocop,” Spencer said, making Francis harrumph slightly in frustration. “Last chance.”
“Alright, take this,” Francis said, and scribbled a new series of “dees” and “doos” under the previous lines.
Spencer calmly took the paper when Francis was ready.
“Song of Storms.”
“Wha– Damnit!”
“Yeah, you thought I was gonna say the Game of Thrones theme didn’t you?” Spencer said, and turned to Sandra. “He tried the same trick with that Wolverine movie and The Lion King.”
Barney had come alive and was gently sniffing the air around the three ponies from behind Spencer’s bulk. Unlike the descriptions the former humans had received of how the changelings looked when they attacked Canterlot, Barney looked whole and healthy, with a slight sheen to his exoskeleton.
“What?” Sandra asked, smiling slightly.
“Nothing,” Barney said.
Sandra raised her eyebrows at the changeling. “Well that doesn’t make me curious at all.”
Barney groaned a little. “Look, I’m doing one of those things that don’t work if you bring attention to it.”
“Which is?”
Barney gave her a long look.
“From what I gather, it takes a little getting used to being a changeling,” Francis said.
“So is being a pony,” Sandra said.
“Yeah, but at least we have the same number of senses and, besides the tails, mostly the same number of extremities as humans. Changelings can have a ton of them.”
“Look, I was tasting something around you guys, I think I wanna call it camaraderie, and oh yeah, look, there it goes. It changed when I brought attention to it.
“Quick, someone make a joke to bring attention to the weirdness of it all aaand… yes, now it’s back.”
The ponies shook their heads at the strangeness of the changelings. “I am so curious to see what happens if you actually find someone to get all mushy-mushy lovey-dovey with.”
“Obese, probably. Still willing to try it,” Barney said, and resisted the urge to push Spencer closer to Sandra.
“By the way, keep your eyes on the vents tonight,” Barney told them, sniffing the air. “I think I can smell them there.”
“Got it,” Francis said.
—
“Ah, finally back in Canterlot,” the stallion next in line said, and turned to Spencer. “Hey, did I miss Motown Monday?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid you did,” Spencer said. “Don’t worry, it’ll come again.”
“Oh… Oh well, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe!” the stallion said, mouth wide in an annoying smile.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Spencer said, waving him through. “I miss the net, but not that part.”
“Yeah,” the next pony in line, a mare, said, in a cartoonishly haughty voice. “You’re totally stuck in the retrozone. Sad-face.”
Spencer winced, and gave the pleased mare a hurt look. “Why are you doing this to me?” he said, as he opened the door.
Spirits were high and spirits were poured in the club that night, the soothing din and swaying of hundreds of happy people drinking and chatting and eating as the current band put down their instruments after a hearty applause and were welcomed around the tables and into the booths of their fellow former humans, while another band chatted amongst themselves as they made their way backstage to check their instruments.
Francis smiled and casually leaned on his foreleg against the bar and chatted with Barney the changeling, currently looking like a scruffily handsome stallion, both of them keeping their eyes on the band as they prepared.
“Where are they?” Francis asked.
“The vent in the roof, to our left,” Barney said. “I think it’s just one.”
“How are they feeling?”
“Hmm. A little nervous when they got here, but now they’re excited and kind of relieved.”
“Do they know you’re here and what you’re doing?”
Barney’s easy smile looked a little contemplative for a moment. “Hard to say, but I think so. I think changelings give off emotions too, but rather than always doing it, they’re giving off deliberate scents to help communicate, like worry or encouragement, sort of like using hand signals when sneaking around.”
He shot Francis a slightly apologetic look. “Maybe I’m giving off emotions with no control, maybe that makes me seem like a pony, or maybe I’ve totally misunderstood the whole thing. I’dunno, not raised in a hive, you know. At least not literally.”
“That’s okay,” Francis said. “If he or she is staying put, we’ll go ahead.”
“What are you gonna if you get him? Her?”
“Don’t know. We’ll play it by ear. Thanks, Barney,” Francis said, as he moved away from Barney to move to Sandra on the other side of the bar.
“No problem,” Barney said, failing to hold in a deep belch, and going back to nursing his drink.
The audience’s attention was getting focused on the band as they were almost ready to play, and Francis leaned over the bar.
“Hey, Sandra. You got that thing on your head working?”
“Sure, so long as anyone just needs a hand or a flashlight.”
