Thread 35: Stories 46-60

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non-canon
>Twilight
"chrysalis"
~~~
>Chrysalis! I found it!

"That's great! ... Found what?"

>That ponies have recorded witness of Changelings before.

"Huh, really?"

>Yeah, we didn't know what we were seeing, but this ancient scripture describes the final fight between Chitania and Titania!

"Oh, shit, I gotta hear this."

>'And the black titans fought amongst the blasted landscape. Fire broke forth from the earth and lightning rained around as they grappled. They fought with alien implements of the gods including thin, stringed instruments, wielded like axes, wheel boards, and wore sheets of obsidian over their massive eyes. They had also lit themselves on fire. It was really fucking metal.'

"Yeah... Shame it'll never happen again. Ever since that fight happened, Changelings have needed more love to stave off the depression of knowing such a fight will never again be witnessed in history. Or the depression of knowing you were born too late to witness such a thing."

>We could use my simulator to delve into the genetic memories to rewitness it.

"Nah, Sparklebutt... it just wouldn't be the same... Fuck, i need to hang out with Shiny and sunbutt for a few hours to pretend we can do something almost as awesome."

Twilight reads the tablet again and sighs

>I will never watch Chitania and Titania have their final, epic, slugout.

-Feels bad, mare.-
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>29
"MM"
'Trixie'
[Zecora]
{???}
~~

>A 'what'-play competition?

"Cosplay! It's where you dress up like someone else, like a character from a book or what have you."

'I understand these poor souls. If I were anyone other than the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie, I would want to at least pretend to be someone so amazing too.'

[What fun it would be to dress up in this way! I think it would be nice to indulge in a bit of cosplay.]

>Oh, fine,

*FWOOSH!*

"Niney!"

>What?

'You can't just use your disguise magic, that's cheating!'

>Is this a competition? I thought this was for fun.

"Well, I mean, it is but..."

[It just misses the spirit of it you know? It's just not the same if you use your powers for show.]

>I am a changeling, this is what we do. Unto mine body is forged a magic made solely for this event so joyous! At last, I am free to use mine own skills and fear not the thought from others that I seek deception, only fun! And you wish to take this from me? How cruel!

"... When you put it like that..."

'Why Shining Armor?'

>It's such fun! Many a time I tried to copy his visage with which to seduce yon princess of love, and yet I never got to-

*TACKLE!*

>MY SPINE!

{Shiny shiny shiny! I found you! I thought you got abducted by the ponies of the pockylypse and....}

>Glrgl!

{YER NOT SHINY! IMPOSTER!}

*BOUNCE!*

>RIBS! MY RIIIBS!

"Oh no! No no! Honey it's just a cosplay! He was pretending for fun!"

{...OHHHH! Cosplay! Like what Uncle Spike did that one time for the contest! I get ya'! Sorry mister!}

>HLK! I-I taste lung! I TASTE LUNG!

{What's that taste like?}

>PAIN!

{I knew it! Well, good job with yer' costume mister, but I gotta go find Shiny! Bye!}

*CRACK!*

>GRLK!

"'...'"
[...Are you oka-]

>NO!

[Just asking.]

For a moment, he just lied there and suffered.

And then a certain helmeted changeling raced past, trampling him on her way.

>...glk...

"Think you should pick a different cosplay."

>....

"...Yeah..."
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>OO7
~~~~~

>Is this dumb, little pigeon? I feel like this is dumb.

He had no reason to be tailing the pink princess anymore, now that his titan queen theory had been thoroughly debunked, but for some reason he just found himself right behind them, covertly hiding in the shadows. Funny, tailing this princess was way, way easier than tailing Celestia.

In that it was possible at all.

Not to overly boast about his abilities, but he was pretty damn top notch, and yet somehow spying on the alabaster princess was like trying to spy on the actual sun itself. Yeah, it's out there in the open most of the day, but when it wants to hide it's totally gone, and trying to watch for too long is always going to cause pain. Frankly, he was surprised. These ponies didn't seem like a secretive lot, but yet somehow she stayed one step ahead of him. It got so bad he was actually happy that he had be assigned to Chitania's case.

His one solace, the one thing that brought him happiness in this situation in all of this was learning from his Queen that Jetset's attempts to spy on his Queen were as comically easily foiled as his own. Her highness had barely even had to try.

