//------------------------------// // Suspicious happenings // Story: Sometimes it's good to be broken. // by Lord Sabre //------------------------------// Mimic...us? We stood there, shocked into silence. Were we staring at a mirror? No, his movement's didn't copy ours. His head jerked from side to side in a nervous fashion, as if he were uncomfortable, but what with? Himself? And his eyes darted everywhere, never staying settled for any amount of time. But besides from that he and we are identical, not a physical flaw to differ us. Our eyes felt as if they would pop out from how wide they are, taking in this phenomenon. He, wait, no, Mimic is his name, Mimic seems to be expecting us to say something in reply but words fail us. This was meant to fix our life, change it and we suppose in a sense it has, we will never look in the mirror the same way. But we were so sure that this was it, that this was our big chance and instead we get an extremely convincing copycat claiming to need our aid! And yet the feeling lingers, as if this really is the break we were looking for, are looking for, could it be? Could this really be...? We need to decide. “Uh-who-wha-why-eh?!” we can't manage to put a coherent sentence together we're that frazzled. Okay, lets try this again. “Umm well,...would you mind umm...explaining well, yourself?” well, we deserved at least an answer if nothing else. “Oh well, umm sure, yeah umm, well I need your help, clearly and umm,” he spoke so fast we could barely keep up and the entire time he was glancing away, not making eye contact with us, which was probably a good thing as looking at ourself in the eye would just unhinge us...further. “do you mind if I come in, I don't mean to be rude or anything but, umm, why are you looking at me like that, have I done something or said something or oh!” he broke off suddenly as if he'd just had a revelation but we were still only halfway through his little monologue that the little rest was joy to my ears. “I guess looking at yourself or at least something that looks like yourself spewing out all this stuff is unnerving I mean, I'm unnerved and I'm not looking at my self although I'm always nervous which is part of the reason why I asked if I could come in and I'll shut up now.” and just like that he was silent, finally. Gosh, we didn't really know what to do, should we let him in, this strange pony searching refuge or turn him away? We took a deep breath and shut our eyes for a moment and followed what we thought was right, so we stepped aside and gestured him inside. He blinked several times before risking a quick smirk before dropping it immediately and dashing inside. He really is one paranoid pony. “Right, well thanks then, umm you wanted an explanation, right..” he was padding around the living room as he said it but didn't sit down and we couldn't help but have the feeling that it was as if none of the furniture wasn't worthy of of his flank, like he was turning his nose up like one of the Canterlot ponies. Whoa, just being near him makes you paranoid. But he sat down just then so we waved away our stupid thoughts. Even when static he was animated, twitching away, he looked as if he'd just murdered somepony. He took a deep breath, still jerking away but the atmosphere was suddenly serious. “Okay...” We could feel ourself starting to stir and as we gained consciousness slowly we tried to make sense of the day before as the information we'd received was still sinking in so we played the evening back in our mind. “Okay...” he'd paused, trying to sort out his thoughts before announcing them, we think he sensed that this was a delicate subject. “Well, I figured your sorta' in the same boat as I am so I thought that you know, we could sort of help each other out.” we didn't really understand what he really meant by that 'in the same boat' how were we alike aside from appearance? “We're not quite sure what you mean by that.” but we could feel a rush of excitement as the thought of fixing something, no, somepony as extraordinary as Mimic, well, it was a challenge that we were ready to tackle. “Well, we're both messed up aren't we? I mean, your not exactly a normal pony, no offence.” well hard not to take offence to something like that, especially as that happens to be our touchy subject. “and don't take me the wrong way, I mean, I'm just as messed up as you but my problems are physical and yours are psychological.” his problems are physical? What's wrong with the way we look? “Again, not sure what you mean.” attempting to fix him just became much less attractive. “Oh, I still haven't explained have I! Well the thing is... I don't know what I look like. See the thing is I... shift in a way, I can't really explain it. I can control it mostly like, if I was shown a picture I could take on the appearance of the pony but if I get stressed or anything...” he trailed off suggestively, not really needing to expand on what he'd already said. This was...amazing! He's a freak! Not meaning to sound rude but at least we know that we're no longer alone and what a fantastic scientific specimen to study! Well maybe we shouldn't treat him like an experiment, after all, he is a pony, just like us...maybe, just maybe we could be...friends? Well, with time maybe, if he's a decent pony, but if we were to become friends then he could hardly go around looking like us. So that's where we left it last night. We glanced over to the clock and decided it was