A thing or two about changelings and their habits saga

by Young discord

CHAPTER 6 (AKA: when life gives you parasprites...)

Today everypony was especially energetic in Ponyville; I guess it was just one of those days.
The sun branded the blue-maned sky with a particularly juicy morning ready to harvest what the rest of today may bring.
Today Mark was more than ready to set forth his plan, and he was especially excited now that Fluttershy was willing to assist… He got up and hastily prepared himself.

"OK, first and foremost I need to find a job, I feel strong enough to work and I can’t keep on relying on you all of the time, Fluttershy"
Fluttershy blushed

"Oh, it’s not a big deal, really"

"It is, I really don’t like to be indebted to my friends"
Considering Mark was pretty much broke right now, he desperately needed to find a job in Ponyville…

"Maybe it’s not the best way to start but at least it’s something" thought Mark

"OK, Fluttershy, could you please get me as many different local newspapers as they have here?"

"We only have one"

"That’ll do"
Once Fluttershy came back with the newspaper, Mark snatched it at lightning speed, turned to the job offers section and began to go through each one.

"Hmmm… I see they need some help down at the Sugarcube corner, shame I took a course in cooking food and not in baking… hold on a second… isn’t Sugarcube corner where Pinkie lives???"

"Yes, it is"

"So she lives at a store? That’s strange; I always assumed that Sugarcube corner was a name of a hotel or apartments…"

"How about this one?" Fluttershy pointed with her hoof on one of the offers at the bottom corner of the page

"Hmmm… quills and couches? That’s a strange store… I bet there aren’t many of those around, in any case I’d much prefer something related to cooking if possible"

"I don’t think the local restaurant or bar want to hire anypony right now, I’m terribly sorry for that"

"They don’t? This is going to be harder than I thought; you know if I weren’t broke I’d probably just make my own restaurant or something"

"But where would you put it? You’d need to buy some land"

"Well as far as I know you guys told me that the Everfree forest isn’t anypony’s property…"

"Oh no, you can’t do that! The forest is home of all the animals living there!"

"Oh, don’t worry, I would try to make a deal with the creatures living there or something, you know me, I wouldn’t do something as cruel like that, and besides it’s not like I have the money to start a restaurant anyway… unless… no…"

"What is it?"

"Well, I was just thinking, you know, having a second restaurant in Ponyville would be a pretty big competition, you know with the town being so small in relation to the restaurant’s catchment areas but what if instead of competing with it, I could offer them an opportunity to spread their business and open up a second restaurant that works for them, that way I would be given funding to make one, share the profit with them and would not have to worry about competition… what do you think?"

"It might work, but wouldn’t two restaurants be too much for this town? You know with that catchment-thing you said before? I mean I wouldn’t really know anything about it, but you know… just a thought, that’s all"

"It depends, I was known to be a pretty good chef back in the day, all I need is a fresh idea for an original restaurant and bam! I’ll be getting customers from all over Equestria… I’ll have you know I went to the Canterlot University to study cooking"
Mark was pretty certain of the flawlessness of this plan

"It’s decided then! I’ll do just that! I’ll be off then, wish me luck!"

"If you say so, good luck"
Mark transformed into a mauve-maned and khaki-coated stallion and flew out through one of the open windows in the kitchen
Mark flew back into the kitchen through the window

"Hey, kind of a stupid question but… wouldn’t you know there that restaurant is in town?"
Fluttershy sighed so lightly that it could be easily mistaken for breathing

"Maybe I should go with you, so you don’t get lost"

"Good point"

---

"So this is it?"

