Hammer Hoof and I left the train to get to a shabby old station, barely representative of this supposed big trading hub I had heard it to be.
It had just a single pair of platforms with the rails laid between them, one providing for the trains leading away from Canterlot, and the other for trains going back the way we came.
I had a faint memory of Oval having told me that trains leading to Baltimare and Fillydelphia would go through this station, but the train to Fillydelphia wouldn't actually stop here for some reason.
Considering how little I knew of the area, that meant my only way of escape from this town if something like what happened in Canterlot occured again, was to take the train to Canterlot or Baltimare.
Those were my two options as I knew next to nothing about the general area we were in.
I prayed to all the gods I could remember from back home on Earth and here in Equestria that I could spend my time here in relative peace and not get hit with another witchhunt against us Changelings.
Two major events in half a year's time was plenty for me, thank you very much.
I followed Hammer Hoof toward the station's main building and to a desk providing ponies with lost luggage, packages sent by mail, and so on.
Oval did a good job describing our bags; and it reminded me of our mad dash through Canterlot.
I knew I had left my bag somewhere out in the streets, somewhere in a back alley, and had thought it and its contents lost.
Oval acted as if she was sure that our bags, wherever they had been left by us, had been found and deposited here, in the baggage storage of the Hoofton train station.
Thinking back now to when we left the Hive, Oval had pressed onto me that I should take at least a bag of clothes along which at least vaguely resembled styles from the Northwest of Equestria, if not from Vanhoover in particular since it was closest to Tall Tale.
We had stuffed a saddlebag with an assortment of clothes I felt I could wear after some scrutiny, as well as some items 'taken with me from home' as if they had some emotional significance.
I remember losing the bag after it got stuck on something while we ran, but when Oval described the bag to the clerk at the counter, they just nodded.
"Ah, sure, we have that bag here," they said. "Let me grab it for y'alls."
I stood dumbfounded, but my sibling just looked back at me with a knowing grin.
"How?" I had to ask.
"Always make sure to label your luggage correctly," she replied casually. "Remember how I insisted on getting your name and my address on it back at the 'family home'? All mail and lost luggage gets sorted here at the station, so it would have been on the first train here once it was found in Canterlot."
"This would have never worked back home," I stated, shaking my head. "Where I come from they would have just nicked anything worth anything, then left the bag where they found it."
"But we're not on your world, Pearl," Oval pressed to me. "Most ponies are honest. The few bad eggs among them keep to some unwritten social rules, and this is one which hasn't failed me yet."
"Got 'er right here," the clerk spoke as he returned to the desk, putting my slightly scuffed messenger back on the counter. "I didn't see the other bag you described, sir. If it has come through here it might have already been delivered to the address on the label?"
Oval flicked her tail at me, and I suddenly realised I needed to fake emotion at seeing 'my' bag again to do my part in this open roleplay of ours.
"Oh, you found it!" I exclaimed in a sudden burst of faked excitement, launching myself forward to pull the messenger bag off the counter.
Once it was on the floor in front of me, I instantly opened it while murmuring. "I hope everything's still in it..."
"We'll buy you a new set of clothes if we have to, Pearl. I told you Celery and I would take care of you these coming months," Hammer Hoof spoke in an effort to reassure me.
"Right," I huffed, rummaging through the bag. "Like I trust you to know fashion... You probably don't have Vanhoover style here in the South anyway."
"Teenagers, am I right?" Oval sighed toward the clerk.
"Don't I know," they returned with an empathic smirk. "Can I help you folks with anything else?"
"No thank you, we'll be on our way. At least, if you're ready to go, Pearl?" Hammer Hoof wondered, looking in my direction again.
"I guess," I stated noncommittally.
I put my saddlebag on my back, secured the strap, and turned away from the counter.
Hammer Hoof walked to my left side and led the way out again, and we soon exited out onto the main street of Vanhoover where merchants were moving in every-which direction with their carts.
"What did you think on first glance; is everything still in there?" he asked as he looked back a moment.
"I think so; several folded up items of clothing, and it felt like most had the more breakable things wrapped in them," I told him. "I forgot what all we packed, honestly."
"I'll make sure Celery shows you the guest room first so you can unpack in peace," Hammer suggested. "I'll use the time to bring her up to speed."
"Yeah, you tell her about how your aunt's nephew's first cousin once removed needed to stay with you for a few months," I joked.
"Oh come on now, Pearl," Oval sighed. "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be."
"I'm not? I mean I did say I'm your first cousin once removed," I protested.
"Right, but my aunt's nephew would be me," Oval pointed out.
"And I'm your first cousin, once removed," I rebutted. "Where's the problem?"
Hammer Hoof stopped walking and shook his head. "Family trees are a confusing thing."
"That's just because you're used to a different type of family where pretty much everyone has the same parent, cousin," I suggested calmly. "Back where I'm from we use a similar family tree setup as the ponies do, so it's easier for me."
A particularly noisy cart pulled by a large stallion bouldered past on the road beside me and I had to flatten my pony ears to drown it out. It sounded like it was filled with assorted metal goods all clanging against one another as it rolled over the uneven ground.
Hammer Hoof looked pensively after the cart as it rolled on, but then let out a deep sigh.
