The doors suddenly opened, flooding the barn with light.
“Mornin’, Suncloak!” Applejack almost yelled, “sorry, but we kinda need the barn!”
The changeling let out a loud yelp, rolling out of the bed with something entirely unlike grace, taking his improvised blanket with him. “Gah! You startled me!” he called out as he stood up, quickly putting on the sunglasses to hide his eyes. Miraculously, his cloak was perfectly wrapped around him.
“Sorry,” Applejack said again, “but that’s life on the farm for ya. But look on the bright side, if ya’d been sleeping in the house, I’d have woken ya up half an hour earlier.” She walked over to a corner to grab some baskets. “Maybe ya can even help out around the farm a bit.”
Suncloak pondered his choices. The small bit of love he was able to steal the night before had been tasty, but nowhere near enough to end his hunger. He needed to go out into Ponyville and find some lovers, stat.
On the other hoof, sticking around and helping his host might help keep a roof above his head, and he’d be able to get a little bit closer, maybe steal a bit of that stray love again. That is, if Applejack and her family were the source.
He shrugged. “Sure, why not?” Because she’s one of the Elements of Harmony, you backwards-laid egg, he thought to himself. His thoughts could go take a hike; he’d rather have a little meal than take a chance and maybe get a larger meal.
Applejack headed for the orchard with Suncloak in tow. “Ya could try applebuckin’. Ya don’t really look all that strong, but hey, looks can deceive, right?”
She had absolutely no idea.
“Sure,” the changeling said, “I’ll give it a go.”
They reached a tree full of apples, where Applejack set down her baskets. She gave the tree a powerful buck, causing all the apples in the tree to fall down. Most of them fell in the baskets, while the rest fell on the ground. Applejack picked them up and deposited with their brethren.
The apples in the next tree wobbled every time a gust of wind passed by. “You give it a go,” Applejack told Suncloak as she set down the baskets.
This would be easy. The apples were more than ready to fall, and any buck would make them all go. The cloaked changeling turned around and gave a hard buck, while making sure Applejack wouldn’t see any part of his body.
The buck connected to the tree with little more than a squeak from the wood. Suncloak turned around, counting on all the apples falling down.
The apples stopped wobbling around.
Both changeling and pony looked at the tree like they had just seen a glass of burning water. His buck couldn’t have been that weak, could it? Applejack summed up both their thoughts nicely with a simple, flat “what.”
“Stupid tree!” Suncloak yelled at it indignantly, then turned to Applejack. “It’s probably broken.”
“Ooookay,” Applejack said, still somewhat surprised. “Maybe ya can do somethin’ else.” She thought for a moment. “Oh, Ah’ve got this book we borrowed from the library, maybe you can go return it. Just hang on a sec, Ah’ll get it.”
As she headed toward the house, Suncloak shot a piercing glare toward the tree. “Mark my words, tree. You’ll pay for this,” he told it.
The tree shuddered.
Although honestly, that could have been a particularly strong gust of wind.
Applejack returned a few moments later with a saddlebag, in which rested a book. “The library’s in this big tree house near the town square. Ya can’t miss it,” she told him.
He took the saddlebag and fastened it around him. “There are ponies who live in houses in the trees?” he asked. Up in a tree was an odd location for a library.
“No, it’s a tree house. Not a house up in a tree, but a house inside of a tree,” Applejack corrected him.
Riiiight, a library inside of a tree. “Isn’t that sort of... I don’t know, weird? All that paper inside of a tree?” Suncloak asked.
“Ah... guess?” Applejack gave him a confused look.
“Whatever,” the changeling said. He noted that the saddlebag was doing a nice job in keeping his cloak together. “I’ll get going.”
During his walk, Suncloak had enough time to check for ponies in love, or places where he could find them. He had found some signs telling him where the park was, which would be an excellent location.
But for now, he had to deliver a book. Sure, he still needed love, but to his surprise, he had felt more love in the air around him when he left. It wasn’t as much as the night before, but it was something nonetheless. He still hadn’t figured out where it came from, though. Not a single pony had noticed it, however, so it was a suitable alternative.
The library was indeed a large house made out of a tree. He walked up to the door and knocked. No need to just barge in and be uncivil.
“Come in,” a colt-like voice called, “it’s open!”
Okay, so he could have just barged in. At least he was still civil about it.
The library was a mess. Sure, most books were neatly stacked on the shelves, but quite a number of them, together with a large number of scrolls, were strewn about over the floor.