"Yes, this is the local restaurant"

"OK… you wait here and I’ll deal with the proverbial sharks"

"OK, good luck with that Mark; I hope it works out for you"
Mark inhaled a lung’s worth of courage and dove into the restaurant.
The Inside of the restaurant was full of fancy-poncy-ness and yet it had elements of simplicity such as the bland ceiling or the windows, someone clearly tried hard to make a simple building in Ponyville look like something it clearly isn’t…

"Hmmm… upper-class much? I guess that’s a good sign, I know exactly how to play these ponies like puppets… that came out wrong… oh jeez! I know what I mean!" wondered Mark
One of the non-many waiters, in fact probably the only waiter ever to have worked there came up to Mark and asked him to have a seat and tried to pass him a menu

"No, thank you, I’m actually here because I would like to talk with the owner of this place"
The waiter turned pale, although that was kind of strange considering he had a white coat to begin with
Mark tasted worry and fear coming from the poor employee and momentarily understood what was going on.
Mark chuckled and patted him on the scared waiter’s shoulder

"Don’t worry! I’m not a dissatisfied customer or anything, you’re not in trouble, in fact I’ve got some good news for your employer, or boss… unless you’re the owner of this place are you the owner of this place?"
The taste of relief triumphed over worry in an instant

"Please wait, while I go and talk to the owner, in the meantime, please have a seat"

"Thanks"
Mark waited for what he thought was certainly not a few moments, but eventually the waiter came out of the “no unauthorised personnel” door and invited the Changeling to come inside.
Mark entered what seemed to be some sort of office, although calling it that would be insulting the owner’s overinflated ego, and it was clear that this room was specifically made to make anyone who is on the other side of the desk look as small and as insignificant as possible.

"Good day, Sir-" Began Mark but was rudely interrupted by the lardy stallion on the big comfortable leather chair behind the desk

"Sir, I have a tight schedule, so unless you have something worth my time I would strongly recommend leaving right now"

"I see… well then it is a shame that you cannot find the time for an opportunity to further expand your… S E R V I C E S at merely no cost"
Mark could have sworn that just for a second he saw a green glint in the director’s eyes

"Expand? No cost? You have my attention, sir"

"Thank you… Sir, I am an excellent developer and currently am looking at a means in developing my own small business however if I were to do that, our services would coincide within this area and that would be most unfortunate, therefore I felt that it would be best that rather than competing and causing long-term loss of efficiency as well as income, we were to cooperate"

"In what way?"

"Glad you asked sir, I’ll be honest, I want to open a restaurant, however I lack the financial resources to do that, the rest is no problem, however, I already have some land ready for use, potential employees and an excellent chef, who is already eager to start in my restaurant. I do not require much and offer plenty in exchange for your financial support"

"How much do you need and how much do you offer in return?"

"I offer 33% of the income for as much as I need to build a regular restaurant and get started for the first two weeks"

"75%"

"With all due respect sir, although I am attempting to settle for cooperation, I am still aiming for having my own business, therefore 33% is as high is I can offer, also please consider the fact that there are many other potential investors who would gladly help me"

"75% or we’re done"

"In that case, thank you"
Mark turned away from the professor and confidently trotted towards the door

"You are making a big mistake; you think you can handle my restaurant? You have no means of even starting, let alone keep up with the big fish"
Mark, already halfway through the door, stopped

"I think you should know one thing about me, sir… I never EVER do risky things, if there is at least a smithereen of doubt in me I don’t jump in, and I am more than confident that my new restaurant is going to do just fine in Ponyville once I open it, it will blow everypony’s mind, it’ll be the first restaurant that has… well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise" replied Mark rather loudly in front of the open door.
A few customers extended their necks from their plates to see what was going on
Mark trotted out and slammed the door.
Now everypony in the restaurant was paying full attention to Mark.
Mark had the director just where he wanted him, all he had to do now is to walk away, and not show up for a few days, as for the gossip… it’ll spread on its own, all he needed was for those few customers to overhear an unfinished sentence.

"Come on, Fluttershy, let’s go to the Everfree forest, I’m done here"

"That was fast, did he refuse?"

"For now… he said he needs some time to change his mind."

"Fluttershy?"

"Yes?"

"I have a favour to ask, if anyone ever comes to you and asks for me in the next 5 days, could you tell them that you do not know where I am?"

"If that is what you want"

---

The Pegasus and the Changeling reached the invisible wall between the outermost edge of Ponyville outskirts (not too far off from Fluttershy’s cottage), it seemed that they stood one hoof in one reality and one hoof in another, there was a clear line where the twisted, mysterious trees and cryptic flora stopped growing and the well-known town life began.

