Reflections in Black and Pink

by Krixwell

Chapter 12 - Gift

It had been half a day, and Clypeus still wasn't sure why he was helping a pony pretend to be a changeling.

He looked up at Party Popper from his foal form. She was talking to three fillies who had stopped next to the squad and immediately asked her difficult questions.

She nervously recited the story Gena had come up with, that she had come back to Ponyville to fetch something. The earth pony was all but shaking as she said it, prompting squints both from the unicorn filly on the scooter, and from Gena.

Clypeus doubted that Party Popper had noticed the latter. She was too focused on stuttering out an explanation that the changelings were a family she had befriended on the train from Canterlot.

"Wait," said the pegasus, "didn't the train just come from Manehattan and leave for Canterlot?" At surprised looks from both Party Popper and the other fillies, she added, "What? I wait for my aunts at the station a lot. There's not much there to pass the time, other than memorizing the schedules."

Clypeus' frown deepened ever so slightly. That was going to be hard to explain, and she would need to do it by herself. If any of the changelings stepped in without a carefully thought out answer, it would probably just make things worse.

Then again, so could Party Popper. "N-no," she said, sporting a far too wide grin, "they… they changed the schedule! Today!"

That was a rookie mistake. When you had to lie, it was always best to make the lie difficult to disconfirm. The fillies would only have to visit the station once to find out that the schedule was unchanged, and that was if the shaky delivery didn't tip them off.

Why was Party Popper so out of it when it came to Ponyville and Pinkie Pie? She had said that she would be killed if she were found out in Ponyville, and that Princess Twilight Sparkle of all ponies had killed somepony before. She had sounded so sure, it was almost like she had witnessed it herself.

Could it have something to do with the fact that she looked identical to Pinkie Pie, right down to the balloon cutie mark? That was another mystery, after the "frozen changeling" conclusion Mandible had leaped to had been ruled out.

Assuming it had been. Party Popper could have lied to Clypeus back in the clothing store, but he couldn't think of any reason why she would do that if she were letting the others know she was a frozen changeling, and she really didn't act like any changeling he'd ever met.

Maybe that was why he was helping her – because he wanted to figure her out, to understand her?

She was clearly hiding something from him just as much as from the other changelings. Though she was not very good at hiding things, it seemed – the disaster of a conversation she was having with the three fillies, now having moved on to how preparations for the Festival of Love were going, was driving that point home.

Frons took it upon himself to put an end to it. "Are you coming, Pinkie Pie?" he asked. "You said you'd show us around town, remember?"

Party Popper looked at him, startled. "Pinkie Pie? Who's-- I mean, uh, yes! That! The, uh, grand tour! Sorry, kids, I have to go now. Have FUN!"

Before the fillies could respond, Party Popper zoomed to the front of the squad, not looking back. Clypeus waved awkwardly to the confused fillies as they all followed her, almost having to canter to keep up with the fleeing pony.

---

Scootaloo stared after Pinkie Pie as she ran off to give the family she claimed to have befriended on the train the tour of Ponyville. One of the three foals waved before cantering after Pinkie.

"Well, that was strange," Sweetie Belle said.

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom agreed. "And not just Pinkie – y'all saw that family she was with, right? Three foals and two stallions, no ma!"

"That's not so weird," Scootaloo said. "One of them could be an uncle or something."

"Ah don't think so. Ah know uncles," Apple Bloom assured her. What was that even supposed to mean?

"Maybe they're gay?" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"Maybe they're what now?" Apple Bloom asked, looking confused.

Scootaloo kicked the scooter into action. They could explain on their way to the train station. It wasn't where they had originally been headed, but Scootaloo had a train schedule to check.

---

When Clypeus and the rest of the squad finally caught up to Party Popper, they found her sitting on the ground on the far side of a bridge, facing a large, round building that could only be Ponyville's town hall.

She didn't say anything as the squad stopped next to her.

Frons looked around to make sure all the ponies were out of earshot. He still picked his words carefully. "Alright, everypony, if we have to wait here anyway, we should take this time to feed and get supplies."

By "get supplies", he meant they should store up excess love to share with the hive. That reminded Clypeus of something else, though.

Frons continued in even more hushed tones, "Let's split up, two and two, and meet here in an hour. But keep your forms unless you're forced to shift, act like tourists, and only drain ambiently. We don't need to take risks here."

"I'll go with Proboscis," Clypeus said.

Party Popper, back still turned towards most of the squad, didn't react. Clypeus frowned.

"Great. You should probably take on an adult form, when you can, so nopony starts wondering why Pinkie Pie is trotting around with somepony's foal. Mandible and Labrum, you go together. Gena, you're with me."

Everypony except Frons and Party Popper nodded, and soon two stallions went off in different directions with a foal each by their side.

Party Popper still sat there, staring at the town hall.

Clypeus walked up to her. He stopped himself from asking, again, if she was alright – he could plainly see that she wasn't. Tears were pooling in her eyes. What did ponies do in situations like this? What could he do? He kept quiet and did the only thing he could think of.

He couldn't understand, but he could give. So he sat down next to her and gave her his company as she began to sob.

Author's Note:

A reminder on the changelings' forms: When they boarded the train in chapter 10, Gena, Clypeus and Labrum had to shift into foals because three of the stolen tickets were foals' tickets. Frons and Mandible stayed in adult stallion forms, the idea being that bystanders would assume Party Popper was the mom in the family.

Ambient feeding is far less effective than direct feeding (where the changeling replaces the target of the affection), but only requires proximity to love.

Maybe this story's going to need a drama tag if this keeps up much longer? I don't know, I'm rather new to this site's tag etiquette.

Comments

[Snowkitsune]

Poor pinkie clone

[Booster Spice]

The CMC are now getting intrested.

Poor Popper. Having to face the site of the premeditated and deliberate eradication of her entire race.

[Moonlight_Mist]

9805868
...If Celestia or Luna found out about the 'too many Pinkie Pies' incident, would they consider the decided solution genocide?

[Booster Spice]

9806400

Considering Pinkie, and so Pooper are bakers, all I could see was The Gates, and the screams of fry, Fry, FRY.

Sorry, family reasons.

[Herald of Opera]

9806400
I'd consider it culling. Too many Pinkie Pies, had to get rid of some. (Twilight herself may have a bit more of a problem with having killed dozens of foals, once she realizes that that's what she did)

[Krickis]

Another great chapter. Apple Bloom's reaction to the Sweetie's guess at gay parents got a laugh out of me And of course, I'm loving the drama with Popper coming back to Ponyville

[Yoshifan30]

He couldn't understand, but he could give. So he sat down next to her and gave her his company as she began to sob.

Awww Clypeus that is so sweet of you trying to comfort party popper in the state of panic 😊

[Yoshifan30]

So apparently party popper and the other changelings accidentally bump into the Cutie Mark Crusaders and they were pretty much asking what it was she was doing here which that probably raised a lot of question which party popper did not help but thank goodness for Clypeus to get her out of that situation but Scootaloo was a little suspicious about what's going on so after they got away from them they had to get some supplies so they can make the way to the hives soon but unfortunately party popper was an emotional wreck right now look I understand she has some mixed feelings with this especially what they did but I can assure maybe if they explain about the situation maybe they won't have to get rid of her again people going to keep saying I'm sugarcoating it again but Twilight in the others will never do something that horrible I know that for sure I just hope Pinkie Pie or party popper understands but I guess the scars are too deep