Queen Chrysalis, Attempted Mind Thiefby HiveLordLusaChaptersChapter 1: The Internet & IChapter 2: How I Met My (Attempted) Mind ThiefChapter 3: I Run My Mouth Back And ForthChapter 4: Doctor Doctor, Give Me The NewsChapter 5: How Much Is That Changeling In The WindowChapter 1: The Internet & ICanterlot, the capital city of Equestria. From a distance, the white city on the mountainside looked majestic, radiant, the shining heart of the Pony nation... Or at least it had been that way earlier. After the Changeling queen ordered her people's invasion of the city, it looked much worse for wear. The queen herself didn't have much time to think about any of these facts as she was pushed away from the city. After her attempted impersonation of Princess Cadence was discovered, she had tried to take the city by force. It worked for about five minutes, only for the changelings to be defeated by the princess and her fiancée. Somehow they had combined their love for each other into a massive anti-changeling pulse, expelling the invading army in a single moment. The queen herself - Chrysalis - was using her brief air time to both lament the fact that she had failed and hope that the end of her travel didn't result in a squishy mess. Chrysalis rapidly approached the Badlands, the desert where her hive was located, screaming all the way. She saw the ground rising up to meet her, and knew it was the end. She reached terminal velocity and felt herself touch the ground... Without warning, the rock around her opened up with a tear in reality and a stunned Chrysalis flew right through the hole. As soon as she passed through, it closed again, a heated, glassy patch the only visible mark that it had existed. "Wha...?! What is this place?!" Chrysalis was utterly baffled by her new surroundings. They looked nothing at all like anything she had ever seen in Equestria or any of its neighbours. Given she was a changeling and therefore could go almost anywhere - which she had done; among changelings, she was considered well-travelled - it scared her that she had no way of processing the lights, colours and noise swirling around her faster than she could blink. One thing she did manage to notice was that she was still flying backwards through whatever space this was. Her wings tried to flap uselessly, but the force pushing her was still too strong for them to be of any use. The changeling quickly folded her wings back. She had always found it useful to stay prepared for the next situation, and she didn't know if she'd need them. Better to have them ready and unused than regret their physically painful absence later. As Chrysalis continued to fly back, she was again distracted by her surroundings. She kept staring at the colours, in wonder at a place like that existing. After looking for what may have been minutes or hours - time seemed to have no meaning in that place - Chrysalis found herself noticing actual shapes amongst the swirl. The harder she looked, the more she began to recognise some of what she was seeing. There were different pictures of all the species in Equestria and its surroundings, amongst many other unrecognisable things. The longer she flew, the less she saw of anything remotely familiar. The most prominent things she started to see were of strange bipedal creatures, doing a variety of things in an even larger variety of colours than even the ponies were capable of. Time continued to pass, and Chrysalis continued to fly. One Year Later Ah, the things she had learned. Chrysalis was, of course, a changeling. Changelings usually did as much research as possible into the pony they were disguising themselves as, including information about common interactions and the environment. The only reason she was discovered when impersonating Princess Cadence was that she had a lot less time to get into character than she needed, and so had to improvise based on limited information. An entire year to do nothing but study her surroundings was different. Eventually Chrysalis’ forced flight had slowed down. Unfortunately she still lacked any real control over her direction and speed, though she had been able to change her orientation within the strange space. It had been enough, though – she had come to learn many things about the goings on around her once she could actually see things for more than a split second. One of these things was that this purgatory was labelled anything from “the Internet” to “da webz” depending on where she looked, at least from the oddly almost-perfect Equestrian text she could read. It was also so full of interactions that she was able to siphon off varying forms of love to survive, though she was not in good shape. It didn’t help that some of the things flying around her did sometimes cross her path quite painfully. One particularly stinging incident somehow involved a lewd image of the Queen herself flying into her face! At this point she found herself nearing something she had been able to see for a very long time now, something that was sorely missed on her journey – an actual solid, unmoving wall. Or at the very least, something similar enough that Chrysalis was hopeful she might finally be able to escape this wretched place. She’d had enough of this ‘goggle’, ‘tube’ and ‘tumble’ nonsense for the rest of her very long life. Closer and closer she flew, and the ‘wall’ came more into focus. Chrysalis realised that it seemed to be made up of a collection of strange, differently-sized windows. Her changeling heart fluttered in joy for the first time in oh so long, as she found herself heading straight for a window. She then noticed collections of smaller objects in front of every window, and immediately hoped her exit wouldn’t be painful. Late September, 2013 A.D. "…Well, shit. I’d better run- ah! Stop that!” Hello, I’m Daniel. “Bugger off you skeletal wankers!” Right now I wasn’t having that great a time. Fighting for your life and pretty much losing against a skeleton horde isn’t normally what I would consider- “Ah, you little midget bastard! Come here, I’m angry now!” – sorry, what I would consider fun. I ran through the graveyard, a group of “immortal skeletaurs” or something chasing after me. I had to take down their health and spam my 'e' key near their bodies. Doing so would pull out the spirit sword that gave them their immortality, and would allow me to finally get rid of them all. Oh, did I mention I was playing Borderlands 2? Probably should have by now. Specifically, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. I very slowly managed to get rid of the skeleton enemies around me, running around while invisible and stabbing them or blasting them with sniper rifles or shotguns at close range – in my opinion, the best possible range for a weapon in games – and pressed on ahead. About half an hour later I found my character in a large stone room, a narrow doorway behind me and a skeleton on a throne at the far end. In the middle of the room sat a set of large weapon crates. I opened two and took all valuable gear. Feeling pretty confident and lax, I moved right up close to the third, opened it… As Chrysalis flew closer and closer, she closed her eyes and hoped she wouldn’t hit the objects in her way. … She peeked open her left eye, and noticed she was simply passing through everything painlessly. “…oh” Then she hit the window. That’s where the pain began. “AHHHH-!” I was greeted with an enormous fanged maw literally bigger than my character and couldn’t help but yell out, “WHAT EVEN-!?” I could’ve sworn I also heard someone else screaming as well. I made my character sprint back to a small doorway, more surprised and confused than scared. I fired at the monster repeatedly, only just remembering the existence of ‘Mimics’ like the thing before me. I fired shot after shot of my four weapons, even my rocket launcher, and it just took the hits and kept attacking. I finally killed it, sighed, and just sat for a moment, letting myself just relax a bit. I took my mouse in hand once more and set off further, though I seemed to have picked up a headache. I assumed it to have been a result of adrenaline or something. It’d happened before, so I just ignored it for now. About half an hour later I stopped playing and got ready to go to sleep, annoyed that my headache was still around and very persistent. It was a painful throb, like nothing I’d had before. I was pretty sure it was going to become a migraine or something, but decided that I was probably overreacting. I hoped it to get better in the morning, lay down and waited for whatever tomorrow would bring. Author's Note Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to read this. So since this is my first fan fiction, I'd appreciate as much genuine constructive criticism as you think this needs, or any positive feedback you want to give. Comments of those kinds would be wonderful. I've had some pre-reading help from ColdGoldLazarus and [Lunar Dust, so hopefully their experienced eyes will have helped make this readable. (It is already a lot better than the draft because of them. Thanks for the help, you two! ) Chapter 2: How I Met My (Attempted) Mind ThiefChrysalis woke up. That act itself surprised her; through the entire year-long journey, she had been incapable of sleep, relying on the love she pulled in from the space around her to remain properly conscious and alive. And sane. The area around her was… dark. A different kind of dark than normal. Where have I ended up NOW?! She was furious at finding herself out of one uncontrollable situation and immediately in another. Some manipulator I am… She was about to continue her ‘woe is me’ routine, until the dark around her began to lighten. As she finally got an understanding of her newest surroundings, she was hit by a feeling of dread. “I… wasn’t prepared for this…” How best to start your day; A Daniel’s Guide. Step