Nico

"Uh... it says... 'Nicolas.' So... I guess you're Nicolas? Nicolas... Nicolas Quill? 'Cause there's a quill on your side right here. Nah, that sounds too fancy for you. I'm gonna call you... Nico." For some reason, the name seemed to ring a bit of a bell in Artsy's mind. Though she was not quite certain if either of those were his real name. Before she could respond to his apologies, she heard the voice of Fedoraman... erm, Klopp, calling back to her. Eager to have her attention taken away from a brother who had forgotten her, she obliged his summon.

"Nico? Why woul-" He stopped talking mid-sentence as Artsy turned around and talked to the white pony, no longer paying attention to him. Furrowing his brows, Nicolas waited on her to finish speaking to him before trying to get her attention again.

"Why would you call me Nico if my..." he tried to think of what word to use, "My 'rear end' says Nicolas? Doesn't that seem representative of who I'd be?" He inquired, his facial expression becoming a bit perplexed. Then, remembering what she had said before reading his flank, it switched from confused to pained in appearance. "Also, just so you know, I haven't forgotten you. I remembered you were my sister, didn't I? I just don't remember much for details, I'm afraid. Such as your name. Though I do recall you calling me... brobro, I think? I'm not completely certain, but I think you called me that. Sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"

@,

Looking over at the white pony she was talking to, he couldn't help but feel that he was quite a silly fellow due to his recent shenanigans. "Hey there," he addressed the pegasus, "My name's Nicolas, apparently. Though you can call me Nico, too, since it seems she'll be doing that. What's you're name, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I don't know how we got here," Artsy said a little less awkwardly, adapting a more solid and calm tone. She had managed to force herself into acting like a normal person this time. Hopefully, that'd keep up. "I just... there was a crack, you see. It was all glowy and smishschmapply. And then like, I went into it. And uh... my boyfriend followed. And here the two of us are. We were having one of those visits we always have. It seems the crack is also another common theme. I think you saw one too?"

Listening to her talk for a while, he noticed that she seemed to be fluctuating between being extremely uncomfortable and relatively easygoing in her speech, though she seemed to always lean more towards the former. She mentioned a crack, and he spaced out for a moment, staring blankly at her, though his gaze wasn't necessarily focused on her so much as he was lost in thought.

He could remember a glowing crack faintly, but it was mostly a hazy memory. Seems like he couldn't properly remember things that had happened to him in his human form whatsoever. He was going somewhere... to visit someone. He couldn't recall who, and he wasn't surprised by that at this point. Noticing something glowing on the side of the road as he went along, he took just a moment to investigate it and... he couldn't remember what happened at that point. Next thing he knew, he was here, as a pony.

Realizing that for several moments he had simply been staring at Artsy without saying a word, he shook his head a bit and finally replied to her. "Uh, yeah. A crack. I do remember that vaguely, but to be honest I can't seem to remember anything clearly from before... ponyland here." A confused expression developed on his face after he spoke.

Looking back at his flank, Nicolas eyed the marking of quill, inkwell and scroll upon it. Something was written on the scroll, but he couldn't read it from where he was. The angle was just too sharp. "There's something written on my side here, but I can't read it. Could you perhaps read that for me? I know it's a strange thing to ask, but it's been bothering me for a while. I'm not even sure if we can still properly read as ponies, but I'd surmise that, as we are able to speak English properly, we should certainly be able to read, no? Oh, sorry, I'm starting to ramble now, aren't I?" Craning his neck, Nicolas tried his best to read his own flank, impatient to await his sister's reply.

"I'm sorry if I seem rude and abrupt, but this has just been really bothering me. Not like we can exactly reminisce on good old times we can't even remember, now, can we?" He became worried that he was seeming more and more rude sounding as he spoke, so at this point Nicolas decided to simply quit speaking and await her reply.

"Heh heh... yeah. I hope I don't get knocked in either. Anyway! I'm not... a pony. And I think you aren't one either, right? It's me... me... I... I can't remember my name. But I call myself Artsy Dreamscapes here. Remember? Don't you know me? We talked all the time. You... you uh... there might be some... being relatedness..." Her face fell a little as she felt stupider and stupider the more she spoke, once again becoming as red as the flower in her mane.

