Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

10

After Matron finally got on her way, Oval turned to me and gave me a nudge against my flank as she joined me. "I'm glad your leg's not broken. It looks worse than it is, huh?"

"It does hurt if I put my weight on it, but yeah; it could have been worse," I agreed. "I did start it, as brother said; I spat resin on his wings and he decided to glue my hoof to the floor. When I tried to evade one of his attacks, I sort of rolled over and pulled my leg the wrong way."

Oval winced a moment, then turned for brother. "Why did you glue her leg to the floor? Aren't you supposed to kick each other out of the ring or something?"

Brother snorted at the admonishment, sitting himself down in the alcove. "Sister had me fight her afterward."

"You mean Blaze, right? Loves to juggle resin?" Oval wondered.

"How did you know?" I asked, taking brother's example and sitting myself down in my own alcove opposite his so as to take the weight off my foreleg.

"None of the others would have sent you here," Oval explained. "There's three groups here right now. Blaze and I are from the same batch. She runs with a circus troupe out there."

"That explains her theatrics in her fight with brother," I chuckled. "She didn't give him a chance."

"Yeah, that's Blaze alright," Oval agreed, sitting down on my left side in my chosen alcove. "Matron explain to you yet how to feed off the veins?"

Brother shook his head, but I gave a nod in reply.

"Which is it?" Oval wondered.

"She told us to poke our fangs through the outer skin of it and suck on the paste inside, but told us to wait until we were in our room," I offered.

"Ah, yeah. She didn't tell you how to plug the holes again then; use the soft rubbery resin for that. It'll plug right up," Oval beamed. "Really, it's the difference between feeding and staying dry, or suddenly having a few dozen gallons of paste spray over you when you forget to plug the holes before pulling your mouth away; there's a bit of pressure in these veins."

I looked around me at the walls of the room, all of which were covered in a pattern of veins like the walls themselves were alive and required a bloodflow of sorts.

"So you have to keep your mouth closed around it while feeding, then?" I wondered, to which Oval gave a nod. "So how does this differ from that love we supposedly need to feed on?"

Brother flopped down sideways on the hard stone at my question. "So much learning..." he groaned.

"Well, how I experience it; when you get a target's love, you'll get warmed up on the inside," Oval explained. "It fills you up, you know? I mean, I got my holes just like everyone else, but it's like a target's love makes them go away for a little while."

"Not really, of course; they do stay in my legs," Oval pointed out quickly. "They'll stay with you all your life once they show up."

I looked between my unresined left leg and Oval's right, noting how I could look straight through the holes in hers.

"Does it hurt when they appear?" brother wondered, having rolled onto his back and moving his hooves through the air above him a bit.

"Hurt? No," Oval answered in the negative. "I don't think it's pain so much as... emptiness. Part of you just disappears, you know? And you need to get someone's love to fill that emptiness again."

"Do you consciously feel the holes, Oval?" I asked in turn.

"Only when I discuss it like this, with hatchlings like yourself or others," Oval told me. "As I said; it's a feeling of emptiness. You remember something having been there, but it's not anymore. It feels wrong, somehow. But I've gotten used to it over time; I hardly feel it when I go about my business. I just make sure to tank up on love as much as possible so I can ignore it even when I'm alone with my thoughts."

Brother let his hooves hang down a bit above him. "But you do feel it."

"Yes, I do," Oval agreed. "But it's as much a part of life as anything. You feel tired when you have to sleep as well."

"I think I get it now," I offered with a smile. "I mean, I don't... cause my legs don't have holes in them. Yet. But I get the idea."

I watched Oval from the side for a moment, then tilted my head in her direction. "So what's it with you and names?"

"Names, heh," Oval chuckled weakly. "Have you noticed how many siblings we have?"

Brother pointed a hoof up to the ceiling, and I followed his gesture to spot dozens of Changelings in alcoves hewn out in the ceiling above us. As I watched, several Changelings came flying over, their wings buzzing as they flew by. It was actually kind of busy up there, and I had just tuned it all out, focusing more on what was going on on the ground, in my immediate area.

"That's a lot..." I breathed out in awe.

"Yeah, so... names? They don't work in our family," Oval explained. "It's easier to just call each other brother or sister where possible."

"But you call yourself Oval, you pointed out Breeze, named Blaze, and there's Matron," I listed. "How does that work?"

"It helps when you're in the same clutch as one another, I guess," Oval spoke enigmatically.

"Okay, that's a new word; clutch?" I prodded.

