As I turned fully around, I spotted Deadbolt, Camellia, and Forsythia already waiting for the rest of us at another cell door.
Meadowsweet and I wandered on over together, and I could feel the difference in the air upon Meadowsweet approaching Forsythia now she had broken through a mental barrier.
The earthpony smiled up at the Changeling. "I'm sorry for being somewhat cautious before, Forsythia. It's good to see you again now I know who you are."
Forsythia smiled back, then turned her attention to me. "Well now, little sister. It seems you're quite the deal. You're turning ponies to our cause left and right, I've heard."
"I'm not, honestly. I have just fallen into a few awkward situations I've had to think my way out of," I remarked, trying to deflect the compliment.
"Remember what I told you, Pearl," Camellia spoke calmly. "When I met you and Burst in the streets, I only agreed to hide you two because you made me feel like there was something special about you. If it had just been your sister, I would have called for the guards and likely would have run away as fast as I could."
"She had the same effect on our clutch sisters Blaze and Breeze," Oval remarked, nudging me in my left flank. "She got on Moonshine's nerves, but she came around again after her fight with Starlight Glimmer."
"Only after she was petrified by Starlight," I reminded her. "I don't think Moonshine accepts me half as much as she may say she does."
"Oh, she'll come around," Oval chuckled. "Maybe I need to come around to the idea that I'm not infallible either."
"Are you kids ready for this one? They're a might stronger than the previous bunch," Deadbolt spoke, preventing further conversation between us.
"That wouldn't be Tizzy then," Oval considered. "Are you up to meet them, Forsythia? We might need your strength as a counter."
"Ah, sure, Lighthoof got a good punch in earlier, but nothing I can't shake off. I'm still surprised Glottis didn't put up a fight, thanks brother," she spoke, casting a glance past me.
"Nothing about you suggested you wanted to fight me," Glottis just spoke, having taken a position behind me to my left, an equal distance away from Oval and myself.
"See, that's why you're a good egg, no matter what some may claim," Crook laughed from Glottis' left side. "Got a good head on you for judging situations."
"Where's the other two?" Oval wondered, pointedly looking back along her left flank toward Crook rather than Glottis.
"Busy," Crook answered simply. "They'll catch up in a moment."
My brain needed no time at all to consider what they were busy with given the earlier innuendo, and I just gave a nod to Deadbolt instead.
"Whenever you're ready, sir," I told him.
"I didn't even know you Changelings had those parts," Camellia mused, craning her neck to peer past us even as Deadbolt opened the cell door.
The sound of snoring met our ears once the door swung open, and Forsythia took a careful step into the room.
I looked on as she walked in and came upon the sleeping prisoner on their bed. She studied them for a brief moment.
"I'm sure you'd rather stay asleep and dream of happier times, brother, but it's time to wake up," she spoke, her voice muffled by the magic of the place.
The other stopped snoring for a brief moment, but then briskly turned away from Forsythia and faced the wall on the other side of the bed before resuming their slumber.
"Oi," my sister exclaimed annoyedly.
She reached up with her left forehoof and poked the other in their side.
"I said wake up," she repeated. "That means get your hide in gear and come out to meet the family."
I looked around at Burst, Crook, Glottis, and then the ponies Meadowsweet, Camellia, and Deadbolt.
"Don't forget our pony friends," I called over at Forsythia.
She prodded our sleeping sibling again until they finally opened their eyes and looked around blearily.
"There you go," Forsythia spoke in an almost motherly tone now he responded to her. "What's your name, brother?"
"Huh? Am I back 'ome?" our brother wondered in an accent which sounded oddly British, giving a confused glance around. "My name? It's Cubitus, why?"
"Well, Cubitus, I've got good and bad news for you," Forsythia started, ignoring him asking for her name. "The bad news is that you're not home, yet. The good news is that there's a Hatchling outside who has apparently been moving heaven and earth to try and get us all out of here."
Cubitus reached up to rub at his eyes a moment, then pushed up into a seated position on the bed. He lazily stretched his body, which included a raising of his neck fin, and yawned openly in Forsythia's face.
"Oof," she spoke, taking a step back from the smell wafting toward her. "Look, get yourself awake and ready and we'll be out there with the ponies. They're friends; don't attack them or you're going right back in here."
"Allright then," Cubitus agreed, but it was clear he was only partially awake and was mostly replying on automatic.
I wondered how much of what Forsythia said had actually entered into his brain, but she walked away from him and out of the jail cell.
She quickly addressed Deadbolt. "The other cell must have Tizzy in it. We might as well get that worrywart out here with us while Cubitus wakes himself up."