 

Nicolas noticed this pony, Artsy, seemed to be shying away as she spoke to him. This only further stirred up thoughts in his head that he surely knew her. And she seemed to think that she knew him, that's for sure. Maybe some relatedness, she said, too. It's strange to think that he might have a hard time recognizing someone he was related to. His thoughts were fuzzy, but he was sure he knew her. Absolutely sure of it. But how did he know her, and where did they meet before...?

"That's it!" Nicolas exclaimed suddenly in response to his own thoughts. "I've never met you before, have I?" He looked straight at Artsy's flushed face, tilting his head. "We know each other, and we've spoken before, but we've never met. Obviously, you're-" He stood there with his mouth agape, his eyebrows furrowing as he tried to think of her name. After a moment, he felt sharp pain in his head just as he did when trying to remember his own name.

"I'm sorry, but I can't seem to recall your name, either. But I'm certain I know you! In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you're my sister! Somehow, Artsy seems to fit you quite well, though I can't for the life of me figure out why!" Nicolas began to get excited a bit at meeting her for the first time, should it actually be who he thought it was. But his thoughts quickly crashed and burned in his mind as he came to the realization that he was meeting her, and they were ponies.

"You know, I hate to throw this off course, really. But you see, you're right. I'm not a pony. Yet, at the same time, I am. Do you perhaps have any kind of insight as to why that is? I would be very happy if you did, because I'm very confused about this, and a bit panicked, too! This isn't natural, and I'm getting the vibe that none of you here were naturally like this anymore than I was, especially you, seeing as how you said so and such." Nicolas awaited her reply, flopping his wet mane from one side of his head over to the other repeatedly in attempts to readjust it, becoming rather distracted from what he was saying to begin with.

@, @, @, @

Nicolas noticed a pony with a mustache laughing behind him, and couldn't help but think to himself that the mustache looked rather ridiculous on a pony. Muttering some kind of mumbo jumbo about binary, the tan pony, who was already laughing at him, burst into even more laughter. After just a moment, though, it seemed as though the cupid of seriousness shot her in the heart with an arrow of super seriousity, as her tone quickly changed and she spoke to him, ""You... you... is it really you? You're... taller than I expected,"

He couldn't quite put his finger, or hoof, or whatever on where he knew her from, but he knew for sure that he recognized her voice. Then, taking a closer look at her, he remembered the face of someone he knew, yet had never met in person. If she reminded him so much of her, does that mean it really is her? "I'm not sure if I'm who you think I am, but you sound very familiar. Do I-" He cut himself short as the white pegasus, now accompanied in the water by the magenta looking pony, suddenly started glowing and floated out of the lake. A moment later, he spread his wings and soared off into the sky, before plunging back down into the water, creating a mighty splash which soaked Nicolas' mane. Just seconds later, he was out of the water again, carrying the unicorn with him high into the sky, and as last time, he began plummeting back down at high speed.

Nicolas couldn't quite make out what happened in detail, but he knew that the pegasus had just crashed into him and sent him flying into the lake. Kicking his feet wildly in the water, Nicolas simply flailed around for a moment. After gathering his bearings, however, he began to kick his feet in an orderly fashion, much like he does to trot after teaching himself, and swam with surprising grace back to the shore, soaking wet, his mane draped heavily with water over one half of his face.

"Okay, okay. I said I was sorry. You didn't have to go through an elaborate ruse together to get back at me, you know!" Nicolas stated, shaking the water off of his coat. Turning back to the tan pony, he attempted to resume his sentence from before. "Sorry about that. Apparently knocking each other in the lake is pretty common around here. Anyway, do I know you from somewhere, perhaps? You seem familiar, but I'm sure I don't know any... ponies."

Nicolas had rolled around long enough. Having somehow rolled himself away from the field with all of the other ponies when a bunch of things flew out of the forest, he had trained himself long and hard on how to walk like a pony, and was trotting around with the best of them at this point. However, lost and alone, Nicolas was beginning to wonder if he'd ever stumble upon the other ponies again. It was getting late, with the sun beginning to go down, and he was honestly a bit frightened to be alone in this strange new world at night.