“A hand will do fine. Don’t look right away, but the vent up to the right of Barney. See the rope?”
Sandra glanced at the grate as she pretended to turn and look at Francis. “Yeah, I see it.”
“There’s a changeling there. Can you pull it when I give you the signal?”
“Sure. No problem.”
The pony called Charlotte grabbed the mic and addressed the club. “Hey, everyone, good to see you all again. If there’s anyone new in here, we are Pending Band Name.”
A cheer rose up from the patrons. It wasn’t the event of the decade, but the cheer wasn’t a formality either.
“Thank you, thank you,” Charlotte said, smiling. “Alright, we have some requests we’re happy to play, and as you know, we’re happy to take more.”
“Make the logo bigger!” someone shouted from the tables, to some scattered sniggers.
Charlotte smiled at that. “We’ll see if we can make a filler recording out of that, yeah. But let’s see if we can’t work our way through last week’s requests first. I’ll be doing the lead to begin with, since Clive didn’t feel confident about this first song,” she said, and smiled back at the unamused-looking gryphon at the guitar.
“♪Ooh, baby do you know what that’s worth...?♫”
The crowd cheered and laughed as the joke dawned on them.
The music started up for real just as Lloyd came out of the backroom, wheeling in a stack of crates, unpacking the bottles behind the bar.
“Appropriate song!” Barney loudly said over the music, leaning over the bar.
“How so!?” Francis said.
“They’re in paradise!” Barney said, lightly indicating the vent with a nod. “Almost feels like a shame to rouse them.”
“Don’t worry! We’ll be gentle!” Francis said, and spoke into Lloyd’s ear about what Barney had told him earlier.
Francis and Lloyd took a few moments to enjoy the show and serve a few drinks, before they tapped Sandra on the wither and Francis went over to stand below the vent.
As the song was winding down, a series of nods led to Sandra pulling the arranged rope on the vent, and down came a changeling, crashing towards the ground with an alarmed expression.
Francis wasn’t quite the same size as Spencer, but he wasn’t a small specimen. He reared up and caught the smaller, black bug-pony around his wither, locking him in a friendly-looking gesture.
“Hey there!” Francis said, smiling widely at the changeling. “You seem like you’re lost, friend.”
The changeling eyes were wide, darting around to try and orient himself, but always finding his gaze locked by the stallion who held him tight.
This wasn’t according to script. Some of the ponies around the bar glanced back at him, mildly surprised, before being distracted by the ponies on stage again, and it wasn’t because they were cocooned or anything like that.
Ponies should be shouting and panicking for… several minutes at least, before their fear caused them to reach for torches and pitchforks. These ponies weren’t frightened at all, and it was hard to say if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“So, what brings you here?”
The changeling could only open and close his mouth as he searched for words.
“He wants a meal,” a stallion that smelled a bit like a fellow changeling said from the bar.
“Hmm,” the stallion holding him in place said, before smiling widely as he looked at someone else, and hauling him down towards the stage. “You’ve come to the right place for that.”
The patrons were looking at them with amused and slightly confused looks as they made their way through them.
The band caught sight of them and looked at each other, puzzled, before they laughed and shook their heads, making space on the stage.
On a stage, where a large crowd could, and did, see them clearly, was not the place for a changeling, but still there was no fear-fueled anger.
These ponies, these creatures, were strange indeed.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have an intruder,” Francis announced, putting some flair into his presentation.
“Ooooh…” The crowd looked at each other, smirking.
Anticipation and mirth with the slightest hint of danger to it, but no real anger. The changeling tried to make himself as small as possible.
“I feel we need some effort into making up for that. Don’t you?” Francis asked the crowd, who let out a collective, pirate-y yarh and chuckled in agreement
“So feast your eyes on this one, ladies and gentlemen!” Francis said, and removed his foreleg from around the changeling, pushing him in front where he stood, exposed, in the limelight.
“A fine and available specimen, tall, dark, and handsome!” Francis announced, as the crowd started laughing and leaned forward in excitement. Francis gave the changeling a scrutinizing look. “Or at least two of the three. Maybe one and a half. What’s your name?”
The wide-eyed changeling looked back at the stallion smiling widely at him, opening his mouth again but finding himself unable to say anything.
“The quiet type, eh? What’s a good name for this fine chitterer?”
“Manny!” came a voice from the crowd.