A purple baby dragon with green spikes was in the process of cleaning up. “Twilight!” he yelled, “there’s somepony here!” He took a large stack of books in his arms and climbed up a ladder. He set the stack of books on a shelf and started putting them away. “She’ll be down in a moment, I guess she’s still busy,” he told Suncloak.
The changeling took the book out of his saddlebag and put it on a table. “It’s a mess here,” he noted. Not entirely unlike the changeling hive, actually. Except this had less stones and gunk, and more books and paper. Somewhat of an improvement, at least.
“It happens,” the baby dragon told him. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in Ponyville before. You new here?”
The changeling nodded. “I’m...” What was it again? This name business is annoying. “Uh, Suncloak. Got here yesterday.”
“Cool,” the baby dragon said, “I’m Spike.” Great, more names to remember. “Nice to meet you!”
The changeling couldn’t say it was. But he had to, considering he had to play nice to blend in. “Nice to meet you too.”
They continued the small talk for a bit, with Suncloak experiencing it as probably the most nonsensical conversation in his life. Just small talk about this and that, while Spike put away books.
“By the way,” Spike said, “why are you wearing a pair of sunglasses?”
To conceal my identity from buffoons like you because I don't have enough energy to change my appearance, he thought. Since that wasn’t exactly something he could afford to say, he decided to stick with a simpler explanation. “Because of the weather.”
Spike glanced outside through a window. The sky was filled with white clouds, blocking the sun. “But it’s not even sunny.”
Oh, right. He needed some kind of save. “So?” he asked. Great save indeed.
Spike sighed, not wanting to further pursue the subject. “Twilight’s taking a long time,” he said to himself. He leaned back on the ladder he was standing on and yelled, “Twilight! Did you hear-”
He was interrupted by his own sense of balance, as the ladder stood straight up thanks to his leaning, and it was now threatening to fall backward.
Suncloak quickly shot forward and pushed the ladder back to the shelves, preventing it from falling over. He wiped the sweat from his brow and sighed.
To his dismay, he had pushed the ladder too hard, and with a slam the books jumped off of their place, now teetering on the edge.
“Oh, brother,” he managed to say before an avalanche of books covered him, with the appropriate cacophony of noise to go with it.
He could vaguely hear somepony stumbling about outside of the mountain of books which covered him. It was kind of comfortable, really, if he ignored the massive bump that was forming on his head and giving him a headache. Oh, and if he ignored the fact that he had difficulty breathing.
Libraries are stupid, he noted.
Suddenly, the books were all pulled off of him at once. A concerned-looking purple unicorn with a dark purple mane, with a streak of pink and purple, stood there. Her horn was alight with magic. “Are you alright?” she asked, arranging the books in neat stacks.
“Did you get that elephant’s license number?” was the most coherent thing he could say while stumbling about. He managed to collapse into a chair standing next to a table. “Ow,” he said as he laid his head on the table.
“Oh goodness,” the mare said as she walked over to him. He could recall her as well. Was she one of the elements of chocolate as well?
...Wait, the what now? That table was really comfortable.
The mare turned toward the baby dragon. “Spike, could you make some tea, please?”
“Aye aye,” Spike said as he left the room.
Tea would be nice. Tea was good. The changeling would’ve never liked to admit it to other changelings, but he liked tea. It was the sort of thing female changelings drank, not the males, which was a shame, because it worked wonderfully for the nerves which came with staying in a role, sometimes.
A few moments later, Spike returned with a pot of tea and three cups. He sat opposite of the changeling and started filling the cups.
Then, they had tea. Suncloak could feel his thoughts returning to him. The first thing he noted was that he had a massive headache, which was to be expected. That sort of happens when you get buried in books. He took a large sip of the tea, hoping it would alleviate his headache.
“I’m so sorry!” the purple mare said, taking a sip. “This doesn’t usually happen.”
Spike gave her a deadpan look and muttered to himself, “If by ‘not usually’ you mean ‘pretty often’.”
The unicorn shot him a glare. “Anyway, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”
The changeling spat out all of his tea in a rather impressive arch, straight into Spike’s face. “Twilight Sparkle?” he blurted out. “Element of Magic? Personal student of Princess Celestia?” He gave short look to Spike, who was drenched in tea and giving him an annoyed glare. “Sorry,” Suncloak sheepishly said.
Spike excused himself for a moment and went into the kitchen to clean up.
