Pearl's Travels 2: Canterlot

Seven of our brothers and sisters joined Forsythia and myself as we walked out onto the grasslands again.

Forsythia quickly took the lead role, clearly demanding some respect from the others due to her age and stature, and I was rather happy to have someone else to follow behind as I did not know the area well enough.

I considered for a moment that, with the mountain of Canterlot to our left side and the Foal Mountains in front of us, I could potentially have taken the lead here, but I didn't know what surprises might lie hidden up ahead.

Forsythia quickened our pace once we left the taller wild grasses near the trees behind, and I tried my best to keep up.

I was the only one maintaining my Earthpony guise in our group, the rest a blur of grey bodies around me, but it had not been mentioned by any of them.

It had fast started to become an identity of mine I was feeling quite comfortable in; the way my mane fell around my head felt more natural to me, like hair back home, as opposed to the fin I sported on my otherwise bald skull as a Changeling.

I had quickly enough become used to having a tail, something I obviously didn't have back home, and the feeling of the wind making the short hairs of it move was oddly pleasant.

The light grey coat of fur around me gave me some warmth in the chill of the night while I was standing still, and it was helping the sweatdrops leak away from my body now I was running.

We weren't even halfway to our destination when the sky suddenly shifted and the sun rose to a position almost fully above our heads.

We all came to a sudden stop and moved our forehooves up to cover our eyes against this sudden explosion of light.

The change had been nearly instantaneous; the moon flitting across the sky to the West at breakneck speed while the sun rose from the East at a similar pace in order to take its place in the sky above us.

I squinted my eyes against the sudden bright daylight and turned to look in Canterlot's direction.

Trying to not look directly at the sun, I made an effort to see whether I could spot Celestia on the balcony of Canterlot palace's great spires.

I knew from the show that they might stand out on one of those balconies while manipulating the day and night cycle, after all.

Unfortunately we were too far away, and the light of Celestia's sun shone too brightly upon my eyes after they had spent hours in darkness, for them to want to focus on something that far into the distance without hurting.

I felt mildly perturbed by it; This had been my first decent chance to spot the Pony Princess Celestia, and I had missed it.

"Well shit, that's a whole lot of daylight all of a sudden," Forsythia exhumed.

"Yeah, I noticed," I chuckled.

"Which means we're too exposed out here. Let's take on our pony guises like Pearl has already before we go on," she suggested to the group.

Green flashes of Changeling transformation magic sparked over the others around me and I now stood on the grass as one pony among others.

From a distance we would now just be seen as a traveling band of ponies instead of the Changelings we were. It was preferable than to have guards race over once they spotted us in the field.

"Might as well fly ahead then," one of my brothers suggested, and spread his Pegasus wings to prepare for doing just that. "We'd be quicker that way."

Two others agreed with him, and of course they were the ones who had opted for Pegasi forms as well.

Forsythia and I were the only two Earthponies in our group, with the other four having gone for Unicorn guises.

She was a sturdy pink Earthpony herself, her light blue mane combed sideways to partly cover her left eye. If she wasn't built like a brick house with a short mane, she could have doubled for one of the spa ponies from the show.

As it was with her muscular form, she could more easily pass for one of the larger stallions I knew from the show. I idly pondered how she would match up to Big Mac given my recent encounter with his sister Applejack.

She turned to me in mild amusement as I was looking her over like that.

"I don't know why I expected you to take flight with them," she chuckled. "I guess we're running together for a while longer, then?"

"I'm comfortable like this," I returned with a shrug.

"You guys go up ahead," Forsythia told the Pegasi, then motioned her head in the direction of the Foal Mountain we were headed for. "Let the others know Pearl and I are on our way so they won't be too worried about her?"

The others excused themselves and took to the air.

"Now Pearl, you shouldn't get too overly attached to this Earthpony look of yours or you'll end up stuck in it for years, like me," Forsythia joked as she continued walking. "Trying out one of the other Pony races helps you understand them better. Pegasi, or Unicorn like the others here, each have their own unique elements to them."

I smirked at her use of the word elements given the Elements of Harmony from the show.

"Let's keep going, we should make a good pace now we can see what's coming up ahead," Forsythia decided, and started us off again toward the mountains up ahead. "Let me know if you can't keep up anymore. It's been a long night for all of us, so I'm sure we're all getting tired."

"I'll do that," I promised, falling in line to her right side. "Can I ask you a few questions about yourself as we walk?"

"As long as they're not too personal, sure," she chuckled. "What is it you want to know about me, Pearl?"

"You seem to be overly worried about your partner Aly," I started. "I know you thought she might have been in the jail with us before, but now you think she's over to the East instead?"

"That's what I'm hoping. She would have made a ruckus normally, so I'm worried that we haven't seen anything to do with her yet," Forsythia grumbled, her mood darkening. "She should have been in the city, turning the place inside-out to find me once she got wind that I was stuck down in the jail there. It's not like her to be patient, that's why she started doing the flower stuff in the first place; to get her temper under control."