one; yawn excessively until your lungs are empty. Step 2; quickly recover your ability to breathe. Step 3; walk out of bed to the… Actually, I’d rather not get into much more detail. I ran the tap water over my hands as the toilet flushed – oh, that was probably too much detail. Whoops. Anyway, I washed my hands and looked up to the mirror to check my face as norma- … What. … “Wh… What.” Now, I could be wrong, but I do seem to remember my left eye being a normal, brown one like my right eye. So why was it currently green – very green – and reptile-slitted? I blinked. Several times. My hands in front of my face didn’t solve the problem either. I then used them to close my hanging jaw before I drooled on something. I mean, need to get my priorities straight, right? I laughed, somewhat forcedly, and walked back to my bedroom. I lay down on my bed, and pulled the sheets up again. Naturally, I then slapped myself. Hard. “Ffffff… Ow.” I sighed. “…dammit.” I went back to the bathroom, hoping I was imagining what I had seen. “…Nope. Well, this is new. ” I tried continuing my morning routine – making breakfast, getting dressed… not much else – and thankfully my new eye didn’t actually seem to affect my vision. It was a holiday for me, so I basically had the day to relax, like yesterday. I was sitting down at my computer, about to log in to the Bronies Australia forum when I seized up, my headache having returned with a vengeance. I felt insane pressure in my skull, nothing I'd ever experienced before. I think I blacked out at that point or something. I’m not sure, because at that point my mind was… elsewhere. “…hello?” I looked around, suddenly very confused. I was fairly certain my living room wasn’t a big white space last I checked. I looked around, and saw nothing but myself. So, already two strange things had happened this morning. This was getting out of hand, and it was only 8:47 AM! “Ah ha! So you are my oppressor!” someone shouted from directly behind me, and I jumped in fright. “Fff- don’t DO that!” I stopped briefly and considered something as I turned around, “Actually, who are-” I froze. Of all the things I expected, a fictional horse-like character was not one of them. I opened my mouth and closed it several times, like a- “Will you stop acting like a fish, and instead explain yourself to me!” the character in front of me shouted, cutting off my train of thought. I slammed my jaw shut, and proceeded to slap myself again. I hissed a bit this time, since I’d put a bit more force in the slap than when I was lying in bed. “…I don’t know why I keep thinking that will help me.” “I will say it again; cease your foolishness and explain your reason for keeping me here! I am a Queen, not a lowly drone or pony!” And with that, my suspicions were confirmed. So, for some reason I found Queen Chrysalis in front of me. As an intelligent person, I asked the only logical question. “Okay, Queen Chryssy. Since I’m clearly not asleep anymore, did I get high at some point? I’ve never done so before, and I figure that since you're a figment of my imagination you’d know.” She was positively fuming now. “Augh! That is it! If you won’t act sensibly, I’ll just have to remove you myself!” She charged at me, curved horn lowered to my midsection. I instinctively sidestepped to my left, before grinning as I realised that as an imaginary being she wouldn’t be able to hurt- Her sharp horn cut into my right arm and left a large and painful, if superficial slice. I was too shocked at her making real contact to think about the pain, strong as it was. To add insult to injury, she kicked me with her hind leg as she passed, knocking me over. Apparently the white space did have a full floor, since I landed on what felt like hard ground. Understandably, I was confused as to how what I thought was a hallucination was attacking me, and why I was feeling pain from this whole experience. I hoped I wasn’t simply irrationalising something else, but that felt unlikely. I opened my eyes, though I didn’t remember closing them, and looked up to see the changeling queen looming above me. I swallowed nervously. “Now, I will ask one more time,” she said, her tone strained but filled with clear anger. “Why are you keeping me trapped in here?” “…Okay, I promise you that I have no idea!” I blurted out, and scrunched my eyes shut. “I seriously have no idea where we are or what’s happening or why! This probably makes less sense to me than you!” I waited a few seconds and wasn’t met with further exclamations or stabs to the arm, so I opened my left eye to have a look at what she was doing. Thankfully, she was simply thinking. I hoped for my sake about nothing bad- “Well, I suppose I should just kill you then.” “WAIT, WHA-“ She drove her horn right through my heart and I seized up, clutching at the air and trying to breathe. I felt my life flashing before me, my breaths slowing and my life draining away… … …why did I still feel the same as before? “Wait, I’m pretty sure I’ve just been stabbed in the heart. Why am I still okay?” Chrysalis, her horn now out of my chest and dripping with what I assumed was my blood, was staring at me in shock. I looked around my chest and saw a very clear hole. I unfortunately looked inside and nearly lost my breakfast. Or rather, I instinctively dry-heaved, then realised I didn’t actually feel sick in my stomach as I would normally be. I looked up at the Queen again, as she was slowly backing away from me. “I get the feeling you understand why I’m not dead.” She cursed under her breath and sat down, shaking her horn free of my blood. “I believe I might, unfortunate as it might be. We are in some sort of non-real dimension created by your psyche.” I was confused, and she could tell, since she sighed. “I believe we are in your mind. You annoyingly dense creature.” “Oh.” I gave the idea some thought and attempted to ignore the insult. “So… I can make stuff happen here, right? By thinking it?” She again looked at me like I was stupid, “Why are you asking me? It’s not my mind. If I am right about my assumption, that is.” “Hmmmm…” I closed my eyes, and tried to think hard about my chest closing and being healed. I felt something there shift and opened my eyes to see my chest back to normal. I grinned and looked at Chrysalis. “Heh, I guess you were right!” “And you doubted me?” Her tone was imperious and mildly insulted at the thought. “So, will you now release me?” My smile dropped as I realised something. I looked up to her, “Yeah, I have no idea how.” She put her forehoof to her face in response. “Oh, yeah, I’ll try the same thing again,” I said, and this time even I sighed at my stupidity. I shut my eyes again, and thought hard about the idea of leaving the space, and sending her out with me. I focused harder and harder, and unfortunately started grunting in a constipated manner, when the white space blacked out entirely I opened my eyes and immediately felt relief; I was back in my normal body, sitting at the table in front of the computer just like before. Well, I had splayed out a bit more, but I was still back. I checked the time on my computer; apparently not even a full minute had passed since I was forced into my psyche by the crazy queen. I then gave what had happened some thought, and decided I was probably wrong; none of it had been real, and I had just fallen asleep! I grinned and stood up, heading to the bathroom to check the mirror again just in case I had imagined my new eye too. My grin fell a little when I saw that my left eye was still different. Now that I thought about it, it looked a lot like Chrysalis’ eyes… Well that was a downer thought… I let my smile drop completely. Maybe just having her in my head stuffed me up temporarily? I hope this goes away before school starts again. I was turning around to leave when, oddly enough, I felt and saw my mouth move. In the split second in which I saw this, I realised that a) I wasn’t doing that and b) that should not be happening. “Ugh, that idiot didn’t make the journey easy… where am- Oh please no.” My third thought; that was not my voice coming from my mouth. “What is-“ “Why am I-“ “Are you-“ “When did-“ In an attempt to stop further incomplete sentences, I clamped my hands over my mouth and took a deep breath through my nose. I slowly removed my hands, and calmly said, “alright, let’s try talking one-“ “WHAT IN TARTARUS DID YOU DO TO ME?!” I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. This day was going to be a long one. Author's Note Hey look, I actually made a second chapter! So this is where the first interactions between Daniel and Chrysalis occur, and I'm hoping I didn't stuff them up. Well, I trust ColdGoldLazarus on this one. Oh, thanks for the pre reading, Coldy! So, as before, comments with advice, constructive criticism, or even just telling me you like the story are all appreciated. Tell me what you think! Chapter 3: I Run My Mouth Back And ForthSo this day was going just perfectly. I woke up with someone else’s eye, was dragged into my mind by an angry queen, nearly murdered – I say it still counts as attempted murder – and now this. ‘This’ being the fact that the changeling Queen had not left my mind, but instead seemed to have gained the ability to talk through my mouth. I had no idea how to explain it – the why and how were beyond me at that point. “Can we perhaps let me finish a sentence?” I was understandably confused and annoyed at this point, especially considering Chrysalis was very good at interrupting me. “…Okay, thank you.” “Don’t mention it.” The hate in her voice was palpable enough that my mouth felt… wrong. “So then could you perhaps explain to me WHAT EXACTLY YOU HAVE DONE?!” “I KEEP TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT I DON’T KNOW!” I was getting frustrated at the fact that she couldn’t accept me having as little idea of