It was still somewhere in the middle of the night when I blinked my eyes open to the sensation of a warm body sharing my bed with me.
With the blinds closed, the best I could hope for was a small sliver of sunlight bleeding through past the edges, but even that was absent.
While I was able to see in lower light conditions as a changeling, my earthpony guise meant I was just as blind as I had been as a human back home without sufficient lighting in the room.
Palina was the only pony besides me who should be in the room, and it was easy to put two and two together to realise she had crawled into bed with me while I was asleep.
While I had been holding my plushie between my forelegs before, now my left foreleg was draped over the other mare while my right was somewhat wedged between us.
Palina's breath passed through the fur around my left forehoof, suggesting to me that I had been able to keep my disguise up throughout the night.
I honestly felt a little better about myself, knowing that I could keep it up with somepony else sleeping in the room with me.
Not that Palina seemed to mind much that I was a changeling, especially after I quelled some of her worries caused by unfounded rumours about us.
I didn't expect our bond to have deepened enough over the course of a single afternoon to warrant her suddenly getting this close to me however.
Whatever the reason she had clambered in bed with me, her warm body was surprisingly comfortable against my own and I did not want to wake her from what was clearly a peaceful slumber.
The filly had slept by herself out on the streets, and while Equestria was supposedly a lot safer than some places back on Earth, I couldn't imagine she had a good rest during those nights.
I just let my head rest against my pillow, only moving it slightly to bury my muzzle a little more into the hairs of her mane tickling my nostrils.
Palina's scent filled my nose, an odd mixture of sweetness and tanginess, a little briney like the seapony she truly was beyond her earthpony disguise.
I would have to put my hoof down and get her to take a bath before we'd go off to Baltimare in the morning; it wouldn't do to deliver her to her parents in the state she was in.
If we even managed to find her parents tomorrow, that is; we'd have to first go to the hotel, as it was the only place I knew where to start the search, and figure out if they had left any clues behind.
I closed my eyes again and tried to get some more rest while Palina slept in my embrace, finding comfort in her apparent trust in me to keep her safe during the night.
To be fair to her, a lot of ponies had put their trust in me, and I couldn't figure out why. What set me apart from my newfound family that everypony who met me just went along with it?
First Pinkie, although she's a special case and would trust most everypony, then Camellia, and now Palina. Even without anypony else vouching for me, they had all opened up to me and had quickly become my friends.
I must have dozed off again as I was thinking along those lines, as I woke to find the light from the morning sun shining brightly on the window, casting a bright border to the edges of the curtains hung in front of it.
Palina had slipped out of my embrace at some point after I had fallen asleep again, and she was resting in her own bed across the room from me.
As I looked over her sleeping form, I could hear Hammer's hooffalls as he crossed the landing to go from the master bedroom to the bathroom. Other sounds of items being moved around and lighter hooffalls accompanying them suggested Celery was downstairs in the kitchen.
Obviously Hammer was getting ready for work, and Celery was working in the kitchen to provide him with breakfast. If that was all there was to a marriage, these two had it sorted.
I spent some time in the darkness listening to the noises Hammer made in the bathroom, which was easy enough as the bed's headrest was up against the wall shared between it and the guestroom, but eventually felt like I had to get up out of bed myself.
Stretching myself while still in the bed, I reflected on how different and yet eerily the same life in Equestria was compared to back on Earth.
We all had to eat, sleep, and do our business in the bathroom. It was just a natural part of life.
Even in the Hive there had been eating and sleeping, even if it had been different from what the ponies were used to; nutrient paste coming down through veins in the wall and beds made out of spat out resin.
Then, at Camellia's place, the resin beds remained but there were apples and sandwiches for breakfast, thanks to our pony hostess.
And now here in Hammer and Celery's home even the resin beds had disappeared and I was expected to maintain my pony guise around the clock, living that pony life with pony beds and pony breakfasts.
I rolled out of bed and onto my four hooves, taking a moment to stabilize my hoofing in the semi-darkness before wandering over to the curtains to draw them slightly open to let the sunlight in.
Celestia's sun was almost directly on the window, and I had to wait for a moment for my eyesight to return to me as I turned back for the room, but then I could more clearly see Palina in her own bed, and my damp empty bed in the corner opposite.
I wandered on over, straightened my sheets so the thing could air out, and did a cursory look around for where my plushie had gone off to.
It was obviously not in my bed, and a glance underneath it came up empty as well, so I turned my attention to the other mare.