Just as he was about to give up hope on finding anyone, Nicolas came across a tan-coated pony, accompanied by a silly looking white stallion and a pony of a rather non-standard color. A sort of magenta, he supposed. They were all by a lake, in a rather grassy looking field. He was unsure if anybody would remember him should he just go walking up to them, so he did the first thing that came to his mind.

Despite how much he was dizzy from it before, Nicolas lay down in the grass and began to tumble and whirl as he rolled across the ground toward them. "Look out, guys!" Nicolas shouted out loud, trying to be clumsy in appearance but thoughtful at the same time. Suddenly, a sharp pain ran through his side once again as he seemed to ram into something. A loud splash could be heard, and upon scrambling back onto his hooves, Nicolas could see that he had accidentally rolled right into the silly looking pegasus, knocking him into the lake.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry about that! Are you all right!? Do you need help?" He wasn't quite sure if he'd be very helpful, as he hadn't tried swimming as a pony yet, but it felt right to offer. Looking back and forth between the tan and magenta ponies, his cheeks grew flush with embarrassment, shame and guilt.

@@Aureity, @@Ice Storm

Blinking and staring into space, Nicolas shook his head, finally realizing quite belated that some of the other ponies had been talking to him. Looking over to the white unicorn, now sitting in the grass, he decided that perhaps it would be best to answer questions so that he could start asking his own. He also took note of a light-blue unicorn nearby who had also addressed him. How could he answer them both and get straight to the point?

"The roll didn't hurt too much, but I'm not fine," Nicolas' expression became one of utter perplexity as he continued speaking, "I'm a pony! How can I be fine! I can't even walk! Did you see me rolling, there? That was intentional; my only useful form of locomotion at the moment as every time I try to take a damned step, I fall over!" His tone became more and more exasperated as he spoke, his mind undergoing what seemed to be a bit of a breakdown.

"To add to that, I don't remember who I am! I know I had a life before this, and not as a horse, but I don't know who I am! So, please, for the love of all that is good in whatever twisted world this might be, tell me that one of you know what is going on here!" Nicolas' head was hanging relatively low to the ground as he began to huff a bit, short of breath from having spouted out his rant in a matter of moments. Straightening his posture up as best he could, he cleared his throat amidst his heavy breaths.

Speaking more slowly and calmly this time, taking care to enunciate in case they didn't understand him before, or perhaps he might have come off as rude, he summarized. "I don't know why I'm a pony. I wasn't one before. I can't remember my name. Do either of you know what's going on? Please say you can help me, and if you can't, please direct me to someone who can." Tilting his head slightly, he anxiously awaited replies, on the off chance that perhaps one of them could offer him some sort of insight on this dreadfully confusing situation.

Apologies for the hold-up, everyone. I'm currently going through and fully reading all of the posts that I had simply skimmed through before, that way I can completely understand what's going on in all parts, and then I will be making my post. I can't say how long it will take, but hopefully not too long, right?

Edit: Posted it up! Sorry again for the hold-up!

Nicolas snapped to from his rampant thoughts of conspiracy as he heard more voices around him. Glancing at the other ponies, he noticed that they all seemed to be awake, and some were chattering about with each other at this point. Here he was, sitting in the shade, pondering on things, making up all kinds of possibilities as to why this might be happening, and they were over there deliberating with each other, no doubt. Perhaps some of them are used to this already, and maybe they even have some answers!

'I'll go over there and ask some questions! Can't be too serious; I don't want to seem like I'm interrogating them or anything, but I need some answers!' he thought to himself, 'All righty. Let's go!' He attempted to take a step, but kind of wobbled and toppled over instead. "Ah, Jesus!" he exclaimed, flailing around a bit in frustration before standing back up much more ably than when he first woke up. 'Just put move one foot, then the other... then the other, and the other. Damn these hooves! Why must there be four of them!?'

Nicolas awkwardly took a step forward with his front right hoof, followed by his front left, and his hind legs began to slide backwards on the wet grass, causing his limbs to stretch a bit before he flopped onto the ground on his belly. Letting out a loud grunt, he rolled over onto his side, pulling his legs back in and then rolling back onto him as he was so used to doing by this point. 'Okay, I should know how to do this! Horse movement isn't rocket science or anything! Let's see... One front foot, then the opposite foot in the back, then the foot in front of that and opposite rear of it... Sounds about right. I think.' Placing his front right hoof forward, followed by his rear left, he leaned awkwardly forward and had great difficulty moving his other front leg. 'Okay, okay, I took too big of steps. How do I reverse this?' Trying to pull his rear hoof back again, it simply slid in the grass a bit again and led to him ultimately toppling over once more.