the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of this situation as she did. “Can we please set some ground rules here though? I have really bad feelings about this mess we’re in now.” “What?! Why? You’re going to send me out of here right now! There is no need for any rules!” I was sure her screeching was going to make me lose my voice, or worse, so I tried something to stop her from complaining. “Look, I’ll try to ‘send you out’ again, but I can’t promise it will work! You might end up stuck… here…” My face filled with dread as I realised what that would mean. “Okay, I think I want you to leave about as much as you do right now.” “What is that supposed to mean?” I felt my face twist into a distasteful sneer as she said that. “I think I might be insulted.” Okay, so she can use more than just my mouth, I thought. Actually, it makes sense that she can make expressions, mouth is controlled by facial muscles, isn’t it. I mentally face palmed at how long it took me to realise that, before dismissing the stray thought. “Never mind what I meant! The point is that I’m going to try and send you out again, so… maybe help me or something.” “And how do you propose I do that?” “Um… think about wanting to go?” “…That would make sense.” “Glad to hear it,” I deadpanned, feeling a bit snarky. I closed my eyes and tried to think of pushing her out of my mind and away from me. I put as much effort into thinking as I did when I tried to return from the ‘dream area’ or wherever we were earlier. I ‘pushed’ and ‘pushed’ for a while, and I started to think I was making progress- *PPPPHHHHRRRRBBBBTTTT* And of course I farted. What a way to have your focus destroyed. “…are you actually serious right now.” I said, then sighed again. I looked around the room, and realised I hadn’t gotten another remark out of Chrysalis. I immediately perked up, “Yes! I di-“ “No, I’m still here.” “OH, COME ON!” I – or rather, she – started to laugh at that. It was an odd experience, really. I could feel the laughing, and it managed to make me a little more positive, but at the same time I felt detached, and the laugh itself felt quite… mean. “That was a much better reaction than I could have hoped for, especially from a useless creature such as you.” I scowled at her insult. “Okay, given that you do now appear to be stuck here, maybe it would be best for you to not piss off your host. That means ‘please stop insulting me’, got it?” “I find much more fun if I don’t stop, actually. I’ve realised that I’m stuck, and neither of us can do anything about it. Despite the fact that I am still quite angry,” – Which was true, I could actually feel it somewhat – “I wouldn’t be a good changeling if I wasn’t able to take advantage of any situation.” I started sputtering at how final her decision sounded, and how much it sounded like it was going to be an enormous pain in my neck. Or brain. “J-just… please. If you’re going to insult me do it in private! I can’t exactly have you running your- um, MY mouth off in public! I’ll look like a crazy person!” I felt my mouth move as she smiled “And that would be bad for you too! If you want to live well, even remotely like a Queen, you have to let me… Let me be the one of us that talks, okay?” Chrysalis dropped the smile and grumbled but didn’t argue. I hoped that meant she was accepting the idea. We- I mean, I, dammit – returned to my computer and sat down. As I was about to start logging in, I get a question I should have expected, “What even is this thing? It’s a curious box, certainly.” “What, my laptop? It’s just- wait,” I stopped as I realised something. “You don’t have these in Equestria, do you?” Something dawned on me then, “There is so much I need to explain to you… well, this is going to take a while.” I started with some of the basics of our world’s current state, from the utter lack of magic to some of the technology we possessed. She asked a few befuddled questions, especially about the absence of magic – the most prominent being a simple, “h-how?!” – but mostly sat in what I could feel was a mixture of confusion and, surprisingly to me, awe. “You strange creatures… without magic you have achieved so much more than Equestria in so much less time. As much as it pains me to say it, I’m somewhat impressed.” I couldn’t help but grin at that, “Though you personally are still an idiot in my eyes.” And of course she ruins the moment. Well, I’d promised she could do that when no one else was around, so I decided to just take the insult. I was going to ask her what I should explain next, but I only got partway through the question before I heard a familiar sound that I realised was about to make this situation so much more difficult than necessary. The front gate creaked closed as my mother returned home from her long morning walk. If it was physically possible I would have dropped a brick out of- never mind, not important. What was important was either successfully hiding Chrysalis from my mother or getting her to accept the situation and help me out. Despite the fact that the rational part of my brain was going to tell me that my mother was kind and accepting of most things, I was a bit too gripped by fear to be rational or logical. I swore under my breath and attempted to think of a way to hide my new eye, the most obvious change from yesterday. Getting Chrysalis to shut up would also be trouble, and she had just noticed something was off. “What is happening? Why did you suddenly stop talking?” “Quiet! My mother is why!” I hissed at her as the front door opened and closed. “I need you to be quiet, okay? I agreed to letting you insult me, as long as you please follow my lead in situations like this one.” I pleaded with her desperately, trying to figure out a way to cover my eye. My hair was far too short and I didn’t have any sun glasses on hand, or coloured contacts anywhere in the house. “Your own mother?” she asked as she gave an evil grin. “Well, this should be interesting to watch. I do expect a burning carriage wreck at the end, you know.” “I don’t care what you expect right now, I just have no idea what she would do about this!” I heard her footsteps coming down the hallway to the back end of the house, and where I was seated at my computer. Feeling like I had no other choice, I just put my left hand over my eye and pretended to rub it sleepily. Mum walked into the kitchen/dining room combo with a smile on her face and a cheery “Hello!”, and I immediately felt bad for my upcoming lies. She was roughly four fifths of my height – I was about six feet tall – with long black hair and round multifocal glasses. “Hi mum!” I spoke up, still ‘rubbing’ my eye with a nervous grin “How was your walk?” She could tell something was up pretty quickly – she had known me longer than I had, as she would joke sometimes – and she frowned. “Are you feeling okay?” “Um… yes? Why, is something wrong?” “That’s what I’m asking you.” She was looking a little less amused now. “Is something wrong with your eye? Do we need to see a doctor?” “What, for my eye? No, no, of course not! I’m just a bit tired and having trouble getting the sleep out of it!” I laughed uneasily, and I could feel Chrysalis’ mental presence cracking up at how badly I was handling the situation. Shut up! This is difficult enough as it is! I thought at her angrily. This is just too perfect! she managed to think back in between bouts of laughter. You’re doing this completely against what my common sense and experience are telling me to do! You’d handle this situation just as badly! It’s not like I have shape-shifting powers or anything, and I doubt I picked something like that up when you popped in! I realised my mother was talking so I brought my attention back “…you just keep rubbing your eye, its suspicious is all. And why do you look so angry?” I felt that my smile had dropped somewhat and my face had gotten tense. I quickly tried to bring it back, “I, uh… I’m just angry that the sleep is still not out of my eye!” “Okay, that’s enough. Please stop rubbing your eye. Tell me what’s wrong.” She looked fairly neutral now, but I could tell she was concerned. I was only digging myself a deeper grave, so I gave in and showed her my – Chrysalis’ – eye. Her eyebrows raised, and she asked, “Where did you buy that lens?” I paused, thinking I might have found another way out, then stopped – I should just tell her, I thought. She was my mother, best that she was the first to know. “It’s not a lens, mum.” I mumbled. “I’m sorry?” “I said it’s not a lens. It’s my new left eye.” “Could you perhaps explain to me not only why you needed a new eye, but also how, when and why you got one that looks nothing like your normal one?” She was clearly holding in a lot of disbelief at this point. Before I could say anything in response, I felt dread as my mouth started to speak without me. “Perhaps I should interject now- *mmmph*!” I cut Chrysalis off by slapping my hands over our – I mean, my – mouth. I thought we had an agreement! I thought at her, doing my best to convey the anger I was feeling. Well, you changed your own plans, and I got bored. She gave off the mental equivalent of a shrug. You gotBORED?! That’s your reason? What are you, a child? We managed to fit all of that mental yelling in to a less than a second timeframe, but my mother’s reply to what she had heard stopped us from continuing. “Could you perhaps explain to me just what exactly is going on here? When did you learn to put on a voice like that, and why did you stop yourself?” She was looking fairly confused at this point, and her facial expression was telling us ‘I don’t want to deal with this right now.’ Please let me do this, okay? I thought to Chrysalis. When I received only the mental equivalent of an eye roll in response, I spoke up, feeling nervous. “So, the longish version might be the best then. Um… basically, a character from that show I watch – you know the one, with the colourful ponies and whatnot – has somehow gotten stuck in my mind, and that’s why my eye is different, for one. And that voice was hers before. And… that’s pretty much it.” I could feel Chrysalis becoming curious at the mention of My Little Pony, but I gave her a ‘later’ thought that seemed to placate her for now. My mother closed her eyes, took off her glasses and ran her free hand down her face. It was pretty clear that she was having some trouble believing me, to say the least. It probably didn’t help that I used to fib about my homework a few years ago, but I’d never lied about anything big before, so I hope she could trust that this was really happening. “So… do you know why this has happened then?” she asked tentatively. “Um… actually, I have no idea how she got here, honestly. I woke up this morning and my eye was just like how it is now.” I recapped more of what had happened to her, and she seemed to absorb the information. “But as I said, I have no idea how she got here.” Chrysalis spoke up again and I was about to shut her up until I noticed what she was actually saying, “I can actually be of some use with that question.” “Actually, that would make sense,” I thought. “Well, feel free to tell us everything after you were expelled from Canterlot.” Her surprise was quite easy to feel then. “Yeah, I’ll explain how I know that later, alright? I promise, but for now, tell us what happened.” “Well, alright then. I expect you to keep this promise, though.” She explained to us what her journey through the internet was like before touching on details of my own retelling I either didn’t know or had somehow forgotten. She sometimes went into detail about what she saw, but much more often than not she didn’t feel the need to expand on it. “And then, he started teaching me about your culture. Then you arrived, and that’s all that happened.” “Geez, you spent a year in that place?” I frowned at the thought, and was somewhat disturbed. “Some people have enough trouble finding a way out after a few hours, and they aren’t even in it like you were!” “One question I have for you, Ms Chrysalis,” my mother asked, “is how you’re able to speak through my son’s mouth like you did. Do you have any idea why?” “Probably because we’re sharing the same brain, mum,” I said. “I believe she asked me that question, not you.” Chrysalis said haughtily. She then calmed down as she realised, “…actually, that’s probably got something to do with why.” I rolled my eyes. “And besides, that’s Queen Chrysalis to you!” “Well, you’re in my house, and so you’re just as equal as us. ‘Royal’ titles dropped here, understood?” “Wha-WHAT?! Never! I shall not give up my royal title on your whim, you foolish creature!” Mum smiled slightly at that. “I never said you had to give it up, just that we won’t be using it in this house. Okay, Danny?” I was slightly embarrassed at the nickname, but nodded and shrugged. “I’m okay with that arrangement.” I grinned slightly. “Alright, so since you’re apparently stuck in my son’s brain – I’m still considering how much of this to believe, honestly,” Mum gave an indecisive face at that, but continued regardless, “but I’m going to go along with it for now. Anyway, until you’re proved to be a lie, you get to be one of the family; pretty much equal. I think this all sounds like it deserves a big breakfast; how about some bacon and eggs?” Author's Note Hey look a Christmas present from Hivey! Hope you guys like it. Gah took me far too long to get this done. I can only blame school and exams for that. Preread by ColdGoldLazarus again, give him love and praise for being so helpful and good at writing. :3 Chapter 4: Doctor Doctor, Give Me The NewsDespite my assertions that I’d eaten some toast already, my very Italian mother insisted that she cook me – and my new ‘friend’ – more food. So we ended up having the bacon and eggs, though I managed to convince Mum that she didn’t need to fill my plate like it was a bucket. After I had finished eating, I realised I hadn’t had any interjections from Chrysalis since her attempted insult earlier. “Hey, Chryssy? You okay over there?” Out of my mouth then came the most satisfied groan I had probably ever heard. My eyes were wide as I looked to my mother in confusion. She was looking back at me with the strangest look on her face; though to be fair, she had just seen and heard her son emit whatever sound I had just heard. Then her expression broke into a thoroughly amused one and she started laughing. In the middle of this, I sat there with no idea what had just happened. “…Well that was the strangest answer I’ve ever gotten.” “Wh… what?” Chrysalis spoke somewhat normally this time, but her voice sounded a bit weak. “Um… Chrysalis, what was that you just did?” Because I don’t understand what I just heard, I thought. “I… what? Oh, the food! The food was simply divine…” she sighed again. “…Thank you, I think?” Mum said from the kitchen. I realised something from what Chrysalis had told us about her journey here. “You haven’t had any real food or anything for a year, have you? I’m surprised you’ve been able to talk as much as you have at this point.” “Actually, so am I.” She hummed for a second, thinking. “Though it’s love we changelings feed off, not food. I believe I felt some in the food, which is why it was so nourishing to me.” I gave my mother an amused eyebrow raise. “Well, I guess in this case the secret ingredient being love isn’t just advertising. Though, no offence to you, Mum, but I’m not exactly sure how that’s possible without magic.” “That’s probably something best thought of another day,” Mum said, as she looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Since I did just remember that we wanted to go to the shops tomorrow.” I grimaced as I realised how much our plans might have changed. She spoke again, “If you still wanted to do that I think we could… though I think it depends on your new friend-“ “She’s not my friend!” “And he is not my friend!” Mum looked at us, somewhat concerned, before continuing. “I think it depends on whether or not you’re both okay with going. You should probably try to decide now, while I go call your GP.” “Wait, what? Why are you going to call my doctor?” “Because this is an entirely new experience and I think we should make sure it doesn’t adversely affect your health. And we might also have to cancel with Ray.” “Wh- no, why would we… I can understand your point about seeing the doctor, but I haven’t seen Ray in months! Besides, we should at least check with him first!” I was frustrated now; I started to see the bigger picture of this situation and realised how many things were actually going to be changed by it. Suddenly things looked a lot less potentially fun than they had ten minutes ago. “Hah! So just by being here I’m hurting your chances at doing things?” Chrysalis said with a smirk on my face. It was quite annoying being talked down to out of your own mouth. “I am suddenly much more okay with this arrangement.” “Oh, no you don’t. I’m not going to stop my son from doing things just because of you.” Mum looked disappointed at Chrysalis – Well, I’m fairly certain that’s who the look was directed at, hard to tell when you’re using the same body. “We are going to the doctor, yes, but I’m leaving it up to him as to what he can and can’t do, just like before.” I gave Mum a smile, then turned my attention to Chrysalis. “So. I want to be able to go out today, since I saved up money specifically for several things I want. However, I want you to give me good behaviour as per our agreement.” I then hesitated for a second. “Actually, given you already broke our first agreement, let’s revise it. You can talk, okay, but I want you to not do it often and to not insult people… unless we’re clearly out of earshot. You understand?” Mum pretended not to hear the last part, but I could tell that she understood. Controlling Chrysalis was going to be hard enough without disallowing her freedom. “Hmmmm… Fine, I agree to your terms,” grumbled Chrysalis with a bit of hesitation. “As long as I keep being fed and am not kept quiet forever, I think I can stand not talking to a few of you humans.” I sighed in relief. “Alright, then. I’ll get us ready to visit the doctor, and we can go soon hopefully.” Mum turned on her phone and called the clinic. As I went to my room to get dressed, I heard her start to talk, and picked up on the word ‘emergency’. I sighed as I thought more about this situation, until Chrysalis interrupted. “’Emergency’ indeed!” she said in disgust as I walked. “This is the least covert appearance I’ve made since… oh, the last one, actually,” My mouth pulled back in a bemused sort of expression as she realised, and internally I chuckled at the slightly embarrassed feelings her presence emitted. “Well, I suppose it could be worse,” I said. “You could be an enemy of the state already or something.” I stopped outside my room and looked up in thought. “That would probably end badly for both of us.” I reigned in my imagination before I scared myself. A few minutes later, Mum and I (and Chrysalis, of course) set off for the doctor. Luckily enough, the doctor I’d gone to for years was about five minutes’ walk from where I lived.