I rushed down the main hallway of the jail toward the small group gathered near its entrance.
Deadbolt was seated between Featherweight and Lighthoof, the latter two pouting as if they had been chided for something.
Meadowsweet was sat a little off to the side, talking with Tizzy.
But it was Camellia I ran toward, even as she tookd on a guarded pose for a moment.
"It's me, Pearl," I croaked, then devolved into a coughing fit which had me stop running so I could catch my breath.
"Pearl? What are you doing running here? Did something go wrong?" Camellia wondered with worry in her voice.
"Pony magic," I forced out of my throat. "My voice is giving out from talking too much. Tell me you can teach me how to make this sound suppression spell."
Camellia stared at me as I collected myself, and then turned to look in Deadbolt's direction.
"Are you responsible for the magic here, Deadbolt?" she asked.
"Only in so far as that I let the palace staff know when they need to come back down here to reinforce it again," he replied.
"So you wouldn't know what spell they used then," Camellia pondered. "I guess I could find out by feeling it out, but with the magic suppression also in effect it will tire me out quickly."
"There are a hundred and nineteen Changelings in this jail who can't escape Canterlot unless we hide the sounds we make as we march them out," I reminded her, my voice falling to a whisper. "Please, anything you can do. If you can explain how the spell works, my brothers and sisters can probably learn to mimic it, given what Moonshine told me."
"So, in essence," Deadbolt started, "You're asking us to give our enemy a spell with which they can infiltrate us even easier."
I turned my attention to the other Unicorn, noticing an odd gleam in his old eyes.
He reached up and put his upper legs around Featherweight and Lighthoof's withers. "Celestia forgive me, but I'll allow it this time. I want these kids here to have a good life out there."
"Kids?" I tried, but my voice barely left my lips before it disappeared into nothing. Glottis had been right to warn me about overusing my vocal chords.
"Well, compared to me," Deadbolt added. "What was it, twenty nine and six?"
"I turn twenty seven two months from now," Lighthoof spoke wearily. "Feather is twenty nine."
"Yeah, well," Featherweight offered with a shrug. "I'm still eleven months out from turning thirty. I spent my birthday in that icky communal hall waiting to hear what we were going to have to do."
I gave her a sympathetic nod. I knew what the other Hatchlings had gone through while I had been off at the hot springs with Blaze, Breeze, and Burst.
Camellia studied me for a brief moment. "You should try to get some rest, Pearl. I am going to have to feel out where the magic is at its strongest so I can try to detect the spell that was used. I'm not as good at magic as the princess Twilight Sparkle, but I can do at least that much."
I smirked at her, but nodded slowly. The problem of getting my Changeling family out of their cells down in the third section was being handled by others, and I couldn't very well help Camellia with how little I knew of pony magic.
I pottered over toward Meadowsweet and Tizzy, collapsing on the floor near them.
I was so, so tired.
Tizzy startled as I dropped on the floor beside them, but Meadowsweet reached out to gently pat my back with her left forehoof.
"You've done a lot today, Pearl," the Earthpony cooed to me. "If you have to take a nap, you can do so."
"Y-yeah," Tizzy added, emboldened by Meadowsweet's words. "I can't believe I'm actually talking with a p-p-pony who isn't t-trying to hurt me, and she says it's because you showed her we're n-n-not mo-mo-monsters. We'll watch over you, Pearl. Go t-take a nap, please."
I couldn't really protest even if I wanted to. My voice had given out and my legs were feeling like they were made of jello now I wasn't trying to keep standing on them anymore. My brain was trying to formulate thoughts which unraveled as quickly as they came to me.
I had tried to ignore how tired I was, and had done a good enough job of it, but now that attention had been brought to it it had leapt for my throat and was slowly darkening the world around me.
No, that was my eyelids closing on their own, heavy as they were.
Meadowsweet's hoof stroking over my back plate was oddly soothing, and I went out like a light before long.
I woke to the sound of bustling, which then faded out to an uncomfortable silence moments after.
I tried to figure out which way was up, realised I was resting on my side for some reason, and worked my legs under me to sit upright.
There was a lunging feeling in my head as gravity figured out which way it wanted to go comparable to me, and I opened my weary eyes in an effort to figure out why the sound of people talking was drifting in and out around me.
Small groups of five Changelings were spread out around me, all converged upon the exit to the jail now they were out of their cells.
I tried to comprehend what they were doing; one in every group was focusing on their magic, aiming it at the other four who were prattling among themselves about nothing in particular.
There would be a small burst of energy, and the sound coming from them dimmed like someone had flipped a radio off.
Another such burst and the same sound of them talking would return again.
Camellia was moving from group to group, clearly instructing them as they did this.
I turned to look in my more immediate area, noting Meadowsweet and Tizzy were seated close together, the latter leaning into the pony's side. Both were asleep where they sat.
I craned my head the other way, where Deadbolt was still blocking the double doors leading out into the sluice-like space between it and the twin set a little further out.
Featherweight and Lighthoof had left his side to join one of the groups.
I turned my head again and spotted Burst walking up to me, Glottis a few paces behind.
