As Camellia and I sat at the coffeetable in her living room, our right hooves placed near the center of the table touching each other, the love beaming out from my newly made friend poured into me relatively unhampered by her internal feelings about my appearance or species.
Our thoughts were our own while we sat in peace, up until we heard some stumbling from the floor above.
"Is she going to be okay on her own there?" Camellia wondered, which evoked a hearty laugh from me.
"You're sounding like me," I commented, putting focus back on the unicorn. "After hearing Blaze talk about the issues Breeze and Burst have with staying out of trouble, I'm constantly worried about them. And I'm still getting used to my back plate! Forget me trying to survive on my own in this world..."
Camellia subconsciously leaned her head to the right as if she wanted to look past me at my back plate now I had mentioned it, and I turned in place a little so she could get a better look. Realizing I had caught her staring again, she dipped her ears down a bit lower against her head, so I booped her hoof with my own and smiled at her while straightening up again.
"It's fine to look, really. As I said before; you can look and ask all you want, I'll tell you if you go too far," I told Camellia.
"Oh?" the unicorn responded cautiously. "I had wondered about it. Is it like a beetle's plating? Like, are there wings hiding underneath?"
Of course she had to go there...
"Not exactly," I started, turning my head a bit too fast to look back at it and having to stabilize myself against the nausea again. "Yes, there are wings underneath it, but I can't split my backplate in half like beetles can. They just slide out from the space between my body and the plating."
Camellia waited for a brief moment before her hoof gently pushed in against my own. "How about I stop talking here and go get us something to drink, hm? I did offer you tea, after all."
I gave a slow nod to her, not looking up as I was trying to let the headache settle again. "I would like that, but some water would be fine as well."
"Really? Because I do have some honey in the house, and it already made your sibling laugh when I first proposed it to her... I could put the jar in front of you and you can tell me how ridiculous I am because you're not a pair of bees, like she did?" the unicorn prodded, pulling her forehoof back from the table.
I carefully peered up at her beaming a caring smile my way, but then was immediately drawn to a flash of pink light behind her!
A pair of ponies had appeared out of thin air and were now standing near the foot of the stairs, and I felt a shiver run down my spine as my brain connected their appearances to a set of names I knew really well...
The first was an Alicorn, her horn still sparkling a little as her magic died down. Her coat was a light purple, with a darker purple stripe set next to a pink one in both her blue mane as well as blue tail. On her flank sat a sparkling pink star amidst several smaller white ones. I stared at the Princess Twilight Sparkle recovering from her teleportation spell as if she used it daily, her pink eyes darting around the room until they settled on Camellia and myself.
The other pony had a fair bit more trouble getting their hoofing again, stumbling sideways a few steps until they got their bearings. An orange hoof reached up to the large Stetson hat on her blonde mane to push it back in place while her green eyes tumbled in their sockets. It was unmistakably Applejack, the well-known earthpony who ran Sweet Apple Acres with her family back in Ponyville.
"Bwuh..." I started, reaching my right hoof up from the table's surface to point in their direction.
"Oh my goodness; it really IS a Changeling!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, a bit too loudly to my liking, her wings unfurling and sticking out behind her in her obvious enthusiasm! "I couldn't believe it when I got the letter, but here we are face-to-face with a Changeling, in Canterlot! Are you seeing this, Applejack?"
"Now hold on to yer horsefeathers, Twilight," Applejack protested, only turning slowly as if she was feeling under the weather. "I'll come and see yer 'same thing' as soon as the world stops spinnin'."
"Oh, sorry," Twilight noted. "I forgot you're not used to my teleportation spell."
"Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Camellia exhumed in surprise after having turned to the pair. "Here, in my humble house?"
"Ah, there's really no need for formalities," Twilight Sparkle coughed uneasily, taking a few steps forward and giving a light headbow to the unicorn. "I feel like I need to thank you for letting me know about this unique situation. I'm afraid I forgot your name... Caramel, was it?"
"Camellia," I suggested, trying to push my own excitement at the fact I was face-to-face with Twilight Sparkle down, "and you can call me Pearl. My sister Oval is upstairs, so please don't be alarmed if she comes walking down the stairs."
"Oh?" Twilight responded with a raised eyebrow. "What quaint names! This is so exciting! I mean, I'm finding more and more friendly Changelings! Well, with 'me' I mean my friends are finding them for me; Spike found Thorax, Starlight Glimmer found Moonshine and a whole group of them whose names I can't remember... I hope that's not offending you? Is it? I really don't mean it to be offending, but you know the other Changelings I know have basically been attacking us every time we come across them, so it's really exciting when..."
