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// Chapter 10 
// Story: Pearl's Travels 2: Canterlot 
// by Makitk 
//------------------------------//

Oval eventually felt I had rested for long enough, and motioned for me to join her to a room across the hall. It turned out to be a bathroom with a bathtub in it which she could have rested comfortable in even while in her bulky Earthpony guise. Our two slim changeling bodies fit in it together with ease.

Oval made a point of helping to clean me, especially where it concerned the back of my head, and I felt the pain of her dabbing at the place the open wound had been. While the skin had healed over the spot, it was clear there was still some damage underneath it and I would be sore for days or weeks to come.

My sister made sure to clean me of any blood and resin residue sticking to my body, and mentioned once more how this was the second time I had damaged my right foreleg. She kindly suggested I should be called 'Limpy' from now on, but a few splashes of water to her face made her agree never to bring that suggestion up again, and especially not around our other siblings.

With the both of us glisteningly clean from our bath, Oval moved into the room we had left before to take a nap, having been awake for far longer than I. She suggested I should wait in the living room downstairs for Camellia to return.

I managed to traverse the flight of stairs again with some difficulty, but made it down without tripping by simply taking it slow. Left to my own devices, I naturally limped over to the books on botany and skimmed over the various titles. I was happy to find a book in there which I knew from the show; "Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-alls That Are Simply Super".

I pulled it from its place on the shelf and placed it on the coffee table, sitting down near enough to it on the floor. I idly leafed through it, but the cures I was looking for were not found in the book. None of these herbs could mend a welt on the back of a Changeling's head, or help me deal with the nausea from what I was sure to be a concussion.

I did find a bone-strengthening elixer halfway down the book, and gave a glance down at my hurt leg, but I quickly reminded myself that I was effectively an insect, and not a pony, so my bones were most likely made from chitin or some other such material. I did not have the faintest idea whether the potion described in the book would do anything for me at all. Most of Changeling medicine was based on our resin, from what I had seen so far, the material being pretty much a cure-all for anything.

Need a building material? Use resin. Need to feed? Resin. Glue something in place? Resin. Everything could be done with resin, even if the composition of it changed depending on what it needed to do.

I put the book back on its shelf and pulled out another one; "The Genealogy of Grass", it was called, and I took a long hard look at the cover.

"You got to be kidding me..." I sighed out while putting it back on its spot. Reading about the various grasses and the way they had evolved over the years would be as interesting to me as going out and actually watching it grow.

I plucked another book from its place and smiled as the cover had a far more interesting title; "Carnivorous Plants and their Feeding Habits".

I licked my tongue around my fangs as I opened the book to a random page and spotted a drawing of what looked to be a typical pitcher plant like the ones from back home. Given Camellia's plant analogy shortly before our fight, I was eager to read up on the local carnivorous flora. It also helped to make sure not to run into any which, according to thickly printed warnings, either emitted 'an intoxicating smell which will lure even ponies to their doom', had the ability to shoot 'toxic darts at any warm body of sufficient size', or had 'nimble vines' which could reach out and ensnare any who may come too close.

And those were just the non-magical plants. There was another tome on the shelf which was entirely dedicated to magical plantlife. I leafed through it until I found the Zap-Apples I knew were harvested by the Apple Family in Ponyville and smiled noticing the book's author had failed to convince the Apples to reveal the exact rituals associated with them. It was better for that to stay their family's secret, I reasoned.

Going from one book to another, skipping past the boring sections and focusing just on the interesting plants, I barely noticed time passing by as fast as Rainbow Dash on her way to get some cider, and my reading was soon interrupted by the front door opening.

I quickly dove down behind the coffee table, hoping to be able to hide from whomever may peer into the house from the outside, and only dared to look up over the table's edge again after I heard the door had closed again.

My eyes settled on a purple unicorn dressed in a blue hoodie, her yellow mane sticking out from underneath it. I quickly scouted her flank to spot the white flower on it and recognized her as our host Camellia.

I brought my left forehoof up to give a wave with. "Hi Camellia, welcome home!"

The unicorn lowered her hood to her whithers and focused her eyes on me. "You're not Oval," she realized after a brief moment.

"Ah, no, I'm the one you accidentally tossed down the stairs," I chuckled, lifting my right leg up to show off the cast on it. "Oval's upstairs, taking a quick nap."

Camellia gave a quick glance up the stairs, then turned her head to face me again. "Good to hear she's getting some rest. How is your leg doing, Pearl?"

"I guess I'm doing pretty okay," I answered with a smile. "The headache has been back for a while now, and I still feel a bit dizzy if I move too fast. But it's nothing that won't heal over time."

"Do you want me to make you some fresh tea?" Camellia asked while using her magic to levitate a bag over from beside the door. She quickly upended it over the coffee table and a baker's dozen worth of apples rolled out onto the table!

She promptly caught them with her magic, stacking them into a neat little pyramid near the center of the table. "I brought some apples home, given how you went through those sandwiches like you needed to breathe them."

"I only did so because Oval pushed them into my face," I protested, but sent my Changeling magic out to grab hold of one of the apples and awkwardly pull it from the stack. "On another note, did you get the message sent out yet?"

Camellia laughed at my eagerness to take an apple, and she gave a nod while folding her bag up with her magic. "Yeah, I'm sure I can trust Roseluck to deliver it to the right pony."

Her eyes fell on the book I had dropped on the table while diving for cover. "I see you've made yourself familiar with my books?"