@@Legendary Emerald,

@@Aureity,

"Augh! I've had enough of this!" Nicolas moaned exasperatedly. Flailing his hooves around a bit, he orientated himself on his side with his belly facing towards the ponies he wanted so badly to interrogate. "Forward, ho!" He whispered excitedly to himself as he began to roll through the grass on his side towards the other ponies. The world was a blur around him as he tumbled along the ground, awkwardly twirling his body along the ground, seeing sky, trees and grass in a constant loop. Suddenly, he saw something else; A red blur and then a sharp pain in his side as he rolled directly into the legs of a red, angry looking pony.

Eyes shooting open widely, Nicolas let out a stammering apology. "Oops, um... Uh... I'm s-sorry!" He rolled away from her a bit and scrambled to stand up, nearly losing his balance and falling over again, but managing to keep his posture. Looking over, he saw a white pony next to a picnic basket. These two seemed to be fighting over food! What did he get himself into? No doubt these test subjects were forced to compete for food as some kind of ridiculous experiment on survival. Standing there, sure that he'd be unable to really do much should he try to actually move, he hoped that he didn't just get himself into a whole heap of trouble.

Wetness was all around the dozing Nicolas as he lie on his back in glimmering dewy grass, his back soaked, head turned to the side and tongue hanging out of his mouth sloppily. The sound of someone screaming loudly awoke him, his brows furrowing as he tasted something strange. Opening his eyes partially he saw that his tongue was lying on dirt and flattened, damp blades of grass. He merely stared for a moment before his eyes opened a bit wider as he slipped his tongue back into his mouth, an expression forming on his face that was a mixture of confusion and disgust.

He tried to sit up, struggling to lift his torso off of the ground, but he was stuck in an incorrigible cycle of repeated crunches in his attempts. Giving up and falling onto his back once more, he looked at his body to see if maybe something was on top of him and he was numb to feeling it. Nothing appeared to be on top of him, and his hind legs were clearly visible to him as they sort of hovered in the air above his haunches. His eyebrow raised inquisitively as he pondered why he was unable to sit up. 'Maybe I'm like a paraplegic plus or something. My lower body and part of my torso is paralyzed, perhaps?' Testing his theory, he attempted to move his feet, noticing his hind legs kick a little. 'Well, okay, so there goes-' He craned his neck to look at his body once more as he came to an epiphany. 'What the hell is this!?' His mind began to race a bit as he realized that his lower body seemed to be that of horse.

'Was I the victim of some kind of mad science experiment to create horse-men or something? Am I a minotaur!?' His head slapped back into the grass roughly, his neck a tad sore, and he felt around on his head a bit. 'Okay, okay. No horns, so that's good. Now I just have to worry about what happened to, well, my legs.' Attempting to look at himself once more, the pain in his neck increased; a clear sign that he needed to find a better way to get a glance. Rolling onto his side, he tried to stand himself up, but merely fumbled his limbs around in a miserable writhing motion. Thinking for a moment, he rolled over to his other side, then back again. 'Heave, ho, heave, ho,' he thought to himself as he rocked back and forth, unable to gain the momentum he needed to roll onto his feet. "HEAVE, DAMMIT!" He vocalized loudly and abruptly as his body flipped to one side, tucking his knees and elbows as closely as he could while doing so and rolling on top of his limbs.

'There we go. Now, just stand up... What is my name?' His brain felt a pang of pain as he tried to think of his own name. 'Ow, ow. Forget it. I just need to get up.' Pressing his hands onto the ground he attempted to lift himself up to a standing position, but his knees wouldn't straighten out properly, and his body couldn't get past an acute angle from the ground, repeatedly falling forward once again onto his hands. Standing there on all fours, huffing a bit from the exhaustion of trying to stand with this odd disability he suddenly seemed to have, he took a look under him to see what was up. Widening once again, his eyes noticed his chest and arms, or legs, rather, for the first time.