>I swear, feels like I'm a minor league player who somehow keeps ending up on the same field with the star athletes. I'm a damn fine infiltrator, but those two, buddy... those two are something else.

His little companion said nothing, simply cooing and pecking at his head.

>I swear, sometimes I just want to-GAH

He felt himself pulled backward as something wrapped around his leg and jerked him backwards. Without even looking, he flicked one of his hidden shivs back at whatever had grabbed him, landing with a satisfying wet sound.

He expected to find a lot of things. A rival spy, perhaps even that annoying asshole who like him keeps trying to follow the Titan Queen, many things.

A spider made of cotton candy was not one of them.

>...Interesting.

Mentally, he cycled through all of the possibilities, eventually landing on only one.

>Fine, jeez, I'll stop following the damn princess, Discord. I wasn't spying on her.

He didn't see the chaos being, of course, but it had to be him. This MO was far too specific to chaos magic to be anyone else. Which means, of course, the being of pure crazy had just popped into existence to torment him to dissuade any further tailing, because of course he couldn't hide from the God of Insanity. Wearily, he sighed and went off to try and find some more leads.

>...telling you, bird buddy, to the other changelings I'm top tier, but to them I'm minor league next to the heavy hitters.

Miles and miles away, far beyond partyland and unaware of the bug monsters musings, a certain draconequus's ears were burning, and he had no idea why. Well, he had no idea what had set them ablaze, not why the fire they had burst into was burning.

Still, something felt amiss...
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And now I'm picturing Chrysalis and Celly having little contests where they see which of their secret agents can get more info out of the other.

Winner gets cake.

>HAH! He got a pair of your thongs!
"Oh yeah? He got these pictures of you stealing Cadence's cake!"
>You want to talk about pictures of certain someones stealing pasties?
"GASP! NO!"
>That's riiiight!
"FINE! You win this round, but burn those pictures before Applejack discovers them and kills me! I blamed it all on you!"
>...That explains the paintballs to the face...
"So... best out of 98?"
>You're on!
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NC

>Twilight
"Diamond Tiara"
'77'
[Spike]
~~~
>Tiara, may I ask about TBDRLIATU?

"Well what do you want to know?"

>Well, I remember making something similar that you and Spike fought over once. It was based off of an old weapon from the human world called a Fliegerfaust.

"Yeah, I remember that. Thing blew up on me so I made modifications to the design."

>And what are those exactly?

"TBDRILATU has a magnoscopic scope with vision ranges from magical, thermal, electromagnetic, and even x-ray. It also has radar and sonar scanning to shoot down planes or blow up submarines."

>Why x-ray?

"In case I need to shoot something in space."

'It's a reasonable precaution.'

"Yep. He weighs one hundred fifty kilograms, and is chambered to fire six, 80mm custom made rockets of various payloads and designs. Initial launch is added with electromagnetic rails with radar based range finder. Because of this, TBDRILATU can also fire smaller sized explosives, ferrous slugs (I never use those, though, why downgrade?), or operate as a more conventional grenade launcher."

>Wow... how much do the materials cost?

"About four hundred thousand bits for twelve shots."

>...

"Admittedly, that's why my standard loadout is all guided rockets. I can lock onto multiple individual targets, or just unload multiple rockets into a single target."

[And this is why the A-team lost government funding.]

"Well, you and the others did."

'It's not as though we needed it. Most of the funding paid for Twilight or you anyway.'

"Well, you know what they say. We can't all live on love alone."
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NC
>Silverspoon
"DT"
~~~

>Bullshit, it does not weigh that much! You're exaggerating!

"Oh yeah? Catch!"

*CRUNCH!*

>OH SWEET CELESTIA MY ORGANS! IT'S CRUSHING MY ORGANS!

"Heh, yeah... TBDRLIATU is a bit 'much' for most mares. Takes someone like me to handle him."