"Glad to see you're awake again, Pearl," she offered up with a wry smile. "Had a good nap?"
I licked around my muzzle, and tested my voice.
"Buh, bah..." I rasped with some effort. "Not enough."
"I have a severe dry throat," I complained.
"Yeah, most of us are starting to feel the lack of liquids. It's something to consider going for the moment we're safely out of town," Burst considered. "Supposedly there should have been lunch and dinner delivered here already, but Deadbolt is in charge of getting that spread around the jail, and he's been locked in here with us."
"And lunch and dinner enters into it because?" I queried.
"There would be a pail of water with both meals," Crook suggested, walking up to me as well.
"Ah," I returned blankly.
My eyes scanned over the room again, my ears finding the whole sound snipping on and off bothersome to an extent I had not considered before.
"So, the magic," I started.
"Camellia figured out the basics of the spell, yeah," Oval chuckled. "We have split up in groups of five so we can more easily navigate while remaining unseen. Those who thought they could control their magic while on the run have been assigned the task of keeping the spell going for their group."
"Did you keep into account that we're also going to have to escape ourselves?" I asked, trying to find out where Forsythia or Cubitus were in the masses around me. "What group are we going to be in, Oval?"
"Camellia thinks she should be the one to help out there," my sister suggested. "You, me, Tizzy, and Crook will go out with her and Meadowsweet. We're the only group with less than five of us in it."
"And I'm sure I can find a gap or two which even our pony escorts don't know exists in their town, so they might learn a thing or two in the process," Crook boasted.
"So, what about Deadbolt?" I worried, looking in the old pony's direction.
"He said he can get his kid and his friends out of the way and keep the path out into the courtyard free, but that's the most he can do. He's going to try and keep others out of the jail as long as he can after we're all out, so none of them should find out we're all gone until we're safely out of their reach," Oval explained.
"The worrying thing is that he seems amused by it all. He's gone through a few different emotions since the lot of us came down upon him like a wave of bodies, poor guy," Crook chuckled. "Seeing a wave of Changelings come his way must have triggered a few bad memories, but he took it well enough once we all spread out a bit."
There was a gleam in the old pony's eyes as he looked over the groups of Changelings before him, and an odd smile played on his lips. He most definitely looked amused by what he saw, and I wondered as to his thoughts.
Looking around once again I started to consider it looked a lot like a military training ground; groups of Changelings training for the mad dash to come. Perhaps Deadbolt was thinking back to his time as a guard trainee?
I couldn't guess at what else he would be smiling at.
"So, when do we go?" I queried, turning my eyes upon Oval again.
"Nightfall is in a few minutes. Deadbolt apparently has a solid track of time outside even in this place where time stands still," Crook answered. "The old guard is going to leave the jail, but keep the doors unlocked behind him. He'll send away his 'good-for-nothing son', and make an excuse of having to write a report as the reason why he is staying behind for a while longer by himself."
"And once his son is away we'll sneak out, one group at a time, spaced a few seconds apart. Remember the door we came in through? It should be largely unguarded and opens up into the courtyard," Burst added. "The first group goes to the left, second to the right, and we'll keep this up as we make our way out. Each group is then responsible for making their way out of the city by themselves. It can't be helped; we can't all use the same route out."
"We'll leave last, with Camellia and Meadowsweet in tow. If anything goes wrong before that, we'll know by the guards running in to meet us," Crook finished with a dark chuckle.
"So a hundred and fifteen Changelings before us. I've had worse lines at the DMV back home," I joked, but it didn't land on my audience and I shook my head at them. "Forget it."
Burst walked closer to me and wrapped her left foreleg around my withers. "It will be fine, Pearl. We know what we have to do, and we're nothing if not an inventive race. Our brothers and sisters are experts in blending in, even without having the ability to transform into their disguises."
"I'm more worried about our little group, honestly," I voiced my concern, even if it still sounded like I had smoked for fifty years previously as I squeezed the words out through my dry throat.
"We'll be fine," Burst tried. "Just follow Crook once we're out there; he'll lead you out of town before you know it, although you might not be able to tell afterwards which path you took."
Crook beamed with pride at these words spoken by his 'big brother'.
"I'll make sure Tizzy won't fall apart in a half-panic on our way out, and it looks like Meadowsweet there will be able to help with that," Burst suggested. "That's as much on you as us all getting out of here, Pearl."
"So that leaves Camellia to help with the sound dampening spell, then," I put two and two together.
"If she doesn't burn herself out first giving our siblings an example to work off of," Crook pondered, looking back through the crowds in an attempt to spot the unicorn.
Camellia's yellow mane was easy to find in the crowd of largely grey bodies, as she moved around like a school teacher giving instructions to a class of students, just as Glottis was easy to spot among them doing his best to be a part of the group he was assigned to.
The main difference between them was that one would expect Glottis to be in his element among the rest of his siblings. The fact Camellia had not been pounced upon yet by a famished brother or sister of mine spoke for them, at least for the moment.
We all wanted to get out of this in one piece, and she was giving them a way to do so. She would be safe among them until we were out to safety.
I sincerely hoped the peace would last after that as well.