'This can't be happening, this can't be happening,' his mind began to race and his pulse quickened as panic began to rise within him. His heartbeat resonated loudly within his head as his staggered breath began to reach an erratic state to match the jarring and irregular palpitations of his heart. "No- This is- Just-" He stammered incoherently to himself as his imagination began to formulate all manner of possible scenarios which could have led to this. Not once did this seem to be a dream; it was something very real, and very terrifying. 'Somebody turned me into a horse!' his thoughts began to repeat that in his mind over and over, echoing into the very fiber of his being. His legs became shaky as his nerves got the better of him, his fear and anxiety, on top of his terrible coordination with his new body, causing him to topple over as he attempted to step backwards, his haunches meeting the ground roughly. Sitting there, shivering both from the cold and recent revelations, Nicolas tried to calm himself, attempting to rationalize with his own mind.

'It's not as bad as you think...' Nicolas slammed a hoof against his head painfully, forgetting that he had this hard new appendage opposed to his hands, as his brain seemed to stab itself upon trying to think of his name again. 'This is all too weird; there's no way any of this is possible, is there? I can't believe that it's a dream; it feels too real. But is there any other explanation for something like this?' He closed his eyes tightly and thought to himself for a moment, trying to remember the last thing he was doing before this happened, but everything was hazy, like his memories were a place and he was stuck in the middle of a thick fog, alone and without a light. to show him the way.

His breath was still coming in short, uneven bursts, but he could feel his heart begin to calm a bit within his chest. Standing back up awkwardly and slowly, he finally began to take notice of his surroundings. He was in the shade of a nearby tree, but the grass around him was shining brilliantly in the sunlight, and he noticed several bodies all lying around nearby. They were horses, too. This was some kind of sick, experimental test chamber or something, and they were all someone's subjects in whatever twisted research was underway. That had to be it.

Looking carefully at the other horses, most sleeping, but a few stirring and seeming to be communicating with each other, he took note of a few odd things. They were of a plethora of colors, ranging from green to blue and even to an almost normal looking tan coat, and they appeared to have some kind of misshapen faces, with their snouts being significantly shorter than that of any horse he had ever seen. Some of them also appeared to have horns or wings; more freakish research material, no doubt. He shook his head, feeling sorry for everyone here. It's likely that the ones with wings and horns went through the most terrible of procedures, and he wondered if whoever was behind this would remove them at some point. My, that would likely hurt, and he cringed just at the idea. Continuing to look around for a bit and notice the other ponies, Nicolas became lost in thoughts of conspiracies and irrational rationalizations.

Okay, okay! I'm here for the RP! Just go on ahead and slot me in for this! Sorry I took so long to get around to this.

http://mlpforums.com/page/roleplay-characters/_/nicolas-quill-r3

There ya go. Now add me in and let the fun begin! (Well, whenever everything gets ready, at least.)

So, everyone, Nico is returning to the forums! Rejoice if any care is given, or dismiss this with your callous disregard if so suits you, jerkface.

No, no, I kid. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Nico, best known for being one of the forum's previous go-to artists as well as a moderator who stepped down for a while due to, well, a lot of stuff. I don't bite, I promise, and I hope that getting back into this community will find me lots of new friends!

For those who do know me: "Hello again! Fancy seeing you again!" I'll be making my triumphant return to the forums to do... well, not much differently than I did before. So, for anyone who knows that I resigned from making banners, yes, I will be making new ones. That doesn't mean they'll be up there all the time, though! I love seeing the community's work up there!

I don't really know much else to say, honestly. Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm back!

Gratzi for the... Railroad simulation thingy... Yeah, thanks, Zoop! :3

Hey, does anyone want Dragon Age: Origins with all of its DLC?

Regarding "Ponies IRL" in the deviantArt group, please refer to this: http://mlpforums.deviantart.com/journal/Group-Changes-299392076

The group has undergone a few changes now and that journal explains them for you. If you have anymore questions after reading that, just quote me with it and I'll try to answer.

I agree with you, I feel that the fangs she have has also added to this feel, although your previous vector had them as well, I think the pose that they are in has made them seem more the center of the image.

