Not Them

by BleedingRaindrops

Vanquishing Act

The bell over the door to Sugarcube corner jingled pleasantly as Starlight trotted out with a brown paper bag floating behind her, wrapped in a turquoise aura. Safely contained inside were a dozen tiny cupcakes, one of Pinkie’s new ideas; miniguffins, she'd called them. The size actually sort of surprised Starlight, given Pinkie’s penchant for bigger and more bombastic culinary concoctions. Starlight shook her head at the odd mental alliteration, and trotted through town, across the bridge near Town Hall, and out to the meadow where Trixie had parked her caravan, treats in tow.

They made a nice excuse to convince Trixie to take a break while setting up for her new act, not that Trixie would listen. Starlight rolled her eyes with a smile. Call in a crisis and Trixie would be the last mare on scene, but try to convince her to stop planning her next big performance for just one second… well, it was rather difficult to do, but Starlight had done the impossible before. The girl was a showmare, through and through, always perfecting her oldest acts, or thinking up new ones. Trixie always aimed to dazzle and amaze.

As Starlight approached the caravan, Starlight heard the sound of… laughter? Not that Trixie never laughed, but who or what would be causing it? More importantly, was what she didn’t hear: clanging, things being tossed about, minor explosions, and the shattering of Trixie’s famous magical dust cloud orbs. It was almost as though Trixie had stopped working on setting up for her next act later that week. But that was impossible.

Just as Starlight arrived at the back of the caravan, Trixie poked her head out, eyes shut with mirth.

“Oh you are a laugh, Starlight, but seriously, come in and help me get this costume right.”

Starlight frowned at Trixie as she trotted in, closing the door behind her while Trixie rushed to throw on what Starlight could only assume was some sort of celestial bear costume.

“Are you dressing up as an Ursa Major for your next act? Is this so you can pretend to be vanquished?”

Trixie, who had quickly posed as soon as she had the ridiculous thing on, slumped. “Oh come on, Starlight, you just told me this would be funny. Are you changing your mind again?”

Starlight squinted hard. Just told her?

“What are you talking about, Trixie. I just got back from Sugarcube Corner.”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Yes, and then you asked me about the Ursa Major that I vanquished, and I told you the story I’d made up, and you agreed it would be funny if I dressed up as one on stage. We just had this conversation You were standing right out there!”

Starlight followed the direction of Trixie’s hoof, and nearly jumped when she actually saw movement outside the caravan. She hid her shock, and turned back to Trixie, putting on a fake smile.

“Right, right, yes, I just thought that… I was going to be the Ursa Major,” she lied.

Trixie blinked, then smiled. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so.” She slipped off the costume with… some difficulty, and held it out to Starlight, who held up her little paper bag of cupcakes defensively.

“Aaactually I thought maybe for now we could go look at the Ursa Major who lives nearby, to make sure the costume is right.”

Trixie held her mouth open, but didn’t respond.

“And meanwhile we could enjoy these new tiny cupcakes from Pinkie?”

Trixie shut her mouth, pondered it for a moment, then shrugged.

“Eh, it couldn’t hurt.” She dropped the costume and trotted forward, grabbing the bag from Starlight in her magic. Starlight turned and headed out ahead of her because the caravan was very small, but cast a quick glance around the side of it where the path hid it partially from view. Yes, there was definitely a pony there, but Starlight didn’t have time for a good look. She turned and followed Trixie along the path. Trixie was saying something that must have been funny, because she was also laughing, but Starlight didn’t quite hear it. She had her ears turned back toward the caravan.

When they were around the bend, Starlight pretended to forget something and teleported back to the caravan. Twilight probably wouldn’t approve of lying to her friend, but Starlight needed to confirm her suspicions.

She appeared on the side of the caravan where she’d seen movement. The other pony jumped, startled, and a flash of green light obscured her. For a brief moment, there was a changeling in front of Starlight. But not in the new bright colors they’d recently adopted. This one was still jet black, and riddled with holes. A moment later, the pony was back and it was… Starlight.

Starlight Glimmer was staring at a perfect copy of herself, if perfect also meant crying and clearly distraught over something. But why? Why her? And why so sad? She tilted her head slightly, and her doppleganger flinched back covering her face and sobbing. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s alright.” Starlight stepped forward to hug the poor girl, but she gasped, then leapt away into the air. Green magic swirled around her again and she flew off on gossamer wings.

“Wait, no! Come back, it’s alright!” Starlight called after her, but the changeling had sped away over the trees.

Starlight stared after her for a moment, then sat down to think.

A changeling, and not a reformed one. Copying her. Why? And sad? Why did she apologize? Why did she run? Was she afraid of Starlight? No, but what about Twilight? Why was there a changeling that hadn’t been reformed? Starlight thought they had all been reformed at the downfall of Chrysalis. Had she hatched new? Each question became more and more puzzling.

Twilight needed to know. Starlight lit up her horn again, then glanced back over her shoulder where Trixie was probably waiting for her, and would probably be disappointed to go see the Ursa Major without her. Starlight hung her head.

“Sorry, Trixie.” she said, then vanished with a flash of turquoise.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait. College hit me like an Ursa Major.

Comments

[Brony4Ever1992]

Glad to see this his back and getting good

[Reese]

No problem; good luck with college. :)

[Tekket]

Yaaaay! It's back! I honestly really liked the sort-of randomness to the appearances, it makes it feel like there's something really big going on.