time to get this situation under control. Last night we'd agreed that Mimic could stay here, on the sofa in the lounge. We made our way downstairs and paused outside the lounge door to hear if Mimic was up and sure enough we could hear his hoofs clopping on the wooden floor so we proceeded to open the door. Empty. The room was empty. But we could swear that we could hear him and yet it was completely deserted of anypony. “Mimic?” no answer. “Mimic.” we weren't crying out to him any more, just a confused mumble. “Oh, Issac, it's just you, sorry, panicked.” the voice rose from behind the sofa a second before Mimic emerged, his eyes wild and an insane grin on his snout. We just nodded, accepting his paranoia. It's strange but it's as if we've known him for years, like we're good friends. We guess our abnormalities helped us bond. “Breakfast?” mostly we were just being polite by we figure that it would be less awkward to breech the subject of his appearance over food. “Oh, umm yeah, sure, why not.” he said jumping up and dashing towards us. We lead him down the hall and into the kitchen. Despite our plan to talk over food we suddenly lost our appetite and instead was desperately thirsty. We shuffled round the kitchen as we went through the motions of making some hay tea, boiling the water, getting the hay bags etcetera, in complete silence, only a cough or sniffle to fill the void. We hadn't asked Mimic if he wanted some tea but we just assumed because practically everypony likes hay tea, in fact, we cant think of a single pony who doesn't! So we placed the full cup in front of Mimic in hope that he wouldn't turn it down as we're aiming to get the conversation over as soon as his mouth is full, avoiding any awkwardness or unnecessary questions. But as he smiled and reached for the cup we realized how nervous we are, we don't think we can do it, we're too nervous...maybe we could do it another time...No, that's just Dusk talking, we're doing it now. “So, umm Mimic,” he'd just started sipping so we had another at least another ten seconds, “we remember yesterday that you said something about being able to change your appearance if someone showed you a picture, well, umm, how about we give it a try?” we had to summariser at the end as our time was running out as he was clearly about to swallow so we didn't have time to go into as much detail as we would have liked. We had no idea why we were getting so worked up over this, it's just a conversation and we managed fine last night but no matter how we tried to talk ourselves out of it we were still worried. We chucked some tea into our mouth not only to quench our thirst but also so that we had time to compose ourself and to put together a reasonable reply to whatever may depart Mimics mouth. “Yeah, sure, I understand, I cant go around Ponyville looking like you can I now!” we did not expect that. We were prepared for him to say no and we would have to defend the idea, we were getting ready for a massive argument! But he agreed to! We spluttered and coughed as some tea had gone down the wrong way when we had swallowed. “Oh *cough* umm right, okay, we'll just, er, get the umm, photograph then.” we're completely stunned but manage to manoeuvre off the stool and towards the lounge where on the mantelpiece are a selection of photos. The first is a group photo of all five of us, well four plus Dare. Dusk and Dawn are sat down in the fore ground, Dawn clearly loving it and has her hoofs in the air and a massive smile on her face whereas Dusk was hating it, completely and utterly, his head down so you could barely see his face and a blush was spreading across his cheeks. Dyvin and Spark-plug were behind them, with one hoof on each others shoulders in a show of friendly affection and to the right of them was Dare, looking lovingly at all his children, warmth in his eyes, even in the picture it's visible. It's more than a photo to us though, it's a memory, our memory and we don't want to share it, it would be like showing him our private diary so we skipped on to the next. It's odd but we didn't want Mimic to take on the appearance of Dusk Dawn or Dyvin because if we don't think Dare could handle it, he's only just come to terms with the fact that he wont see his children again so having Mimic look like one of them would be like hitting round the face with a wet fish, painful and stupid. Instead we chose the last photograph on the mantelpiece, a picture of Spark-plug. We still felt like he'd be invading our privacy but this way Dare wouldn't be affected as bad. So picked it up with our teeth and went back into the kitchen. Mimic was pacing up and down the breakfast bar muttering away to himself. We didn't bother asking what he was muttering, about not thinking it was important. “Here.” the sound was muffled and distorted as the photo was still in our mouth. We placed it down on the table top and stood back. We had no idea what to expect so we kept our distance. He paced a couple more times before stopping and looking at the image. And just like that he morphed into Spark-plug. His features flashed before settling, his coat turned to the lightest blue, practically grey, his mane turning waved, unkempt and lime green, his tail to match his mane but longer, eyes yellow and a green waistcoat two shades darker than his hair. Actually the waistcoat confused me, in the picture Mimic was looking at there was no waistcoat which in itself was odd for Spark-plug