The house was much larger than I expected, about triple the size of even some of the mansions I had seen. It was red with many windows trimmed with white and it had multiple hearths warming decorations on it, the trees were covered with bulbs and ornaments, there were candy canes popping out of the snow as far as the eye could see and the rooftop was beautifully decaled with lights. Certainly a very festive family lived here.
I shivered, my simple scarf wasn’t going to keep me warm for long. Casting another glance at the mansion I saw smoke pouring out of the two chimneys flanking the sides of the house.
They must have a fire going I thought to myself,imagining the warm soft glow of the hearth. My thoughts of warmth overtaking me I trotted up to the door, recalling how I got here in the first place…
-----Five days prior-----
I cantered down the streets of Canterlot, pulling my scarf closer. I chastised myself for not taking a pegasus form, they had a much better cold resistance than a unicorn. I continued through the throngs of ponies around me, parents looking for last minute deals on presents, foals begging for a toys even though there parents had already gotten them a gift. Hearths warming was such a great time of the year for a changeling, the amount of excess love in the air was enough to sustain a whole hive for years, much less a simple drone like me. Of course true love tasted much better than the excess stuff, but it was much harder to get. I trotted past a café, hearing two ponies talking about family. Normally, I would have ignored it, but something they said caught my ear.
“Cousin Swift Wind won’t be able to make it this year.” The first one, a light blue pegasus mare, said.
I was suddenly filled with happiness, a family member not able to make it?! This is wonderful! It was always easier to impersonate somepony who missed a social gathering of some kind, you never had to kidnap them or worry about them seeing you. You could just go, mingle with some ponies, and eat the delicious true love they gave out so freely.
Naturally, when life gave me an opportunity I took it and continued to listen on on the conversation.
“Aw, that’s a shame.” The second one, a orange unicorn stallion, pouted. “I was looking forward to seeing him this year.”
“Heh, he always was the life of the party wasn’t he?” The mare sighed.
“Yeah he was, hey, remember that time he… uh, why are you staring at us?” The orange one said, turning towards me.
Was I that obvious?! I thought.
“Uh um, It must be nice to have a family to visit on Hearths Warming.” I said, pulling the pity card, it always worked on nice ponies like these.
The orange unicorn stared at me, “You don’t have a family?!”
The blue pegasus rolled her eyes, “Not everypony is as lucky as us bro. Would you care to join us?”
“Um, sure if it’s okay with you.” I said timidly, even among changelings I was always a good actor.
“It’s Hearths Warming!” She laughed, “It’s the time of year to help everypony in need!”
“So what’s your name anyway?” The unicorn asked me.
“My name is Minds Eye, you?” I replied.
“I’m Clear Skies,” The pegasus introduced, “and this is my twin brother, Clear Thoughts.”
“So, you don’t have a family to visit on Hearths Warming?” Clear Thoughts asked.
“No, my father died when I was a foal and my mother passed away six years ago.” I answered.
“Aw, you poor thing!” Clear Skies said, “I would invite you to our family party, but grandpa doesn't like guests.”
I was slightly confused about that, for a bunch of nice ponies I was surprised they wouldn’t take guests. Whatever, I’ll just masquerade as their cousin instead.
“So, I overheard that one of your cousins couldn’t make it.”
“Yeah,” Clear Thoughts sighed, “Swift Wing was the best. To bad that storm had to hit Baltimare.”
“Could you tell me a bit about him?” I asked, a bit stalkery sounding sure, but it was the holidays and I could tell these were the kinds of ponies who loved talking about their family.
“Sure!” Clear Skies started. After that I had a long speech about Swift and their family, really more than enough information to act as him. These ponies are too nice for their own good I thought. After about an hour of talking I bid them farewell and disappeared into the busy streets of Canterlot…
-----Back to the present-----
I knocked on the door, from inside I could hear the usual sounds of a family gathering; Children laughing, adults talking and Old Grandparents rocking on their rocking chairs.
“Coming!” I heard a voice from inside call, after a few more seconds of waiting they opened the door.
“Swift Wind!” The pony, who I recognized as Clear Skies from the day before, gleefully exclaimed.
“Hi cuz!” I said, best impersonating him from what they told me.
She wrapped me in a hug, “I’m so glad you were able to make it!”
“Wait! Swift is here?!” I heard another voice say, this time it was the Unicorn; Clear Thoughts. Skies dropped her hug to give me a chance to see her brother. “Hey brony, how’s it been?” greeted extending a brohoof.
I returned the brohoof and replied, “Great! It was a long ride to get here but I’m glad I did!”
“Well come on inside! I’m sure the others would love to see you.” Clear Skies said.
The Clear twins lead me into the family room. I was shocked to see how many ponies were there, dozens of ponies of all sorts of colors and tribes were sitting in the room, and from what I had seen in my walk here, even more were scattered throughout the house. “Hey everypony! Swift Wind was able to make it!” The twins called.