Palina was blinking her tired green eyes open to the light shining almost directly upon her, and as she moved a hoof up to rub at them, I spotted my plushie in her grasp.
"Well, good morning to you," I greeted her with a bemused smile on my lips. "How did you sleep?"
"Definitely better than outside," she mumbled back.
"Is that because of the bed, or because you stole my plushie from me when you dared to climb into my bed during the night?" I chuckled. "I woke up wondering where it had gone off to."
Palina looked like her brain wasn't connecting the dots just yet, but then followed my gaze to note the toy held to her barrel with her other foreleg.
"How did that get there?" she wondered in confusion.
"As I said; you crawled into my bed during the night. Maybe you had a bad dream or something, I don't know, but I woke up in the middle of the night finding you in the same bed as me," I explained calmly. "When I woke up just a few minutes ago you were back in your own bed."
Palina just flattened her ears and did a good job looking guilty, even if she was only half awake.
"I honestly don't remember anything from last night. Everything after dinner is a haze," she mumbled quietly.
There was a knock on our door.
"Are you awake, girls?" Celery's voice called from the other side.
I cast a quick glance past my flank to make sure I was fully disguised, then moved to the door to open it slightly.
Celery smiled as she noticed me looking at her through the crack.
"Good morning Pearl. How are you and Palina? I put some towels ready for you both in the bathroom in case you need to wash up," she suggested.
"We've slept fine. Do I put the window open a crack to let the room air out?" I wondered.
"Oh, yes please. And if you use the washroom, just make sure to dry up this time, will you?" Celery offered with a smile and a wink.
"I will, I will," I sighed with my ears flattening a little. "I didn't want to leave it in the state it was in yesterday either, but things happened outside of my control."
Celery stared me down, her smile fading. "Jumping out of a window was outside of your control, Pearl?"
"There wasn't enough time for me to run downstairs or I would've lost sight of Palina," I muttered. "It was a split-second decision. I'm glad I caught up to her or she would've been sleeping out on the streets or worse."
Celery thought it over, then gave a short nod.
"Well, let's call it extenuating circumstances," she decided as her smile returned. "I'll be downstairs to send Hammer off to work. I'll wait with my own breakfast until you girls can join me, shall I?"
"In other words; don't make it too long?" I ventured a guess at the hidden meaning behind her words.
"Not unless you want to see me when I'm hangry," Celery suggested with a wink.
She turned for the stairs but looked back before walking down.
"See you girls soon," she offered to me, then raised her voice a little. "Hammer, are you going to stay in the washroom for much longer? Breakfast is ready for you downstairs!"
There was some low grumbling from the direction of the closed bathroom, but I couldn't quite make out what my cousin's answer was.
Celery chuckled at the response and walked downstairs.
There was something scary about her even when she wasn't hangry, I mused. She was obviously taking pleasure in riling Hammer up like that, and the remarks my way were threatening in their own right.
She was clearly in charge here, in her house, and most likely would be during our roadtrip to Baltimare. I would have to watch what I said and did around her, and keep Palina from revealing too much about herself at the same time.
As she disappeared out of sight, I considered there was a little hint of our Queen Chrysalis in her, although the both of them were different in that Celery carried herself with more outward pleasantness.
There was probably less trauma in Celery's life than Chrysalis had been subjected to, given how the both of them grew up having vastly different experiences growing up.
Maybe that's what had drawn my dear changeling sister Burst to this earthpony? He had definitely decided to devote the rest of his life to her, like she was his own queen.
"I'm ready to wash up when you are," Palina mentioned from behind me, and I jumped a little as I had honestly zoned out standing near the partly opened door.
I caught the green flash going over me as I momentarily lost myself, but just as quickly put my disguise back up before rounding on her.
"Palina! Don't startle me like that, please," I pressed on her. "At least not in the early morning..."
Palina stood frozen in shock at the sudden transformation I went through, blinked as she gathered her wits about her again, and then quickly nodded at me.
"I'm sorry," she apologized with genuine regret. "I thought you heard me walk up."
"I didn't," I noted dryly.
The bathroom door opened as Hammer exited, and I opened the door to the bedroom a little wider so he could see both Palina and myself ready to take turns in there ourselves.
"Celery would like us both to clean up before we go, and it looks like Hammer's done in there," I suggested to the mare to my side. "Do you want to go first, or shall I?"
"Morning, girls," Hammer greeted us in passing, hurrying downstairs to get to his wife and the breakfast she had made ready for him.
"Morning cousin," I returned with a smile. "Have a good day at work!"
"Morning," Palina mumbled a little less enthusiastic.
