Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

45

We made it to our intended spot with little effort now we were out from between the rowdy crowd, and sat ourselves down to the right of the stage. The gathered Hatchlings were slow to calm down again, angry and frustrated as they were at not having been given any information or food since they arrived here.

It was far different from me; I had fed from the resin veins in the common room. Even if it had not had the same effect on me as Pinkie's eagerly-shared love had just a few hours ago, it had at least kept me from feeling hungry. All these Hatchlings here had were each other.

At a rough estimate there were a couple of thousand Hatchlings gathered in this space, and I did some math on my own training; it must take the better part of a day, and maybe leading into the night, before we'd have been ready for the flying lessons. And all that on the energy our pods had given us. There had been barely any moment to rest during my training, and forget about feeding.

It was lucky on my part that I hurt my foreleg; that had kept me out of this place for now. Otherwise I would have been here for three days now, by my best estimates. I would have gotten cranky as well.

Given the sheer number of Hatchlings here, and the much smaller amount I had seen getting trained, I figured that there were more than one such route leading through the mountain to have led to this many Hatchlings.

I highly doubted that they would let any of us starve for real, even if Queen Chrysalis was supposedly evil. The idea was just to get us on the edge of starvation so we would fight to get at the nearest food source. Which, for all they would know, was ponies.

I scouted the rows of Hatchlings near me and realized some of them were showing holes in their legs already. They looked far too similar to the Changelings from the common room. Where we Hatchlings had a round barrel, theirs had pulled in more. Their waistline was far smaller than mine.

"They're definitely malnourished," I whispered back at Starlight, who gave a slow nod back.

"Even I can see that," she voiced. "The worse off ones are on the floor, you see? They have no energy left to stand."

I looked through the crowds and winced. "I didn't think it would be this bad; how can they fight if they can't stand?"

"I fear I know the answer to that," Starlight mumbled, and walked over to the nearest Hatchling to us. "Do you know what's going on, er... brother?"

The Hatchling focused their eyes on Starlight, and shook her head.

"I'm a sister, sister, but I don't know," she corrected Starlight. "We were told we'd learn how to feed here, but there's no food. It's maddening! We're not even allowed to go out or anything! I don't know if it's been days or weeks or months since I got here. It all bleeds together. They said we would get food once the show starts, but nothing has been happening... nothing."

Starlight smirked at her. "The show should start soon, I'm sure of it," she told the Hatchling, then backed away to us again.

"Don't tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking?" I whispered to her, but she turned her head to stare at me.

"There are a lot of missing ponies in this area," Starlight revealed. "Twilight Sparkle thought it may be related to what Pinkie was being sent for and asked me to come along. She said, if nothing was going on here, at least I would be able to learn something more about Friendship."

"So they're planning on giving this lot a crashcourse on how to drain ponies dry, then," I realized with horror.

"And once they have their energy back," Starlight pushed.

"Yeah, I know how it feels to feed now," I stated, shaking my head at it all. "They will want more. There's never going to be enough ponies hidden away in this mountain to sate this amount of Hatchlings. They will turn into a mob and swarm the pony lands without even needing to be told where to go."

Starlight sat down on the right next to Pinkie Pie, who was idly rolling a loose pebble forward and back under her right hoof.

"You heard what the soldiers said; they were waiting for the last few Hatchlings to come in. That meant you, and maybe a few others," Starlight reminded me.

"Yes, which means the "show" should start at any moment," I agreed.

Pinkie looked dour, not at all like herself. I wondered if she knew what was going to happen through some kind of precognition, like Blaze. That could explain how she could switch locations at just the right time, pop up here or there, and could link in with her Pinkie Sense.

I sat down to Pinkie's left and gently nudged my shoulder against hers. "Are you okay, Pinkie?"

"Don't you feel it?" she asked in a depressed tone. As I shook my head, she pointed at the stage. "Those ponies are absolutely not having a good time."

I stared at the bare stage, trying to see the ponies Pinkie mentioned.

"I see no ponies, Pinkie," I told her, but then there was the sound of a large stone being rolled away.

I looked up at the stage, where a large section of the wall behind it had opened up!

Initially I had thought it was one big wall, but I now realized the uneven wall had just made the boulder closing off the passage blend in very, very well until now!

A pair of guards walked in through the opening, and took position on either side of it. An expectant silence fell over the crowd at the sight of the soldiers, the sliding of the boulder having largely gone unnoticed by the ones in the back until now.

Thousands of blue Changeling eyes turned to face the stage, the ones who were too weak to stand up themselves being helped up by others around them so they could see as well. It filled me with some relief to know that, in their frustration, they were still being helpful to one another. It really drove home that feeling of being around family.