I was temporarily distracted while bringing the apple I was holding closer to my snout. I drew air in through my nose and sank my teeth into the soft skin of the fruit, the sweet smell filling my nostrils like a badly missed friend. "It's been a while since I last had one of these," I mumbled with my mouth full, savoring the taste on my tongue while some of its juice leaked down my chin.

"Nothing beats a fresh apple," the unicorn spoke softly, walking closer to the table while the folded bag moved itself into the pantry without her paying much attention at where it went. Her magic doused again after she closed the pantry door, and she sat down opposite me on the floor while watching me eat.

"I'm sorry if I stare," she mumbled quietly after a moment, her eyes turning away from me while her cheeks darkened slightly behind her fur.

I swallowed the bite I had just taken and smiled in Camellia's direction, the droplet of applejuice dripping down from my chin. "No, it's fine; I'm not bothered by it."

"Are you sure? I have the feeling all I've done these past days is stare at you both and bombard you with a million questions," Camellia offered up, using her magic to levitate a tissue over to dry the spot on the table between us where the droplet had fallen.

"I've been lucky to have been stuck in that pod for a while; you haven't overwhelmed me yet with your questions," I joked, putting the half-eaten apple on the tissue as Camellia left it on the table in front of me. "As long as I can ask you things in return, I don't mind you asking me about whatever it is you might want to know. Oval may be better at explaining things about our race, but I've gotten quite knowledgeable in a short amount of time."

"There you go again," the unicorn pointed out, narrowing her eyes a little. "You both keep mentioning how you're apparently new to things, even if I have the feeling you're both about the same ages. What's up with that?"

"You had to ask," I chuckled darkly. "I guess we have been overly hinting at it, even in the short amount I have been speaking with you. I'm a bit of a visitor to this world, if you can believe that? It's actually kind of fitting for me to be a visitor to Equestria in this manner on top of that; I wouldn't have fitted in well anyway, not knowing enough about your local customs and historic events."

Camellia flicked her tail behind her as she tried to arrive at the truth of my words. "So, if you're not from this world," she started, leaving the actual question unsaid.

"It's a place called Earth. I can speak at length about it, but I don't want to tire you," I suggested calmly. "There are good things about it, and bad things, just like any other place. Suffice it to say I ended up visiting by accident, and now can't return home until I sort things out here. Oval's plan was for us to settle at her mare's place so I would have a relatively safe place to stay at until we figure out how to get me back home, and she has taken it upon herself to teach me everything I need to know to survive here. I was actually doing pretty well with it until that spell hit us."

"And now you're stuck in my house," Camellia mumbled. "It would drive me insane not to be able to go outside."

"Did I mention I was stuck healing in a pod for a while?" I pointed out again, dipping my head down to take another bite from my apple.

"Ah, true; you did sleep for most of the day," the unicorn realized. "I guess I'm just still surprised at how similar you are to us. If it wasn't for your appearance, I could accept you as another unicorn."

"I tend to pose as an Earthpony, actually," I chuckled quietly. "Thanks for the compliment, though. I did notice the same thing myself; we Changelings, as well as you Ponies, don't differ much from others I met back home. All of us have our crosses to bear, but you go about your daily life in much the same way we used to back home. Sure, there's a difference in appearance, and some technology here is different from what I'm used to... Oh, and we don't have magic of any kind back home, so that's something new I've been having some trouble with..."

"You're doing fine with that apple, and I haven't seen either of you struggle with your magic yet," I heard Camellia comment, and I widened my smile at her.

"Again with the compliments! You should stop it or you'll get another friend out of this," I joked. "Nah, Oval wouldn't have more trouble with her magic than with the rest. She was born here, in this world, so has been a Changeling all her life. I've only been here for half a year now, give or take a month."

"I would like for us to be friends, if such a thing is possible," Camellia spoke softly, placing her right hoof on the table and sliding it to me. "From what all you two have been telling me, I would very much like to be friends and give you a safe place to stay at whenever you visit here."

I looked down at Camellia's hoof on the table and lifted my own right leg with some issue due to its weakness. It settled on the table as well, and I slid it past the apple until it bumped into the unicorn's.

"I would love to take you up on that offer again in the future, if we manage to get out of this unscathed," I told her. "The more friends I have, the merrier."

Camellia broke into a happy smile as she stared across the table at her newly made friend; me, and I could feel a sense of fulfillment settling over me. It was not as strong as the blast Pinkie Pie sent at me half a year ago, but it was most definitely love which I felt. Love which was replenishing my lost energy from having to heal my wounds.

Yes, pony friends could sustain a Changeling like me, just as well as a proper pony relationship might. And Camellia didn't even seem to notice I was feeding off her right now, the process just a natural thing my body seemed to do when faced with this emotion. If I could get a group of friends around me over in Hoofton, I could easily survive without going hungry.

Was this the big secret our family of infiltrators had found out? The one thing which drew them away from the hives and into singular pony guises which slowly but surely built up a history of their own? The thing which Blaze and Burst clung to out of a strong sense of needing to maintain these identities of themselves?

I could definitely see the benefits over making all the ponies our effective love-slaves. Draining them dry would be no less stupid than draining a well in a desert. We'd have a feast, and then slowly starve to death after.

Right now, where I was sitting, I was oddly comfortable. I was still faced with the prospect of having to figure a way out of this whole mess... but with friends like Camellia doing the legwork, there was a rising hope within me that we'd get out of it relatively unscathed.