Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

35

With Oval half-hidden under the water's surface like a ponified crocodile, just letting his nostrils poke out so he could breathe, and Blaze lost to her own thoughts, I waded slowly through the round bath in a counter-clockwise motion with Breeze hanging from my neck.

"There were rumours back then, as there are now," Breeze started her story, and I chuckled a bit at the strangeness of her young filly voice recounting an event from years ago.

"Are you taking this seriously, Pearl?" she wondered in annoyance, and I gave her a nod in reply.

"Yes, yes, please go on," I answered quickly as we passed behind Oval.

"We weren't told all the details of the plan until the very last moment," Breeze continued. "I'm not going to be surprised if it will play out the same this time as well."

"We were just told to dig a few outposts in strategic locations, and this was fine. Having a safe place to go to while out in the pony lands is always a good thing, especially if you're found out somehow or need to bring food or items to the hive."

I could see where Breeze was coming from and smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like something that's just handy to have around."

"Handy?" Breeze wondered, but let it go as I shook my head.

"Well, think like the Changeling you are now; we are a big family," she decided instead. "These outposts started as just a few rooms, but then the Queen started sending more of us to them, accompanied by guards and matrons. Before we knew it, the outposts themselves had grown far larger than was needed for the ones out in the field, and we were stationed there for weeks between going out for another run."

"You're making us sound very militaristic," I suggested, to which Blaze opened her eyes and watched us approach her from her left side.

"We are, in a way," she voiced her opinion, and motioned her head to indicate I should pass before her rather than behind her.

I turned to follow her silent order and grinned as we waded past.

"Yeah, but the rumour mill just kept on going during that time," Breeze pressed. "The outpost near here was actually the fourth to have been built inside Equestria's borders. We started near far smaller cities before our Queen dared to send us deeper into the pony lands. Half the Macintosh Hills have holes in them which we dug during that period."

"The Queen grew bold as we were not detected while digging these outposts," Blaze added.

"Blazey, who's telling the story here?" Breeze complained, looking back at the oldest of the trio.

"Well, hurry it up. There's something else I want to know of Pearl," Blaze scoffed.

"Hurry it... you know this spanned twenty years, right?" Breeze stammered.

"Wait, it took you guys twenty years to prepare for the attack on Canterlot?" I realized with some shock.

"No, just twenty years of digging seemingly random outposts before the attack on Canterlot was even suggested as being a potential target. Who knows how long the Queen had been sitting on it?" Blaze revealed, and I turned on my hooves to look at her directly.

"No, really, hold on here; you've been digging holes for twenty-odd years, in between posing as ponies and building lives for yourselves out here?" I listed.

"Pretty much," Blaze answered with a shrug.

"Yeah," Breeze agreed from over my shoulder.

"I wandered a bit before I settled in Hoofton and found my mare," Oval mumbled into the water.

"How old are you guys?" I breathed out in surprise.

"Er, is it thirty-seven this year?" Blaze wondered, looking like she genuinely did not know.

"Thirty-seven or thirty-eight," Oval agreed, standing up straight.

"Are we counting from our hatchday or the time we spent in our eggs as well?" Breeze asked, pulling herself up a little to get a better look at me.

"Humans don't count the time we spend in the womb," I revealed. "So from your hatchday?"

"Yeah, thirty-seven this year, then. We hatched shortly after the new year," Breeze nodded. "You Humans sound like the ponies then. They start counting from the moment their foals are born as well."

"I guess it's more difficult to see the eggs when they're on the inside," Blaze mused. "We can see our siblings grow from the moment our Queen lays the batches in the maturity room."

"I'm so glad I'm a stallion," Oval sighed happily.

"Oh, fuck you," Blaze snarled in his direction! "I would love to be able to give birth, and you know that!"

I waded in-between them and moved my forehooves to form a T in front of me.

"Time out, time out!" I called. "This is getting us nowhere. Can you finish the story about the failed invasion quickly, little sis?"

Breeze nodded her head eagerly. "Yeah, it's mostly just that we were stationed in the outposts for so long, until about a week before the wedding. All of a sudden we were told where to go, what to do, and to make sure we were ready when the sign was given. Not a week later and half our siblings were bashing their skulls into the energy barrier surrounding Canterlot. It didn't matter if they had been opposed to it or not; once our Queen told us what we needed to do, we went and did it."

