//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 
// Story: Pearl's Travels 2: Canterlot 
// by Makitk 
//------------------------------//

While Oval and me were hiding in the kitchen, there was a sudden burst of magical energy from the living room. I felt a wave of nausea hit me as it passed through the kitchen, and I noticed Oval's eyes narrowing as well.

The throbbing headache which had dissipated almost completely, most likely due to the tea I had been drinking while being distracted by the conversations we'd been having, came back in full force and I needed a moment to stabilize myself again.

"Oof, definitely magic aimed at revealing us," I whispered to my sister. "I felt the same way in the train when we passed through the magic barrier."

"Yeah, let's keep our voices low for now," Oval agreed.

Camellia came walking into the kitchen just as she finished her sentence, and motioned to Applejack. "Oh Applejack, would you mind coming to the front door a moment so the guard can see you're who you say you are?"

Applejack cast a quick glance our way, but dropped what she was doing and followed behind Camellia. "Sure sugarcube, as long as it doesn't take too long; these here pies need to go in the oven right quick."

The pair of them disappeared out of sight again and I mentally prepared for another magic burst. We didn't have to wait long for it to pass through the house again, making Burst and me both wince from the nauseating feeling it brought with it.

I squinted my eyes shut at the headache, and felt Oval move in to give me a soft nuzzle in an effort to comfort me.

Without Applejack making noise around us, we could clearly hear a gruff voice from outside declaring. "All clear. Thank you for your cooperation."

The thought of Canterlot turning into a dystopian police state like this brought with it its own feeling of nausea to me. The ponies living here deserved better than that.

The front door closed and Applejack and our host Camellia filed back into the kitchen to resume their baking.

"You should be good to return to the living room," Camellia offered up, but then frowned in worry as she spotted me. "Let me make you some more tea, because while that experience rattled all of our nerves you look like you're about to fall over."

"That magic makes me feel about ready to puke," I admitted. "With my headache from the fall down the stairs, I saw stars for a moment and it's not even night out. I sincerely hope we can get them to stop using it."

"It's like it's trying to draw the love straight out of our core so we regurgitate it like resin," Burst mumbled weakly. "I was doing just fine earlier today, but these tugs and pulls make me feel the hunger more deeply than before."

Applejack raised an eyebrow while moving pie tins around, but Burst's comment seemed to have passed Camellia by unnoticed.

"Let's have a chat with the princess, sis," I suggested. "Maybe she can figure something out to keep that at bay."

"I hope so. It's not going to help any of us if I turn feral from starvation before we're done with our plan," Burst muttered with clear unease. "I didn't expect those scans to hit me that hard."

I walked ahead of her into the living room, shaking my head a bit at the thought. I still felt pretty full myself and the headache had drawn my attention away from it, but now Oval had mentioned it I realised there was a definite hunger pang growing deep within me.

Princess Twilight Sparkle stood at the front window looking out into the street while Meadowsweet had flopped down on a couch as if she were low on energy.

"Thanks for the heads up there, princess Twilight," I started, to which the princess flicked her tail.

"This is definitely not the Canterlot I know and love," Twilight declared while still staring out through the window. "The paranoia has seeped into everypony out there, and even presses upon us here, now. I felt it in the magic that was used to scan us."

"Yeah, even I could feel that was wrong," the earthpony on the couch started, then closed her eyes and mouth with a shake of her head. "It made me think of..."

"Tainted energy," Twilight finished Meadowsweet's sentence.

"Yes, like a rot which has taken hold of the root of a plant, slowly killing it," Meadowsweet agreed. "It left a bad taste in my mouth."

"It's like that for us as well," I pointed out. "Oval here just remarked it felt like the love we feed on was being pulled out of us, like it tried to force us to regurgitate it."

Twilight turned her head to look in our direction. "The Tantabus doesn't know love. It is a pit of despair, of distrust between ponies. It is very likely the magic it taints will draw every good feeling out of us until all we have left is fear and paranoia."

"If only we could feed off fear," Oval chuckled weakly. "We could counter the Tantabus' effects that way."