She turned her attention back to me as Hammer bouldered down the staircase.
"If you don't mind me going first, Pearl?" she asked.
I motioned with my left hoof for her to go ahead, and she quickly exited the bedroom to make for the bathroom.
"Don't make it too long; Celery is waiting for us with breakfast as well. She apparently gets hangry if she has to wait too long," I called after her.
With nothing else to do while the bathroom was occupied for the moment, I turned for the bedroom and drew the curtains open fully so I could put the window slightly ajar and on its hook like it had been the previous day.
As fresh air now flowed into the room, I turned for the beds and pulled Palina's messy sheets open a bit more so her bed could air out as well.
The plush pony I had taken from the Hive had been moved and was now resting on my pillow, and I moved it a little so it appeared to be resting on it.
Palina had obviously needed some emotional support during the night, and I was honestly glad that the warmth of my body or my plushie in her grasp had been able to provide it to her.
The sooner we could get the kid to her parents, the better.
We both had our secrets to keep, and while I knew I could find changelings like myself in just about every pony town if I absolutely had to, Palina was a fish out on dry land with nopony other than her parents and me to confide in.
I finished tidying up the room, and wandered over to the bathroom door.
"How are you doing in there? Don't tell me I have to come in there to help you wash up?" I wondered.
"I'm almost done," the seapony suggested.
"Good, because I also need to clean myself up before we go," I reminded her. "The sooner we're on our way, the sooner we can find your parents."
"Yep, almost done," she reassured me.
I just sat down beside the door with my back against the wall separating the washroom and the landing, listening to the sounds of water running and splashing as Palina finished up inside.
It was oddly calming to just sit like that, listening to Hammer and Celery talking downstairs, to Palina washing up. It reminded me of the simple life as a kid back on Earth, being part of a family while growing up, just waiting my turn to use the bathroom.
When Palina finally exited the bathroom, her mane was still damp from the water she had ran through it, and the added weight made it flow down around her face in more of a straight line.
"Your turn, Pearl," she suggested to me, even as I watched some droplets let go of her mane and drop down onto the floor.
"Oh no, not like that," I protested. "Celery will have both of our hides if I let you drip water all over the house like that. Let's get you dried off properly."
I pushed up into a standing position, ushered the seapony back into the bathroom even as she tried to protest, found the towel she used, and gave her a good drying down with it.
With Palina dry enough that Celery wouldn't throw a fit, I nudged her out of the bathroom again and then proceeded to clean myself with water and soap.
I made sure to dry the bathroom afterwards as per Celery's instructions before finding Palina sitting on the landing roughly in the same spot where I had been waiting for her.
We made our way down to where Celery was waiting for us with breakfast, noting that Hammer had already left the house.
After having a nice bowl of oats to start the day off with, the three of us also departed for the train station.
After securing our tickets, we sat down on the platform to wait for our train, and this seemed like the opportune moment for me to bring up our plans for when we arrived in the city. The important thing was to get Celery to let Palina and me go off on our own without her.
"Celery, you're going to bring your book to the campus library, right? Perhaps I can join you there after dropping Palina off at her parents?" I suggested calmly. "They know me from Canterlot, so it would put their minds at ease if I delivered her by myself."
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, Pearl?" Celery wondered in reply. "It's no bother for me, honestly, and I would hate myself if something were to happen to you out there."
"They're fairly private ponies," I tried. "I'm not sure they would appreciate some stranger delivering their daughter to them. There would be questions abound. They know who I am, so there is already a level of trust between us."
"Pearl is right, miss Celery," Palina added. "My mom gets paranoid when ponies stick their noses in her affairs. She is a difficult mare to deal with."
I glanced her way, but she made it seem like what she was saying was the truth. Given her parents were abducted in broad daylight, her mother had probably been right to be cautious about strangers.
"If you say so, it's not like I can stop you if you want to go off on your own; you're not my foals," Celery relented. "Just make sure to get back on campus grounds after you get her to her parents and I'm sure we'll bump into one another there, Pearl. I like to see what the kids are up to while I'm in Baltimare so I might roam a little."
"I can do that; a university campus is difficult to miss," I chuckled.
"That's that sorted. Now for our train to arrive," Celery decided, gazing off in the direction of Canterlot.
I peered in the same direction and could easily see the tall spire of a mountain with the palace built up against it in the distance.
"Can you see Canterlot from every city in the East?" I had to wonder.
"Not every city, no," Celery answered. "We're close enough by here, but once you get to Baltimare there's a mountain or two in the way."