* Inside, Mum and I went to the counter, where a bored looking receptionist sat. She almost began to ask the standard, time-wasting questions, but Mum cut in immediately, knowing what would happen if she didn’t. “We’ve made an emergency appointment with Doctor Maxwell Andrews and we’d like to see him as soon as we can,” she said, her tone slightly forceful. “He told me over the phone about five minutes ago that’s he’s free and will see us now, so sign us in and let us go through, please.” The receptionist stared at her for a few seconds before looking down to her computer, tapping a few keys, and then dismissively waving us through to the doctor’s office and examination room. “Thank you,” said Mum as we walked past. I smiled at her and she jumped a little in her chair, reminding me about my new eye. I had been thinking up how this situation would go during the walk, short as it was. I was worried, and because of that, Chrysalis was worried, which worried me even more. Mum noticed as we walked down the hallway, and stopped me where I was. “Hey, don’t worry, okay?” She smiled at me and put her hands on my shoulders. “I’ll make sure you’re alright, I won’t let him do anything to you. Though I don’t think he suddenly would act that way after all the times we’ve seen him.” She gave me a hug. “What about me, hmmm?” Chrysalis finally spoke up again. “You’ve both made it very clear that nothing like this has happened before, and I can’t say I’ve had any experience with this kind of situation either.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t thinking highly of us or how we might act. “…actually, yeah. What about you?” I said. My tone wasn’t indignant, but she was feeding the worries I had. “Whether or not the doctor finds us to be fine this way and not likely to destabilise mentally, or reports what happens to some ‘higher power’, I worry the government will find out somehow.” Despite Mum’s continued hug I was working myself up with my thoughts again “I mean, god knows what kind of stuff they can intercept, what they’ll be interested in.” I felt a squeeze in the hug, and sighed. “Let’s just put this all to rest and go talk to Dr Andrews, okay?” Mum pulled away from the hug and gripped my arm, leading us into the examination room. Dr Andrews sat at his fairly undecorated wooden desk, the only ornaments being photos of his close family. He looked up from his aging work computer as we entered the room. It was large for both a single office and GP examination room. Dr Andrews’ desk was to the left as we entered, the right wall being an old, sealed off fireplace adorned with more personal photos as well as many medical diagrams, posters and models. Even in all the times I’d been to that room in seventeen years – a great many times – I still didn’t know all the different medical things inside, there were so many and they were too varied for me to remember. “Daniel, and your lovely mother of course, how are you both?” he said, smiling at us. He barely reacted to my changed eye when he noticed, but he had the slight twitch on his forehead that told me he’d seen it. He made no comment and waited for us to sit at the two empty chairs near his. “Well, that’s why we’re here…” Mum began, though she was clearly a little unsure of how to proceed. Dr Andrews noticed that too, and raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing it has something to do with Daniel’s new eye decoration? I’m absolutely certain I remember nothing like it before.” Turning to me, he continued, “Where did you get that, Daniel? And is the reason only one is visible the problem? Let me guess, you’re not sure how to remove the second from behind his eyeball? Classic problem, and I understand why you felt you needed a trip here,” he incorrectly decided was the case. He had the tendency to talk, so this was fairly normal, though usually we said a little more first. “Um, no, it’s… a different thing entirely,” I said, almost not wanting to cut him off. As pressing as Chrysalis was, it was always interesting to hear what he said, and I half-wondered what else would have come up if he continued. “Though yes, it has to do with my eye.” “Ah, then is that why you’re wearing a coloured contact? If I didn’t know better I’d think it was real, it looks so well-made.” I glanced at Mum and looked back at Dr Andrew. “Can you examine the eye and tell me what you think?” I was hoping that this would convince him this was my actual eye while avoiding any sort of argument on whether or not that was physically possible. “Nothing is stuck so please don’t push anything too hard,” I added worriedly. “Please don’t worry, I’m a professional,” he grinned at me. He walked over to the other side of the room where his tools were kept and picked up his… eye examination device. I wish I was more sure of what he would do, but I still had the strange mental image of him discovering the truth and pushing a giant red button on his desk to call some sort of government agency team to capture and examine me. I think I watch far too much sci-fi. You really have no idea what either of you are doing, thought Chrysalis, making me jump a little in my seat. Stop surprising me like that! I thought back at her. What, would you prefer I give you warning next time? If you get surprised by whatever I say, what would be the point? She thought-snarked back at me. …Stop being right, please. And stop distracting me! I’m already worried about this enough that you aren’t helping. She thought-harrumphed at me – a very odd sensation – and began to grumble. She didn’t stop by the time the doctor walked over- wait. The doctor only just walked over? Does that mean we can effectively communicate at the speed of- This train of thought was interrupted by a light shined directly into my eye, and the obtrusive measuring tool following it. I know how obvious this would sound, but that light hurt. As in, staring into the sun for a few minutes kind of pain, if not more. I must have reacted to it because next thing I know I was on the ground, hand over my eye. “JESUS, ow, what the hell was that?!” I yelled out. “FOOLISH CREATURE, HOW DARE YOU ATTACK US WITH YOUR MAGIC LIKE THAT?!” Chrysalis screeched, pain blanking her mind of the idea of staying quiet. I froze, as did Mum. “I… what?” Doctor Andrews replied blankly. I snapped out of it and tried to react as calmly and logically as possible. Of course, having a new resident in my brain seemed to have scrambled me a bit, because next thing everyone knew, I had just slapped myself really damn hard across the face. “AH, you IMBECILE! How dare you both attack me!” “SHUT UP YOU STUPID BUG!” I yelled out. "BUG?! YOU DARE-" I interrupted Chrysalis by clamping down my mouth, nearly biting my tongue. Looking nervously at Doctor Andrews, I said, “I’m guessing there’s no way to pretend that didn’t happen?” “I… I don’t…” He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked back up at me. “So part of that could be easily explained as Dissociative Personality Disorder, more commonly known as Multiple Personalities.” “Um… and what isn’t explained by that exactly?” I asked. “The whole… part where your voice sounds like someone else’s…” He said, staring at me intently. “So this has to do with your new eye…? Because quite frankly the only explanation for such a dramatic change exists purely in science fiction.” “Yeah, see, about that-“ “You, human doctor! Free me from this idiot’s brain, restore my magic, and I will reward you!” Chrysalis yelled over me. “…Well, there’s her,” I finished my sentence lamely. “Her?” he asked. “Why does this… it sounds like something out of bad sci fi or fantasy… is this ‘she’ some kind of... demon? At this point, I have no idea what to believe about this...” “Daniel was somewhat able to explain it to me but I still don’t get it.” Yeah that’s… probably not going to happen anytime soon for him, I thought at Chrysalis. “Okay, so, Chrysalis here has come through from another dimension, right? One full of, um...” I was usually fine with mentioning I watched a show like My Little Pony, but for some reason I felt embarrassed now. “...colourful, talking, magic ponies.” Doctor Andrews looked at me like I was crazy. Probably for much better reason than normal, considering the talking pony-bug thing in my brain. He looked at Mum. “Yeah, just... go with it,” she said to him. “It’s not actually that bad, for a cartoon. Lots of pink and hearts though.” I jokingly shushed her, and felt Chrysalis becoming even more confused. I’m still going to explain later, don’t worry. The doctor sighed. “Well, I... You haven't lied to me before, but this is really hard to believe. I guess I need to technically put you on some regular checkups, until it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be true. And as in, more regular visits than normal; like after an operation.” I gave him a look telling him I wasn’t happy with that, which Chrysalis reinforced. “So... what does that mean for us now?” I asked, a bit wary. “I suppose you’re free to go? Doesn’t seem like anything is out of the ordinary.” I gave him another look. “Health wise, I mean,” he added quickly. “So now let your mother pay at the front desk for today and we’ll be square,” He said with a smile, as professionally fake as can be. “Thanks,” I said with an equally fake but less practiced smile. Mum had far less trouble paying than she did talking to the secretary before, and we quickly left. As we walked home, I had a thought. “Hey, can we go to the store now? I have an idea for keeping a promise, as well as the whole ‘waiting for weeks to go’ thing.” “For keeping a promise?” She looked at me, slightly confused “Alright, we definitely have enough time...” “Yay!” I yelled out. “You get to come shopping with us, Chrysalis! Isn’t that exciting?” I gave my best evil grin and felt her scream in annoyed frustration. JUST LET ME OUT OF HERE ALREADY! Author's Note *The doctor being a short walk from home is actually true. See, way this story works (even before my hiatus; sorry about that guys) is some things are very closely similar to life, and most are only partly inspired if at all. E.g. name changes for everyone, unless referred to by username. So, I apologise profusely for the incredibly long hiatus, especially after my promise in September, but final year managed to either make me busy when I had inspiration, or drain my inspiration when I had free time. Also, most of the next chapter is complete already; originally it was going to be chapter 4, but then this needed to go in, so I struggled and came up with what's here. Sorry if it's not as good, guys! This chapter edited by the lovely Gherkin! Chapter 5: How Much Is That Changeling In The WindowChapter 5: How Much Is That Changeling In The Window “What is that strange thing?” Chrysalis asked me as we walked towards Mum’s car. “That? That’s a car, an automobile,” I said. “It’s like a carriage that can move itself.” “’Move itself’?” Chrysalis repeated dismissively. “Now if that isn’t magic than I don’t know what is around here.” That comment brought an old quote to my mind. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” I recited. I felt a frown in response. “That can’t be something you just made up. Your intelligence doesn’t seem quite up to making something that sounds remotely profound.” Personally scowling, I snapped at her, “Yes, it was a damn quote; you didn’t need to use it to get another shot at me.” I opened the car door and climbed inside. “Actually, given I’m apparently stuck here, and now I’m under watch, I think I did. Besides, if you lived with real magic that quote wouldn’t exist at all. Magic is something quite special – even the intelligent humans or ponies couldn’t hope to emulate it with simple ‘technology’.” She seemed to spit the last word, though thankfully no spittle actually flew out. Mum drove us to the shopping centre, the closest ‘Direct Factory Outlet’ department store to where we lived. I decided to have some fun with Chrysalis’ ignorance when I told her the name. I made up several nonsensical things DFO could have stood for – ‘District Frankfurter Office’ being my favourite - until she started grumbling softly in our mind while I laughed and Mum rolled her eyes, amused. We parked the car and went inside the main building, where Mum and I split up. I headed to the JB Hifi electronics store on the first floor above while Mum went shopping for new chairs elsewhere in the centre. As I moved towards the escalator, I could feel Chrysalis’s confusion about the moving stairway. “So this is more of your ‘magical’ technology? Stairs that move themselves too?” With a smirk she continued, “You humans seem fond of making things move for you rather than simply moving yourselves.” I rolled my eyes and continued on, mumbling under my breath, “Well then you’re going to love elevators.” Of course with her living in my head she could hear me anyway. “What could that possibly be? ‘Elevators’?” I could feel the eyes of several confused or concerned shoppers on me at that point. It would be strange to see a teenage boy argue with himself and use such a different, female voice for half of the argument. I don’t think the new eye, which I had almost forgotten about, was helping me either. “Suffice to say there is a reason we need some of these things that move for us. It’s a bit difficult walking up and down seventy stories every day for several years.” “Seventy… WHAT?” Chrysalis spluttered fairly loudly, causing even more heads to turn in my direction. I gave them a nervous laugh and pretended to cough. Most people looked away, though some eyes stayed on me for longer – I could feel it even when I turned away from them. “Hang on, let me walk to the window,” I said quietly once people had looked away. The upper floor had a large floor-to-ceiling window looking over some of the city, though most of it was out of sight. I walked up to it, and a thought occurred to me. “Hey, you can actually see, right? I realised I’m not actually sure…” “Yes, I can see. I’ve noticed everywhere you looked. Yes, those places too.” Wait, WHAT places? I decided that she was messing with me and angled myself so she’d be able to see some buildings through the glass in front of me. “See those?” “What, those spires? What about…” I felt my jaw drop as she realised. “You… humans made those? Without magic?!” Getting control of my mouth back, I gave a smug grin, and with a bit of a laugh I said, “Score one for human technology.” I looked around again without moving my head and saw a few more eyes back on me, their owners thinking they were being subtle or unnoticeable. Their expressions mostly indicated suspicion, but at what I wasn’t sure. You noticing that? I thought to Chrysalis, my ‘tone’ now serious. What, the suspicion and fear they have? Yes, I have, she thought back, picking up on my shift in tone. I’m a changeling, though, I’m used to it. We deal with it all the time from those Equestrians… Yes, I imagine you would, what with you taking their place and feeding on their love for each other, I thought with a slightly joking tone. I then realised what might have been a big mistake and bit my lip. …How did you know about that? I haven’t told you about what changelings do yet. I could now feel her suspicion heavily directed towards me. Weren’t you also saying that you would explain something to me? I turned away from the window and headed back towards the store’s opening. I think I also said that I would explain later. Later being after we’re done here, okay? You’re just lucky I can’t threaten you effectively right now, she thought, her tone angry. Yeah, probably, I thought, reaching the entrance to JB Hifi. Um, the sooner I do this, the sooner I can tell you what I know, okay? Fine. But don’t expect me to enjoy whatever it is you want to do here. She did the mental equivalent of crossing your arms in frustration. Or whatever ponies and changelings do instead. Imagining it broke the tension for me and I giggled a bit at the mental image. Walking in the store, I headed immediately to the right, looking for headphones. I walked back and forth along the wall they all hung on, trying to decide what I wanted. Earmuff style, earbuds or something else? I didn’t notice Chrysalis become increasingly more annoyed as I stood there thinking. “What are you even doing here?” She asked out loud. I jumped a bit in surprise, somehow having forgotten about her already. “Oh, um… I’m trying to decide what kind of headphones I want.” “What kind of… what? What does that even mean?” "Oh, right. You don't have those in Equestria either... Basically they allow us to listen to music from our devices, but in tiny speakers for our ears instead of out loud." I waited a full minute and received no response. "...You didn't understand a word of that did you?" "Well... I understand listening to music, and your explanation earlier, though still not detailed, helped about devices... But how did you humans make your machines able to play music?" Pulling two boxes off of the wall, I said, "Let me quickly decide on which of these two I'll get and then I'll try to explain. Failing that we can research what you need at my home, okay?" It was a trade-off between cost and features as per usual. I looked between the two boxes, back and forth, unable to deci- "Oh, just choose already!" Chrysalis hissed out loudly, scaring both me and the poor shopper that had just walked up to the headphones area with me. I sighed, and turned to face the other person, ready to apologise, only to see them backing away slowly in an almost exaggerated way, before they turned around and walked quickly away. Confused somewhat about their behaviour, I shrugged and turned back. I put the less expensive one back and was rewarded with a relieved sigh from my passenger. "Finally. Now are we done here?" "What? No, of course not. That was just the starter, I have other things to buy-" "OH, REAL-" "BUT, I already know what they are, and where to look. Jeez, you're really impatient. It's strange to me for… various reasons." "I just want you to finally explain to me what you know about me and how.” She felt very, very annoyed at this point. “You said you were going to keep a promise and I’m assuming that you meant explaining everything to me. Given my status as royalty I’m also assuming some sort of hostage plan with the hive." "Alright, alright, relax please. And no, there’s no hostage plan, okay? I'm going to explain that later as I think I've already promised several times now." What Chrysalis didn't know was that I didn't really want to explain the real reason to her. As much as had been mentioned so far, I was pretty sure that telling someone they're from a children's TV show, simple, fictional entertainment, wouldn't go over well. Especially a villain like Chrysalis, given she came from something subtitled "Friendship is Magic". Trying to put the plans of my deception out of mind for now, just in case, I walked over to the video games area, easily distinguishable from the associated posters. Grand Theft Auto V was quite prominent, but I wasn't here for that. No, I had something in mind for months now, and I had been saving my money for it. Well, them. Walking into the Xbox games area, I felt my mouth crinkle into a frown of confusion. Chrysalis wasn't sure what to make of the various game covers I was looking over. Halo, Bayonetta, Kinect Adventures... There were quite a few different ones, and though I couldn't tell exactly what she was thinking about them, it was clear she was having trouble processing the information. "You alright in there?" I asked her as I began moving some of the covers to find what I wanted. Flip, no, flip, no... "I'm just... I don't know what these are, what this means." I took a pause in my flipping to give her more attention. "Oh, actually... Are you able to read the words on them?" "Yes, I can. The symbols that make up words here are oddly familiar and yet not. I understand them as if I had learned them all my life, but they are not the Equestrian Runes I grew up with." Flip, no. Flip, no. Oh, yeah, it makes sense that changelings would learn that, I thought, careful to keep it to myself. Flip, no, flip,n- Wait, that was one of them! "Ah, here's my 'secondary'." I thought aloud, holding a copy of Doom 3 BFG Edition. "Man, it's been