“Manny?” Francis said, before rallying and smiling again. “Manny it is. Manny can be yours, right now, do I hear twenty bits? Twenty bits is the starting price.”
“Here, sugar!” a thestral mare called.
“Twenty bits!” Francis confirmed. “Do I hear twenty-five?”
“Twenty-five!” another mare called from a dark booth called, and Manny thought he saw a worryingly scaly form in the darkness.
“Thirty!” the previous voice called.
“Shut up, Lashanda!” the mare in the dark booth said. “I need this! And you still owe me for the move. Thirty-five!”
“Uh uh! I ain’t givin’ you no free pass for that. Anyway, I made you a leg warmer for it,” the thestral said, and turned to Francis and Manny. “Here, honey-bug. Forty bits!”
“Forty-five,” Clive the gryphon said from the back of the stage, to a general murmur of surprise from the crowd.
“Clive? You don’t even like dudes,” a stallion from the crowd said.
Clive just smiled slightly and shrugged. “Doesn’t need to be one. Do you?” Clive asked Manny.
Manny, who was by now thoroughly enjoying himself, just smiled and shook his head.
There was a moment of silence in the club.
“Good enough for me,” a stallion said. “Fifty!”
Manny was hit with a wave of emotions as the excited feelings doubled, along with the volume.
“Fifty-five!” a fellow changeling said between giggles, this one a pink-haired with her mane in a ponytail. Manny kind of hoped she wouldn’t be the winner of whatever was going on here. Love from fellow changelings tasted like lettuce. At least normally, this one seemed to have a different scent.
Half the attendants were simply laughing merrilly as the offers kept pouring in. Francis, and Lloyd over at the bar as well, had to struggle to keep their own laughter back as the offers kept pouring in.
A while later, the auction had to come to an end with the thestral mare unabashedly flying up to the stage to claim her prize, to the disappointment of many of the bidders, and the laughs and wolf-whistles of others.
The thestral just gave them a knowing look. “Oh you just jealous, y’all, and you know it!” she said, and turned to Manny. “C’mon, honey-bug, I got something to show you.”
The crowd gave a recognizing murmur of approval to that, and clapped as they walked back towards the exit. Manny was starting to feel both happy and dizzy from all the levity and anticipation in the air.
“Congratulations, Lashandra,” Francis said, and turned back to the band, who were laughing at something Charlotte said. “So, are you guys ready to continue the show?”
The band nodded and started retaking their positions, as Francis stepped down from the stage.
“We sure are, and we’ve decided that there are songs that are just too fitting not to play right now,” Francis told the crowd. “Hope you’re ready for something slightly wilder.”
Manny’s blissful expression started sinking the moment they started nearing the exit.
“What’s wrong, honey-bug?” Lashanda said, worry visible on her face.
“He doesn’t wanna go out in public. It’s a changeling thing,” Barney said from his seat by the bar, over the sound of the band plonking their instruments and doing some slight adjustments to their equipment.
Lloyd pointed a non-existent thumb over his shoulder. “Backroom, take the couch, just clean up after yourselves."
“Perfect!”
And with that, the two disappeared from sight.
“Alright, that should do it,” Clive said. “Hit it!”
There weren't any power drills available for the former humans to get the true sound necessary, but the song worked regardless.
Parts of the crowd, the ones who knew the lyrics, started laughing at the choice of song, and pretty soon the rest were smirking as well.
“♫... When you need a man of action, I’m ready to make my move.
Like the shotgun shot, Johnny on the spot, there’s nothing I can’t do!
“Everything you’re looking for, you can find in me.
I’ll be anything you want, anyone you need… ♪”
—
“And so the grain reserves are, as they have been for the last eight hundred and twelve years this day, fully stocked, with an excess of fourteen percent more than the storages can hold, and that’s counting the ‘temporary’ storages.”
Princess Celestia sat and paid attention in a respectful manner on her cushion as she listened to Raven, her teacup now empty.
Luna, on the other hand, slouched against the table, looking forlornly at her empty coffee cup with the words, ‘It’s the moon, stupid’, written on it.
“Send a message to Gryphonstone,” Celestia said. “Let them set the price, and...”
“And suggest that we... waaaaant…” Luna started, eventually closing her mouth and shaking her head to herself as she tried to think of what Gryphonstone could afford to get sacrifice that wouldn’t be an insultingly low price for keeping their population fed, that Equestria also could find a use for.
