Inhuman

Chapter 9: The Arcane Ascension

Alpha stopped himself from sneezing.

The fleshy ground underneath him squished as he walked through the cavern, displacing purple hairs with his pincers.  Pony ears were typically wet and moist, and he didn't particularly like this part of the process.

In Twilight's ear, he had to make sure he was quiet, lest she wake up, but the rumbling from outside every second or two indicated that she was still asleep.

The inside of Twilight's ear was pretty dark, and the canal reminded him too much of a cave for his liking.  He clung to the walls as he navigated around, trying to map out the best possible route.

He trudged through the undergrowth of hairs until he reached his destination, a thin, pink, translucent disc at the end.  Twilight's eardrum.  This was where things would get a little sticky.

The humanoid insect snapped his pincers as he regarded the throbbing disc in front of him.  Clearly it was catching sound, but it wouldn't be catching anything pleasant very soon.

Grunting, he thrust his pincer into the base of the eardrum.  At this point, Twilight should have instantly woken up when her sensitive ear organ was ruptured, but she made nary a peep.

As Alpha thrust his pincer into the disc, a strange light-blue gel was instantly secreted from his right pincer.  Calmly, he cut a hole in the eardrum large enough for him to squeeze through, before he put the fragment back up and allowed the gel to work it back into place.

He avoided the ossicles of the middle ear as best as he could, before he squeezed through the oval window of the cochlea.  The inner ear was his destination.

And now, another obstacle on his path.  The bony labyrinth of Twilight Sparkle's inner ear was the perfect place to begin.  The bony labyrinth was a part of the skull that protected the inner ear, but the temporal bone on ponies was remarkably thin, and an area where he could drill inside with ease.

He sized up his pincers once again, ready to cut through the bony layer just like he did with the eardrum.  Slowly and methodically, his pincers drilled through the skull, the blue gel numbing the pain like an anesthetic.  She wouldn't feel this for a while, and if he had to chance to close up the holes thoroughly, there wouldn't be much pain with the recovery.

The whole process was like a surgical procedure, and he even sutured the skull back together after he climbed directly through it, though Alpha had the suspicion he'd need to use that hole again soon.

Meanwhile, he had plunged himself into his destination: the brain.  Pony brains were more or less as complex as human brains, but with his modified abilities, it would be easy to control all of it.  Quick as a flash he scurried across the brain from the temporal lobe, coming to rest at the front of the head, the frontal lobe, the source of all magic.

Roaring, he plunged his pincers into the soft grey matter, being careful not to damage the brain in any way, shape, or form.  It would be very easy for him to do such a thing, but it was not his intent.

With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and from his mind, he emitted a type of magical sonar, which resonated with both him and the sleeping unicorn whose head he was occupying.  He felt Twilight's central magic system deep within her brain; the pool was enormous.  The organization was not kidding when they said that her magical ability was off the charts.

And with him connected to the brain, secreting the magical gel inside it, he would be able to control virtually all of Twilight's body functions via his sonar.

Twilight's eyes snapped open.

The unicorn slowly crawled out of bed, being careful not to wake the other five ponies who were snoozing away on the floor.   She slowly crept her way over to the window, mindful of the guards that were currently stationed outside the door.

Despite wakefulness, her eyes showed a very misty, dead quality to them, almost as if she were asleep.  Regardless of that fact, she used her magic to open the window slowly, and leaped out of it, once again using levitation magic to halt her fall before the very bottom.

Lights were being flashed all over the castle courtyard as guards surveyed the area.  She leaped into a bush as a guard passed her by, not even thinking to check behind them.

She knew she had to get out of here quickly, and risked trying teleportation.  Her horn glowing a magenta, she reappeared near the entrance to the castle, and was home-free.

She galloped through Canterlot in the middle of the night, seeing few ponies along the way.  This body was not fit to handle strenuous physical activity, so she was obligated to teleport long stretches of distance at any given time.  She needed to reach Ghastly Gorge by morning, and if that meant exhausting her magic and her body, then so be it.

She had soon made it out of Canterlot, and was running alongside the train tracks down the mountain.  If she could reach Ponyville by 5 o'clock, then everything was good.

Luckily for her, there were no trains that were on their way down the mountain at this time of night, so she was able to run and teleport along the tracks without being detected by anypony.  After a long stretch of teleports, she had finally made it down the mountain, the Ponyville Train Station looming a few miles ahead of her.