a while since I rented this..." Chrysalis was interested in the cover, simple as it was. "What are you supposed to do with this?" I remembered that I hadn't told her about games earlier, since as fun as they were, it wasn't as important an advancement as everything we talked about. "Oh, this, along with all the other selections here, are video games. Wonderful technology, I think, and a lot of fun sometimes." I explained some of the basics, the whole concept of the virtual world you act in, and she seemed fairly sceptical if interested. "A non-real space? Created without magic? Absurd!" Chrysalis harrumphed. "No, not... What, that's not want I said! It's not a 'non-real space' exactly, or at least I don't think it is by your weird magic standards." "'Weird'?" "Yes, weird, now shush and let me find what I'm looking for." "I refuse to be ordered by such an insubordinate little foal!" Her near-yelling almost attracted other people's attention once more. “Hey, keep it down, remember?” I reminded her. “Don’t forget this is not a normal human situation and all sorts of things could happen if people here catch the wrong remark or something out of context,” I paused. “Or in context as well, actually. Point is, you want us, and therefore YOU, to live, don’t screw me over like that.” “Rrrr... Fine, but you owe me if I comply.” “Agreed-“ “And I STILL require and explanation!” “Just...” I sighed, and turned towards the games shelf again. “Oh. Neat.” By sheer luck, I managed to make the first thing I saw on the shelf what I was looking for. “Neat?” Chrysalis asked. “I found the game I wanted,” I said as I pulled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance from the shelves. “What in Tartarus does that mean.” “What? I found the game...?” “No, the words on that object-“ “Game case,” I interrupted. “Shut up! The words are still horribly nonsensical, and frankly ‘Revengeance’ sounds stupid.” I knew she was right, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to argue back as I headed towards the DVD section. “Yes, BUT I heard it was fun and awesome so I’m buying it, stupid title or not. Also the soundtrack is awesome, from what I’ve heard of it so far.” “It still has a stupid title, and you are stupid for wanting it.” “Y’know, for a queen, you use stupid a lot. Nothing else in your vocabulary?” “Be quiet, foolish human.” “There we go, new words!” I grinned. “You’re almost at a medium-average vocabulary.” I couldn’t help but joke. She just grumbled in response. We reached the DVD section and a moment I was dreading. “Okay so,” I began, “this is where things might get complicated and crisis... ey,” I finished lamely. “Do I even want to know?” Chrysalis asked, sounding almost bored. “Actually, given the whole promise thing... yes, you do,” I said nervously. “You may regret it later.” I could feel Chrysalis’ curiosity, it was so strong. “I am both intrigued and slightly concerned. What kind of information could a human possess about me that I may not want to know?” “Hnnnn, you say that now.” I went to the ‘kids/cartoons’ section. It was hard not to find the incredibly purple DVD cases with their pink, heart shaped logos, but I read the sides, looking for the right volume. The whole time, I felt Chrysalis react to what I saw, though I was not sure exactly how she felt yet. I found the words ‘royal’ and ‘wedding’ and closed my eyes, bracing myself for a situation I really couldn’t prepare for. How do you tell a shape shifting succubus-esque creature she’s from something like this? “Okay, so, again, you ready for this?” I asked, still somewhat hesitant. “Oh for- Yes, I am ready for whatever paltry information has to do with so much ‘friendship’ it would probably make even Equestria gag.” “Yeah, about that,” I couldn’t help but snicker at that a bit, as serious as this situation was going to be. I opened my eyes and pulled out the Wedding episodes DVD. “So... Recognise these two?” Under the hard-to-miss title, surrounded by images of the equally recognisable Mane 6 ponies – these of course being Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash – there stood Princess Cadance and Shining Armour, in their wedding clothes. “I... Those are... What... I can’t...” Chrysalis was almost speechless, something I felt was a first for her. I then remembered I should stop her from having a mental collapse before I’d even explained the hard part. “Alright, you need to hear all of this to understand, okay?” “I... why do you have pictures of them... I can’t...” “Hey! Listen up! What are you, a Queen or a pathetic bug?” I tried appealing to her ego and pride. “I...” she took a couple of seconds to process that, but I felt her perk right back up. “Do not presume, foolish human! I can take this information in stride, no problems at all!” “There we go, thought I’d lost you already!” I then noticed a few people watching me squat in front of DVDs of children’s shows, holding one, talking to myself. “Ummm...” Thinking quickly, I made what was hopefully a good decision as I put the DVD back and went to pay for my games and headphones. “We shall continue later, after we are away from people who might call an insane asylum,” I said under my breath so only Chrysalis could hear. I was surprised to not receive an answer even after I had waited in line and paid. Maybe Chrysalis had used tact for once? As I got out of the store, I started to get worried, as Chrysalis still hadn’t said anything. She was definitely still there, I could tell. “You there? Chrysalis?” My whisper got nothing in reply, so I kept on going downstairs. Reaching the bottom of the escalators, I felt that Chrysalis was... unsure, and if my guess was right, she was going through a metaphysical crisis or something similar. ...This was not a good day for her. And a really, really bad first impression of Earth. Okay this is probably bad, I thought, pulling out my phone.So how do I fix this… Wait. Yes, this is sure to make her talk again! A somewhat devious smile appeared on my face. I cracked open the box holding my new headphones and plugged them into my phone. I navigated my music collection to something I knew would get Chryaslis to end her silence I felt Chrysalis ‘jump’ as the drum beat started, and the synth came with it. The vocals faded in, “Hello, hello, hello…”, and I could tell this was already starting to become annoying to Chrysalis’ presence. There was even an odd sense of tension as the “Hello” continued to repeat. It peaked at the words becoming a sentence, but it was definitely still irritating her. Unfortunately for her, I somehow enjoyed this music, so I kept it going. As the words kept going, I could feel Chrysalis getting ‘closer’, and could feel that she was already seething at this. “rock’n’ roll, rock’n’ roll, rock’a rock rock’a rock rock’n’ roll.” “ROCK’N’ ROLL!!” The drop started and she was blown back by a cannon of noise. She crawled through it, resisting the force, and at this point I could almost see it happening in my mind’s eye. As much as I felt bad for doing this to her, it was pretty funny. The first half of the drop ended and the sound wall evened out. As I saw her stand up, I realised the image was getting clearer, until I was standing in the white dream space with her again, the music still going on around us. Chrysalis was absolutely furious at this point. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS IS THIS?!” She screamed at me over the music. “ YOU DARE ATTACK ME WITH YOUR VILE MAGICS?! IS IT NOT ENOUGH THAT I AM HELD HOSTAGE IN YOU MIND?!” I could see tears forming on the corners of her eyes at that point. “IS IT NOT ENOUGH THAT YOU MAKE MAKE ME QUESTION MY VERY EXISTENCE RELATIVE TO YOUR OWN WORLD?! WHAT AM I TO YOU HUMANS?!” Wow, I thought to myself. Great job, you bloody moron. The drop had well and truly finished at that point, and I reached out with my consciousness to my physical body and stopped the music. She seemed to unconsciously relax her stance, but the tears were flowing now. I decided to start on a good note. “I’m sorry about the music, but-“ “That was MUSIC?!” “-that was the quickest way I could think of to get your attention. Clearly we need to talk, and if I remember correctly, this place gives us a lot of time to do so.” I sat down on the… Still unnerving white space, determined that it would hold my weight if I applied ghost physics – it’s as solid as you believe it is. Chrysalis remained standing, shooting me the most hateful glare I’d ever seen. Excellent start. “So. Where to begin?” I tried. Given that she didn’t immediately yell at me again, I took that as a good sign. Her voice was quiet when she spoke up, maybe a minute after. “In that place, the store…” She hesitated. “What exactly did you show me?” “Well… On Earth, we have a thing called television. Moving pictures, complete with sound, all done by converting light and sound signals to electricity, sending it through vast networks of cables, only to be taken for granted by billions around the world.” “…humans are strange.” “I know, right?” I sighed. “Humanity is both amazing and terribly stupid at the same time. But that’s a lot to cover, so; television. “So on T.V., as it’s regularly known, we have two main categories of programmes; movies and serials. Not as in the breakfast. Movies are… like plays, but often not as long, and these days they are made to be without intermissions. “The serial programmes, also known as a T.V. series or show, are usually a lot shorter than movies per episode, and have multiple episodes per series.” “So far this has not at all answered my question,” a less-teary Chrysalis interrupted. “Good place to interrupt! I was just about to tell you about the series named ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’, and its relevance to you.” I couldn’t help the snarkiness, as bad as I felt about her situation. This was the tricky