The Welcoming Party
Illusion arrived, still disguised, at the Sugarcube Corner, dragging her hooves behind a happy Twilight. The party had yet to begin. Lyra and Bon-Bon was having a lively chat with Octavia and Vinyl. Running from one side to the other, Pinkie prepared the last details for the party. Fluttershy, served herself something to drink.
As soon Illusion stepped through the door she was welcomed by her three fellow changelings undisguised.
"You're here at last!" Camouflage commented. She looked at her friend who was lowering her head. "Are you okay? It's like you've seen a ghost."
"Didn't they tell you what we are going to do at this party?" she replied, terror radiating from her eyes.
"Something like presenting yourself at Ponyville." Mimic responded, without a care in the world. "We know them but they don't know us."
Illusion scowled. Silence set as the three other changelings looked at her with apprehension. "We have to show ourselves without our disguise in front of the entire population of Ponyville."
A round of laughter met her last sentence. Illusion looked bewildered at them. "Why are you laughing? I'm serious!" Her friends regained their composure. Mimic had between whiles some giggles left. At that moment, she noticed the lack of disguise of them. "Why are you in your natural form?"
"There's no need for that now," Doppel explained. "Fluttershy keeps an eye on us." He pointed Fluttershy who was sipping at a smoothie at a corner of the Sugarcube Corner. "She's able to recognize any of us after all."
"You're not a good coltfriend." Mimic was poking his elbow on Doppel's waist. "You leave your fillyfriend alone to hang out with your friends."
"I invited her to hang with us, but I think she's still nervous around you," he gave excuses. "Not that you're changelings. She's like this with everypony."
During this conversation, Illusion kept a face riddled with concerns. "I don't understand how you can be so careless when you know you'll be undisguised in front of everypony."
"If you keep telling you that, of course it's going to be tough," Camouflage explained with a motherly tone. "Just forget you don't have a disguise and you'll see it's easy."
Before Illusion had time to protest, Twilight came to meet them. "I think we should prepare ourselves for the party." She took a notebook and a pencil. "I suggest that you present yourself first with your disguise, to make sure that you don't scare ponies too much at first."
"That's a good idea!" Illusion interrupted, and was soon silenced by a disapproving glare from the unicorn and the three other changelings.
"Now, Pinkie can make the presentation if you want." Twilight suggested, continuing on from where she had been stopped.
"No, I think we should do it ourselves," Doppel replied. "After all, we pretty much know everypony here, except for Illusion. The opposite is not true."
"Alright." Twilight checked a note on the paper. "Then I'll tell them that you'll not be a normal citizen of Ponyville, but changelings. At this, you'll drop your disguises and reveal to everypony who you really are. Then, I will explain that you're not dangerous, what the special rules you have, et cetera, et cetera."
"Does it have to be so dramatic?" Camouflage asked. "Doesn't that risk scaring ponies around?"
Pinkie suddenly popped into the conversation. "Dramatic is always better. This is how you remember a good party." She made weird noises with her mouth, mimicking some dramatic events before disappearing totally from the room.
"Maybe now it's a good time for you to show your disguises." When the remaining changelings were going to assume their disguise, Twilight stopped them. "Wait a moment, I'd like to take some notes on who you are before you change and make sure you assume the right disguise."
The unicorn made a sign to Fluttershy, who came over quickly. "Fluttershy, can you help tell me who are who?"
The pegasus began to point at every changeling successively. "This is Camouflage. That's Mimic and the one closest to me is Doppel."
"Wow, that's impressive," Twilight responded, amazed. "I really can't discern any difference, and you can tell them apart within seconds." She took some extra notes. "So, Doppel, you're first. Show me your disguise."
Doppel obeyed and changed into a grey unicorn with a blue mane. His tail was short and his cutie mark was in the form of a waning blue moon. "I think this is the form I talked to you about, if I remember correctly."
Twilight took some notes, raising her head after a few seconds. "Any particular reason for the cutie mark."
"Nope. I thought I had something else at first, but it's easier to remember that one."
"Okay then," she concluded. "Who's next?"
"I think I'm next." Camouflage came forward. She then immediately transformed without moving a limb. In her place stood a lilac earth pony mare with a pale yellow, unkempt mane.
"Three baby bottles for cutie mark?" Twilight pointed the changeling's rump. "Are you really sure about this?"
"I was a nurse when I was in the hive. So I thought it was the best cutie mark to describe me."
"Do you think it's a good idea to keep something from the Hive since you're an outlaw?" asked Fluttershy. "Wouldn't it better to try to forget what you hate?"
"I didn't leave the Hive because of my role in it." Camouflage replied. "And with Vinyl, I think it'll be necessary."
Twilight wrote the last pieces of information about the changeling nurse. "So, Mimic you're last. What is your disguise?"
Mimic rose a hoof dramatically before jumping as he engulfed himself in a torrent of green flames. "Showoff…" muttered Camouflage. Mimic was now on his hind legs, extending his front hooves like he was acclaimed.
"Mauve coat, a puffy mane half light pink half deep pink, a popcorn cutie mark, green eyes," Twilight listed, writing the details on her notebook, unimpressed by the stunt of the changeling. "Female?" She stopped writing. "Are you really sure?"
"Eh, I'm going to live with fillyfoolers. Being a male isn't going doing to me any favor don't you think?"
"From this perspective, I'd say he's right," Fluttershy agreed.