"I know the rest," I offered when Breeze took a breath to continue on.

"It shook the ponies up a lot to think that their capital was attacked," Breeze just added as a last tidbit.

"My mare could not stop talking about it for weeks after," Oval grumbled. "Imagine coming back from having been on the losing side, only to hear your mare complain about how scared she is of you and your kin... It hurt, Pearl. It really did."

"I wish I had fingers now so I could hold the bridge of my nose," I mumbled to myself, instead using my right forehoof to rub at my right temple since Breeze was still hanging around to my left.

"So, what do we do now?" Blaze asked, and an uncomfortable silence fell between us all.

I just started wading around again, and Oval let himself sink down underwater again until just his nostrils stuck out. The eager mood we had come in with had evaporated thanks to the conversation topics, and I felt mentally drained.

Breeze detached herself from me without warning, and paddled on over to the edge of the bath. I watched her as she clambered up on the upper walkway and used her unicorn magic to levitate a set of four towels over.

Three of the towels were halfway unfolded and hung over the walkway's wall, and she used the fourth to dab herself dry with. Blaze joined her a moment later, and I felt compelled to be the third to do the same. Oval was always pulling the rear anyway.

Blaze helped me with her magic after seeing me struggle to figure out how to use a towel with my new body, and I stood like a young foal as my mom toweled me off. It actually felt really nice to have my furcoated body rubbed dry by someone maternal, and I happily followed her instructions as she asked me to lift a hoof or turn my head this way or that.

By the time Blaze, Breeze, and myself were dried off and ready to walk down to ground level, Oval finally started to move to get out of the bath as well.

I shook my head at him while following Blaze down, and finally asked the question I had been plagued with since we entered the room.

"Hey, guys? Er... so how exactly is this a hot spring?" I wondered, while silently cursing whoever decided that staircases didn't just go up but also came down. Gravity just made me want to fall forward with each step I took.

"Well, the water comes directly from the hot spring the spa is built around," Blaze revealed. "The spa ponies clean out the old water once we leave the room, then fill it again with fresh water from the hot spring outside."

"I thought it would be more like a pool directly connected to the flow of the water?" I suggested.

"Bleh," Breeze snorted. "That would dirty the drinking water. The bathwater is filtered before it's let back into the stream. This way the dirt stays behind and we have clean water even downstream. Ponies are inventive like that."

"Ah," I commented dryly. "That actually sounds like it makes sense. Even in a non-magical world."

"I couldn't go without my magic," Blaze stated matter-of-factly, walking over to the door. "Are you almost ready, Sturdy Hoof?"

Oval came galloping after us, while Breeze lifted her backpack up on her back with her magic.

"What's with the sudden rush, Spotlight dear?" Oval wondered, fetching his own clothes but stumbling a bit since he had no use of magic as an Earthpony like me.

We gathered near the door, and Blaze's horn flashed a brief moment. "Safety's off, kids," she whispered back at us, and both Breeze and I nodded in response.

"Damnit, I'm not dressed yet," Oval complained behind us as Blaze pulled the door open and walked into the hallway beyond.

Breeze followed, and I took third position again. Walking behind my little sister, I noticed one of the flaps on Breeze's backpack was folded in an odd way. I quickly hurried over and pulled the flap back in its proper place with my teeth, making Breeze look back in confusion.

"One of the flaps looked odd, Summer Breeze," I suggested, while a door up ahead opened to let a Unicorn mare out of the room.

The pale white-coated mare looked lost in thought, and almost turned for the reception area on automatic, effectively leading the way for us since we were headed in the same general direction.

"Oh, thank you Pearl!" Breeze exclaimed happily, turning into me to give me a nuzzle at my chest.

Blaze stopped walking, forcing us to stop as well, and as I looked past her I noticed the Unicorn mare up ahead had stopped and turned to look our way with a look of sheer hatred in her eyes!

"Pearl?!?" she exclaimed loudly, and I saw a green flash pull over her form as her excited state made it difficult for her to hold her guise...

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Hmmm how many pale white unicorns do we know?
Why did Blaze panic? We smell a rat...
Keep going! ;)