>I TASTE MY HEART!
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>Twilight
"Spike"
'???'
~~~~~

>You're not turning green inside, are you? No sudden limbs sprouting? No teeth growing inward and going up into your brain?

"No..."

>What?

"Well, I have had this funny taste of almonds in my mouth since..."

>OH FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

*ZAP!*

"GLRGL!"

>...

"...Taste is gone..."

>PHEW! You tell me that right away next time! That was your bloodstream taking on the properties of CYANIDE.

"..."

>...Or it might've just changing the surface of your tastebuds enough that you thought it resembled an almond like flavor. Either or, really.

"*KAFF*... You don't say..."

'Uh, Twili? Why are you shooting-'

>SHINY!

'OOF!'

"Forgotten in a moment, such is the life of Spike the dragon."

>Finally! I've been looking all over for you!

'While we're on the subject of looking...'

>No sign of Cadence?

'Uh...'

>Bumped into Celestia on the way here. Well, more like crashed into, and she was totally unmoved by.

"She avoiding you or something?"

'She ran off last night to prove she's not old, so I'm expecting to find her amidst a horde of carnage.'

>That bad?

'Let's just say there's a reason I left Two back at the hotel. Pretty sure I'm going to have to bail her out and possibly pay a lot of money.'

>...You left Two back at the hotel?

'Yeah?'

"Just... by herself?"

'Didn't exactly have time to find a babysitter for what I thought was going to take, like, five minutes tops. My wife is surprisingly sneaky.'

>....
"..."

'...What? I told her to stay put, and she always listens to me.'

>While also surrounded by a carnival fair?

'Uh... well, I mean, this exact scenario hasn't cropped up, no, but there's no reason to think she'd run off into a place with a bunch of strangers. She was, you know, living with the Changelings before she even met me, it's not like she's never been outside of the castle by herself.'

>Did you in any way tell her Cadence might be in trouble?

'I told her Cadence might have done something bad, yeah. Left it vague as to what so I can lie my tail off later though, why?'

"So, let me get this straight. You left Two, APPLEJACK TWO, alone in a small room-"

'Pretty large, actually.'

"-and told her that you were going off alone for what should have been a very short amount of time because Cadence might have done something bad, and then did not return for hours?"

'...It, uh, it's only been one or two...'

>And she, presumably, has access to sugary treats?

'...I uh...'

"And she is also not being watched by anyone, because Cadence also ran off."

'...I...'

>And you're... here?

'.............................................'

*TELEPORTZAP!*

>And he's off...

"How good's his teleporting?"

>Not as good as mine, but he's pretty decent. Should hop over there in just a couple-

*PAZTROPELET*

'....'

>....You okay-

'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-'

"Taking that as a no.

'UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
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>Cadence
"Chitty"
~~~
>That was shiny's scream!

"Wow, loudest profanity I've ever heard. Even from me!"

>And it sounds like it's coming from where the sky fire is.

"You know, I kind of wanna find who made that and see if they can do other patterns. The fire itself doesn't piss me off."

>So we have to go in the opposite direction!

"Did you hear anything I had told you about avoiding your own husband? I swear, I'm gonna find the guy and marry him just to show you how to be a better wife!"

WHAM!

>DON'T YOU DARE START TOO! THERE'S ENOUGH SHARKS IN THE POOL!

"I-... Uh... What? why did that actually hurt?"
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>Guards
"Changelings"
~~~~~~

>...
"..."
>...
"..."
>...
"..."
>So you guys just heard that too, right?

"YES!"

>Oh, thank goodness. Thought we were going nuts.

"...AIRRIBA!"

>GODDAMN IT!
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>Lyra
"Bonbon"
'Lotus'
[Aloe]
~~~

>....Okay, so did you guys just-

"Yes. We all heard it. You don't even need to ask."

>Oh, okay. Yeah... sounds like some pretty wacky shenanigans going on.

'It's probably very stressful.'

[Most likely going to cause quite the chaos in it's wake.]

"Definitely going to be a headache for everyone involved there."

>Oh yeah, glad we're up here, way away from that.

'So far away.'

[Here, in our nice safe little town.]

"The town that has had no major destruction or events since they moved out."

>Yep. Real peaceful.

"Unlike whatever just caused that scream."

'That has to be horrible!'

>It is...
"..."
'...'
[...]

>OH DEAR CELESTIA I'M SO BOOORED!

"I am, but not enough to actually want them back, is that weird?"

'I wouldn't mind them visiting for a bit of livening up the place so long as they immediately left.'

[Honestly? I liked them, wish they had stayed.]

>...So, what do you think is happening?

"Meh, probably just a misunderstanding or something. How it normally goes here."

>Want to make up something crazy as hell and spread a rumor?