"There she is," Starlight whispered under her breath, and I looked up to the stage to see Queen Chrysalis step out of the hole in the wall, her regal form walking to the center of the stage with grace and the air as if she knew exactly what she was doing.

I realized the Queen was more beautiful than the show had depicted. Sure, she was a Changeling, but having lived among the Changelings as one of them for the past days, I drank her beauty in for all that it was. She truly was massively tall; standing even above her soldiers, and her many headfins waved around her head as if they truly were a mane.

Her green eyes looked around over the gathered Hatchlings - her fresh army - and I saw the corner of her mouth pull up until she was positively smiling. And the smell that drifted over from the stage... her sweet perfume... it made me light-headed.

Starlight said something to my right, but I could not draw my eyes away from Chrysalis on stage. Our Queen had not yet spoken, but I already felt she was proud of what I had become under the other Changelings' guidance.

Some more talking to my right, but it barely scraped the surface of my mind. It certainly did not register as something important.

Queen Chrysalis, in all her majestic beauty, was far more important right now. I would jump at a chance to do whatever it was she asked of me.

A blue flash came from my side, and then another, and the Queen turned her head to look in my direction!

Her expression changed to one of shock, and then she hissed as her anger flared up; "How did you ponies manage to infiltrate my Hive?!?" her blissfully angry words came out.

Blaze should be jealous at our Queen; there was so much beautiful anger on display here. Our Queen truly was magnificent.

"Never mind," Queen Chrysalis decided, then pulled her head back in the most wonderful of laughters I had ever heard. It was truly the best thing I had ever heard or witnessed in all my life.

A hoof hit the right side of my face, hard enough for me to fly sideways into my Hatchling siblings sitting in as much reverie as I had at our Queen's appearance, and I landed awkwardly on my back on top of two of them.

I struggled to my hooves, as they did, and looked around to try and get my bearings.

The entire Hatchling crowd was staring at the Queen on stage with blissful expressions on their face, excepting the couple I had bowled over. Starlight Glimmer and Pinkie Pie had shaken off their disguises and stood to the right of stage, with all the fury of Queen Chrysalis aimed at them.

"Pearl! Snap back to reality here, I need your help!" Starlight Glimmer shouted, and Pinkie Pie jumped forward to land on stage. "We can count on you, can't we?"

I gave a confused nod to the Unicorn before me, and waddled over on unsteady hooves. "I'm... not sure what's going on," I mumbled with a thick tongue as if I had been suffering from alcohol intoxication.

Starlight gave another pleading look at me, but then jumped forward to land next to Pinkie Pie. "Queen Chrysalis, we're not here to fight!" she tried. "But we must try to get you to change your mind. Don't you see how you're about to destroy your last chance to make peace?"

"Yeah, you green meanie," Pinkie Pie added. "Let them go!"

I breathed in that sweet air again, but then stopped halfway through and snorted as I tried to expel it from my nose. "It's her pheromones! I can't help myself," I called over to Starlight, immediately feeling like I had ruined it all by just being there with them.

"Please, Queen Chrysalis, I beg of you," Starlight Glimmer continued, falling into a low bow toward my Queen and motioning for Pinkie to do the same. "Please, hear us. Release Pearl from your grasp and just talk with us."

The Queen stood looking utterly surprised and appalled at the display before her, even as Pinkie Pie reluctantly bowed down low before her as well. The two guards had moved in on either side of the ponies, standing ready to overpower them.

I had to breathe, if just to survive, and my mind immediately fell again to the power of my Queen's pheromones. She was just the most perfect being in all of existence, and I would do whatever I needed to do at a single word from her.

"Hmpf, fine. You have gotten this far, I should at least hear how you managed to evade my guards," the Queen decided in all her wisdom, then looked directly at me.

A deep shiver ran through my body as I noticed those pure green eyes staring at me, and I fell to the floor in sheer reverie.

"Pick that one up and follow me," Queen Chrysalis spoke, and I moaned in pleasure of being recognized by such beauty, "...before she drools all over herself."

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Haha great, all of the hatchlings are so enthralled they didn't even notice the morsels right in front of them. Which is lucky, we suppose.
Well now that the shock and awe has achieved its purpose, maybe Chrysalis will give a private explanation?
Keep going! ;)

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

That's some strong stuff. A few breaths of it is enough to completely control someling.

That's going to be a kind of fridge horror later. If Chrysalis asked nicely, she'd probably do anything, Pinkie Promise or not. When your will can't be your own... no wonder the other Changelings didn't even consider for a moment not taking part in the invasion if it happened. It's not loyalty that gives that point of view, though that matters too.

[hmaf43]

I feel so violated. NFSW tag should be add for chysalis simping.