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// 13 
// Story: Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades 
// by Makitk 
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As my eyes got used to the daylight, I realized we were rather high up on a mountain to the East of the towering mountain that was Canterlot.

I was not entirely sure anymore of the name of the region, but Blaze helped me before I could ask by pointing around us.

"We're up in the Foal Mountains, here. This is but one of the smaller peaks, with the larger off to the East, as you can see," she pointed out.

I looked around and realized we were still below the snow line, on one of the lower peaks set in-between a set of larger mountains. Canterlot was clearly visible to the West, and I could even see some smoke from buildings over past the mountains to the East.

Probably Fillydelphia or Manehattan. I could not immediately remember how far North each was. 

Brother peered down the slope rather than off into the distance, and Blaze motioned to the group of Changelings lower on the mountain.

"As I said before; we can see the flight training from up here," she mentioned, fluttering her own wings a bit to hover herself a few inches above the ground. "You did well trying to control your hovering during your fight yesterday, little sister. I'm sure you'll learn more advanced flight skills in no time."

I peered at her in an attempt to see if she was just fooling around, but she looked to mean it.

"It's a bit getting used to you being honest with us now, Blaze," I offered up. "Especially about what we can and can't do. I know you told us yesterday that it was all some kind of game, but it was still annoying to keep being told we were less than you regular Changelings, you know?"

Blaze gave a nod. "It's not my choice to do that sort of thing, really. It's what was decided to be the best way to train you all."

Brother looked back up at her. "Did that include mocking me in the ring?"

"Oh, no, that was not just for my fun," Blaze chuckled, "you were so wound up there; you needed to blow off some steam. Seeing as how I can dodge just about anything, I thought it was better if you went up against me instead of hurting someone else."

Brother snorted at that, clearly not believing her.

"Well, you did look like a bull pushed to the point of blind rage there, brother," I offered my point of view.

"You both need to work on your strategies; little brother is letting his anger get the best of him, and you focus on things entirely unrelated to the fight," Blaze pushed.

"Yeah, we got that," I sighed. "Now, why did we come up here again?"

Blaze walked off past a set of bushes, pointing down at a structure in a nearby valley. It looked like an old castle or fort, and it took me a moment to place it - until I spotted the double doors in front of the courtyard.

"That's where we came in through!" I realized.

"Yeah, we have a set of siblings stationed there around the clock - ever since you Humans started wandering in through the gateway there," Blaze revealed. "Do you see how close it is to Canterlot? We're not sure if the princesses know of it or not."

I looked over to the West and judged the distance to the painted cartoon castle on the painted cartoon mountain from where I stood myself on the much smaller cartoon mountain.

"Canterlot mostly faces West itself, doesn't it?" I realized. "It's likely they don't usually look this way."

"That is true; most of the train lines go around these mountains as well, rather than through them," Blaze agreed.

"And you said we started coming in through there about a year ago?" I asked, peering down at the fort again.

"I'm not exactly sure. The first human we met was a chance meeting which caused our Queen to call a lot of us back from where we'd been living among the ponies," Blaze offered in a soft voice. "I was travelling around with a circus troupe at the time, so they couldn't find me at first. They found Breeze easy enough, who got to Oval on her own."

"If you're going to say a Changeling called Tracker tracked you down, I'm going to go through those double doors there no matter the punishment I'll face," brother sighed.

"Ander found me, actually," Blaze chuckled. "They had to chase me for a week or so since our troupe had just packed up out of Tall Tale and were trekking through the Unicorn Range."

"Ander's from the same batch as you, but from the clutch before you, right?" I recalled.

"Yeah," Blaze agreed, taking a few steps over to a patch of grass and laying down in it. "I guess he's my big brother, in a way."

I stumbled on over as well, and flopped down to Blaze's right side, looking over the valley ahead of us and the strange fort located in it.

"So what do you think triggered that gateway's appearance?" I wondered.

"I don't know," Blaze shrugged. "Honestly, it's not something I keep myself busy with. I've just been told to gather here in our old outpost and help train the batches which come through."

