Blaze excused herself, taking brother down into the outpost again so he could continue learning about magic and flying and whatnot.
I rolled over onto my side and looked over at Oval still trying to come to terms with her sister's joke.
"You're not the fighting sort, are you, Burst?" I asked of her, and she shook her head.
"Very much the contrary, I mean, I was mostly standing around at the sidelines during our attack on Canterlot a few years back," Oval sighed. "I don't have the stomach for more than just playfighting."
I let my head drop down in the grass and peered sideways out at the world. The sun was slowly making its way West, and shadows were starting to grow again.
"You know, I was told the outside here was a dangerous place," I remarked. "Brother and I were warned not to go out on our own."
"It's deceptively peaceful here, isn't it?" Oval chuckled lightly.
"Yeah; not much around that looks dangerous to me," I suggested, closing my eyes while I rested.
"Mostly that's because of the soldiers around us; this is a protected zone for us," Oval explained. "They stay out of sight most of the time, but this whole mountain is protected, right down to that gateway you guys came through."
"It's an old fort, isn't it?" I queried idly, really feeling more calm now brother and Blaze had left. They were both a bit high-strung, especially compared to the more laid-back Oval.
"From before the forming of Equestria, I think," Oval replied thoughtfully. "The brickwork is ancient."
"I didn't see more than the outside of it before I got resined-up by a pair of unicorns," I revealed, yawning lightly in the warmth of the sunlight.
"It's better to catch you as soon as you wander into this world. Imagine a Human wandering off and stumbling into the pony towns nearby; they would start a riot," Oval suggested, and I heard her move from her position only to fall down on the ground to my left again. "How's your leg treating you?"
"It's itchy," I chuckled, opening my eyes to look over at her. "The pain is mostly gone unless I put my weight on it, and even then it's not as much as yesterday."
Oval smiled back at that. "Matron is a good healer."
"Blaze said the three of you thought of her as a mother of sorts since she was there for your hatching," I recalled. "It helped me come to terms a bit more with my new situation."
"Oh, how so?" Oval wondered, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, as I told Blaze; back where we're from, this world is pretty much entirely fictional. There's a hundred fanmade stories about it, ranging from funny ones to absolute horror stories," I started. "Changelings are mostly antagonists in these stories; rash, hiveminded, constantly wanting to take over the world, and then there's our parasitic nature..."
"Ah, yeah," Oval sighed. "There are stories like those among the ponies as well. We've made some bad decisions in the past, and the ponies feel cheated for how we treated them back when."
I closed my eyes again, thinking back to all the stories giving Changelings a bad rap. "Yeah, you and your sisters are a lot different from how the stories claim you should be."
"It's a recent development, I'm sorry to say. We should have known better in the first place, but it's only been since Queen Chrysalis' failed assault on Canterlot that she's opened up to the voices of those of us who had lived among ponykind already." Oval revealed with a sigh.
"You learn a lot about a species when you infiltrate their society and spend your every waking moment among them," Oval continued. "While we still haven't been able to figure out why it is that their love feeds us, we did learn to reciprocate it."
"You mean, you learned to love others whom you may otherwise have just looked at as prey or such?" I suggested.
"Yeah, exactly. Back when I hatched, we were told ponies were evil; hoarding their love for themselves and unwilling to share it with us normally." Oval stated. "We were told that we had no other choice but to lie and steal it from them. So, for the first years of my life that's exactly what I did."
I frowned a bit and opened my eyes to look over at Oval frowning as well. "It didn't sit well with you, I'm guessing?"
"Right," Oval agreed, letting out a sigh while shaking her head. "It was just so stupid! We would knock out a target so we could take over their looks and position in life. It just didn't make sense; that other pony could have shared their love with another sibling instead of withering away somewhere."
I reached out with my left hoof to touch Oval's right. "You're not copying another's look when you're in Hoofton, are you?"
Oval smirked at that, but shook her head. "It's a bit of a mix of several guises. I'm just a random stallion among the rest of them."
"Are we hatchlings told how to do that sort of stuff, or is it expected we learn it on our own?" I wondered. "I mean, I don't know what's expected of us, apart from learning how to feed ourselves."
"Well, there's rumours about you guys," Oval suggested in a half-whisper. "Queen Chrysalis is planning something, but it's still unclear what it is exactly."