“That’s right,” Twilight said. “Is that such a surprise then?”
Not really; the changelings had a pretty good idea of who she was, especially since it was mainly her fault the invasion had failed. Not my fault, Suncloak told himself. Stupid queen.
“Uh, I hadn’t really expected to run into somepony so... special?” He wanted to say dangerous, but thought better of it. Telling ponies you just met that you thought they were dangerous could be considered a faux pas. “And, uh, you’ve kind of... been a hot topic all around, having foiled the changeling swarm and such.”
He had to make sure he didn’t slip up in this conversation; Twilight Sparkle was a very smart pony. And since she was the personal student of princess Celestia, any mistake could be... less than helpful.
Spike had returned, and this time didn’t sit straight in front of Suncloak, but rather one seat to the side.
“Well, we aren’t exactly done with that yet,” Twilight told him, as she took another sip.
“Really? How so?” The changeling took another large sip. Excellent. Maybe, if he gathered some information, he could go back to the hive.
“Well, we’re still finding changelings here and there. Since we don’t know what to do with them yet, the princess has given the order to lock them up for the time being.”
Suncloak spat out his tea in another rather impressive arch. This time, he turned his head to the side to avoid spraying it in Spike’s face.
However, since the baby dragon had decided to sit somewhere else to avoid just such a moment, the tea still ended up all over him.
“This is some kind of bad joke, isn’t it?” Spike deadpanned as he went to the kitchen to clean up once again.
“Oops,” the changeling said. Really, he hadn’t meant to do it!
It was hilarious though, and he had trouble not breaking into laughter.
“Is that such a shock as well?” Twilight asked him. She took a sip whilst eyeing him critically.
No time for horrible excuses, she’s on to you, the changeling thought as he tried to think of an answer. “I... didn’t know? It took me awhile to get here in Ponyville, I guess I missed that bit of news.” He gave her the same convincing grin he had given the three fillies the day before, just to seal the deal.
Twilight waited a moment, thinking. “That makes sense,” she said.
Suncloak released the breath he had been holding, and looked at his cup of tea. Empty. The entire thing must have went straight for the baby dragon.
After Spike got back, they refilled their cups, and chatted about random nonsense, mostly about what the changeling had been doing in the village. He’d sidestepped their questions about his past, though. Making up a backstory would’ve been far too much details for him to remember, and would be too dangerous for his cover, which was already incredibly flimsy, consisting of a cloak, sunglasses and a name.
He handed over the book and made his escape before they could get suspicious.
Mentally patting himself on the back, he made his way back to Sweet Apple Acres. He’d done a good job hiding himself, and now he could go out hunting, but not before returning the saddlebag. It would be something he could be easily recognized by.
Not that there was a huge risk, anyway. If he got captured, he would only be locked up until further notice. And then he would probably be banished! Or, actually, he had already been banished. So, no matter what, he'd be banished and locked up in the place he'd been banished to!
Really, no pressure. It wasn’t as if his life depended on it.
Hey look, a longer chapter, just like I said!
This one was way easier to write, since I had it planned out a lot more. Also, some gags I've been aching to use
Heh.... Ninja Mode ...On
yet another good chapter.
even tho i haven't got much to comment about.
I love how completely daft all these ponies are q;
Pfffft oh the tea gag was great, this chapter got quite a few laughs out of me. Thanks
Also I will henceforth be referring to the element bearers as the Elements of Chocolate.
The best part about farces like this is when the character knows how screwed he should be, yet sidesteps danger anyway.
please continue? this is good
The 'elements of chocolate' and the tea gag were hilarious. Awesome chapter
It's a good thing ponies are so trusting and gullible, isn't it? Suncloak's really going to need all his luck to stay undetected here.
Another good chapter, and I hope to see it continued!
I get the feeling the ponies are just screwing with him, keeping him under surveillance, cause the other alternative is that Twilight is an idiot.
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Everypony's an idiot under the influence of the Rule of Funny! Well, except Pinkie Pie, she's the master of fun, after all.
Aww, I got my first thumbs down Still, 1 thumbs down for every 80 thumbs up isn't a bad ratio for my first attempt at writing something in English that isn't for school. Not bad at all!
Also, holy moly 200 favourites! When I started writing this, I could barely imagine 1 person clicking that star. Boy was I wrong! You people are amazing.
Congratulations on your success! I have to say, this is one of my favourite 'fics to date; there's just something about it. The writing style, the humour...all great! Keep writing, or I may die from update withdrawal symptoms!
