Specialties include comedy, robots, and precision strikes to your feelings. Hobbies include hat and watch collecting. May contain alcohol.
Stories about monsters disguised as treasure chests were thought to be no more than legends.
But when Sunburst finds the last one in existence, the Changelings come to the Crystal Empire with a demand: kill it and send the species to extinction.
This story is based on a suggestion by LordMentat!
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Never enough stories with mimics in them. So this is awesome before I even start reading
.
Eyyyy!
Well, in fairness, despite fully knowing that reputation and acknowledging the fact there may indeed be a potentially grave danger to anyone owning it...you're still selling it anyway.
Yes, "neighbors." "Neighbors" that, according to official G4 maps of Equestria, should be pretty much located on the other side of the continent from the changeling hive.
Not exactly helping your case here, Pharynx.
This part makes this story sound like it needs a dark tag. Why doesn’t it have one?
I like this a lot, very imaginative, but the greatest mimic to ever grace fiction would take issue with this.
i.redd.it/kohgp4rejbz11.png
Now this is the kind of quality word play I show up for.
Well, definitely looking forward to where this story goes.
Any chance the mimic is named Boxxy T. Morningwood?
Well this can only go well
Nice story so far! Though I figured it’d make more sense the chest to rip Sunbursts cape than his tail
Well, what did she expect?
That's a good one.
Treasure chest: "That's our revenge for you looting us all the time!"
Good premise!
I look forwards to see where it goes.
When I first read the description of the story I had to think of this picture:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2021/1/26/2538017.png
Source.
Guess the Crystal Empire guards got trained by the same guy who trained the Canterlot Guards...
Edit: It seems that was exactly the joke you were aiming for...
I wonder how many guards the mimic had already eaten by now.
(Considering the standards of guard training we saw earlier that's a relevant question!)
Is he secretly just afraid of competition?
And how can he consider destroying treasure chests their greatest work?
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
Have another picture of a mimic:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/9/1/1822241.png
Source.
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Glad you're enjoying the story.
And that image was very nearly the cover image for this story!
Talk about low, slow, and over the plate...
Get out.
(raises hand slowly) I have a question. Um... No, never mind. Some minor plot points deserve to just be hand-waved so the major plot points don't get overwhelmed.
You know, the mimic seems to be doing fairly well after eating Starburst's tail and most of his mane. Maybe they can be sustained by the end products (sorry) of barber shops, and kept in captivity as historical examples. Since they apparently don't require a breeding pair, just the one for now (behind glass) should do.
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You know what they say... not everyone will get it. But the right people will.
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Well, now I'm just curious to see if I have an adequate backstory for whatever plot points you mean or if I'll have to make one up on the spot.
Ah, someone else mentioned this, so maybe this is on me, but the gag is that Sunburst and Starlight were covered with the mimic's glue-like slime in chapter 1. After the mimic was knocked out, Sunburst tried to pry himself free from the glue, giving himself the equivalent of, well...
...that.
So the mimic hasn't really been fed all that well... but Sunburst is probably going to need some professional floor cleaners to get his "leavings" scraped off the floor of his attic.
i’m guessing the agents snuck in were enthralled ponies
Equestria is filled with critters straight out of the Monster Manual, so this is fitting.
Also, Sunburst geeking over the mimic that almost ate him fits him so well. Time for Starlight to be the long-suffering (girl)friend and the sound of reason (unusual!).
So that's why it didn't try to attack the guards.
For a short moment I was afraid this box may try to eat someone.
...Well, maybe later.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
"You were also killed on sight when discovered in Equestria," noted Shining.
"Please. The only thing you ponies can execute is choreography. You couldn't even kill Thorax."
(Note: Wrote this before I saw later developments contradict it.)
This is quite the fascinating dilemma. Life is precious, but how precious is the life of an artificially created predator who feeds only on sapient life and has no ecological role? I suppose the question is whether the mimic can be reformed... and that's making a lot of assumptions about its ability to make complex moral and ethical decisions. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Yep, that's very much Pharynx's thought process. Makes total sense for him, even the nonsense.
Gotta say, really love how this chapter played out. Pahrynx' motivations make sense, and love how Starlight's response to the situation basically boils down to "I think you're right but you're doing it wrong". Also loved that spell.
Why didn’t you reply to my comment?
More than that, he's the only one who both dared to believe the changelings could be better but also the only one who actively sought to try and refusing to accept the alternative, even if it meant going, alone, out into enemy territory on what could've easily been a foolhardy and/or fatal attempt to make peace with those enemies. And he succeeded on all accounts, despite the extremely uphill battle to get there that, as Pharynx points out, others tougher than he couldn't also do.