"Matron blabbed," I chuckled. "Something about us all going to invade the ponylands with us hatchlings as the fresh blood among your ranks?"
Oval looked upset about hearing that. "What? No?! That would be the stupidest thing to do right now! We've been working to change the way we're viewed by the ponies we live with! They saw us as a big threat some years ago, but nowadays we're mostly mentioned as a nuisance of sorts."
"An afterthought, huh?" I offered up.
"Yeah, not something to get the whole kingdom riled up over, but more of a necessary evil," Oval agreed. "It's still not the best view of us, but it's a lot better than it used to be. Attacking them now would undo years of hard work!"
"But it's the Queen who makes that decision, no?" I wondered, shaking my head a little. "From what I know of Chrysalis, she behaves erratically at best."
"She's been a Queen for a long time now, and there's only been one batch since mine," Oval muttered. "There are voices who wonder if she's still able to produce, if you get my drift."
"Oh, brother," I sighed. "Just my luck to be drafted into the ranks of a dying empire..."
"Don't call it that," Oval winced. "We're not dying, we're... stagnating?"
I smiled over weakly. "And that's why there's three batches of Changelings in this outpost here, all tasked with getting us Humans changed and prepped to join the family, I guess?"
Oval gave it a thoughtful nod. "Yeah, the Queen is investing heavily on this."
"Do you know if any of you went through the gateway to the other side?" I wondered. "I mean, my coming here was some crazy farce of injustice. I'm suspecting there's some infiltrators at work there."
"Possibly," Oval agreed. "I don't know everything that goes on in our family. Most of what I know is hearsay."
"It's too big a family with too many secrets for everyone to know everything," I mused. "I saw the different cliques in the common room; clutches sticking together, right?"
"With anywhere between ten and two-hundred hatchlings per batch, it's easier to stick with the couple of siblings from your clutch, yeah," Oval chuckled embarrassedly. "We know each other more intimately than even others from the same batch."
"I know the feeling; I came into this world with two other Humans, but they barely looked at me after we'd hatched," I sighed out. "I mean, sure; we all kinda look alike now, and I probably won't be able to keep myself apart from the rest of you once my legs get holes in them as well... but it still stung a bit."
"But you hatched on your own, right?" Oval asked. "I heard from Blaze. Most of us hatch together."
"Does that really make that much of a difference?" I wondered, shaking my head at it. "It seems like such a superficial difference."
"In our family, it does really make a difference, yes," Oval stated. "When you hatch with others, you get taken care of together, you'll go through each step of life together. Different clutches develop at different speeds."
"I didn't see much of a difference in speed with my batch?" I suggested idly. "I guess that was intended?"
"Yeah, you'll gather in the first room where you're taught the basics, and are then forced to go at the speed of the slowest member of your batch. That's how this outpost was set up. Don't ask me why," Oval agreed, smirking sideways at me.
"Too big a clutch won't stick together as well as a smaller one, no matter how much pressure is put on them," she decided after a moment of thought, then stretched out a bit beside me with a yawn.
"Hey, the sun is starting to go down the sky there, and soon it will be dark," the Changeling remarked, motioning in the direction of Canterlot and the mountain it was built on. "Canterlot's tall spire blocks out the sunlight far before nightfall."
I sat up and gave Oval a slow nod. "What are you suggesting, Burst?"
"Let's head back to the common room to get some dinner?" Oval grinned, pushing up from the ground as well and standing up properly.
I stood up as well and felt the need to stretch my limbs as much as I could, my right leg stiff from the cast around it.
"That sounds like a plan, but I must admit I liked being outside for the day," I agreed. "It's been informative, even if brother left us."
"Hey, that just means I can crash with you and Blaze again tonight," Oval laughed. "If only you could fly... we could've hung out in one of the upper rooms which have more than three alcoves."
"I'm sure I can learn to fly in no time," I suggested with a grin back at her. "Blaze keeps chiding me for having tried to fly during my fight with brother, but I was starting to get the hang of it before he stuck my hoof to the ground."
Oval raised an eyebrow at that, then grinned wider. "I'm going to want to see you try after dinner, little sister. In the worst case scenario I'd have to catch you as you tumble down."
"Har-har," I sneered.