I pondered that for a moment, but then shook my head. "Not a good thing to ponder, Burst. We don't draw the love from ponies, do we? Not unless we strain ourselves like our Queen tried to do back in the past. Those feelings would still remain in them and hurt them for it."

"But we would be stronger if we had an alternative source to feed on," Oval tried.

"And our Queen would launch an invasion to make use of the Tantabus' effects upon ponies if we could feed off fear," I pointed out with a sigh. "It's better that we need to feed on love, because that makes the Tantabus our common enemy. Our Queen won't launch another mistaken attack upon Canterlot if she doesn't think we can feed upon them."

"Yes, let's not give Chrysalis any ideas," Twilight Sparkle remarked with a grimace. "But I do have a better understanding of how little time we have to make a change now. Just those two scans made me worried my friends in Ponyville might be plotting against me."

"They would never," I instantly defended their longtime friendship.

"No, I can reason the feeling away now I'm not under the spell's effects, but it was a very strong suggestion nonetheless," the princess agreed. "There is no way they would turn against me. Time and again they have proven to be the best of friends."

"Exactly!" Applejack shouted from the kitchen. "Ain't nopony gonna turn us against one another. Also; pies are in the oven."

"And the tea is almost ready," Camellia added, also from the kitchen.

"They have good ears, don't they?" Burst chuckled. "Can't even make plans to betray one another in this house; everypony would immediately know about it."

"Let's not even entertain the thought," I coughed uneasily, walking over to my empty mug on the table and sitting on the ground near enough to it that I could easily pick it up and drink from once refilled. "I'd love some more tea when it's ready, Camellia!"

"On it," our host shouted back.

Meadowsweet looked downright miserable, splayed over the couch as she was, and I felt my concern for her rise as I looked the earthpony gardener over.

"You okay over there, Meadowsweet?" I asked of her, not hiding my worry in my voice.

"It's as Twilight said," Meadowsweet started. "As soon as that magic washed over me, I began doubting my friends, my position in the castle. Am I doing a good job? Are they just being nice to me? Are they laughing behind my back because I'm not tending to the gardens well enough? Because I don't have magic like miss Berrysweet who tended the gardens before me? Maybe the princesses are just leading me on, saying I..."

"Meadowsweet, stop it," Twilight interjected, walking on over and extending her left wing to rest over her friend. "You can fight the effects of the Tantabus, I'm sure of it. You know those thoughts are not your own. I've been to the castle many a time. Your gardens are among the most loved in all of Equestria."

"You're just saying that," Meadowsweet mumbled, shifting uneasily under the feathered limb of her friend. "You hardly ever visit them."

I blinked as Twilight Sparkle's horn started to emit a low shine of energy while the princess focused on soothing her longtime friend.

"Trust me on this, Meadowsweet. Your work is admired by a lot of ponies, and you're a wonderful mare to hang out with beyond that," she entrusted to the earthpony as her magic spread to the other. "I'll make an effort to be in touch more once we're through this dark chapter, and you can tell me all about botany when we do."

Meadowsweet sighed darkly and closed her eyes, but slowly but surely her facial expression softened. "I guess I'm just going to have to trust in you, princess."

"I'd hope so," Twilight chuckled, giving her friend a soft pat on the back with her wing. "I won't give up on you, Meadowsweet. I just get distracted a lot by my responsibilities. That doesn't mean we're no longer friends; it just means I'm all the more in need of one to be there for me when there's a lull in events."

"You know where to find me," Meadowsweet offered up with a growing smile.

"And you know where to find me," Twilight smiled back, her magic receding.

"Ain't that just a lovely sight?" Applejack remarked from halfway through the kitchen door.

"Yes, very much so," Oval agreed, sitting down near her own mug as I had done.

Camellia pressed herself passed Applejack, a hot teapot floating in front of her by her magic. "Okay, who wants another round of tea?"

Twilight lifted her wing off her friend and pointed it up in the air instead. "Oh yes please."