"Well, when our Queen lays her eggs, she pauses from time to time. She doesn't lay the whole batch in one go - that would be too much to ask of her. So, she lays a batch in clusters of several eggs, which we call clutches. The Matrons make sure to keep each clutch grouped together while we grow, and we usually hatch together. You noticed how your group hatched in little spurts?"

I blinked once.

Brother turned on his side again and looked our way. "She came into the classroom by herself. A few others followed after, but we were already halfway through the explanations - and then brother started anew!" he exclaimed tiredly.

"Hey, make yourself a bed before you fall asleep or you'll have sore muscles in the morning," Oval warned. "Okay, so she was a loner. That happens as well. Did you hatch with some others, little brother?"

"Two, three, I dunno," brother mumbled, rolling out of his alcove and propping himself up on all fours next to it. "The soft resin, right?"

"The rubbery stuff, yes," Oval agreed. "Just lay it out in a row and it'll melt together."

She turned to me. "It's okay not to have any clutch siblings, you know? You're still a part of a batch, and of the larger family."

I shrugged at that. "I don't mind; I've always been a bit of a loner."

Oval smiled at me and moved a hoof around my withers. "That's the spirit. Now, Blaze, Breeze, and I were part of the same clutch. Matron was there when we all hatched and named us. Alpha, Ander, and Apex were before us. Center, Cinder, Copio, and Cutter hatched from the clutch after us."

"Copio?" brother asked in-between spitting out resin blobs into his alcove.

"He came out of his egg with a copious amount of resin fluid, apparently," Oval revealed with a light shrug. "It's not like he was small or anything; there was just a lot of resin washing out with him when he broke through his eggshell."

"So, you were out with the B's," I realized. "Oval's not the name Matron gave you, then."

"Ah, no," Oval agreed. "As I explained to you, little sister; Oval is the name I was given because I can't get the rounding of one of my pupils right."

"Soo... what's your name?" I wondered, grinning up a little as I expected Oval to feel embarrassed about it.

"Burst," Oval stated flatly. "I may have been a bit over-excited when coming from my egg, I guess."

"Or the names themselves mean nothing, and Matron was just plucking them out of thin air?" I suggested, stifling a yawn.

"You'd have to ask Matron that. It's probably too long ago for her to remember fully anyway," Oval returned, slipping out of my alcove. "Make your bed, little sister; we've pushed you guys too far already. I'm sure the others are teetering on their legs over at magic training now. Few from your batch will make it to flight training without seeing things move in the shadows."

I slipped out of the alcove as well, trying my best not to lean too much on my cast leg. "Rubber resin, right?"

"Like little brother over there, yeah," Oval chuckled, pointing over to where brother had finished making his bed and had rolled himself onto the rubbery resin mattress. "Just keep spitting; it'll smooth itself out just fine. I'll talk with Blaze about getting Breeze over here tomorrow so the five of us can hang out together."

"Maybe she can teach me a bit more about posing as a filly, then? I don't think I got it down yet," I suggested, but then focused on spitting balls of rubbery resin into the alcove. They bumped into the walls and each other and connected to one another as I spat, just as Oval had told me to expect.

"Huh, you know I never thought about asking her for some private tutoring in all these years?" Oval hummed, wandering over to brother. "Don't wander out in the morning; it's usually crowded and you may get shoved around a bit. Blaze or I will be around."

"Hmm-mm," brother mumbled, but he was clearly on his way to dreamland already.

I finished up with my resin bed as well, with Oval returning to look over my shoulder, and flopped on top of it when it looked like it had settled into a proper mattress.

"Hey, you're doing fine for a first day, little sister," Oval told me with a smile.

"Sure I am," I mumbled back, with a yawn following right after.

"Blaze doesn't just ask anyone to come and sleep over, you know? Hurt leg or not," Oval pressed. "I wonder what her plan is."

"She wants brother and me to do a rematch," I explained lazily, unable to keep my eyes open.

"Let's talk about that tomorrow. We're rotated out of the teaching roster tomorrow, and I'm not headed home for a few more days anyway, so we'll have plenty of time," Oval suggested. "Rest well."

I slowly nodded my head while drifting off to sleep...

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

I used to use that site a lot. I even had it on my favourites

[Bojack H]

wait what? this is 10 chapters and based on something that happened last week!

[Makitk]

7430415
20 right now, and still growing.

[tsaukpaetra]

Blaze probably had her brony detector trip is all. Gotta catch the pony sympathizers quick!