"Fluttershy? I’m going to need your help for this"

"What do you need?"

"Well, like I said before, I can’t just cut down a few trees from the forest and clear the area to build my restaurant, so I need to come to an agreement with the local animals, and knowing how talented you are with them, I was hoping you could get them to listen to me"

"I don’t think that forcing them to agree with you would be a good idea"

"Oh! No! no, that’s not what I meant, I just want them to hear me out, that’s all, it’s entirely up to them whether they will let me build the restaurant here or not, I’m only going to give them an offer that I think they will find suitable, that’s all"
Fluttershy unsurely nodded and began working her magic, within a few minutes all the animals from the last few hundred square meters were huddled in a group, ready to consider the newcomer’s offer

"Everypony!"
Fluttershy coughed lightly and pointed at the animals

"Oh, right, sorry… Everybody! I have an offer for you all! I know that some of you may have a problem making it through winter when food is scarce and it gets, let’s face it, freezing cold, so I would like to offer you shelter and free food in exchange for letting me use this small area for a restaurant, rest assured I won’t cut down any trees or pour concrete on the soil or anything like that, I will build the building around the trees and the floor will be the soil and grass, this way all of you can continue living here but with the added benefit of continuous shelter and free food from the customers as you will be considered an attraction, I am sure that they will be more than glad to spend time on feeding you all… I am not expecting an instant reply, however I would appreciate if you were to give me an answer within the next 4 days or so… thank you"
The animals turned around towards each other and began to communicate in their own animal way

"OK, that’s that, we’re done, all we need to do is wait for 5 days and it’ll all fall in place. Wanna go get a cupcake?"

"Oh, that’s very kind of you but I have to take care of Angel’s tail, I promised him to wash it and fluff it for him"

"OK, no problem, if you need me, I’ll be in Sugarcube corner, I’ll look something like this"
Mark changed into a bony purple Pegasus and each one of them went their own way.
Although Mark was still fresh to the town, he already had remembered the location of a few key areas such as the restaurant, library or Apple Acres, which he was most likely permanently banned from entering by now… even though he could change into anypony at will, he decided it would be safer to leave it for now, nonetheless Mark was worried about AJ.

"Sorry Applejack, I really want to help but simply barging in or sneaking would be plain stupid, I think it’s best to wait until it dies out, let’s just hope she doesn’t tell on Fluttershy that she’s still taking care of me, honestly I don’t really care what they do to me, after all I’m pretty tough and I’d make it out of any situation but I’m not intending on seeing my only friends get hurt, it’s already bad enough with Applejack, who knows what they’re doing to her right now, let’s just hope it’s nothing serious… actually you know what? Maybe I SHOULD sneak in, just to make sure she’s fine, that’s what a good friend would do, right?, I would just sneak in quickly make sure she’s fine and then leave at once… yeah that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
It’s decided then! I think it’s best I do that at night, when everypony’s asleep, also I’m gonna need some time to come up with a plan, I’ll ask Pinkie when I’ll see her in Sugarcube corner, maybe she knows what’s going on with AJ"
Mark reached the gingerbread-building and entered (it was kind of obvious that out of all the buildings in the entire town this one in particular would be the cupcake store, you’d have to be an idiot not to figure that out)
Mark was lucky because he happened to come to the store during one of Pinkie’s Cupcake breaks which meant that she was already sitting on one of the tables set in the store chomping down on her daily dose of frosted happiness.

"Hey Pinkie, how are you doing today"

"Oh! Hi! today I’m just peachy- oh wait I don’t like peaches, I like strawberries, you know what I’m strawberry, actually I like apples too, maybe I’m apple today, what do you think do I look more like an apple today or a strawberry by the way do I know you?"
Yep, that was pinkie all right.
Mark leaned over closer to one of Pinkie’s ears and whispered

"It’s me, Mark"

"OH! HI MAR-MMMFFFFMFMFF!!"
Mark chucked the remains of the cupcake into her mouth before she could finish saying his name

"SSSHHHH!!!!! Don’t call me that in public! Today I’m called Gold Whinner, all right?"
Pinkie swallowed the cupcake and gasped