"But, you're going to confuse everypony with that disguise. They'll think that you're female," Twilight explained.
"That was Lyra's idea, not mine," Mimic defended himself. "I just chose the cutie mark. I find popcorn the best thing you ponies make."
Twilight tried to contest but Pinkie appeared just behind her. "You love popcorn?"
"Pinkie! We're trying to have a discussion here," the unicorn complained.
"I just wanted to tell you that ponies are already arriving so the party can begin." The party pony pointed at the door where some ponies were already coming.
"Well, too late to change now," Twilight concluded. "Try to mingle with ponies now."
--|-|--
The party had been in full swing for twenty minutes when they arrived. Mimic was playing his public entertainer along with an overexcited Pinkie Pie. Doppel, for his side, tried to convince Fluttershy, who was slightly intimidated by the crowd, to mingle. Illusion, while bobbing her head to the music, was spying on every ponies' doings and Camouflage took the initiative to present herself to everypony.
The music stopped. Twilight climbed on a scene. "I'd like that Doppel, Mimic, Illusion and Camouflage come join me."
The changelings complied and joined the unicorn on the scene. Fluttershy followed Doppel to place herself by Doppel's side.
"As you have already noticed, there were four new ponies at this party. From now on, they're going to live in this town. I'll let them present themselves."
"I'm Illusion. I was a guard before and very good with anything concerning defense. I'm going to live with Twilight to help her with her studies."
"I'm Camouflage. I think I'm good at taking care of foals, even adult with foal's mind. I'll live with Vinyl and Octavia."
"I'm Doppel. You can ask me anything. If you want to find me, I'll live with Fluttershy probably for the rest of my life."
"I'm Mimic. For my part, I'm living with Lyra and Bon-Bon. And don't get fooled by my appearance, I'm a male."
Some whispers came from the crowd after Mimic's presentation. Camouflage facehoofed. While the nervousness of the public increased, Twilight spoke again. "We organized this party in such short notice for a reason." She made a little sign of her head to the changelings. "Because our new residents are changelings"
As soon Twilight finished her sentence, the scene was set ablaze with green flames, revealing the real appearance of Mimic, Camouflage and Doppel. Only Illusion remained in her disguise.
Before the panic overtook the room, Pinkie jumped into the stage. "Don't worry, there are nice changelings. Look, there's one of them who forgot to change back!" She pointed Illusion.
"Change back immediately!" Camouflage ordered, giving a jab to the disguised changeling.
"Never!" Illusion stared at the crowd, keeping her disguise on.
Twilight coughed to restore order. "As Pinkie just described, these changelings are not dangerous. For three of them, they've already lived in Ponyville for a long time." She turned to the changelings. "You can now get your disguise back." The changelings complied.
"And how we'll know when and where the changelings are if they can take anypony's form?" asked Carrot Top, from the back of the room.
"Excellent question!" Twilight exclaimed. "Each changeling has an order to keep only one disguise for the time being and it's the disguise they wore for the moment. It was planned that they assume this disguise to give you the time to get used to it. Furthermore, they're going to live with a vouching pony whose goal is to look after them. The changelings cannot leave their vouching pony unless a serious event occurred. Illusion and I am going to study a method to let us ponies know how to detect them and differentiate them."
"Booooring," cut Rainbow, launching herself on the air. Twilight glared the pegasus. "It's a party, not a lecture. The only thing you need to know is that these changelings are cool."
Pinkie jumped into the crowd and threw her hooves in the air. "It's time to party!"
Everypony cheered as they returned to their party. Mimic followed Pinkie; ready to amuse each pony he could meet. Camouflage went down of the stage to keep an eye on her friend.
Doppel stayed on the stage, letting his brain time to catch up. "So, I'm accepted in Ponyville? It was so simple…"
"Yes, Ponyvillians are very accepting ponies. After all they went through, four changelings living in their town isn't a big stretch," answered Fluttershy.
"And it's because of you the changelings are accepted. If you hadn't blown the cover of the Queen, they would never have known that the Queen was there until it was too late," Illusion added, joining the other two. "And it's because of you if I'll have to wear this stupid disguise until the end of my life."
"Nothing forces you to keep this disguise," Fluttershy reminded Illusion. "You can stay under your changeling's form when you're at Twilight's."
"How about no?"
"And you know you can also be undisguised from time to time when you're in the streets to let Ponyvillians get used to have changelings around," Doppel added.
"You realize if I didn't want to do it in front of one pony, I probably don't want to do it in front of everypony?" Illusion complained.
"Twilight joined the group. "You should get of the stage and enjoy the party. After all, it's your party." She looked at Mimic balancing a glass on the tip of his nose under the glare of Camouflage. "Tomorrow, we begin the studies." She rose her eyebrows. "Unless you want to do it right away."
"Twilight is right! It's time to have fun!" Illusion claimed before she leapt into the dancing crowd.
Doppel came close to Twilight. "Even if she chose by herself to become an outlaw, I recommend you to keep a close eye on her," he said, in a tone barely louder than a whisper. "She isn't used to our methods yet and some troubles may arise."
"I'll remember that, thanks," answered Twilight. "And you, don't you want to party with the others?"
"I don't think I'm going to stay on this stage forever," joked Doppel. "And I should probably help Camouflage stop Mimic to breaking everything." He jumped off the stage, closely followed by Fluttershy.
Twilight turned away and went to rejoin the party. "Ponyville will be livelier with these four changelings. I can guarantee it."