“Copper,” Celestia suggested.
“Copper,” Luna confirmed, nodding to Raven, before turning to Celestia. “Why copper?”
“The humans like copper,” Celestia said. “I think they use it in their inventions.”
“Ah, yes, uhm… about that,” Raven said, adjusting her glasses. “We’ve had several reports. Uhm, complaints actually.”
“Specifically?” Celestia said.
“Well…” Raven started, clearing her throat and adjusting her glasses as her gaze skimmed across the roll of paper in her magic. “Complaints from House Set, House Crust, and House Blueblood, among others, about… various things. Complaints about rude reception, poor clientele… there’s one here from today that says that tonight, there was an imperceptible sound that woke up all the dogs in Canterlot.”
“And my personal guard,” Luna noted, and turned to her sister. “What are you going to do? They’ve rejected you, us, from their premises, despite many olive branches. Will you give them a whole orchard?”
“Perhaps,” Celestia said, putting her hooves together and thinking, a calculating smile on her face. “I wonder if their defiant ways can stand up to actual adversity.”
“Toying with them?” Luna asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Not as such, no,” Celestia said. “I’m just wondering if they’d ever want me to step in.”
“I also have a message from the uh… the owners,” Raven said.
“Oh?”
“Yes, it’s… a poem, from somepony called Lloyd, to Luna.”
Luna’s body went rigid, and her face turned purple.
“It’s… it’s something about how ‘humans’ have conquered, uhm, their moon,” Raven said, struggling to understand what was meant by that. “And he’s wondering if you want him to tell you about it.”
Luna’s face was shifting from purple to red.
—
It was early morning and Spencer, Lloyd, and Francis hadn’t bothered closing the club.
It had been a pretty intense night, and half the patrons were still around, only now they were collapsed in the booths and on the floor.
Lloyd, his head on the bar, softly opened his eye as a shape stumbled past.
It was Manny, swaying slightly as he looked up towards the vents he had come from.
“Door’s over there,” Lloyd croaked out, waving at the exit with his hoof.
Manny looked at the doors as if he had never seen them before, and nodded unsteadily at Lloyd, before gingerly stumbling towards it, letting out a deep, silent belch as he did.
Lloyd groaned as the light spilled in from the doors. Last night had been a big success, but the last few hours sleeping had been terrible, and he wondered if Luna perhaps wasn’t appreciating his efforts, or if he only had himself to blame.
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Glad to see an update my dood. Hoping that these outcasts get help from someone, or else the nobility's gonna shut down their club.
Wondering if this would get in though:
Winds of misfortune
Have blown them about
You made the outcasts
Don't cast them out
10373701
Yeah. They're not quite outcasts though, since ponies generally don't shun them. I would say it's believable that the so-called cultural elite might think "if we can't have it, nopony can!" and try and shut it down. Celestia is pretty fond of them humans though.
Also: yes, I think you'd be able to get in with that. Spencer might ask you to redo it if he thinks your singing is funny though
Hmm... Celestia wondering about whether the club can survive real adversity? I mean, unless there are suddenly gonna be spontaneous ethnic cleaning campaigns the likes nobody has ever seen before, any adversity is only going to make their culture more distinct and insular, and more likely to persist.
Funnily enough, enduring friendship would be the easiest way to destroy the community. If the members of the club felt bad about excluding their native friends, their stance would shift towards inclusion, which would slowly erode the uniqueness of their culture.
10373739
Free bathtubs for aliens! 
Ethnic cleaning campaigns
That's true though, and yes there is a streak of unfriendliness in the whole idea of the club. It's about not sharing, and the more you try and push the humans to embrace friendship and share, well, the more it starts to resemble theft, which is also not in line with friendship. What a friendship conundrum this is
10373745
Oh autocorrect. You strike again, denying the existence of ethnic cleansing. Clearly, it is the work of the oppressors.
10373751
There sometimes is something kinda Newspeak about autocorrect
Oh dear... Did they just auction off a black person?
10373781
Yeah I guess I did say he had black chitin. If it's post-whenever it was in the show, he might be more colorful.
Ooh, that's me! Unfortunate I didn't win the bid, but I'm glad he's happy. You absolutely captured my personality in a single line.
I wonder what wacky, wild adventures I'll get up to next time... Probably nothing interesting.