"OH MY GOD! You can change your name? WOW! That’s an amazing superpower! Oh, oh can you do it again? Do you have any other superpowers? What’s your superhero name? Oh wait you can change your name, what’s your NEW superhero name? Do you have a sidekick? Hey can I be your sidekick?"
Mark, yet again was speechless…

"It’s… it’s not a superpower; I’m only pretending that I have a different na-"

"Oh what about gadgets, you must have some really cool gadgets, or what about a cart? You must have one of those cool invisible carts!"
Pinkie ran up to one of the windows of the store and looked at the street outside

"Oh! I see the invisible superhero cart! Or wait I don’t see it! No wait I see that I don’t see the cart!"

"PINKIE! CALM DOWN! Look I’m not a superhero, I’m just-"

"Oh I seeeeeee… of course you’re just a regular pony journalist WINK, WINK"

"What was that?"

"What?"

"That WINK, WINK thing you did"

"Oh, nothing, WINK, WINK"
Mark did a facehoof and sighed

"Pinkie… firstly when you wink at someone you ACTUALLY WINK, not say “WINK, WINK” and secondly I’m not a… you know what, forget it, yes I’m a superhero that can change his name at will, there, now I came here to ask you a few things and possibly ask for some help from you"

"I KNEW IT! YOU DO WANT ME TO BECOME YOUR SIDEKICK!"

"Sure, whatever, look I was wondering, do you know if Applejack is fine? You see I had a little… quarrel with her family and let’s just say that they know who I really am…"

"NO! They discovered your secret identity! Oh no! Is this going to be the end for our superhero? Is he going to make it out of this alive?"
An idea sprouted in Mark’s genius head

"Yes, pinkie, they know who I am but I don’t know if they want to tell the world my secret identity, also they might keep Applejack prisoner! You see they think I’m a super villain when I’m actually a superhero and I need to make sure that we’re on the same side, I don’t think they’re just going to let me in just like that so I’m on a secret mission to sneak in today into their headquarters and make sure they’re all OK and that AJ is treated well"

"Oooooohhh a secret mission! I love those; I always go on secret missions with my friends, like that one time I was on a secret mission with Twilight to go to this library in canter-"

"OK, OK, I get it, you’ve done this before"

"See? I even have a bunch of stuff put away in case of a secret mission emergency!"
Pinkie came up to one of the big cakes on display on the window, stabbed it with her hooves and took out a mushy black (well, black with cake highlights) stealth cat suit
Mark wasn’t sure whether he should be disgusted or impressed by that, in any case one and a half heads is certainly better than one so maybe it would be a good idea to get pinkie to tag along with him tonight… and hey, maybe she might actually have a good idea on how to infiltrate the farm and where AJ is, after all, Mark doesn’t exactly know the farm that well.

"Pinkie, I think it’s best that we talk about this somewhere where nopony can hear us, you know… superhero stuff…"

"Oh, I get it! WINK, WINK, come with me to my room, its upstairs"

"Once again, Pinkie, with the WINK, WINK thing…"
The two went upstairs and Mark for the first time saw what Pinkie’s room looked like.
Yet again Mark was speechless, he was expecting something more… Pinkie-ish, like rubber chickens, pictures of clowns or something like that and whoopee cushions everywhere, but no, it was just a regular room like any other and that surprised Mark, I guess it’s a similar reaction that one would have where they enter a grown man’s room and sees something as unexpected as cute colourful ponies everywhere and posters of rainbows… of course there’s nothing wrong with that but if someone doesn’t tell you about it beforehand, you don’t see it coming.
The rest of the day, the two friends spent on plotting secret missions and writing blueprints of their plans on large blue paper sheets, they even spent some time in coming up with cool superhero names all in preparation of tonight

This was going to be one hell of a night.

Author's Note:

Phew! I almost forgot to post this... considering I have no internet at my place I rarely get the occasion to do so, also I wanted to apologize for taking so long to write this... I was kinda stuck at the beginning, I have a lot of ideas and plot twists i want to use but it's still too early for that...

Comments

[Perteks]

.... wat was dat?