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Should have known, PINKIIEEEE!!dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Pinkie_loool.png Well so far the story has been entertaining, though don't let those favorites go to your head, it is currently the easiest way to keep track of new updates. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Rainbow_dealwithit.png
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Not at all! If anything, these favourites are incredibly humbling. It's sort of a surprise that by now, almost 250 people are interested in seeing this continue. It only motivates me to try and write even better!
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The stress would kill me, mainly cause I am a huge self doubter. Way to be ballsy enough to continue forth into the muddy scene that is fanfiction.
Why do I get the feeling the ponies are all humoring him and they really know who and what he is? Some of the breaks going "Suncloak"'s way have been convenient, and it would be absolutely hilarious for him to think so highly of himself and lowly of ponies only to have it break upon him that they've just been pitying the poor fellow.
Ah well. However it goes I want to see more.
Pfff...changelings are such silly creatures arnt they hmmm? hahahahaha the chaos they caused was pathetic
make him befriend him! please/
I think the only pony "suncloak" should worry about finding out his identity is pinkie pie because thats just how she is, and also being pinkie pie she wouldn't even care that he is a changling because her pinkie sense hasn't alerted her to him being dangerous
And then, he is found by The Pink One....
This is soo cool :D.... can i haz more pls?
Hm...
This seems more like a "Random" than a "Comedy".
...but maybe that's just me.
It's a well written work, in any case.
"Until next time, tree! NEXT TIME!!!"
I went on an editing spree and fixed a bunch of errors. Huzzah! I feel incredibly stupid about the leather hat thing. I probably didn't notice how morbid it was when I wrote it ._.
About when he fell out of the tree: his reaction speed is horrible. Also, comedy. A terrible explanation, I know, but making Suncloak seem competent doesn't feel right. In other news, I'm a jerk.
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I'd probably use the random tag when I write a fic about... I dunno, one of Twilight's spells misfiring, causing Gummy to transform into Godzilla, and then Rainbow Dash lends a giant robot from Pinkie Pie and has to defeat him or whatever.
Note to self, write that sometime.
God, I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this story! Suncloak's attitude, of course, is hilarious. And I lost it at “This is some kind of bad joke, isn’t it?” :D
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Implying you're not a native speaker? I honestly couldn't tell -- so I'd say you're doing pretty good!
I will break in song when this is done. Because this is fun.
Spike is best punching bag. AJ is best pony. Suncloak may be best changeling, but the jury is still out on that one. Just thought I'd clear that up!
Also, having recently studied about the maternal-origin polarity of Drosophila eggs, I found "Because she’s one of the Elements of Harmony, you backwards-laid egg!" particularly hilarious.
However, since the baby dragon had decided to sit somewhere else to avoid just such a moment, the tea still ended up all over him.
This make me grin! poor spike
Spike just seems to always get hit by everything.
Am i the only one who thonks that aj has a crush on suncloak
Fifty Bits say that everypony already 'knows' he's a changeling and are observing him.
he got you spike!!
I think you overdid the reference to the "banished and locked up" scence in the series. IMO it would have been better to just do something like,
" If he got captured, he would only be locked up until further notice." ... "Still, that would really suck, getting banished and then locked up in the place he was banished to."
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Agreed, after a quick review. It was somewhat overdone, so I changed it slightly.
The Elements of Chocolate is my new favourite line from any story. Ever.
Also, this is the first I've ever seen somepony or someling that actually has a chance of being banished and then locked up in the place they're banished to!
This guy is still a dick
Dat last line...
>> I think it was 'Bird in the Hoof'?
This chapter made me laugh a few times.
made me
hope it continues, now on to next chappter
So far, Best fic ever. of all time.
THE TEA HAS BEEN SPIKED!
Or has the Spike been tea-ed? No, not as good.
And the last line.....
FOOORESHAAAADOOOWIIIIIING........
665178 Honestly, I feel ponies are just a little... not paranoid enough.
Suncloak didn't know it yet, but he was already discovered by the zebragus to the left. He has just made it onto Dark Aeon's watch for suspicious activity list.
Elements of chocolate.
You have earned yourself a thumbs up!
I dunno why, but the further along in the story I get the stronger the desire I have to watch Invader Zim... huh...
elements of chocolate you say?
Oh, that was an excellent buildup, hah!
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Really? Aww. It'd be way funnier if they were all messing with him