10373790
Yep, that's you (the other bidders were readers' characters as well). Just a cameo, but I'm glad you liked it
I'm curious about something. Not sure if it's been mentioned, but would Luna acquire human cultural context via dreamdiving? Presumably she can keep secrets, but if anyone was going to stumble on incomprehensible cultural bits...
10373809
That's a good question. I'd say yes, but I'm not sure to what degree. Can she do outright mind reading and totally understand what she sees, even against the viewee's wishes? Not sure but I suspect not. I think she'd only be able to pick up snippets, so that it would require a long time of research and investigation to understand what she's seeing.
I don't think she would actually do it though, unless she thought the humans were a threat to ponies, but it would be fun to see her try and make sense of the 70's
10373814
I mean in general nightmare cleanup duties. Stumbling onto the set of Alien, or a traumatic car crash, or the like.
Fair chance the more recent trauma is getting worldstuck on Equestria, but she'd probably want some context to deal with it appropriately, or at least have to sit the person down and get them to explain.
10373816
The 70's don't count?
Luna can presumably visit the dreams of anypony, but I only remember her visiting the dreams of foals. I haven't depicted any human children coming to Equestria, but what might really throw ponies was if there were adult humans coming over as foals.
Even so, yes, if she cares for her subjects' mental health, she might be a little disturbed by what she comes across in humans' dreams
Got a question concerning this universe. Is there a continuous stream of humans turned ponies? Or is it one time event?
10373847
Unspecified, but I've so far imagined it as having been a stream of former humans popping up all over Equestria, which has by now stopped or slowed to a trickle.
10373851
Interesting. It will be very good for the former humans if there is a constant stream, even if it's a trickle. Also shouldn't be doing their best to write down anything they remember?
10373857
You mean for cataloguing their art and music? They are doing that, I just haven't showed it beside them playing it in the club. Since they've arrived without means though, none of them are independently wealthy, so they have to do so between supporting themselves and hobbies they relax with.
10373864
This complicates things... and I can't wait, wait for the inevitable moment that the wider Equestrian world ends up learning of the bizarre outworldly ponies.
10373868
That'll be something to see, yes. Hope I can do it justice
10373888
I'll be waiting for the moment ponies invent their own version of ska.
oh god, I can only imagine stand up comedy at the club! or a poetry night.... but the date bid was a bit of fun speed dating!
oooh, the human changeling tib bit from our native changeling sounds interesting is one of the changed getting close to being a "reformed" changeling? those weird techno colorful moose bugs simmer glitter wings and all huh I kind of hope there more differences than just being sensed differently by a native changeling and more so if they become a "reformed" changeling
Auctioning a changeling in the spirit of fun seems a brilliant idea!
10373922
Yeah I haven't gone into detail on the changelings since the show seems a bit sparse on details as well. Regardless of whether this takes place before or after the changeling reformation, I guess Manny can be a lone changeling, unaffiliated with Thorax's/Chrysalis', hive.
10373926
Right? And I don't think they'd be picky
Luna raises a good point here. There's only so many times you can accept olive branches before the lack of repayment begins to look like you're just taking advantage of the generosity you are presented with. And while the complaints of the noble houses can be safely dismissed as uppity rich ponies who got their feelings hurt for not being included just because of their status, the noise complaints should not be disregarded as easily. That affects everyone in Canterlot after all, or at least the close neighbourhood. And we know that the humans have some bat ponies in their midst, so they have to be aware of what their audio is doing to those with more sensitive hearing.
And yay! More MLAAQB! I'm still looking forward to some adorable mother/daughter moments between Gabe and Celestia.
10373818
During Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, she's shown to be able to enter the dreams of pretty much anyone in Ponyville, whether they foal, adult, or even dragon. She even got the entire village in the same dream, though that was taxing even for her.
In general Luna seems to be able to perceive dreams pretty clearly, and is often able to decipher what is going through the minds of those dreaming. I think it will more boil down to Luna respecting the human's obvious desire of privacy, though I would imagine that too is nearing the end of her patience. The dream realm, at least in Equestria, is hers to command after all, and I doubt she would leave a human having a nightmare alone just because the humans and their club desire privacy.