"And she's one of us, is she?" I wondered.

"Yep, a lovely Unicorn in the guise she uses in Ponyville, but she was just as cute as a fresh Hatchling," Forsythia sighed with a longing sigh. "Which is why I trek back and forth to Canterlot to sell her flower bundles, but usually make sure to be home by dinnertime again. We haven't been apart for this long in years."

"So why not sell her flowers in Ponyville?" I wondered. "Why make the trek to Canterlot at all?"

"For the same reason anypony would; there are simply more customers there. Ponyville might have been growing steadily since Twilight Sparkle became a princess and all; Ponies drawn in by the idea that living in a town with a Princess would somehow rub off on them have been moving into previously vacant and newly built homes, but it still is a small town compared to most others," my sister explained.

"I'm supposed to visit it in half a year's time. I pretty much Pinkie-promised, so that's set in stone," I spoke, then chuckled at remembering Moonshine's momentary predicament as a statue when we met up with the ponies at Hollow Shades.

"Be sure to swing around Aly and my place when you do," Forsythia suggested. "I'm sure she'd love to meet you."

"Didn't you say the same to Camellia?" I realised.

"Well, yes. But I've known her longer than I have you and she keeps promising to come by," she sighed.

"Maybe I should just pick her up on my way from Hoofton to Ponyville since I'd have to switch trains at Canterlot anyway?" I considered. "It'll be a few months still, but I'm sure I could convince her to travel together?"

Forsythia looked at me sideways. "You're planning on staying in Hoofton for that long?"

"Burst said I could come live with her and her mare while I was getting my bearings, so yes," I answered.

"Be sure to visit the market there and seek out an old mare called Gram. Just Gram. Tell her Forsythia sent you," she told me. "Don't bring Burst along; go there alone and don't say no to anything she proposes."

"Wow, that's... vague and disconcerting," I coughed uneasily.

"Yep," my sister laughed, speeding up a bit. "Now let's let our hair loose on this last leg; it's mostly a flat plane from here to the river, so we can run free."

"I can't promise to keep up," I protested, but she quickly distanced herself from me.

I needed to run faster just to keep her from leaving me in the dust, noticing the smell of freshly trampled grass followed in her wake.

My brothers and sister in their guises as Unicorn ponies caught up to me to run as a group with me, all of us trailing behind Forsythia as if she was the leader of our herd.

This was the experience I had been craving earlier in the night; running free without fear of being chased down by Canterlot's guards.

With Celestia's sun in the sky above us, the wind passing by me as we ran was warmer than the chill breeze that I felt during Luna's night.

I quickly felt myself get caught up in the moment as our hooves thundered across the grassland toward the river. For a moment I ran wild and free, forgetting all the questions and worry I had moments before.

Of course it couldn't last. I would not be that lucky.

Forsythia didn't stop as she neared the river. She didn't turn to run past it.

Instead she ran right up to the bank of it and took a leap into the air, using her strong back legs to propel her up a fair distance before she started to curve downward again before reaching the other side of the river.

Her green magic flashed over her and her wings came out from under that damaged backplate of hers, and she used them to carry her the rest of the way.

Her flight path was wobbly, barely controlled, and I thought I could fly better than she could even on my worst days. I wondered what was causing it for a brief moment, but then I saw it.

I planted my hooves down firmly on the grass to skid to a stop just before I would reach the river myself.

Even as my siblings sped forward to mimic what Forsythia had just done moments before, I stopped and considered what it was that I had just seen.

Forsythia on the other bank of the river folded her wings back under that damaged back plate of hers, taking extra care with one of them; one which was partially in tatters like something had bitten down on it and torn the tip off it.

It was roughly the same amount of damage as was visible on her back plate, but more defined since our wings were flimsy in comparison to the sturdy armour we had on our backs.

It was clear to me now why she had not wanted to talk with Camellia about it. Even as strong as she was, something had gotten the better of her in the past and it had affected her ability to fly.

Forsythia turned to look back over the river in my direction.

"Are you coming, Pearl? Or are you scared of a bit of water?" she called out.

I shook my head and let my magic wash over me so I could use my Changeling wings.

"Not scared," I shouted back, opting to not mention what I had just seen.

I took flight and quickly joined the others on the opposite bank, landing with more grace than I would have given myself credit for when I started to take flying lessons back in the Hive.

"Forsythia," I started, but then thought better of it and nodded to the nearby forest. "This looks like a big enough forest to get lost in. Where would our siblings be?"

"Probably in the old camp next to the foot of the mountain closest to Canterlot," she considered, apparently not having noticed my hesitation. "Let's go meet up with them and see what the situation here is. Hopefully my Aly is with them."