//------------------------------//
// 14 
// Story: Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades 
// by Makitk 
//------------------------------//

I lay myself down on the grass as well, while Blaze calmed down to my left, and Oval gave me a few odd glances from my right side, and breathed in the smells of the place.

The grass I was in smelled like normal, proper grass. It was grassy, this grass. It felt real enough, even if it was clearly drawn in a cartoonish fashion.

The light breeze that drifted past made the grass sway a bit around us, and I enjoyed the cool air on my back.

"Our tails are not that expressive, are they?" I mused softly, and heard a hum from my right side.

"No, although you'll find that changes when you take a pony form," Oval suggested.

"Yeah, my tail was a lot more expressive while I posed as a unicorn than it is now," Blaze agreed.

"How difficult is it to learn how to fly when you can't figure out how your wings work exactly?" brother wondered in turn.

"Well, you're going to have to figure them out in order not to plummet down seconds after taking off," Blaze offered to him.

"Breeze does a lot of Pegasi," Oval added, "I'm mostly an Earthpony when I'm over in Hoofton."

"A MARRIED Earthpony," Blaze snorted.

"Oh, please; I've only been married for a short decade," Oval threw back. "You're the one who's been making a name for herself as an entertainer for the past, what? Twenty-odd years?"

"It keeps me fed and moving; you're stagnating, you lazy bum," Blaze decided, taking a nibble off the grass in front of her.

"I'm not stagnating, sister. Do you have any idea how much love a spouse deposits on their partner?" Oval wondered rhethorically. "It's enough to have me full up twice in a day."

"You can actually get full on love, then?" I asked turning my head a little to look at Oval.

"It won't fill the holes," Blaze sighed out.

"It's a matter of speaking," Oval agreed. "It's not like you're actually full, but you feel more energized from it."

"Like a caffeine shot," brother suggested.

"That... works," Blaze chuckled.

"So tell me again why I'm forced to do nothing while it's not my fault sister's got her leg in a cast?" brother wondered for the nth time already.

Blaze pushed herself up from the ground and stared him down. "Hey, I'll make you a deal; if you can push me out of the ring; you can go and continue with your training on your own."

Brother looked up at her towering over him and laid his head back down. "No thanks, you're way beyond me."

I frowned lightly, then pushed myself up in a sitting position. "Brother, I think you should take her up on it."

Brother turned his head to look at me with confusion plastered on his face.

"Look, we both know Blaze is an entertainer; she put up a show yesterday to tire you out while knowing the rest of the Changelings and Hatchlings in the room were watching you both," I offered.

Blaze tilted her head at me. "Where are you going with this?"

"Who's here to watch?" I asked of her.

Blaze looked around and shrugged. "You and Oval, I guess."

"Right; you don't have the usual crowd. You don't need to show off," I told Blaze. "If you can promise brother an honest match where you'll teach him what he does wrong, we can both learn from it."

Oval sat up as well, nodding her head. "Hey, she's got a point. I can draw out a circle for you if you want?"

"I saw you shadowboxing with him earlier in the common room," I told Blaze. "You want to teach us, right?"

Blaze gave a nod to that. "Well, yeah. If little brother can keep his cool, I'm happy to teach him."

"And I'll be watching, so I'll learn as well," I grinned up.

"I'd say we do it, sister," Oval pushed.

Brother carefully moved to sit up as well, while Blaze was letting the idea roll through her mind a bit.

"We all know you're better at dodging than either of us. I don't know about Oval, but I know brother and I are no match to you," I pressed.

Blaze exhumed strongly through her nostrils, then stamped a forehoof on the ground. "Okay, I'll do it."

Brother tilted his head a little. "With the same rules? If I push you out, I'll get to go join the flight training?"

Blaze gave a quick nod to that. "Yeah, I'll give you as fair a match as I can give you, but I'm still not going to make it easy on you."

Brother pushed up into a standing position and lifted his right hoof up. "Hoofbump to seal the deal?"

"Gods, you're such a brony," I laughed.

"Guilty," brother stated, still holding his right hoof up in the air.

Blaze awkwardly raised her own and put it to his. "Right, I'm okay with this."

Oval jumped up and started off in a seemingly random direction. "I know just the right spot to draw the circle!"

I pushed up properly as well, and slowly followed behind her. My cast was starting to make my leg itch and walking with it was only getting trickier as a result.

Oval found a nice flat spot of land and drew the circle with one of her forehooves, and I sat down a little distance away from it so I was not in danger of having someone get tossed onto me as they were forced out of the circle.

Blaze and brother looked at the circle a moment, then walked up to opposite sides of it and waited for Oval to step out of it herself.

Oval, meanwhile, took on the guise of a white unicorn stallion with a fiery red mane and magically manifested a fake microphone.

"In the red corner," she started, but was cut off by Blaze.

"There are no corners in a circle, idiot," she huffed. "Get out of the way so we can get this started already."

"Bah, and here I was trying to make it interesting," Oval grumbled, reverting to her Changeling base look after making the microphone disappear and hurrying over to my left side. "This seat taken?"

I shook my head at it all. "Remember when I said I thought I was hallucinating? You're not making it any better by doing those kinds of things, Burst."

Oval grinned widely as she sat down on the grass next to me. "My sister's not the only one who can be an entertainer, you know? It's something about our clutch; Breeze is a natural joker, Blaze is a juggler, and I can't help myself tinkering a bit as well."

"Breeze trips over her own forelegs. That's not being a natural joker; that's being a klutz," Blaze snorted.

"Which is why we love her so dearly," Oval giggled. "Go take your positions already."

I watched as Blaze and brother took up their positions within the ring, on opposite sides, and felt the tension between them rise. This could turn out to be an interesting match...