10373939
Well, I never depicted how Francis, Lloyd, and Spencer establish their rapport with Celestia, but they have a sort of friendly rivalry going on. Celestia haven't done much to overtly help them, besides a program that pretty much all former humans went to to help them get used to being Equestrians and learn about pony society. She hasn't financed the club or anything like that, mostly just doing thinks like subtly speeding up the paperwork behind the scenes and advising them to open the club back when they had just gotten to Equestria and were looking for a purpose.
They currently have a bit of a chicken-race that have kept going through sheer stubbornness, even though it's all in good humor, where they know Celestia really wants to get into the club, but the trio is waiting until she actually asks them to make an exception for her, which she hasn't yet. If either were to relent just like that and send an invitation or just ask, the other side would be happy of course, but also a bit disappointed.
Don't read too much into the noise complaint though, that was just a gag. Canterlot would never get any sleep if all the dogs woke up every time a thestral got some lövin.
I forgot about that episode though. That's true. And yes, Luna would totally help former humans. If she does learn of things they'd rather be kept from the pony general public, she'd respect that. After all, it's not hiding their culture from ponies that's the goal in itself, it's keeping the cultural elitists and parasites out.
Also yes, more mlaabq. Gonna have to do the beginning of the new story right though, which is one of the things that's so exhausting
It's lines like this that show true fluency in the language. It's only worth calling out because I happen to know you're a foreigner, but good job anyways.
10373788
It's clearly pre-reformation:
That's not what the narration would say if friendly non-human changelings were a thing yet, to say nothing of "Manny"'s reaction to being outed.
10374046
I mean, it could be a rogue changeling. Post-reformation Thorax did note they had to spend some time contacting changelings still in the field, and they'd gotten to "most" of them.
That said, if it's pre-reformation, then given that Canterlot doesn't seem to have much of a problem with the changelings as part of the club that'd put the current point of the story somewhere in season 6, after Thorax made his appearance and showed changelings aren't monsters by nature, but before the same season's finale.
I think Luna can easily beat the amount of time spent on the moon, we just have more visits. I wonder which Princess will be the first to get in. My money is Cadance and when she shows up the give a performance of “The Power of Love”. It would be funny if she was the first to realize the true purpose of the club because of how homesick all these characters are.
10374062
Barney is so obviously going through the same process Thorax did that if news of the latter had reached Canterlot by this point then the narration would have made the comparison explicit, to say nothing of how 10373790 explicitly has (and therefore implicitly needs) a pony identity. What isn't said can be louder than what is.
10374074
I can totally see Cadance ignoring the whole chicken-race thing Celestia has going, simply waiting in line like everypony else, and getting in because being married to Equestria's number one royal dork means she picked up enough O&G slang to make a D&D quip.
And then she rocks out on stage while the band is playing a song straight from the 80's dressed like this:
i.imgur.com/EN4F7Xe.jpg
10374080
Hmnot sure. Caffeinated Pinkie seems to be, from the description, a changeling with a mane, like the ones you often see in fanart. And the rest of the crew seems to be aware that non-hostile changelings native are a thing, given that they didn't alert the guards to an infiltrator, which is something the rest of Equestria didn't know until Thorax.
10374112
Except Barney is explicitly in disguise earlier in the scene, she therefore presumably is as well, and the fact that the identity is legitimately hers instead of stolen means that there's no loose thread to pull that isn't present in literally every transformed human. That said, there likely is such a thread that Blueblood et al may eventually find...
Celestia isn't planning on atta king them to "teach them a lesson", is she? Because with hiw they're meta-aware that can only end in disaster as they turn against her. I do wonder what the intention is here, are they upset the humans aren't letting them in, or fir not letting in the snooty canterlot nobles that just want to turn up their noses in disgust and insult their percieved lessers?
Really, if nobody has the thought to actually just ask and apply for membership to the private club instead of being entitled or trying ti truck their way inside it doesn't say very nice things about them. Moreso if even Celestia and Luna won't do so.
10374139
True, though that does make me wonder why they didn't even bother to capture the infiltrator. If all they know about changelings comes from Equestria and is pre-Thorax, then letting a changeling run loose in Canterlot would be beyond irresponsible.
10374198
I think Celestia is more thinking about observing how the humans react to the increasingly more frustrated and hostile elistists. Right now the elistists seems to limit itself to petitioning Celestia in the hopes that she will levy penalties against the club, which Celestia won't be doing without good reason, but it's only a matter of time before the elitists get fed up with waiting and will move to try and "teach those upstarts a lesson."
