//------------------------------// // 36 // Story: Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades // by Makitk //------------------------------// The three of us stood staring back at the pale white Unicorn mare looking at us with the fires of hell blazing from underneath a long dark blue mane. From the occasional flash of green washing over her form, it was clear we were dealing with another Changeling, but we were in a public pony venue... Blaze took a half-step to the left with her forehooves, positioning herself diagonally in-between her children and the strange other. "Moonshine, this is not the time or place for this," Blaze spoke calmly, but her horn started glowing with a barely noticeable magical aura. "Stay out of this, Blaze," Moonshine bit back, her own horn glowing with far more power. I could barely see from behind Blaze, as she kept moving in my way. Breeze nudged me and took a step back. "Take some distance, sis," she whispered up. "This can get ugly." I followed Breeze's example, backtracking toward the room we had just left. The tension between Moonshine and Blaze continued to build up as we did, but Blaze's body made sure we were protected in case something was to come from Moonshine's side. "We have adopted Pearl into our clutch," Blaze stated with a deathly calm to her voice, her horn steadily glowing with more power as Breeze and I took our distance. "I will protect her as any of my sisters." "Spotlight, dear, really give me a moment to at least get my hooves through these straps," Oval called out after us, half-stumbling out of the door behind us but freezing in place as he realized something new was going on. "You can't adopt a Hatchling into your clutch!" Moonshine decried! "You're not even supposed to take them out of the outpost!" "Inner voices!" Oval hushed, rushing past me to take a stand on Blaze's left. "There be ponyfolk nearby!" "I got this," Blaze grumbled, to which Oval shook his head. "We have two foals behind us. I'm not moving," he declared. "What do I care about these ponies???" Moonshine screamed, letting loose a beam of magic which made Breeze and I dive for the floor! Blaze's magic slammed into the beam of light coming our way, deflecting the blast into the wall to our right, which suddenly had a lot less wall and a lot more open space. Oval turned his head to look at the newly made gap, then quickly started to trace his steps back. "You got this, Spotlight? I'll... be hiding in the back with the kids." He turned and rushed our way, hooked a foreleg under Breeze and me both, and ran the last few steps back into the room we had just left on just his hind legs! Another blast of energy erupted in the hallway, but we dove for cover behind the lounge chairs once Oval let go of us, Breeze quick to cling to my right side! The flashes of light and accompanying sounds were worse than a severe lightning storm, and it appeared to me like Moonshine was trying to bring the place down in order to get to me! "What got into her?" Oval complained, ducked down behind the lounge chair in front of us and effectively forming a living barrier between Breeze and me and the danger in the hallway. "I told you there was a friendship problem he... whoa!" I heard a familiar voice just moments before another explosion, and my ears involuntarily perked up on my head. "That's Pinkie Pie," I whispered down to Breeze, who gave me a confused glance back. "That's who distracted me earlier; she's one of princess Twilight Sparkle's friends." "She is?" Oval queried. "Hey, now, that wasn't nice!" Pinkie shouted from further down the hallway. A blue flash followed, and suddenly everything went quiet... "I saw Pinkie Pie and Starlight Glimmer at the train station. They're here to find some kind of friendship problem and won't leave or stop investigating until they find it," I explained quickly. "Well, they have a tough one on old Moonshine," Oval suggested. "Moonshine? Who's that?" Pinkie Pie asked, popping up on my left. The three of us jumped from her sudden appearance, and I barely managed to avoid landing on Breeze as I came down again. As I stumbled on my hooves to find my balance, I noticed Pinkie's eyes growing a little more than usually on the show when she was excited about something... In a split second I realized the sudden appearance of the pink Earthpony must have made me lose my guise again, and I quickly re-applied it, but the damage was done already. "Waaaaait a second," Pinkie started, but I quickly fell to the floor between chairs, pretty much falling flat on my face, and stared up at her in great despair. "Please don't tell anyone, please please please please with sugar on top???" I literally begged of the pony before me. "I promise I'm not here to do anything bad! I'll Pinkie-promise if that'll help!" From my position groveling at the pink Earthpony's forehooves, I could not see Breeze or Oval. All I was looking at was Pinkie, and all that existed before me was Pinkie. She held my fate in her hooves right now. Pinkie blinked her blue eyes down at me, but a smile started creeping onto her face and I knew it was going to be fine once I saw that smile I had seen so many times on the show. "Weeeeeeeeelll..." she started, helping me up from the ground. "Okay! I won't tell. But only if you Pinkie promise you're not here to do any of that evil stuff and are just here to have fun." I sat up in front of her and tried to remember the correct sequence. "I do! I pinkie promise! Er... I am going to need your help with that, please?" "Cross my heart and hope to fly," Pinkie started, and I mimicked her hoof motion while mouthing the words, punching myself in the face a moment later, "stick a cupcake in my eye!" With my left eye held closed from the hoof that hit it a moment earlier, I motioned around blindly with my right hoof. "I'm Pearl, and this is my family; my sister Summer Breeze and my dad Sturdy Hoof." Once I could see more than just stars, I realized Breeze must have leapt straight for Oval once Pinkie appeared, or when I threw myself at the ground, or somewhere before I gave myself a black eye, and the pair of them were staring at us in great confusion. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm your new best friend!" Pinkie exclaimed merrily. "Is she for real?" Oval wondered. I did my best to smile through the adrenaline still rushing through my veins. "Yes, yes she is," I stated to Oval and Breeze. "Pinkie, I know it's difficult for you to keep a secret for long, but can you at least keep Starlight Glimmer from finding out about me?" I asked, turning back to face Pinkie Pie. "Oh, she already knows," Pinkie revealed with a happy smile, then bounced on off to the doorway. "They're in here, Starlight!" I shared a confused glance with Oval and Breeze, but then the three of us turned to face the doorway as a blue glow started to shine stronger and stronger from it. Pinkie Pie bounced back toward us and promptly shoved something under my nose. "Cupcake?" I looked away from the doorway to notice a cupcake held up by Pinkie Pie's hoof, a blue swirl with multicoloured sprinkles on it. I took a sniff at it and the sweet, sweet smell of freshly baked cupcake wafted up through my muzzle and hit the pleasure centers of my brain. I gently took the cupcake in my mouth and set it down on the lounge chair in front of me so I could nibble from it, while Pinkie offered another cupcake to Breeze. While we ate from the impromptu treats given by our new friend, the blue glow finally delivered something to our view; a pair of Changelings, their guises lost, hovering in mid-air thanks to Starlight Glitter's magic. The Unicorn pony followed behind them and raised an eyebrow at the picture of four ponies eating cupcakes. "I'm not good at pinpointing exactly which," I started, "but one of those is my mom Spotlight. The other is Moonshine. She's... got a problem with me, for some reason." Starlight Glimmer moved one of the Changelings closer to us and set her down on the ground. The magic glow around her disappeared, and the Changeling turned to huff in Starlight's direction. "As I was saying," Blaze started, the green glow passing over her as she took on the guise of Spotlight again, "we were just taking a bath here." Starlight set the other Changeling further away from us, and let her go as well. Moonshine snarled once she regained control of her own motions again, and just sat down on her rear with her forehooves folded in front of her. "I came here to escape that one," she grumbled, nudging her head in my direction. "For what it's worth, 'that one' has no idea what she did to offend you so much," I quipped. "See, Starlight? This must be why the map sent me and you here!" Pinkie Pie suggested happily. Starlight Glimmer looked less enthused, and looked at our little group. "So I take it you're Changelings as well, then?" "Uh, Starlight?" Pinkie started. "They prefer the term love-challenged."