Meadowsweet nodded at her own mug on the table. "I could do with another mug, yes."

Burst joined in and lifted hers with her magic, and I noticed she had a bit more trouble keeping it stable than before. It made sense given she usually posed as an Earthpony, but also gave me an indication of how badly my her hunger had taken a hold of her.

"I hope those pies don't need to bake for too much longer," I mumbled.

"They're done when they're done, ya know?" Applejack chuckled. "I can't rush them. I have to uphold the reputation of Sweet Apple Acres."

"I'm just saying some of us might feel the pressure of the Tantabus and its effects a little stronger than others," I coughed uneasily, motioning at Oval and Meadowsweet in turn. "The sooner we can get to the castle, the better."

Oval looked away as I motioned in her direction, and Meadowsweet turned her ears down low at being indicated in that fashion.

"I don't mean anything with it other than that we should probably not wait too long," I reiterated carefully.

"We got it, Pearl, thank you," Twilight stated, folding her wings on her back and sitting down next to the couch Meadowsweet was on. "We should go the moment those pies are ready for it."

"You got it, Twilight," Applejack agreed.

"For what it's worth, there is something which might be able to help us Changelings out a little," I started.

Twilight peered in my direction as Camellia filled our mugs with fresh tea. "Do tell, Pearl?"

I followed Camellia with my eyes as she moved mugs around with her magic and filled them, walking around the room a little to make the distance she had to move them smaller.

"Camellia and me shared a moment around this table here, just talking, with barely a hint of fear for one another between us," I stated. "As we did, I could feel... well, love. The same love Oval and me, and all of our siblings, need to feed on to survive."

Camellia stopped filling the mug she was working on and tilted her head slightly in surprise. "You did?"

"Well, it wasn't as potent as the love between partners, I'm sure, but there was a very clear continuous trickle of energy feeding me as we sat here talking, yes." I agreed.

"Huh," Camellia responded, resuming her pouring of tea. "I guess I stopped seeing you as a threat when we were discussing things earlier. I was just fascinated about the things you told me about yourself."

"Hmm, that makes a strange kind of sense; Fascination is just a way of expressing interest in another," Twilight mused.

"How much did it fill you, Pearl?" Burst asked curiously as Camellia poured fresh tea in her mug.

I pondered the question a moment, thinking back to an experience we shared a few months back. "Let's say it was less than the amount we felt after Camellia watched us sleep, and way less than the love outburst from Pinkie Pie."

Camellia startled from being called out, spilling some of the tea past Oval's mug onto the floor, forcing my sister to pull her hooves back to not get burnt by the hot liquid.

"Ah, but Pinkie is a special case," Twilight Sparkle remarked with a smile.

"Right," I agreed. "Pinkie would try to make friends with anypony, no matter what they look like."

"Must be nice to have a friend like that," Camellia remarked, cleaning up the teaspill.

"She can be mighty overwhelming at times," Applejack chuckled, "but she's got 'er heart where it counts."

"So how do we use this information considering we have dozens of our family members going feral in the dungeons?" Oval wondered. "We can't exactly ask half the city to become friends with a bunch of love-starved Changelings?"

"I was more thinking you could try to buddy up with the four ponies gathered here so you wouldn't feel as peckish as you do, sis," I pointed out, looking around the room with as innocent a smile as I could muster given my fangs.

"What do you mean, Pearl?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Considering we're in this together, we might as well make a friendship pact of sorts before we get going, right? Like, we're going to have to trust one another to complete the task before us," I spoke while pointedly looking over at Meadowsweet wallowing in some manner of depressive fit on the couch.

Twilight glanced between her friend and me, a flash of worry on her face. "Yes, it would be prudent to get all these bad feelings sorted before we throw ourselves at the Tantabus. I have been taken by surprise too often in the past."

"Discord was entirely unfair to you and your friends," I chuckled, remembering the first time the six ponies had to fight him.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. "One day you'll have to explain those comments to me. They are unsettling."

"How about if we get through this, I'll come visit you in Ponyville and we'll talk about it at length Princess?" I suggested.