 

I opted not to vector the inside of her mouth and instead leave it wide open, as the pink color seems like it would make her look less ferocious, and I did want the fangs to be very prominent this time.

I love minimalistic wallpapers, and this one is definetely unique. It seems like most would go for a nice, calm pose from the character, but Chrysalis looks rather evil here. I do like the effect on her eyes, how her pupils missing make her seem even more evil.

 

Basically, great job. ^^

 

I went for a more calm pose in my previous one (which is also posted here and on my dA), and I didn't like it very much for Chrysalis. She seemed like something sinister was needed for her wallpaper, so I made this one, opting to do all I could to up the 'evil' feel.

I like this one better, too! Great work, Nico. The minimalist style evokes a (fittingly) creepy aura.

 

I'm curious to see how a full-detail Chrysalis wallpaper might look, though. Got any plans to make one in the near future?

 

I don't currently have any plans for it in particular, but I'll probably make one at some point. I'm really in love with Chrysalis' design, so I think I'm far from done working on things with her.

She looks scary without pupils : P

 

That's kind of what I'm aiming for with this style.

Chrysalis looks really good in this "minimalist" style. I like this one better than your previous one.

 

I feel that the minimalist style really evokes a more sinister side of her, especially with the pupil-less eyes. I am also more partial to this one; the other one didn't seem very 'evil', really.

I decided that Chrysalis deserved a wallpaper that held true to how sinister she looks, and I hope that this one accomplished that. I love vectoring her in a minimalist style, as well.

I'm keeping this image separate from my previous Chrysalis wallpaper as I feel they are drastically different, despite both being minimalist images of her. Any comments are welcome.

So, Queen Chrysalis has an absolutely amazing villain design and was begging for a wallpaper, so I decided to create her in minimalist form. I hope everypony enjoys. I look forward to hearing any feedback. ^^

To answer a question that a couple of ponies asked: Yes, I'll still continue to work on banners for the site.

Thanks for the compliments on my modding and such, and there's no way I'd just abruptly leave the site. I've spent too much time here for that.

As you ponies may or may not have noticed, I have now officially resigned as a moderator here at MLP Forums. I simply needed to drop something to help relieve some stress. I feel that the MLP Forums moderation team can do well without me as opposed to some of my other responsibilities where I play a larger role in them, so I chose to step down.

Don't worry, though, everypony. I'll still be here around the forums as a normal pony.

The clumsy pony who has something against pie stands? He would definitely prefer that people forget about that incident sooner than call him out on it as a way to get his attention. "Uhm... Yeah, that. The name's Nicolas Quill, and I'm sorry we had to first meet on such circumstances. Today just really isn't my day. I promise you that I normally have nothing at all against pie stands." He laughed a bit, a goofy grin on his face.

"So, what can I call you besides 'the lovely mare who bails out clumsy ponies'?" He held out his hoof toward her. "It'd be nice to, uh, actually make your acquaintance rather than have you spend copious amounts of bits fixing my problems."

Peach was a big fan of the minimalist wallpaper set and made a sketch based off of them. Of course, it was requested that I vector it so that she could use it as a wallpaper (well, a Google background, from my understanding). So, here you go, guys: Minimalist Peach Wallpaper.

Nicolas was startled as a pony fell over into him. Was everyone in this town as clumsy as he was or something? "I'm so terribly sorry!" The pony exclaimed as Nicolas turned around to see. "You see, somepony bumped into me and...hey...you're..." Her voice trailed off as she recognized him. His eyes widened with excitement as he realized who she was, as well. Finally, he could giver her back these bits and properly thank her. His mind had been running amok with worry that he might not ever get these back to her.

"You are exactly who I've been looking for!" Nicolas' voice was ecstatic, "I've got something right here for you." He reached back into his saddlebag and retrieved her purse, holding it out in front of her. "I really appreciate your help back there, you know. I can't take all of the credit for getting these back, though. A nice unicorn named Spirit is responsible for actually getting them back from the stall owner. Still, though, I wanted to return them to you myself. Thank you very much, again." A nervous smile formed on his face as he realized he was rambling to this pony. "Uh... sorry for rambling so much." He chuckled anxiously, still holding her wallet out toward her.