"In either case, you're an offshoot from the Hoof family tree," he pondered. "We'd need to figure out your lineage for Celery."
I took a step closer and stared considered my options. "How about Shells as a family name? Then I would be Pearly Shells, but I prefer to be called Pearl?"
I considered that I did prefer to be called Pearl, since it was basically the only name I could remember having had.
The transformation process had messed with my memories to the point where I couldn't remember my old name back on Earth, nor the names of my family, friends, or coworkers.
I wouldn't have been able to tell anypony the name of the city I grew up in, where I worked, what address I had lived at.
Details like those had just disappeared; my memories had become far more generalised since the transformation.
I knew what line of work I had been in, but I couldn't tell you the company I had worked for or where they were located. I knew I had lived in an apartment building, but couldn't tell you on what floor or what the area around the building had looked like.
"Could work with your cutiemark, yes," Hammer agreed to my suggestion of a last name. "So that brings us to the 'why' your parents sent you to me."
He continued walking down the road, in the direction the noisy cart had come from, and I just tagged on to his right side.
"They needed to talk about some things between themselves or something stupid like that. Adult stuff they couldn't tell their teenage daughter," I considered.
Oval seemed to do a doubletake and I could sense her tense up.
"Well, that's a lame excuse," she decided in a louder voice than before. "I'm sure your parents will fill you in on the actual reason when you get back to them in a few month's time. We'll just have to make sure you don't get bored while you're out here."
I side-eyed him, unsure what brought this change of demeanor.
"Yeah, well... they better," I agreed in a similarily slightly over-emphasized tone of voice, then followed up with a whisper. "What's got into you all of a sudden?"
"Somepony I know is watching us," Hammer Hoof whispered back. "They're following a little behind. If you turn your head a slight bit you can see her in your peripheral vision."
"I'm sure Celery will be happy to have you around; she could use somepony to talk to while I'm out on business trips across Equestria," she spoke in a louder tone again, making sure to emphasize the words 'business trips'.
"It can't be easy on her to have to stay behind," I contemplated empathically.
I turned my head a bit so I could glance back, noting a well-dressed mare following one and a half pony lengths behind us, her ears perked up in our direction. Her smart pink eyes looked out through some thin-rimmed glasses and her outfit suggested she was trying to mimic the high society style from Canterlot.
"Should we reconsider this conversation we're having?" I whispered to my sibling beside me as we continued down the street.
"Knowing her, she's trying to catch me in the act of infidelity with another mare," Oval whispered back. "Anything we can say to make her think otherwise would be helpful."
"I'm sure it isn't easy, no," he answered in a louder voice. "She has her own friends and activities, but I miss being able to do things with her on a whim without having to plan for the next trip, to be honest."
He gave a quick glance back and then smiled wryly.
"Well, she's just taken a side road to get to my home before us, probably to inform Celery about what she thinks she saw, our conversation be damned. That mare's nose is longer than her horn, and she sticks it in everypony else's business whether they like it or not," she grumbled. "Prepare to be scrutinized when we get there as if you're my love interest or something."
"Wonderful," I grumbled sarcastically. "As if I didn't already feel worried enough."
"Just stick to the story. Fill out as few details as possible. Deflect direct questions as best you can," Hammer Hoof pressed onto me. "You know who you are, where you came from, and what the reason for your stay is. Let's try and give Margery Pie there no further ammo."
"Wait, she's a Pie?" I considered. "Wow, I hope she's a distant, far removed aunt or cousin to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie doesn't deserve somepony like her snooping about in her private affairs."
My sibling turned a corner once we got to a crossroads, and motioned up ahead to a building down the road. "There she is, and that's where we're going."
I looked ahead and saw this Margary Pie walk up a small flight of three steps to knock on the door to a building halfway down the road.
It was clearly a homestead built for merchants wanting to settle in town so they could keep an eye on the goods coming into and going out of their warehouses.
It was not as richly decorated as the ones I saw in Canterlot but definitely outwardly appearing luxurious enough to stand out as being more spacious inside than the smaller common homes.
"Well, at least it looks like a nice home. As long as she's kept out of it," I remarked.
"Four bedrooms, two stories and a basement," Hammer Hoof listed. "Celery wanted a big enough home for our children to grow up in, bless her."
I remembered how we were supposedly incompatible with the ponies. How Oval was especially bothered by not being able to get her mare what she wanted.
"Oof, that's tough," I empathised. "Is she still hoping for it or..."
"I can't burst her bubble," my sibling sighed dejectedly. "How can I take that from her?"
"That's a tough conversation to have, yeah," I agreed. "But don't you think she might be blaming herself at this point?"
"I can't exactly come clean about it, Pearl," Hammer Hoof pointed out. "She's been buying into this herbal regime in an effort to help us, and I've been 'going to the doctor' about it."
"You're stringing her along," I told him flatly. "How would you feel if somepony did that to you?"
My sibling sighed and looked down at the ground we were walking on.
"I should really fake a doctor's note and take responsibility, shouldn't I?" she considered. "I just worry she might leave me over it and seek out somepony else who could get her her heart's desire."
I could see that. It was a tough situation my sibling had got herself stuck in.
A lovely situation to wander into as an outsider...