The hive honestly owes quite a lot to Thorax's bravery. Because he is brave. He just doesn't put it out on display for all to see like one stereotypically expects of a "brave" person. Because, to Thorax, it was never about himself, it was about the others he could help.
That's actually what Pharynx is missing here. One doesn't have to be physically tough, strong, or show force to be a good leader, much less the best leader. It's Thorax's kindness and good heart that's precisely that makes him such a wonderful leader.
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But no one is mentioning the follow-up reference.
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I affectionately refer to that as "The Bonus Round."
Ah, Pharynx. Who else could be so concerned about the changelings’ appearance on the world stage that he very nearly ruined it? Truly Chrysalis’s heir in terms of his ambitions shooting his stated goals in the foot. At least he’s sincere in his concern for the hive.
Also, brilliant showing from Starlight. Having experience on both sides of the moral divide provides a lot of helpful perspective.
Also also, glad my cheeky asides were inspiring enough to include in the story proper.
Looking forward to the conclusion.
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Okay, fine:
It's not tagged "Dark" because it's not "Dark."
Despite the subject matter, it's still a comedy with Prince references and a few gags about changelings basically being bug ponies. The tone itself doesn't warrant a "Dark" tag.
If I was Starlight, I couldn't have resisted using that spell, either.
*suspicion rises*
Sounds like a fitting way to describe a changeling...
To be fair, they are very good at this.
If it makes you feel better, I'm sure Starlight thinks the same about you.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
An entertaining story so far, though I worry a little because the discussion here clearly shows that the story's conflict could fizzle out, and nothing since chapter one has matched its intensity...lots of talk of it being a pony-eating monster since, but it's now getting rather hard to see this as an actual problem (no ponies are under threat of being eaten, and none that we know were, and there's seemingly no way for that to happen again) rather than an abstract analytical discussion.
Also, why rated Teen? Unless I missed something, everything so far is very E-rated, tamer even than many shows on Cartoon Network. Are things going to possibly ramp up a bit, or is it just out of caution of talk of genocide?
That...does raise a potential concern about mimic overpopulation though, especially as there is now nothing that will naturally curtail the population from growing too big, what with no natural predators or known enemies seeking to kill them anymore. And as they clearly reproduce much faster than they die off from natural causes...you might end up in a tribble-esque situation and be unintentionally overrun by the things. And good luck finding enough of these biscuits to keep them all fed then.
Otherwise, good that everybody were able to work out a peaceful solution that left everybody happy.
11849684
Eh, thought about it, but figured I'd keep it around for a potential sequel if I ever felt like it... or just for any potential fridge horror like what I've apparently wrought here.
Thanks for reading!
Well there's at least sixteen fics on this site that could answer that.
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I was going to have Fluttershy start to explain this as the start of another shaggy dog story until I realized it was just as funny to leave it totally unanswered.
A very odd story, but in a very wholesome, earnest kind of way.
The right mix of silly and serious that, in my estimation, is not too far off from G4's own writing.
Nothing that truly wowed me but nothing that I truly disliked either.
All in all, 7/10 for me.
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I'll take it!
"Visual Pun Spell"
And if he keeps being a pain, she might give him the bum's rush. (That one materializes a mob of Pony hoboes, which grab you, race to the nearest exit, and then chuck you out.)
This was delightful! I really love the worldbuilding and the tentative friendship between Starlight and Pharynx was delightful. Starlight's obsession with Dragon Pit was a very silly throughline.
you really managed to capture the feeling of an episode of the show, and that's tricky to do, so bravo. n_n
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Ha! I'ma have to write that one down.
This feels like the sort of adventure that, had it been in the show, it would've been a map episode. It needed very specific characters, with Starlight to stop Pharynx and Fluttershy to talk to the mimic. I suppose the fact that everything worked out without its intervention is probably a good enough explanation for why the map didn't send them.
Lovely work. It’s always nice to see a solution that can make everyone happy, and Fluttershy excels at them, especially with a little help from Discord to bridge otherwise insurmountable gaps. Heck, he’s another example of an apparent monster finding a place in society.
Thank you for a great read. I especially appreciate Pharynx as a white-hat intiltrator and that Discworld reference.
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Thanks! This was definitely an odd story for me, but I'm glad its struck a chord with folks, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it as well!
And yeah, it being me, I had to sneak in a little Discworld reference for those in the know.
In other words: Nothing we didn't know before.
I love this response!
Certainly!
Ah, that makes perfectly sense!
Neat!
Maybe they will one day turn into another changeling-like form.
But say, is this a reference to something else? It sounds way too specific to just be a random stand-alone.
Good story!
I enjoyed reading it!