Stronghold not spawning

I own a minecraft survival realm and on it I decided to try and find a stronghold with some ender Pearls. However when the end pearls started smacking to the floor we dug out a 5x5 hole and found nothing. We tried throwing them again but nothing happened, they just floated there before dropping onto the ground. I even went into creative mode but still found nothing. Finally, I got a X-ray texture pack, put it on, and found nothing.