Ponyville. The town that had haunted Popper's few memories her entire life.
"I can't go into Ponyville!" she said loudly. She was suddenly very glad she and the five changelings were alone in the car, all the other passengers in it having either left the train at previous stops or wandered off to the dining car for dinner.
"Why not?" Labrum asked.
Party Popper wracked her brain for a plausible excuse and found that she actually had one. "I look like Pinkie Pie, and she lives there. If that was a risk in Manehattan, where she's just a celebrity, can you imagine what it'll be like in a town where everypony knows her personally?"
"Surely not everypony–" Frons began.
"Everypony," Popper stressed, "in Ponyville knows her."
"She has a point," Mandible said. "I did bring her with me because ponies might recognize Pinkie Pie and realize she wasn't supposed to be there, since the newspapers said she was in Canterlot. Ponyville might be worse."
"Then we just need to make sure nopony recognizes her," Frons said. He turned to Popper. "You've already got the costume you stole in Manehattan, that should hide you well enough. Especially if you can take off that other hat now?"
She nudged the purple hat on her head, which matched her long purple coat. Her mane followed as it moved. "I think it might be stuck forever."
Labrum gave a little laugh. "Hey, where is that ridiculous getup anyway?"
Popper caught Clypeus glancing questioningly at her mane. She had hoped nopony would bring up the Wear-Do-Well outfit. "I, uh, kinda sorta…"
"Spit it out," Mandible said.
"I didn't eat it! But… I kinda threw it out a window an hour or two after we left Bridlewater."
Labrum tried to stifle his laughter and failed.
Mandible just gaped. "Why the buzz would you do that?!"
"That's not important right now!" Popper said quickly. "The point is I don't have it and… and… I really don't want to be caught."
"Neither do we," Frons said, looking a little puzzled. "Alright, how about we stay out of sight as much as possible–"
"You're all overthinking this," Gena cut in from the other side of the car. "Proboscis is a changeling. She's a shitty one, but we all are." That earned her matching glares from Frons and Mandible. "Any changeling, even one like her, needs to be able to act like ponies they've barely even heard of on a whim. And you," she pointed at Popper, "seem to know enough about Pinkie Pie to pass as her easily. If you're really a changeling worth calling one, that is."
Gena had no idea how well Party Popper could pretend to be Pinkie Pie if she wanted to. She also didn't know how badly Popper wanted to do literally anything else short of walking up to Twilight Sparkle with a smile and a "hi, I'm a clone".
"Pinkie Pie is supposed to be in Canterlot," Mandible repeated.
Gena seemed unperturbed. "And Canterlot is a short train ride from Ponyville. If anypony asks, she had to go home to fetch something she forgot or whatever."
"Can't I just… hide in a bush or something while we wait for the train?" Popper asked. "I think there's a big one near the station."
Mandible looked skeptical. "Could you sit still for that long?"
"If the alternative is going into Ponyville, I think I can."
Frons gave her an odd look. "You really don't want to go into Ponyville, do you." It wasn't a question.
"I… you don't understand." Popper looked down at the floor of the train car. "If I get caught in Ponyville, I'm dead."
"That's a bit dramatic, isn't it?" Labrum commented. "Ponies don't kill the few changelings they catch."
"Ponies are wusses," Gena added. "They wouldn't kill anypony, changeling or otherwise."
"We don't either," Clypeus said, finally speaking up.
"We could if we had to."
"Twilight Sparkle would," Popper muttered, half to herself.
Clypeus went wide-eyed, but Gena just laughed. It was a more mocking laugh than what came from Labrum.
"The Princess of Friendship killing somepony?" she asked, disbelief clear in her voice. "That's it, now I've heard everything."
No, Party Popper thought. No, you really haven't.
As the train pulled in towards Ponyville, Party Popper saw the town for the first time since her hasty departure. It looked much the same as she remembered it – quaint and cozy and absolutely terrifying. But while her memories were vague and incomplete, she knew that was not to blame for the biggest difference: A large, star-shaped castle at the outskirts of the town, beautifully constructed out of blue crystal.
It was a monument to the rule of the one pony Party Popper feared most. She felt sick to her stomach, looking at the majestic building. Maybe she shouldn't have eaten so many desserts.
The train began to slow.
You can do this, she told herself. They're all in Canterlot. Even if somepony tells them about you, you'll be long gone.
The train stopped moving entirely.
You can do this. You are a clone of Pinkie Pie, you can pass as her if you try.
The magic-powered doors of the car opened. The changelings filed out.
You can do this. Why did she keep lying to herself?
She hesitated, then stepped out onto the platform behind Clypeus. She was in Ponyville, and her world hadn't ended. Yet.
All around her were unfamiliar faces. The station was small, but busy, with more ponies boarding the train than disembarking. A teal unicorn mare with an interest in fantasy creatures was boarding alongside a candy-maned mare who made Party Popper think of secret agents of all things. A gray pegasus mare with hereditary wall-eyes and a taste for muffins walked through the door behind a brown stallion with a penchant for science.
The mare on that bench over there liked cookies. The stallion next to her couldn't stand them. The yellow unicorn mare stepping onto the train a few cars down held a grudge against helium balloons for some reason. Who doesn't like helium balloons?!
Party Popper didn't remember who any of them were, but it seemed Pinkie Pie had known all about them. She had known that Pinkie Pie knew everypony in town, but feeling it firsthoof like this was a whole other thing. She had met ponies Pinkie Pie had known before, but now there were so many–
"Are you alright?"
Clypeus' low voice pulled her out of the smallest and most immediate of her ongoing breakdowns. He was the only one of the changelings hanging back with her, the other four having headed down the stairs off the side of the platform.
She started following them, slowly. One step at a time. She could do this.
"Did you mean what you said about Twilight Sparkle? That she would kill somepony?" Clypeus asked when Popper gave no reply to his first question. The grave topic sounded odd coming from his little green earth foal form. A part of Popper wanted to spare him an answer, even though she knew he wasn't actually a foal. Maybe that wasn't the only reason she wanted to spare him the knowledge.
"I don't want to talk about it," she admitted, "but yes, I did. She has."
Clypeus seemed to think that over as they caught up with the rest of the squad. Following the road from the station, everything around them felt familiar in all the worst ways. This was the road she had hurried down in a panic after learning what was happening to all the other clones. As they drew closer to the center of Ponyville, closer to town hall, the feeling of returning horror increased.
"Hiya, Pinkie Pie!" said a little yellow filly with a red bow. In her tunnel of dread, it took Party Popper a moment to realize the filly, a big fan of pancakes, was talking to her.
In fact, there were three of them. An orange pegasus filly was driving a scooter in front, pulling a cart with a white unicorn filly and the earth filly who'd spoken first. They were a tight-knit group, she knew.
"Wait," squeaked the unicorn, "I thought you were in Canterlot with our sisters!"
"And who are they?" asked the pegasus, looking at the changelings, who had stopped a little ahead of Popper and the fillies.
Out of the corner of her eye, Popper caught Gena shooting her a meaningful look. A challenging one.
"Heeeeey," Popper said, drawing out the sound unnaturally. It was time to play pretend.