//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Pearl's Travels 2: Canterlot // by Makitk //------------------------------// Camellia, the purple-coated unicorn with her yellow mane and tail, sat peering between Oval and me as we tried to figure out which of our siblings left prior to Canterlot suddenly going on lockdown. No word of it had reached us in the Hive near Hollow Shades, so the guards must have intercepted any of our siblings who might have grown wise about it up to now. Before we knew what we were doing, we were listing the hatchlings we had seen leave in the past weeks to one another, trying to deduct which of them might have been the instigator thanks to having trouble holding their respective guises. "Breeze is coming this way soon as well, isn't she?" I realized in growing horror, and Oval frowned deeply at my words. "Unless we can get word out to steer clear of this place, yes," Oval agreed. "She was planning to go West as well, and most train lines heading there pass through Canterlot." "I'm hearing so many names from you two," Camellia spoke up suddenly, catching us by surprise. We had almost forgotten she was there with us. "And you seem genuinely upset at the thought of something having happened to them." "Well, yeah, they're family," I answered. "You care about your family as well, don't you?" "I'm just surprised by it. I didn't expect changelings to have feelings like that," Camellia explained, and Oval let out a deep sigh. "We're not too different," Oval stated bruskly. "I've been married to one of the most beautiful pony mares you can imagine. I care about her deeply. There are so many of us integrated in pony society that it would cripple your government if we were to suddenly all disappear at once. We have the same feelings you have, but we just look different from you. There's so many false preconceptions about us that we are forced to hide from you instead of coming out in the open. It drives me mad that I can't just be myself in front of my own mare because she would run from me in terror..." Camellia's face blanked at the sudden stream of words from Oval, spat out by my sister in growing frustration at the situation. "Keep calm, Burst," I warned, motioning at the closed blinds. "Shouting draws attention." "Who's Burst?" the unicorn asked, and I nodded at Oval. "Names are finnicky things," I chuckled. "You need to realise that we can take on the identities of a great many different ponies, at will. We change names as often as you change clothing." "Doesn't that get confusing?" Camellia wondered, which actually made me laugh. Her innocent question could have come from me not half a year ago, and I was reminded of how naive I had been back then. How alien Changelings had been to me. I had been turned into a Changeling, and had been forced to live with them day after day, and still it had taken me months to get comfortable enough among my siblings to identify them even from a distance, no matter the guise they had taken on. Before that time, the thought of changing names, changing looks, and the huge amount of siblings running around without clear indication of a pattern made me as confused as this unicorn mare must be feeling right now. And she was only faced with Oval and me. Forget a whole Hive of changelings. "Believe me or not, but it was confusing for me in the beginning as well," I told Camellia. "I'm not actually native to this place, but when I woke up as a newly hatched Changeling, my life was turned upside-down and I had to learn about all the new rules and things unique to our species. That took me a few months, so don't worry if you don't understand something after just a few minutes with us." "She still doesn't know everything she needs to," Oval added. "Oh, thank you for that," I snorted in her direction. The unicorn mare looked utterly out of her depths, her ears drooping and her face a mixture of various emotions as she tried to make sense of it all. "You wouldn't have tea in the house, would you?" I asked of her. "I think we could all use something to drink, and preparing it may give you some time to sort your thoughts out about us?" "Tea? Yeah, I have tea," Camellia agreed, slipping off her seat and onto her hooves. "Do you have any preference?" "Something calming, like a white tea?" I suggested. "Take your time preparing it, we won't go anywhere." "If you've got a Summer Meadow mix, I'd love that," Oval piped up as Camellia walked off in the direction of the kitchen. "It's my mare's favourite." After the unicorn left us for the kitchen and we could hear her rummage about, I put my attention back on my sister. "We're going to need to figure out how to get around this spell, don't we?" "All magic dissipates eventually," Oval remarked quietly. "It's just a matter of time." "But you've mentioned your mare too often since we got here," I suggested. "I've come to know you in these past months, Burst. Sure, you talk about your mare from time to time, but not this often. You're agitated as well. You're thinking we won't make it out of here, aren't you?" "We're stuck in a random pony's house in the middle of the pony capital, with pony guards roaming the streets looking for us specifically. We