"'[DO WE!?]"'

>Well, you didn't hear it from me, but I heard Shining Armor walked in on his wife... and his sister.

"Funny, I heard it was the other way around!"

'Twilight walked in on them?'

"No."

[Oooooo! I like that one!]

'Me too!

>Okay, so, Cadence walks in on them, and he freaks out... but she's NOT freaking out! In fact...

'YES!'

[ALL OF THE YES!]

"Ha, we are so getting executed."

>'[WORTH IT!]'
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Non-canon
>Chrysalis
"Spike"
~~~
>Hey, Dragon Queen, why aren't you going out there?

"Dragon Queen? Huh, not bad. But seriously, why should I? I wasn't trying to win, just needed to create a rally point for everyone, and I did-"

SMACK!

>Lizardo, listen to me, and listen to me closely! You've got to go back out there, get on that stage, and skip about in your frilliest frocks and do your damnest to win!

"Huh?"

>Not playing to win is like kissing your sister. Or Twilight.

"She did kiss me once. Or rather try to seduce me in her airhead phase. It was unsettling."

>Exactly! It's just wrong and you don't do it! You have to get out there and compete! Do it for Applejack, do it for Rarity, do it for Equestria, and most of all DO IT FOR YOURSELF!

"... Seriously, why are you trying to fire me up?"

>Because a magical, robotic version of my mother from the future told me to!

"..."

>Like that's any weirder than anything else we've had in these threads?

"...?"

>Threads of events, I mean.

"Chrysalis. I am going to start running. And I am never, ever going to stop."
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>32
"Variolus"
{Other!32}
[Original!32]
'High Roller'

"...and so the battle ended, my head severed from its neck, ripped off by the Titan. I was defeated, my body left to rot and my soul ascending to the Hivemind. The response to my arrival was...less than positive."

>I can imagine.

"Can you? Can you truly imagine what occurred? Can you imagine every single Queen that had passed before me grabbing my by my forelegs and dragging me to witness as the ponies in the village laid both mine and Chitania's Hive low with their foul magic? To see Chitania's rage boil into something that would rival the sun itself in intensity? I saw the protector of our race become a maddened beast, all from my own twisted desire for power. We thought she had been killed but then...she did not join us in the Hivemind."

>Kind of boggles the mind, how she stayed alive that whole time, maybe she had some love stored up?

"It matters little now. I watched the collapse afterward, the Queens falling one after another, entering the Hivemind, learning the truth, cursing my very soul for what I had done. The process repeated for years, decades, centuries, I was an outcast among outcasts, as even Chitania's perceived murderess could not stomach to look at me...until today."

>Today?

"She approached me, expression severe, posture as confrontational as always, I expected some form of beating, verbal or perhaps even physical, if anyone could have accomplished such a feat it was her. But she did no such thing, 'Come with me,' she said, 'Come and claim your only chance at redemption, or wallow here in the muck of your own undoing.' And so I followed her as she took me to such an odd little remote corner of the Hivemind, expansive as it is. There I saw your form, floating as like a derelict tossed about by a storm, there she explained her plan."

>Why didn't she come here herself?

{She knew a lost cause when she saw it.}

"Hm, I wonder how you will taste such a salty tongue..."

{Shutting up.}

"But it was not to be, she kept more abreast of the worldly affairs than most, and only a Queen that resides within the heart of her subject can manifest within their mind. As it stood, that reduced our options to she and I, and she being Chrysalis' mother, as well as the Queen of THAT miscreant, led her to surmise you would be...less receptive."

>There's some wisdom there, I suppose...hey, if all the magic wiped out the hive, how did I survive?

The Queen blinks and looks a tad evasive.

"Ah...right, yes...I may have...left you and a few others in the snow."

>...

{That's co-...nah, too easy.}

"What can I say, survival of the fittest was on the brain, and was close to running on empty as it was, I figured whatever drones I lost would be made up if I just screwed the next poor fool I came across. How ironic that it was the least fit by my criteria that survived in the end."

>Yeah, no kidding.

"But is that not tantamount to my point? Such backstabbing and needless callousness has lead to our destruction, you have the ability to change this, you and all the others up to Chrysalis herself. There must be another way."

>I can only hope that is the case.

"So, my son, will you honor your dead mother's wish? At least attempt to make amends, and who knows? Perhaps in being forgiven, you will find opportunities to forgive yourself."

>...alright, yes, I'll do it.

Variolus smiles.

"Excellent, and thus the pawn moves another space along the board. Now...my second purpose."

A chilling look crosses her features.

"A warning, one that you must pass on...or our race may finally meet its fate."

>What must I warn our people of?

"An enemy, our eldest and most predatory foe, it is returning, and it rides the husk of the one you most sincerely called sister."

>W-what!?

"88 lives, my son, her death in the caves merely an opening for the creature that now wears her skin. The Bane of Scidrella is coming to finish what it started so long ago, and if both our race and the others with whom we share this world are to survive it, you must pass on this warning. Cordyceps rides upon the mind of a Canary, its foul mission summed up by a single word: Spread. The Queen and the ponies must be prepared or else...you may all perish."

>O-of course! I would gladly spread this message if it meant keeping us from slipping fully into extinction!

Variolus smiles.

"There is hope for you yet, now-"

[Mother!]

The original 32 bursts from the darkness, his eyes wide.

[We...we have a serious problem.]

And then everything goes...

...white.

'Heyyyyy buddy, looks like you're finally waking up.'
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>SA
"Twilight"
'???'
~~~~

>UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

"Are you going to breath eventually-"

With a fury of fire and magic, the door to the room the were currently in was blasted open from the outside. From the smoke, twin blades forged of pure, green flame swung out, dispelling a wild-eyed and snarling figure beneath it all.

Without missing a beat, the green irises of the changeling Queen honed in on the prince, and in a second she was in front of him, blades still poised and magic still ignited on her horn.

'WHAT!? What's going on!?'

Seemingly unconcerned by her hostile stance, the white unicorn at last stopped his wild screaming and grasped hold of both sides of her face.

>CHRYSALIS!

'What!?'

>I need a favor, a very, very, veeeeery big favor.

'...Is this about to go-'

>DO NOT TURN THIS TO SEX THIS IS SERIOUS!

To Twilight's surprise, the Queen actually relented.

>I need you to use your awesome, amazing infiltrator skills, and I need you to FIND MY TWO SHE COULDBEANYWHEREWHYWOULDSHELEAVETHE-

With a SMACK! her hoof raked across his cheek.

'Two's out and running?'

>YES!

'Okay... here's what we need to do.'

Her horn, which had still been ignited with magic, unleashed a bolt right into his face. Twilight's momentary heart-stopping caused by horrible flashbacks thankfully went away when the green light faded and her brother still looked normal.

Really normal, actually.

'First rule of extraction, do not let them see you sweat. Second rule, give them no reason to think that you have any reason to be looking for something at all. Third rule, find your target, and make it look like you were always one big group. You are going to go out there, look calm and collect, do not even look like you are looking for her. Because yes, there probably is someone out in this place who would like to kidnap and get an insane ransom out of that little tyke, but right now they have no reason to think she is vulnerable. Any kidnapper who has the skill to grab her would think she's at her most dangerous when she looks like she isn't being followed. When a drone needs to be extracted from a dangerous situation, you do not rush out frightened and worried, you calmly walk outside and find them by any means necessary, and then you make it out before anyone even knows you were there. Do you understand?'

Numbly, he could only nod.

'Good. Go out there, look normal, talk to a couple ponies to make it seem like you're having a nice time, and then we start looking. If you come across anyone you think isn't going to freak out, you tell them about this and get them on the case, but if it looks like they'd panic you shut up. The less who know about the extraction, the better. Go out, blend in, get your target, get back here, make it look like nothing happened.'

Once again, he nodded.

'Good. Get going, I'll have her found in no time. Do. Not. Panic.'

He wished he had the strength to say something, he really did, but all he could manage was somewhat hurriedly rushing out the still open door.

The moment he was gone, Chrysalis let out a deep, slow breath, and shook her head in amusement, a hoof idly rubbing her chest.

'Crazy little-'

"Wow."

'GAH!'

Watching her comically jump was by far the weirdest part of this.

'How long have you been here!?'

"Since before you even arrived? I wasn't hiding."

'...Right, I knew that.'

An amused eyebrow slowly rose up.

'Shut up.'

"You're pretty smart at this, by the way."