10374227
In all likelihood, they know more about changeling biology than Chrysalis herself does. Just having changelings not affiliated with her is something that their comics origin would result in her rejecting as a possibility, and we already know that Snakeskin is willing to draw from the comics... They're planning something, and no pony or changeling could possibly see it coming.
10374046
Aaw, thanks
But you know, we're all foreigners
I actually specifically wrote that to keep it vague, though it does specify that it takes place after A Canterlot Wedding.
They can still draw likenesses to how changeling looked like back then, even after Thorax's reformation.
10374074
10374112
Cadence getting in first could be fun, considering how invested the other princesses are in getting in.
"If I wasn't married, I'd spend more time complimenting this trouser-trend."
She might also find the lyrics of human songs very flattering. "Pour some sugar on me!- Ooooh! In the name of LÖVE!"
10374112
10374139
In order to not get stuck in the details, I figure that there can be charcoal black changelings and colourful changelings at the same time, both among native Equestrians and former humans, both before and after the reformation
10374198
Of course not (although what do you mean by "attacking"?), but she is curious if the cultural elite is going to try and do something hostile like underhanded business tactics, pouring money into stalling the club with red tape, or other things like that. She's also curious what the humans would do in response if anything, and if they would ask her for help if they do.
The club don't have a membership system though, which is why Spencer is screening everyone at the door the way he does.
10374227
Yeah. Unless they know that "Manny" is a lone, harmless changeling. Barney might be able to tell if they got Chrysalis' scent on them or not
Yep, you pretty much got it.
10374244
I do use comics canon from time to time, but the changeling origin in it, as I remember it, didn't leave much to work with really
When I heard this, I was hoping hardware store. :(
10374478
Is that a song?
10374479 Weird Al tune.
10374479
"Weird Al" Yankovic
10374503
10374507
Oh, of course. The song I had in mind had such appropriate lyrics for a changeling though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQm0yll9iWw
10374460
To be honest, your right to be on both, it's pretty good it has three AVP servers (only one being 24/7 right now) and they all vary on level of RP and what they are
10374417
To emphasize something I said in one of the previous comments on this chapter: if I were those "elites" I'd be digging into the past of Spencer et al looking for dirty laundry... and likely finding some very suspicious incongruities caused by stuff the readers already know about.
Manny may not have been exposed to human culture (not that he appeared to be looking for it), but his exposure to raw human emotion is more to what most other ponies have taken in. He certainly among the closest to experience what humanity is.
Just be sure to let us know if Finn or Dr Wolf ever appear. We could use the positive psychology. And if Jasper or Firebrand or Silver Quill ever show up, please let us know so that we can find shelter from random explosions.
10374659
Yeah, more specifically, how suspiciously little there is to find, which makes me wonder what Celestia will do if she starts feeling the heat. Actually I have a pretty good idea, but you know, that'd be told in the story
10374849
And what a lot of them are is... not all that concerned about what they and others look like when it comes to nightly adventures
10374907
If that related to fan stuff? I don't think I've read that.
10375702
They are some of the Brony Analysts. I shall direct you to Dr Wolf's channel, as that is where the majority of their group projects are kept. https://www.youtube.com/c/DRWolf001
Aside from the Tantabus episode we also have Luna helping Starlight Glimmer with her nightmare in “To Where And Back Again” and then later reaching out to her for help, plus Celestia’s view of the dreamscape after Starlight kinda-sorta accidentally switched her and Luna’s cutie marks and they tried to do each other’s jobs for a day. So I think it’s safe to say that if Luna does want to look into and perhaps even outright visit the dreams of whatever humans happen to be in Equestria, then unless we want to postulate that humans just have specific plot armor against that she probably can do so just fine.
Which of course gives her of all ponies a direct line to whichever humans she feels like giving a piece of her mind whenever they’re asleep...and I’d put a suitable Luna icon here if we had one, but in lieu of that have a Trollestia.
10375792
Never heard of them. Never really engaged with the popular crowd in the fandom with a few exceptions.
10375850
I'm not sure Luna wants to see what she thinks Lloyd dreams about.
Then again, ponies dreaming of her wouldn't be all that unusual, I think.
you know I wonder if they would let sunset in if she came over? Then again its up to you to ask is the human world she is in one that has alot of the human knowedge?