"Oval made it seem as if she'd return to her home city soon," I offered up.

"She's always been the more optimistic of us," Blaze chuckled, closing her eyes. "No, I think our Queen is going to pull all of us out here to help her amass a new army based on your kind."

Brother let himself fall down on his side to Blaze's left, while sighing out deeply. "I'm not sure about fighting anymore now. Have you seen the sky?"

I looked up at the pastel-blue sky and its cute fluffy cartoon clouds. "What about it?"

Brother pointed Eastward, past Canterlot. "I mean that there; the floating cloud city. I'd like to go visit it."

"Ah, Cloudsdale," Blaze sighed longingly. "Never had a performance there, mostly because of the whole 'unicorns are not supposed to be able to stand on clouds' deal."

"You were posing as a unicorn, then?" I wondered, looking over at Blaze again, who gave a small nod.

"My most long-time guise to date. I actually had a lot of fun with it," Blaze offered with a tinge of melancholy to her voice.

"And then we Humans appeared, Queen Chrysalis pulled you over here, and now the three of us misfits are sitting on a mountain," I offered up with a smirk.

"Speak for yourself," brother snorted. "I'm not a misfit; I'm a bloody Changeling."

Blaze laughed at brother's protest, and gave him a friendly shove with her left forehoof. "You two will do fine. I'm not sure what the rest of your batch is doing, but you two will be fine. Stick with Oval and me, and you'll be fine."

"Didn't Matron say Oval was a troublemaker?" I recalled.

"Well, she's too smart for her own good, mostly. Breeze does what she's told, even if she may stumble in the execution of such," Blaze explained. "Oval will think it over and seek shortcuts so she doesn't have to expend too much energy. She's also lazy; I think she's been holding the same guise for the past twenty years."

"Well, if it works," I offered.

"Yeah, but try explaining to your pony partner that the reason she's not getting pregnant is because you're a different species than her," Blaze mused. "And not a different pony species at that, but a wholly different species altogether."

"Insects, even," I sighed softly.

"Yeah, although you don't have to say it like it's a bad thing," Blaze snorted. "You've been doing a great job at being an insect since you hatched, you know? The both of you, really. I mean it when I say it, and I'll say it a few more times so you get it ingrained in your little heads; you're doing a good job coping with this stuff."

"Oh, so this is where you went off to," a voice behind us spoke up, and we turned our heads to face Oval climbing out of the outpost entrance. "I had to ask the guards which exit you took."

"Hiya Burst!" I called out to her with a grin, and she stared blankly at me a moment.

"Did you put her up to this, Blaze dear?" she spoke flatly, but Blaze shook her head.

"Not at all, Oval sister. She's been calling you Burst since she woke up," Blaze explained truthfully.

I could just grin at Oval at that.

"Oh, well, that's okay then," Oval decided, prancing over. "I did tell her we don't hold to names that much in our family."

"I was just testing it out, Oval, I'll stop if you want?" I suggested, while Oval dropped down on my right side.

"Nah, it's fine little sister. At least one of my siblings will call me by my given name if you keep calling me Burst," Oval chuckled. "Besides, it sounds more masculine than Oval, doesn't it?"

"Psh, you and your stallion preference," Blaze huffed, letting her head drop down until she laid flatly on the grass.

"Juggler," Oval threw back, grinning my way. "So, what are we doing?"

"Waiting for the gate to spit out another Human," Blaze suggested, to which Oval peered out in the direction of the fort.

"Ah, that can take a while though," she remarked.

"Well, the little one here needs to keep her weight off her leg, according to Matron. I thought it'd be nice to sunbathe a bit. Show the hatchlings the world they're going to be living in from now on," Blaze explained.

"Ah," Oval remarked, laying herself down as well. "It's a good day for it; nice breeze."

"What about Breeze?" I asked of Oval, who turned her head to stare at me. Noticing the surprised look on her clutch sister's face, Blaze started to laugh heartily!