'Pffft, is this supposed to be surprising? I'm a Queen of a race of infiltrating bug monsters, of course I'm damn good at what I do.'

"Well... thanks for calming him down, I don't think I could have."

'Hah, like I needed to even tr-'

"Chrysalis?"

She paused, the tone in Twilight's voice quite stern.

"You don't have to hide like that, I saw how scared you were, when you came in. I saw how worried you were that something had... It's not... it's not weak to feel like that sometimes. I understand hiding it from normal ponies, but you're supposed to be able to share moments like that with your friends."

'...You have no idea what you are talking about. If you did, you'd know your allies are the last ones you want to let see you weak.'

Proudly, she trotted towards the door, taking on the disguise of a normal looking pony on her way.

'Come on, let's go find her before he blows out an eyeball.'

"Yeah..."

She didn't even wait for her to finish, just went out the door.

"...right behind you."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

>Chitty's mom
~~~
>You survived one thousand years locked in ice? I survived a million* buried in molten lava. The only thing you don't fail at is disappointing me.

*It was actually 900,098, but a million sounds more ominous.

------

NC
"Chitty's mothers MOM"
~~

"You did not you lying sack of shit! You were barley thirty before you ran off and got yourself knocked up by some second rate nobody like the failure you are!"

>MOM SHUT THE FUCK UP I HATE YOU SO MUCH!

"She keeps crying about that infertility thing, but it was all your shitty genetics that caused it."

>I'M GLAD I WENT THROUGH THE NECK WHEN I ATE YOUR SHITTY HEART!

"And you still managed to chip a tooth, even avoiding the ribcage like the sissy you are. Pathetic."

>I WOULD KILL YOU ALL OVER AGAIN IF I COULD!

==========

Also non-canon
'Chitty's great grand mother'
~~~
'Eh? Why am I here? I'm not dead!'

"Fuck you, I totally ate your heart!"

'Hmph! And only failures queens like your generation would think that would kill us! Back in my day, when I ate my mom's heart, I got a full thousand years of servitude from her before she finally died from being launched into the sun! And I know she's probably still around too! And we had to collect love by going uphill, in the snow, both ways, barehoof, for sixty miles!'

"Daughter, dearest? Would you mind killing me again? Oh, she went and killed herself."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

>29
"MM"
'Trixie'
[Zecora]
~~~~~~~~

>PFFTAHAHAHH!

"It doesn't look that bad!"

>AHHAHAHAHAH!

"I made it up on the fly, okay!"

>AHAHAHAHAH!

"You've never even read this book! You don't know!"

>AHAHAH... ahh... Hoo!...

"...You done?"

>Oh, Marey, I hold no insult in mine heart, let ig be known this is true. But instead I-

"Sexy talk will not save you!"

>...

"I didn't say stop."

[Although I have never read the book that encouraged you to dress like this... pixie? Perhaps it would have been better if you opted out, like Trixie.]

'What do you mean? I'm cosplaying!'

"What? As who?"

'The GREAT and POWERFUL TR-'

*POW!*

>...

'OW!... I just... OW! Right in my face, Mayor Mare! Right in my face!'

"I'm sorry, I'm not normally violent, it's just... no. No. Noooooo. Nope."

'...It hurt, you know?'

"No."

[Alright, at last I am ready for all to see! Behold, my cosplay of pure beauty!]

".."
'...'

[...What? Is there something wrong with how I look? I took great care to follow the book.]

>I don't get it either.

"...Oh! Uh! No, nothing bad! We were just... taken back at how good you look!"

'RIGHT! Trixie did not think you could pull off a... 'look' like this quite so well. It's astonishing!'

[I thank you my friends, your words mean a lot! Come, I think there is still a competition left and I feel I have a shot!]

>Indeed! Though I shall abstain due to the pitiful disguise techniques you ponies display so proudly, I shall instead view it with mirth as you... try. You're trying, and that's what matters.

"Right behind you guys...."
'...'
"..."
"...It's weird she's wearing makeup to look like a pony, right?"

'Trixie does not know why, but something about it feels... uncomfortable?'

"Like there's some kind of connotation we're missing, right? Some context that you can't put your hoof on?"

'I just feel really uneasy with her white face is all, and I don't know why.'

"Yeah... something's off..."

'...'

"...Not racist?"

'Not racist.'

"Glad we cleared that up."
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