Celery turned her head and pointed off down the tracks toward the mountains a little to the East of us. There were just a few peaks, as she said, but they were tall enough to have snowcovered tips. Probably just tall enough to obscure Canterlot's own mountain from Baltimare.
"I lovingly call them the twins because there are two tall mountains with a few smaller hills beside, but Hammer thinks I'm fishing for a pregnancy whenever I do it around him. He always gets worried he won't be able to take care of twins," she laughed. "He worries too much."
"That he does," I agreed with a smile. "He's known for it amongst the family."
"I'll bet," Celery chuckled. "Even when other family of yours comes by to stay the night, he always seems to be the odd one out. What happened to him to make him worry so, do you know Pearl?"
I shook my head, trying to recall what Blaze and Breeze had told me about Burst, and what I'd seen from her myself ever since arriving in the Hive.
Burst was approachable enough for the most part, but whenever somepony would get too close to her she clammed up. Just like Blaze correcting somepony whenever they mentioned the "failed" invasion on Canterlot, something had startled Burst and made her realise what was most important to her.
"I think there's just some moments in life which make us decide to be more careful in the future, especially when we have something important which we don't want to lose," I mused after a moment of contemplation.
Celery looked me over in surprise.
"That's quite profound," she noted, her expression softening. "Is that the way you feel about your parents sending you to stay with us? Is that why you are so forceful about wanting to bring Palina back to hers?"
I looked away at the question. While my background story was about being sent away from home by my parents, I had no emotional attachment to them as they were entirely made up. I instead focused on my family from Earth, my few friends outside of work, and how much I missed them so I looked the part.
"Maybe a bit," I agreed with Celery.
Palina had her ears perked up at that, and gave me a questioning look as she had not been told my background story before.
"You know, because my parents are supposedly 'working things out'," I hinted to her. "I must have told you back in Canterlot? Maybe I forgot given the situation we were in back then? Look, it doesn't really matter..."
"No, it does matter," Celery corrected me. "There's always a motivation behind somepony's actions. Keep that in mind, girls; everypony is motivated by something personal to them. If you can find out what that is, you can understand their words and actions better."
I looked back at her in defiance. "So what's Magpie's motivation?"
"She feels like she lacks control in her life at home, so she seeks to control the narrative outside of it," Celery stated without a moment of thought. "Her husband is an influential pony, but he makes all the decisions at home. She stands in his shadow anytime the both of them are somewhere together. Ponies talk to him instead of to her as if she only exists as an extension of him."
"It's not like with me and Hammer; he's away from home most of the time on business trips and nopony in their right mind would think he controls my actions when he's home. I get to do what I want without his shadow hanging over my head," she continued. "Margery's only way of doing that is by spreading news around about what is going on in Hoofton so she feels like she's in control of the narrative for once."
"So she's more like a town crier than the gossip Hammer says she is? Now I'm starting to see why you told me to be nicer to her," I murmured, feeling like I was just put in my place for judging her.
"As I said; everypony has their reasons for doing something," Celery repeated. "It might not make sense to you when you first have to deal with them, but there's a reason for even the most obnoxious pony which explains why they turned out that way. You can't judge them on your first impressions of them."
"Don't judge a book by it's cover, I guess," I reminded myself.
This counted doubly for Palina and myself, but hopefully Celery remained none the wiser on that for a while yet.
"Exactly, Pearl," Celery agreed with me. "Now, I do believe I see our train on the approach."
We waited patiently until the Friendship Express had pulled into the station, and the ponies on it had a chance to disembark.
As we stood waiting to get on the train ourselves, I heard a familiar voice.
"Tell me again why you needed this many suitcases, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash groaned.
I looked in the direction I heard their voice from and spotted the blue mare with her rainbow mane and tail hovering slightly above the platform by some expert flapping of her strong blue wings.
She was looking down at another pony below her, who was in the process of unloading several large suitcases from the carriage they had been in with her purple magic.
"Why, Rainbow Dash, and here I thought you had a nose for trade opportunities?" Rarity retorted. "I'm sure I remember a certain trade dispute at the Rainbow Falls Traders' Exchange not too long ago?"
Rainbow sputtered at that. "Oh, come on, that was almost a year ago already! Why did Fluttershy tell you anyway, it was all sorted by Twilight before we left!"
"Oh, like you never gush over something your friends did for you while getting a hoof shine?" the unicorn waved away any concerns. "I must admit I missed the whole deal since I was looking for a rusty old pan for Applejack at the time."