but true. We were face to face with Spark and for a moment we truly believed that, until reality came crashing down and we remembered it was just Mimic. The waistcoat. “Umm, waistcoat?” it was probably the most inconsequential question we could ask but it was nagging the most. “Oh, nice little touch eh?” he looked really pleased with himself and was obviously expecting our praise. “Umm yeah but how...” we said glancing to and fro between the picture and him. It took a couple of times but eventually he got our drift. “Oh well in the hallway there's a picture of him with the waistcoat so I just added it.” he said it as if that was the most normal thing in the world like if we thought 'oh, I feel like having a moustache today but I don't have one, I know, I'll just magic one onto my face!' well, that's probably the norm for a unicorn for us, no way. “I know that it sounds like a lot of fun but imagine you have no idea what you look like or who you are. In truth it's a royal pain.” he's changed his tune, he was all sunshine and smiles a moment ago and now he's all serious and depressed. Maybe we should cheer him up, he seems like the kind of pony that would enjoy other ponies company. “Hey, maybe now you don't look like us we could introduce you back into Ponyville.” in truth we were dreading it, all the questions that'll be asked, all the side long glances and ponies talking about us behind our backs, but it had to be done, we can't keep Mimic cooped up in our house forever. “Oh, umm yeah sure, why, if you have errands to run I can stay here.” he started to twitch more than normal. Oh, of course, how could we have forgotten he's completely paranoid, he hardly does anything to hide the fact. “You can't stay in here forever.” we looked at him as if he were a child behaving badly. “Why not?” he sounded offended and looked at us as if we were scheming against him. The cheek! He's the one who came to us after all! “We're going whether you like it or not!” it came out as a growl and then we charged towards him. Our head met his chest with great force and we pushed harder, forcing him toward the door. He didn't protest at first but once he realized what was going on he pushed against us but we'd had a head start and were just a few meters away from the door. It took several minuets and several ows but eventually we got him to the door and with one last push he went flying out, the swinging back on it's hinges. He was in a crumpled pile on the floor. He popped up looking irritated and started to dust himself off. “You could have just asked.” he grumbled and looked down, clearly furious. “We did.” we said it flatly, with no emotion but secretly we were celebrating inside and a triumphant little smile spread it's self across our face. We started clopping down the streets and they were already starting to fill up with ponies. It's a charming day, the pegasi have really out done themselves this time, barely a cloud in sight and the sun was shining in the most pleasant way, just the right temperature. “Morning Issac and-huh...!” it was Cherilee coming down the street in the opposite direction to us. She had smiled at us when she bid us good morn but when she'd spotted our companion she started and stared. It's to be expected but it made us feel incredibly awkward. “Umm and-and Spark-plug.” she said his name shakily as if she were uncertain of his name or even him The morning continued in this fashion, ponies being polite and saying good morning until they notice Mimic, each time all of us hurry along to avoid further embarrassment. When the day slipped into the afternoon we had a burning desire to visit Dare Devil. It seems like a millennia since we last saw him and these past few hours in which we've known Mimic have been stretched out in a torturous fashion that makes the seconds ache like blood behind a bruise. We're not saying that we don't like Mimic, we mean, we've already said that he is quite possibly friend material but when out in public it feels like everypony knows something we don't. Incredibly frustrating. But we can't visit Dare; firstly he's almost certainly up in Cloudsdale, secondly Mimic, or at least Spark-plugs body, doesn't have wings and thirdly we think that Dare should be eased into the situation, not just thrown in the deep end in hope that he'll swim. Spark-plug was a dearest friend of the family and when they were taken away from him it was like everypony he'd ever loved had been snatched from between his hoofs. So sighing we kept our wings safely tucked away, bone and feather alike. The afternoon dragged on slowly and painfully but eventually it was late enough to start heading back home. “Shall we start heading back?” we didn't really intend on asking but we didn't want to seem rude so at the last minute we formed it into a question. He didn't seem as relieved as we thought he would be at the notion. In fact, he actually frowned . We'd spent the whole day assuming that he was hating this, we had to physically kick him out the house but now that we'd been ridiculed all day he wanted to stay out! He makes no logical sense what-so-ever! “But we haven't had anything to eat.” he said pouting slightly as he did. Ah. Food. Of course. We wouldn't think about anything near as simple of that. “Oh,umm, yeah, sure, sorry.” we totally over thought the entire situation! Well to be fair, you wouldn't really think about applying a normal situation to someone like him would you? No, we shouldn't