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// 49 
// Story: Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades 
// by Makitk 
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We stood quietly in the night's air, watching our Queen eat her way through the cupcake. A cool breeze passed by us, and I heard soft whistling around me in different tones, like a windchime of sorts. As I looked around myself at the many pairs of Changeling legs with their holes in them, I quickly deducted where the sound must be coming from and let out a soft chuckle.

"Hm?" our Queen started, swallowing the last bit of cupcake down. "What is so funny, my child?"

"I just realized our holey legs make for neat instruments," I suggested, then lifted up my right foreleg. "Except for mine and the ponies. My holes haven't grown in yet."

"May they stay away for a long time," Chrysalis sighed. "You clearly have not felt the hunger I have put the other Hatchlings through."

I shook my head at that. "No, my Queen. Blaze, Breeze, and Burst took me in as one of their own Clutch after I'd sprained my foreleg during fighting practice. Matron put a cast around it, so I was unable to continue my training."

"A cast? For a simple sprained leg?" our Queen wondered, then turned her head to face Blaze. "Adopted into your Clutch?"

"Ah, heh... it was Matron's plan, really," Blaze coughed uneasily, taking a few steps back.

I perked up at that, looking around in confusion.

"See, with all the Hatchlings coming out in batches, they could not be separated," Blaze continued. "You know how it is with your batches, my Queen; we sort of grow together."

Chrysalis motioned to a spot next to her. "Sit with me, Pearl. Let's hear all about it."

Oval looked down and away from me. "Matron started her off by having her born alone," she mumbled. "It was easy to spot her after that."

"You know how lone clutchlings are just... different. They stand out," Breeze coughed. "So we made sure she would be taught by Oval or me, and Oval even managed to send her my way after confirming she was who we thought she was."

Moonshine tilted her head at this all. "Wait, so Matron forcing me to teach her magic was part of some plan to get me in on it as well?"

"As was our trip to the spa, after we realized you rushed out. You always go to a spa to calm down," Blaze revealed. "When you rushed past me in the common room, I knew it was time to head for the spa, and Oval just helped make it look like she convinced me."

"You couldn't have known about Starlight Glimmer or Pinkie Pie appearing in town," I stated, having sat down next to our Queen. "None of you could have."

"No, that was a big surprise for all of us," Breeze agreed. "And, really, we did need them. Our original plan was just to send Pearl in there in an attempt to sway your mind, my Queen."

I tasted our Queen's pheromones in the air again, especially sitting so close to her, and started to feel a little lightheaded.

"And now you have your end result; you have me talking with you," Chrysalis stated with a frown. "And what is it you had wanted to tell me, had not these ponies interfered? What would you have this Changeling do, especially now she is as much my child as you are?"

My eyes had trouble focusing, but I thought I noticed Breeze falling down to a low bow.

"We meant no harm, my Queen," she spoke. "We just wanted to stop an impending war."

"We tried this before; before the failed invasion on Canterlot," Blaze suggested. "You did not listen. You overwhelmed us with your pheromones and we went and did what you told us."

"I didn't," Oval mumbled under her breath. "I just stood at the sidelines watching it all."

"And you thought I would do the same this time," our Queen Chrysalis realized, and the air around me grew less thick with her precious scent. In an attempt to stay with it as it withdrew, I fell sideways against her larger form.

"You smell nice," I grinned up as she peered down at me, nuzzling in against her.

"Clearly you chose the wrong Changeling to represent you three," our Queen chuckled. "I was barely aware I was emitting anything just now, and look at the state she is in."

There were some nervous chuckles from the three sisters, but Moonshine kept quiet.

"We really didn't mean any harm, my Queen," Breeze tried. "We just wanted to tell you how worried we were. Matron couldn't reach you anymore, so she asked us for help."

"The point is well taken now," our Queen spoke softly. "I have been neglecting you, my children, and this is what comes of it. Open rebellion."

The faces of my siblings fell, but Moonshine walked up and shook her head. "I don't want to make excuses for them, my Queen, especially not after having been drafted into their plan without realizing it."

"Go on," our Queen Chrysalis offered calmly.

"The fact remains we have been stationed here for far longer than we have in other outposts," Moonshine suggested. "And all because of that doorway leading into the other world, and the steady stream of Humans our siblings managed to retrieve from there."