I was so engrossed in watching these two friends bicker among themselves that I completely missed when it was our turn to get on board the carriage.
Lucky for me, Palina had learned from startling me before and opted to wave a hoof in front of my face instead of just saying something from out of my blind spot.
"Pearl? It's time to board," she reminded me gently.
I tore my attention away from the pair and followed her into our carriage to where Celery was already seated near a window facing away from the platform.
There was a free spot next to the window facing the platform however, so I quickly moved to it and sat down, craning my neck to try and look at Rainbow and Rarity still sorting out the latter's suitcase problem.
"Ahem, that seat's taken," the stallion opposite me pointed out. "My mare just stepped out for some fresh air while we're at the station."
"I just need to see some-" I started, but stopped as I noticed Celery pointedly turning her head to look at me.
She glared at me from across the aisle. She didn't say anything, but her judgement was clear; I had made a faux-pas in her presence.
"There's somepony out th-" I tried again, but she just slowly raised an eyebrow at me and I swallowed the rest of my sentence.
"Why do I feel like I'm at home being chided by my mom?" I sighed darkly, and finally moved off the seat I was on. "I thought I'd escaped that over here in the East."
"Well, I don't know where you're from, but over here we ask whether a seat is taken before sitting down on it," the stallion scoffed at me.
"I'm sorry, sir," I apologized, then joined Palina and Celery on the other side of the aisle.
Palina had taken to sitting opposite Celery, but I decided to sit beside the older green mare instead so she would have to physically look sideways to continue her judgemental stare at me.
She did not, and instead just smiled in Palina's direction.
"It's just a short trip to Baltimare. Are you looking forward to being reunited with your parents?" Celery asked of her.
"Oh, yes miss. I was so troubled when they were taken from me," the seapony answered.
"I can only imagine. It must have been such a scary moment when the train pulled out of station with them on it, I'll bet," Celery considered, going by what limited information we had given her.
"Yes, that's what I meant," Palina agreed quickly.
"I do have to wonder why you didn't reach out to the stationmaster? I'm sure they would have allowed you onto the next train to Baltimare without needing to pay for a new ticket?" Celery pried.
Palina froze for a moment, and I could feel a cold shiver run down my own back. Celery was getting dangerously close to poking a hole in our story.
I could only hope the seapony had as sharp a mind as she had hinted at before.
"My parents always told me to never talk with strangers," she blurted out. "I didn't know anypony in Hoofton, so I took a walk to try and clear my head and come up with a solution myself. And that's when Pearl spotted me."
I could have jumped over and hugged her for that explanation, but I had to keep Celery in the dark so I resorted to just nodding in agreement.
"I knew Pearl from Canterlot, so she's not a stranger to me or my parents," Palina emphasized.
"Right, I understood as much," Celery remarked flatly.
"And since she said I could trust you, I followed her to your home, miss Celery," Palina added. "I wouldn't have known where to sleep last night if not for your kindness. Thank you."
I decided it was a good idea to smile in Celery's direction, but the puzzling look she gave me made me regret it the very moment after.
"You've known me for all of one evening and I'm trustworthy?" she asked me.
"Well, according to Hammer you are," I put to her.
"Your family never ceases to amaze me, Pearl," Celery chuckled. "You are an odd bunch taken all together, but there's never a dull moment trying to figure out what motivates you individually."
"What motivates me?" I repeated, confused at why that was brought up.
"Yes, Pearl. I'm not sure about you yet, to be honest. I haven't had enough time to figure it out, but you do care about your friends and are good for a laugh or two. That's a good start," the other mare decided. "It's better than some of your other family members' interests."
"Do tell?" I coughed uneasily, not liking this profiling Celery seemed to do.
"Oh, well," Celery started as the train started to pull out of the station. "Last year we had one of your aunts or nieces drop by, you'll excuse me if I don't know your relation to her, and I'll tell you that mare was only interested in finding out how much our house and the furniture in it was worth. She was just counting up the bits in her head, I tell you. Reminded me of some traders I see in town sometimes."
Palina and me resorted to listening to Celery talking about the various fake family members and their particularities as the train took us to our destination.
While I knew they were all changelings, and I was sure Palina could guess at it, Celery had just accepted their pony disguises and clearly had been more interested in their psychological profiles.
It was refreshing to hear of so many different Changeling disguises going by under the radar in the same household. Even if Celery might be suspecting something by now, she at least acted as if she did not.
Her accepting nature was definitely speaking for Celery, and I started to see what had drawn my sibling to her.