think things like that. That's probably what everypony was thinking when we came onto the scene and we absolutely hated knowing that they were all treating us differently so why do it to Mimic. “Yeah, lets head over to Jays.” Jays shop is our default café unless we're craving candy and cakes in which case we head over to Sugar Cube Corner. The only downside with Jays tea shop is that it's fine if you want afternoon tea and a snack but if you want a full blown supper then it's not the ideal place, however as we are good friends with Jay he has no problem with putting in that little bit extra effort. “Jay?” oh, of course Mimic wouldn't know Jay. “Jay Dodge, he owns a little tea shop down the road, near Sugar Cube Corner. Its perfect because Jay isn't nosy per say but he'll understand to not ask questions. In fact, he probably won't even notice!” technically we'd told a lie but only a little white one, nothing major but Jay is really nosy but he will understand. So we back tracked and headed in the other direction. There were a few ponies here and there sipping tea but most would be at home cooking or down at 'Neighndos' “Hey there Jay, feels like forever since we last came here.” we said smiling widely at him, trying to break the atmosphere for Mimic. “Well hey there you two, come for dinner?” he'd obviously spotted Mimic when we came in but decided to keep it casual...that or he's been insanely unobservant for the past few months. “Ooh, I want you to see something.” he hadn't even left a space for us to answer his question but his eyes were wild with excitement so we thought we might as well play along. “Yes and what is it?” we tried to copy his tone of thrill but don't think we quite pulled it off. “Drum roll please...” he said in a low voice so, rolling our eyes we started padding he floor quietly where we stood. “uh-hu! Ta dah! Pizza!” pizza...in a tea shop? Well whatever floats his boat we suppose and besides, we are starving, pizza sounds good for dinner. So we took a deep breath and summoned our theatrical side. Its not that we're not happy to now be able to buy pizza for dinner but we're certain that Jay will be expecting and over the top reaction so now was the time to perform. “Wow Jay, that's amazing! We had no idea that you were expanding! So many more ponies are gunna' come now that your offering more than tea and cakes! Well done!” there was the slightest hint of sarcasm which wasn't intentional but otherwise we're sure it was a first class. “Aw, no need to flatter me Issac.” yes, yes there was. We cant even think about having tea anywhere else, especially not with a two bit discount! Two bits! Oh yeah and then there's the fact that Jay is a cherished friend but really, we got priorities, two bits! When we got back later that evening we were both puffed out and ready to hit the hay sack. We had one hoof on the stairs when Mimic spoke up, “Are you sure being Spark-plug is the best pony I could copy, I mean, you said that as your him there's no risk of him coming back but...everypony knew him so...if I'm him then they're going to ask a lot of questions...” hmm, I guess he'd noticed that then. “Well, we thought about that and we think that no pony would pry that much into our affairs.” we sounded uncertain as we finished as we considered adding more but that more or less explained what we thought. Mimic dropped the subject then and turned to go to the living room and we carried on up the stairs. In the morning we decided that we should go back out today. “It would be a lot better if everypony got used to you instead of only seeing you every once in a while, they'll always cast you as an outcast if you do that.” had been our reasoning at breakfast and eventually he agreed. On our way to town we saw a few ponies we'd seen yesterday like Cherilee, Lyra and Bonbon. They certainly didn't seem as surprised as yesterday. We made a point of making our rounds to the most crowded market stands so more ponies saw us, more importantly, see Mimic. We saw several ponies more than once and the more times we saw them, the more relaxed around Mimic they became. Around three we started to head back and this time Mimic couldn't complain as we'd had lunch out, us having to pay yet again, so no back tracking this time around. We only had one stop left to make. A few weeks ago, before Mimic came we'd borrowed a book from Twilight and it was a few days overdue so we were stopping by the library on our way back. When we got there though all the windows were dark, somepony should be in, Twilight normally is around this time, actually she's even more likely to be home knowing that a book is overdue. We knocked but there was no reply so we pushed the door aside, it's hinges squeaking as we did. It was dark in there too. Hmm, that was very odd. “Hello? Twilight?” still no reply. We were going to leave the book in the door way and head home when several things all happened at once. First, the lights suddenly flicked on revealing over half of Ponyville. Second, a cacophony of noise erupted from their mouths sounding something like 'surprise' so at least on that front they succeeded. A banner saying 'Welcome Back Spark!' was flung into the air. And everypony went silent as they stared at Mimic rapidly transforming into everypony in the room one after another before running out. When we eventually found him he was curled up in the corner of the hallway looking exactly like us. We were back to square one.