"Twilight, would ya calm down?" Applejack called out. "For goodness' sake, girl, you're ramblin' like a filly goin' on her first date! We haven't even got here less than five seconds ago!"
"Oh, right. You're right, Applejack," Twilight agreed with a flush. "It's just that I'm excited knowing there are more friendly Changelings about than just Thorax! Can you imagine the possibilities if we can get a conversation going between us?"
"You think you might want to give 'em time to respond, then?" Applejack suggested with a wink and a nudge of her shoulder to her friend's left side. "Hey there Opal, don't let Twilight 'ere take yer tongue out, you hear?"
Camellia raised a hoof at that, pointing halfway up the stairs to a figure who had started to come down at hearing the commotion. "No, that's Oval. With a v. The one behind me is Pearl. And I'm Camellia, as Pearl told you already."
Twilight Sparkle and Applejack both turned to look over at Oval coming down the stairs, with Applejack raising a hoof to push Twilight's wings down out of the way. The princess folded her wings at her friend's gentle prodding, allowing the earthpony to look over the alicorn's flank with considerable more ease. Oval, in turn, just continued down the stairs until she reached the ground floor, and then raised her right forehoof up in greeting.
"Oh, hey there, Twilight. We have actually met a few times already, although I can't change into a look you know to show you right now," my Changeling sister spoke with a grin. "You've also met our sisters Blaze and Breeze on occasion, but they're not with us. We were not expecting to see you until we'd come visit you in Ponyville about a year from now."
A spark of recognition flashed over Twilight Sparkle's face. "Wait, YOU'RE the Changelings Moonshine spoke of?"
"Er, that depends," Oval replied cautiously. "If she's said nice things, then sure... if she's been treading all over my reputation, then I'll want to know all the details but it was probably my evil twin."
Twilight's face fell blank as she tried to find a response to Oval's joke, but Applejack started to chuckle behind her.
"Aw, that's my kinda humor," she spoke up. "Y'all are fine as far as I've heard; Moonshine's been yappin' on about some Pearl come to stop an invasion nopony in their right mind would want, but nothin' bad 'sides that."
The orange Earthpony turned back to face me and looked straight at my bug-eyed face. "I'm bettin' we got you to thank for that, don't we, sugarcube?"
"I really didn't do all that much," I mumbled, looking away from her peering green eyes. "In the end it was all of us working together that did it. The power of friendship and all that..."
"I was just about to get Pearl something to drink," Camellia spoke up. "Could I offer you something as well, princess?"
"Now yer talkin'!" Applejack spoke merrily. "If y'all got some cider, applejuice, or milk, that'd be a mighty fine treat, Camellia!"
"She's got honey in the house," I suggested flatly, making sure to stare straight at Oval who promptly slapped herself in the face with a hoof.
"Damnit, Pearl, how do you keep getting wise about these things?" she wondered out loud. "I'll just have some tea, please."
"Oh, tea sounds lovely," Twilight Sparkle added herself.
"A round of tea for everypony except Applejack then?" Camellia asked glancing between us all, and I gave a nod at her as she looked my way. "If I may suggest you all take a seat, the tea will be done in just a minute."
Twilight Sparkle did not move until Oval decided to walk past her and sit down on my left side, the princess' eyes following my sister as she walked. Applejack just casually sauntered our way as well, and flopped down opposite us, beaming a smile our way.
"So, what brought y'all over to Canterlot?" the Earthpony asked as if she had known us for a long time and was just talking about the weather with us. "I mean, I've heard a thing or two from Twilight over there... who's gonna keep standin' until her legs fall out from under her it seems..."
Twilight's cheeks flushed again and she quickly darted closer to us, taking position on Applejack's right side to end up opposite Oval. "Sorry, sorry..."
"You have no idea at the excitement I'm feeling on this end at sitting face-to-face with you both," I spoke empathically to Twilight, "but I have a nasty headache which does a good job tempering it."
"She decided to fly down the stairs without opening her wings, go figure," Oval chuckled at my expense.
"Yeah, it was great fun until I reached the bottom," I snorted, eliciting a chuckle from Applejack.
"You look... really alike," Twilight Sparkle suggested, seemingly ignoring what we just said. "How do you keep each other apart?"
"This is going to be another long conversation, isn't it?" Oval sighed out. "I've done too much teaching in the past months, how about I let Pearl talk instead and I'll just sit here looking pretty?"
"Pretty? Have y'all looked in a mirror lately?" Applejack offered up with a wink, the joke getting laughs from all but Twilight Sparkle who was still lost to her thoughts.