"She'll either be holed up in the far corner of her cell or come out with hooves swinging," Crook suggested. "You might have to block the way out until we know which it is."
"Leave it to me," Forsythia chuckled, knowing she was physically stronger than most of us.
"Why are they so scared, if I may ask?" Meadowsweet did ask, as Forsythia and Deadbolt walked off to the next cell.
Crook walked past Oval and nudged her in the side.
"Ask Burst; he knows her for longer than most of us."
"It's not like I gave her the name," Oval protested. "I was just in the same Hive when she was born."
"So she's younger than the both of you?" I surmised. "If I get this right, Crook was from the batch directly following yours?"
"Huh?" Crook reacted, shaking his head immediately after. "Oh no, no... I'm a whole year younger than him."
"And Tizzy?" I inquired.
"What is it, three? I think three years between me and Tiz, so she's four years younger than Burst?" Crook pondered. "This is why I don't like having to explain things; it usually involves me having to do math."
"Four sounds about right; Blaze was with the variety troupe from Baltimare at the time. Breeze had her school outing to the Neighagra Falls in that same year," Burst remembered.
Meadowsweet leaned in with a confused look on her face. "Four years? I'm not sure I'm following; how quickly do you Changelings grow up?"
"Oh, well, I came out of my cocoon fully mature," I knew. "As for those of us born here, I don't entirely know."
"Keep in mind we are despised by a lot of other races. We don't usually explain this to others," Oval sighed, motioning for us to start walking after Deadbolt. "Let's talk as we follow them. We have a period of being little larvae just after we're born, with the Matrons taking care of us for those few short months. We grow up to the same size as your young pony foals within four months."
"Four months?" Meadowsweet repeated, the idea boggling her poor mind.
"Yes, and fully mature within the first year after we're born," Oval continued to explain. "It's a necessity given our feeding habits; we need to learn to take care of ourselves before the hunger sets in."
"That's a short childhood," I considered. "It explains how you turned out the way you did, sister."
Burst snorted at my joke, giving me a nudge with her shoulder as we continued on.
"Ha-ha. Very funny. Remember how we pushed you after you came out of your cocoons; rushing you through training?" she pressed onto me. "That's not too dissimilar from what we go through after we get born, just more compressed since we were in a hurry."
"No, I got that," I told her. "I just didn't think about it all that much until now. And I'm sure Meadowsweet's mind is having a hard time coping."
"I'm fine, I think," Meadowsweet assured me. "I'm just starting to wonder how old you all are, compared to me. You all appear mature enough, and Forsythia always struck me as slightly older than me while she was out on the market, but..."
"Oh, I'm thirty-six," I offered up.
"Twenty," Crook spoke from behind.
"So that would make Oval twenty-one, Forsythia twenty-six, and Tizzy seventeen years old?" I calculated.
Meadowsweet boggled.
"I'm only eightteen years old myself," she muttered. "You don't at all look like your age, Pearl."
"Oh, I'm not even a year old if you only count my time as a Changeling," I spoke up in an effort to make her feel better.
"That's not making it any better, you know?" she defied my attempt. "You're either thrice my age or not even the same age as my niece who was born last year. Neither makes sense."
"I'm... sorry?" I apologized.
"No, no. I can't have it. You can't go about telling everypony you're over thirty. Forget telling them you're only a year old either," Meadowsweet told me firmly, moving in my path so I was forced to stop and peer at her.
"You look like you're sixteen. You act older, but you're a Changeling, right? You can take on a disguise and fall into that role? So be sixteen from now on. I'd much rather have you in the same age group as me so I can explain to others how we're friends and not get them oogling me weirdly," she decided.
"So why not eightteen, like yourself?" I queried, raising an eyebrow at her.
"You're not from here, right? You said you were from another world. You've been taught how to be a Changeling, now lean on your Pony friends like me to teach you how to be a Pony. It makes more sense for me to teach you about things if you're a few years younger than me," the earthpony reasoned.
I lifted my right hoof up to her left shoulder and patted it. "If that makes you feel better, sure. I'll consider myself sixteen years old from now on."
"I'll have to give it to her," Oval chuckled. "It would certainly make it easier for me to bring you in as a younger cousin of mine if you started acting more your age."
"Oh, bite me cousin. It's not like you've been acting your age since I met you," I grumbled.
"One of us has to be the adult," Oval countered.
"That's so not you," I pointed out. "Who lost her train ticket on the way over here? Not me. Who almost lost her head worrying these past days? Not me."
Meadowsweet glanced between Oval and me a moment, then gave a slow nod.
"You two are definitely part of the same family," she decided with a smile.