"I miss my home, and my mare waiting for me there," Oval brought up, but Moonshine cast her an angry glance and she shut up again.

"Is that doorway really only useful for us to get new siblings from, my Queen?" Moonshine asked directly, and Queen Chrysalis looked out over the group in the direction of the door off in a nearby valley.

"What else can we do with it?" she spoke her thoughts. "There is no magic there. There is little of value there which is not protected by humans with devastating weaponry."

"There's love there," I offered up now my mind had some time to piece itself together again.

"Too little of it, and it's overshadowed by hatred, Pearl," my Queen offered down to me. "The only thing we can use from that world is you humans. Properly changed and trained, you made me an army I could not have imagined putting together myself. It grew far faster than I had hoped."

"And is now being brought back from starvation," Starlight Glimmer stated coolly, walking past my Queen and me on our left to join Moonshine. "You are going to have to take care of them until they are strong enough to take care of themselves. Is there any hope for them returning to their world?"

Chrysalis stared at the Unicorn, then shook her head. "Only as who they are now. I never thought about needing to reverse the transformation process. They were dosed with far higher amounts than any others in the past."

I felt a cold chill run down my spine as I processed those words. "...wait, what?"

"A sudden migration of a thousand Changelings won't go unnoticed," Starlight pondered. "Even if you spread them over different towns, they are still numerous enough that they're likely going to be found out."

"Hold on a minute," I started, thinking they were passing over something really important here.

"Are there really that many housed in the caverns? We've only seen small batches of them pass through the training rooms," Breeze asked.

"Waaaaaait!" I screamed, turning all eyes upon me.

I felt bile rise in my throat and looked up at my Queen with tears welling up. "There's no way to turn back?"

"Unless you learn how to pose as a human, no," Queen Chrysalis spoke flatly.

For some reason I had always had that little thought in the back of my head saying "there's always going to be a way back home if you need to find one", but now that voice had been silenced. The cold, harsh truth was staring me in the face and I had just ignored it up to now.

How could I have thought there was a way back from this?

I looked between the faces of the Changelings and ponies near me, and it dawned on me that there were a thousand-or-more Hatchlings down in the depths of this mountain, all waiting to hear this exact same thing. Whatever hope they had clung onto while being starved, this would... this would kill them if it was not brought to them in the right way.

"Pearl?" I heard spoken softly, and looked up in Oval's face.

"I really do care about you. We may have needed you for our plan, but you have a kind heart," Oval spoke. "You can come stay over at my place in Hoofton until you find a place for yourself or learn how to pose as a Human if that would help you?"

I reached up with my left forehoof to wipe the tears from my eyes, then shook my head. "No, Burst, it's... I'm going to need to ask our Queen for something."

"Hmm?" Queen Chrysalis wondered, looking me over.

"Let me tell the others that there is no way to return home. Individually. Don't mention it to them as a group," I asked. "It would kill the ones who are already weakened. This... However much I love living here, among you all, and learning what I can about this new life... if I did not know I had all your support, and friendship, I would have given up just here and now."

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, but then gave a nod. "Very well. I would not know what to do with them in the first place. I will leave it up to you five and Matron to decide how to best help the Hatchlings integrate. Just be sure to keep me informed."

"Thank you, my Queen," I spoke up, even as Chrysalis stood up and turned for the entrance to the Hive again.

"Starlight Glimmer," she called upon the unicorn, "would you have any idea how I could best release the ponies I have left in captivity?"

"Oh, I can help with that!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, and pulled out her party cannon. "We'll just have to throw them a party and have them Pinkie-promise not to say anything to anypony! That's easy!"

"...if you say so," Chrysalis sighed. "I am tired of this all. There won't be an invasion, so you do your... victory dance or some such."

With that, she left for the hive, followed by most of the guards.

"I don't feel like a victory dance," Breeze suggested, and the rest of us agreed. "Now we're suddenly in charge of all those Hatchlings."

"I don't suppose you'd feel like staying with us for a few days to help with the Hatchlings and captive ponies, Starlight Glimmer?" Moonshine wondered, to which the Unicorn smiled weakly.

"You know, I think I do feel like staying for a while longer," she agreed. "Do you have anypony here who could send a message to Ponyville?"

Oval chuckled at that. "Well, not a pony per se..."