Twilight looked behind herself; the castle and the city of Canterlot loomed in the distance.  She had managed to cover that amount of distance in a short, but she didn't have time to dawdle about in Ponyville.

Uncharacteristically, she continued running and teleporting along the tracks, not even bothering to go into Ponyville to even check up on Spike or anything like that.

She continued to head south, out of the village of Ponyville and along the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.  She passed by Fluttershy's cottage, and seeing the dangerous forest, continued to merely gallop along the outskirts.

When the Sun was just breaking above the horizon, she reached her destination, Ghastly Gorge.  She paused and regarded the morning sun with a calculating gaze; the Princess was likely aware that she was missing by now, but it was far too late.

With the last bit of her magic, she teleported herself down into the gorge, near the southeast portion of the gorge to be exact, where the lair of the Arcane Ascension was.

There was a large hole near the southeast edge of the gorge that led deep into the earth, near a small outcropping of rocks.  When Twilight teleported herself next to them, there was a tall figure waiting for her near the outside of the exit.

"Lambda..." Twilight Sparkle said, in a voice that was not her own.  The voice in question was much more lifeless and monotone, like she was not the one speaking.  It was remarkably similar to her dead eyes.

The human girl's hood was drawn up as to conceal part of her face, but Twilight knew who it was immediately.  Lambda looked worse for wear after coming out of the invasion short a couple hundred humans, but she seemed relatively calm.

"Alpha.  I see you have succeeded in taking over Twilight Sparkle's brain..." she commented, noticing the lack of life from within the small unicorn in front of her.

"Twilight" nodded, even though it was really Alpha controlling both her body and mind from within.  The real Twilight Sparkle had no idea what was going on right now.

"Yes, I have succeeded in my mission of transporting the unicorn Twilight Sparkle to the base of the Arcane Ascension.  Make sure that Shadow Star and Sydney are briefed on the way in..."

"That won't be necessary.  Orders from the President; she wants you back in your cell for the time being.  I'll take Twilight Sparkle off of her pincers right now." Lambda explained.

"Why?  I'll be needed back in here for the ceremony anyway.  It'd probably be easier if I just stay in here and in control for the time being.  What is the President thinking?"

Lambda shrugged.

"Beats me.  It seems she wants to talk to Twilight Sparkle personally, and for that she needs her alive and conscious.  You'll need to head back in there, I'm sure, but right now she's ordered you out..."

Alpha sighed in Twilight's voice.

"Very well.  She knows I hate doing this and probably just wants to see me do it again.  But whatever, I'll be a good little bug and head back to my cell..." she/he said bitterly.  He trotted by Lambda, and for a brief moment, the young woman thought she could see life in those eyes.

"Lambda...."

Lambda raised an eyebrow.

"I hate ponies..."

Lambda sighed.

"Yeah, I know..." she remarked.

Lambda was silent for a couple of minutes, before she saw all life fade from Twilight's eyes.  She wasn't anywhere near dead though, as her chest rose and fell with each breath.  Without Alpha controlling her, she had gone back to sleep.

She remained silent further as her trained eyes were focused on a tiny speck that went shooting out of Twilight's ear a couple minutes after the control had faded.  It landed on the ground, before it swelled up in size.

When it was done growing, what stood before he was a humanoid insect about her height, but soon the black exoskeleton was covered by peach-colored human skin, as Alpha retook his disguise as a human and stood before her.

"I hate humans too..." he said solemnly.

"Yeah, I know..." she said glumly.

Alpha walked past the unconscious unicorn, allowing Lambda to deal with the rest.  He walked past her, but as he was about to go down into the cave, he paused.

"Don't ever die, Lambda.  You and the others are the only ones I have left in my life.  I don't think I'd be able to handle it if any one of you died.  So..." he paused for a second, before his breathing quickened.

"Don't try any of that stupid stuff again..."

"Dumbass!  I'm not going to die!  Just worry about yourself for once!  This was a dangerous job you were on, and none of us will ever be able to go free if you were lost!  Just go back in there and get some rest!  You have a big day ahead of you!"

Alpha looked at her one final time, before he slunk into the cave, leaving Lambda alone in Ghastly Gorge looking upon the morning sun.  She regarded the unconscious unicorn in front of her, before she bent over and picked her up with barely any effort.

"Looks like the President wants to see you personally.  Can't say I know what for."