Part 26 – Conversion
They waited until she was alone, and came for her in the night.
The figure had been and gone already, Pearly lay in bed, awake, staring at the bunk above her. Mr Stuffings sat at the end of the bed, Pearly unable to welcome him back after what happened before.
She turned onto her side, facing the wall.
"Pearly…"
"Not again," she muttered.
She rolled out of bed, ducked onto the floor and rolled under the bed.
The door was thrown open, though instead of the figure, it was the mannequins.
Pearly clamped her hooves over her mouth, watched the mannequins throw the desk into the middle of the room, the chair following a moment later. Their unnatural movements sent a shiver through her, their knees appearing to be twisted the wrong way. When they looked around the room for her, their head twitched and shook, as if they were shaking flies away from their face.
Pearly shuffled further back to the wall when one of the mannequins walked past. It threw the chest at the bottom of the bed over to the far wall. Pearly watched them, watched their movements as they pulled out furniture, threw items around the room, and in a horrible realisation, this was what her original room looked like. Now she knew. Now she realised just why she was moved, to be kept closer to the mirror room for when the time came.
When the mannequins were on the far side of the room, she moved toward the other end of the bed. She crawled out from under it, ducking behind the chest. The mannequins shambled to the window, staring at the frost. Pearly took her chance and crept out of the room.
Once outside, she ran down the corridor, heading for the mines and the one place she hoped would be safe. The marionettes.
She briefly regretted convincing Baby Rainribbon to stay in Baby Bouncy's room for the sake of peace. At the very least, she was safe.
Pearly continued down the corridors, slipping past the pale ponies guarding the entrance. She moved down the tunnels to the crack in the wall, now far wider than what it had been when she discovered it.
Netty met her in the open area. "It's after you, isn't it?"
Pearly nodded. "The mannequins are after me," she said.
"Then you know why, what they want."
Once more, Pearly nodded. "Me."
"And what else?"
"The destruction of Royal Paradise. The Princess Ponies."
Netty nodded. "They thought they were the only ones to match their power."
"But Dazzleglow could too." Pearly sighed. "Baby Bouncy said there's a pale one at Paradise Estate, Winter Night-Sky."
Netty's head snapped round. "What did you say?"
Pearly frowned. "A unicorn. She saved Bright Eyes and Genie from the dark unicorn. Said her name was Winter Night-Sky."
Netty blinked, her legs seeming to fail her. She sat down at the table, her hoof shaking as she reached for the jug of water.
Pearly was unnerved, she hadn't seen the pony show any emotion than abject detachment. She sat down too. "Do you know her?"
Netty looked at her. "She's my mother. Winter Night-Sky was one of the first to be taken, turned. She's not a match for Dazzleglow, or the Princess Ponies." Her head drooped once more. "My name is Baby Frost. And I'm the reason why the temperature drops, why frost builds on the windows. It was her message to me, to let me know she was all right, still herself."
Netty, Baby Frost, let Pearly sit as she spoke. She spoke of her life before the pale ponies, of her mother and her desperate attempts to protect her. Baby Frost was also taken by the pale ponies, however found a safe haven of sorts. Like Baby Sunribbon, they too were considered too weak to hold the creatures from the mirrors, and they remained as they were, neither one nor the other.
Pearly's ears twitched when she heard something further up the tunnels. Baby Frost got to her feet, gesturing for Pearly to follow her. Pearly did so.
Baby Frost led her through the tunnels the other marionettes used. Pearly followed, the tunnels looked all the same to her. Baby Frost stopped at the exit.
"They won't stop, you know," she told Pearly.
Pearly clenched her jaw, then nodded.
"But I think, you can win against them." Baby Frost drew a deep breath. "Be safe, Pearly."
With that, Baby Frost disappeared back down the tunnels.
Pearly made her way back into the main building of the pale ponies' compound. She spent the time looking over her shoulder, every noise, every movement put her on edge. It wasn't safe to go back to her room, instead she went to her old room she had been moved out of.
To her surprise, it was still empty. It was also still in the same disarray she left it. She took the blankets from the bed, flipped the mattress, then lay down. She closed her eyes, falling into a restless doze.
When she opened her eyes again, she was surrounded by mannequins.
Pearly scrambled from the mattress, straight into another mannequin. It reached for her, clamping its hooves down on her. Pearly struggled, trying to escape its grip, only for another mannequin to appear and hold her. The group dragged her from the room, out the door and down the corridor.
Pearly turned her head in time to see the room she was being forced to.
The mirror room.
She was dragged through, placed in the middle of the mirrors and the door was shut and locked.
Pearly did not come back out.