Suddenly, every single pony in the room turned to look at me.. “Hello guys!” I said, feeling a tiny bead of sweat form on my brow. Since I was a changeling attention was a thing you did NOT want. Normally you melted into crowds and only talked to ponies to get information, but Clear Skies had told me Swift was an extrovert so I had to go with it anyway.
“SWIFTY!!!!” By the hive! What was that!? Suddenly, my entire line of vision was interrupted by a mountain of Foals piling up on top of me.
“AH!” I shouted, suffocating under the massive amount of cuteness.
“Get off of him!” Some of the adults scolded, pulling their hellish offspring away from me.
“Sorry about that Swift,” An earth pony mare apologized, “you know how energetic the young ones can be!”
“No problem.” I said, “Always great to see them!”
“Well then I’m glad you could make it!” She replied, “Let’s tell everypony else you’ve arrived.”
After that the mare, who from yesterdays talks I knew was Swift’s aunt; Cake Walk, lead me to greet the other family members. Then I was encountered with a blur of “Hello!”s, “Nice to see you!”s and “Hows it going?” as I talked with a multitude of assorted ponies. After about an hour I found myself sitting down in the family room with the other adults, holding a cup of Hot Chocolate in my hooves.
“So, what happened to that storm hitting Baltimare?” Clear Skies, who was sitting next to me, asked.
“False alarm, those eggheads up in Cloudsdale really need to fix their system.” I answered, the excuse wasn’t foolproof and they were probably going to figure out the truth later, but by then I would have left with a ton of true love in tow.
“Well I’m really happy you're here!” She said hugging me once again. it was shocking how much true love these ponies gave off, I had eaten enough to sustain a hive for a life time! With seconds!
Clear Thoughts looked like he was about to say something but then a loud ringing of a bell interrupted him.
“Looks like it’s time for dinner.” Skies said, leading me into the dining room. The food on the table looked delicious, not that changelings need to eat, it’s just there to help us fit in. I sat down at the table, the foals were ushered over to a different room with a few supervisors so that we could all fit. This certainly is a big family I thought. I sat and ate to fit, chatted with some of the ponies around me and generally fit in, that is until they passed the mashed potatoes…
I sat there staring at the potatoes, for a species that didn’t need to eat I HATED potatoes hopefully Swift did too.
Clear Skies gave me a confused look, “Aren't you going to take any mashed potatoes? You always eat tons of them.”
Darnit.
“Uh, yeah just looking over to see the best part.” I siad. Wait! What the hive did I just say?! Queen darnit you're supposed to be good at this! I scolded myself, hoping I didn’t foil my disguise.
Clear Thoughts rolled his eyes, “Why do you always do that? You know what? Forget I asked, I’ll just leave you to your insane potato fantasies.”
I heaped a massive helping of potatoes onto my plate, my stomach getting sick as the gooey substance splattered onto it. I took out my fork and dug into the disgusting blob, pulling a piece out and lifting it into my mouth, I placed it in and… nearly vomited. As soon as the potatoes entered my mouth I involuntarily tried to spit them back out, but I needed to eat these, and enjoy them for that matter, to fit in so I forced it down my throat. Unfortunately I was forced to repeat that same process over and over again, lobbing the most vile thing in the world into my mouth time and time again.
Eventually, thank the hive, the meal was over and I was able to rid myself of the horrid taste of that ungodly paste. We moved onto the gift exchange, the family here was very generous and bombarded me with all sorts of presents. I felt bad taking all those gifts from the pony I was impersonating. Maybe I could find out where he lived and send him them by mail? I thought, but that would have to wait for later.
After the gift exchange was over a number of adults, including me, were ushered into a different room. There were a few chairs placed in a semicircle so I took a seat and waited for whatever was going to happen. I sat for awhile as the other ponies entered the room, once everypony was inside an old earth pony, who I recognized as Grandpa Cringle, stepped up to a podium in front of the chairs.
Clear Skies, who was sitting beside me, nudged me, “Isn’t this exciting?” she asked.
“Um, yeah! I’m really excited!” I replied, faking a girn. What am I supposed to be excited about? I thought.
Grandpa Cringle cleared his throat, “If everypony is here, I would like to start.” he announced as the entire room quieted down.
I sat back in my chair, curious as to what this was all about.
“Now, as you know the members of our family have played Santa Claus for cities across Equestria for thousands of years.”
Wait, WHAT?! I thought, confusion overtaking me. Alright, you're overreacting it’s probably just like a mall Santa job or something like that…
“And delivered toys to little colts and fillies for as long as the Cringle name has lasted.”
Oh Chrysalis, they’re talking about the real thing aren't they?
“Now as many of you have come to age you will be taking that mantle from us elders.”
By the hive, what have I gotten myself into?!
Author's Note
And thus ends part 1 of 2! Hope you enjoyed!