have no idea how many of our siblings are stuck in their dungeons, we don't know what they know or what spells they have to identify us, and we can't reach out to anyone outside of town to keep others from arriving here," Oval listed. "I've never been this deep in the shit before, and I've been infiltrating their society for decades now." "You mean this is worse than that open magic battle between Blaze and Moonshine over in the spa?" I asked, "Or when our Queen caught all of us and was ready to pretty much take our heads for going in against her? Or when we were trying to get small groups of Hatchlings out of the communal halls and watch each of them break down when they realized there was no way they could go back to their old lives?" Oval let out a deep sigh at hearing me list it all. "It's been an eventful year, hasn't it?" "We have the support of one of the pony princesses," I told her. "Sure, she's over in Ponyville, but I'm sure she will come over and try to help us if she becomes aware of the situation here. If I know Twilight Sparkle, she can't let this go on without her meddling in it." "I did mention not being able to get a word out, right?" Oval coughed. "I mean, we're safe now, at this moment, but what if this unicorn turns on us? What if we get spotted by a guard? Until we get around this spell they put on us, we'll stand out like a lone tree in a grassy field." "I'm surprised you got a few decades of experience on me but I'm the one trying to think our way out of this while you're giving in to your fears," I suggested calmly. "I mean, I get it; I know you're afraid that everything you've built up so far will come crashing down if we make the wrong move. You mentioned it a few times when we were dealing with the impending invasion. But we stopped that. We stuck together as a clutch and convinced our Queen to give us a chance. We convinced Starlight Glimmer to be our friend, for Moonshine to study with Twilight Sparkle... we can just do this one pony at a time." I noticed a shadow in the doorway between the living room and where the kitchen was, but kept it to myself. If Camellia wanted to listen in, let her. She took a giant risk taking us in, and I was giving her the benefit of the doubt as well. Trust had to come from both directions if it was to work. "You're forgetting that they're all spread out across Equestria now," Oval protested. "With Blaze in Vanhoover and Breeze back at the Hive, there's not much of a clutch to speak of." "I'm here, aren't I? You guys adopted me into your clutch for a reason. I'm not going anywhere. No matter what happens, I will be there for you, Burst," I entrusted to her. "We can try and find out what happened to our siblings who were here in the city once we figure out how to get around that stupid spell, and maybe we can find out how to get the ponies' trust so they may let the rest of our family go, but let's take it one step at a time? Let's keep ourselves from getting overwhelmed by things?" The shadow at the doorway moved as the boiling water made the kettle whistle, and I could hear it being picked up and water poured out while Oval tried to collect her thoughts. "I think that's the reason it worked out," she finally said in a half-whisper. "You're taking things as they come. One thing at a time. The rest of us, we just... Breeze is so random, Blaze far too hot headed... and I just get overwhelmed by things. You helped us stay on track, keep focus on the important things." "If I don't focus on one problem at a time, I'd get overwhelmed as much as you would, sis," I sighed. "I mean, remember how we met; I was tossed into a different world, into a different life, completely unable to change my situation. I was forced to adapt to it. You've seen how it affected the other hatchlings; we simply weren't given a choice but to adapt at such a fast pace. When they were finally given time to deal with their emotions, they broke down. No exceptions. They swallowed it, but cried in their sleep, or cried openly. They blamed us, shouted angrily, kicked about themselves, blew parts of the hive up from their errant magic releasing thanks to their anger. None of it was pretty." Oval gave a thoughtful nod at that. "You think I'm doing any better, sis? I'm held up solely by your acceptance of me. By being included in your clutch and the plans you had. By your love. But it's still a fucked-up situation, if you pardon my French," I continued. "If I let it all wash over me, I'll break down just as much as the other hatchlings have." A tray floated in-between Oval and me and landed on the coffee table, a trio of teacups filled with steamy hot liquid on it, together with a small bowl filled with assorted cookies. As the yellow glow of the unicorn's magic receded from it, Oval and I turned our attention to our host standing a short distance away, noting the wet fur underneath her purple eyes. "I'm sorry, I've been listening in from the other room," Camellia spoke softly. "I don't understand it all, but I get you're in it to help your family out. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know? Family is everything to me as well and you sound like good people, no matter what you look like on the outside."