bit. “In the magical land of Equestria, the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends are probably not overly well known. Here on Earth, in the years leading up to 2010, a children’s show called My Little Pony that had existed since the 1980’s was in the process of being reworked to be… More appealing. In October 2010 it aired, beginning with Nightmare Moon’s return to Equestria and subsequent defeat, and somehow people beyond the target audience took notice.” I didn’t notice as it happened, but the white dreamscape behind me changed to show things I had seen; pictures of the original eighties show, the Hasbro logo, Lauren Faust, and even some clips of the show. All of it slightly more clear than if I tried remembering normally. Chrysalis watched with some interest, and even sat down. As the story continued, so did the picture show. “Fast forward to 2012, and we get to a time where the second season of episodes is about to come to a close. The ‘brony’ fandom, this being the other people, especially adults, that took an interest in the show, has grown large despite pretty constantly taking flak from other fan groups. The most important part, though, is the actual season finale; a two episode special titled ‘A Canterlot Wedding’… In which we are introduced to a third alicorn, after Celestia and Luna, and shown that she seems to be hiding something evil.”A few flashes of Chrysalis laughing or basically not properly being Cadance while disguised caused the queen of the changelings to wince. “I… See.” “When the plot twist hits, ‘who is this fake Cadance?’, we are introduced to another character we didn’t meet any time prior, an unnamed queen of the ‘changelings’, a race many seemed to quickly, if not instantaneously, fall in love with.” A few bits of half remembered fanart: Chrysalis with a green heart behind her, happy changelings, more pictures of Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis. “In… Love with?” I could tell she was surprised, but still wary. Probably about how humanity even had My Little Pony in the first place. Also probably an existential crisis, I realised. “Pretty much,” I responded. “Sometimes to more… Extreme senses than others. Such as dedicating themselves to you despite having no way of communicating with you in the first place.” I shrugged. “Happens a lot around here actually. Except normally it’s a religion, or at least pretends to be one.” “There is not much need for religion in Equestria, or among the changeling hives. Although… there is a general belief in the Founder of Equestria. No one, excepting maybe Celestia, Luna, and the oldest Griffon Lords have any idea what she looks like, however.” Her tone was hushed as she said this. It was interesting hearing about this, and idly I wondered how many fan theories had predicted that at all. Probably a few. “So, in terms of the whole TV Entertainment thing, I’m 90% sure that doesn’t make Equestria not real,” I tried. “My personal belief is that the writers, or at least some of them, are just channelling what happens, or at least an approximation of it, into words.” We were both silent for a few seconds. “Multiverse theory!” I said suddenly. Chrysalis just looked at me, and I waited for some kind of response. A few minutes later she spoke up. “As much as your presentation was… Lacking, and quite terrible, your basic idea has some odd sense to it.” Her posture straightened and she stood again. “The Founder works in mysterious ways. Creatures like Discord are prime example of that.” She gave me an odd look, almost like a cross between wariness and acceptance. “Given reports that he returned several months before my failed invasion, I am assuming you know of Discord. Is that correct?” “Yeah, he was something else. Oddly popular though, probably because of his voice actor’s fame from a similar role.” Next to me, Discord appeared so suddenly that Chrysalis jumped, thinking for a second the spirit was actually there with us. When she noticed it was more images, she tried to act as if it didn’t happen, but she didn’t do a good job. The fake Discord laughed, a clip taken straight from the first part of Return of Harmony, and was quickly replaced with an image of the Star Trek Character Q, surrounded by a Mariachi band. “John de Lancie. His character, Q, was similar to Discord, and originally an antagonist, in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’” I explained. “Long time before Discord was ever in MLP, though.” “’MLP’? ‘Q’? You humans are fond of using letters to name things.” “Direct Fart Oyster-“ “Cease! I thought that nonsense was done with?” “Well I haven’t heard you make a suggestion.” I smirked, and couldn’t help myself. “Make one and it will be over.” Chrysalis eyed me seriously. “Do you swear it?” “At least until next time we go, yes. I Pinkie Promise,” I said just as seriously, performing the actions related to Pinkie Pie’s special promise. I also swear I heard ‘forever!’ echo in the distance, though I assume that was just my imagination, literally. I mean, it can’t actually have been Pinkie Pie. Right? “I will assume that means something to you, but I would not be a good queen of the changelings if I did not remain alert.” Somehow, I wisely refrained from pointing out the terrible failures from Canterlot Wedding, and simply nodded. Though she could clearly tell I wasn’t saying something, and briefly scowled at me. “Well. A suggestion... We should perhaps end this conversation for now. I need more time to think.” "Uh-uh, not until you play the game." "Urgh... Dire... flame... oliphant." I nodded again. “Alright.” Wait. She said ‘perhaps’ before? That was almost not imperious of her. I shrugged it off, and focused on returning my awareness to my body. Thankfully, no one was staring at me, and Mum only just appeared around the corner. I stood up and waved to her. She arrived near me, and we started walking to the car. “No chairs?” I asked. “No, unfortunately they didn’t have what I was looking for. I also think one of their products wasn’t actually in stock…” We had a full conversation on the way to the car about product sales, false advertising and chairs. Chrysalis didn’t say anything as we did, but neither of us really noticed. I felt my stomach growl as I opened the door, and looked over the car at Mum. “Hey, do we have lunch at home?” “Food?” Chrysalis piped up immediately after, sounding rather excited. I tried not to, but I ended up giggling like an idiot at her reaction. Mum rolled her eyes at me and climbed in the driver seat. “Yes, food at home. We have wraps you can make.” “Oh cool. Lamb from the other night?” I got into the passenger seat. “Yes.” “More love? This is sounding too good be true. Even if you aren’t holding me hostage on purpose.” “Or really at all,” I said. “Accidentally stuck in my head is not the same as being a hostage.” “Well I would still like my hive to rescue me regardless,” Chrysalis shot back. “This place is bad for my health.” Author's Note So thankfully this didn't take ANYWHERE NEAR as long to write as the last chapter. Sort of. Technically it took longer since it was originally chapter four but there's only a three month gap instead of fourteen so who's counting? Not me. Nope. Also CHAPTER LENGTH DOUBLED HUZZAH Plan on, well, not continuing to double, but I want least five thousand per chapter from now on.
Chapter 1: The Internet & ICanterlot, the capital city of Equestria. From a distance, the white city on the mountainside looked majestic, radiant, the shining heart of the Pony nation... Or at least it had been that way earlier. After the Changeling queen ordered her people's invasion of the city, it looked much worse for wear. The queen herself didn't have much time to think about any of these facts as she was pushed away from the city. After her attempted impersonation of Princess Cadence was discovered, she had tried to take the city by force. It worked for about five minutes, only for the changelings to be defeated by the princess and her fiancée. Somehow they had combined their love for each other into a massive anti-changeling pulse, expelling the invading army in a single moment. The queen herself - Chrysalis - was using her brief air time to both lament the fact that she had failed and hope that the end of her travel didn't result in a squishy mess. Chrysalis rapidly approached the Badlands, the desert where her hive was located, screaming all the way. She saw the ground rising up to meet her, and knew it was the end. She reached terminal velocity and felt herself touch the ground... Without warning, the rock around her opened up with a tear in reality and a stunned Chrysalis flew right through the hole. As soon as she passed through, it closed again, a heated, glassy patch the only visible mark that it had existed. "Wha...?! What is this place?!" Chrysalis was utterly baffled by her new surroundings. They looked nothing at all like anything she had ever seen in Equestria or any of its neighbours. Given she was a changeling and therefore could go almost anywhere - which she had done; among changelings, she was considered well-travelled - it scared her that she had no way of processing the lights, colours and noise swirling around her faster than she could blink. One thing she did manage to notice was that she was still flying backwards through whatever space this was. Her wings tried to flap uselessly, but the force pushing her was still too strong for them to be of any use. The changeling quickly folded her wings back. She had always found it useful to stay prepared for the next situation, and she didn't know if she'd need them. Better to have them ready and unused than regret their physically painful absence later. As Chrysalis continued to fly back, she was again distracted by her surroundings. She kept staring at the colours, in wonder at a place like that existing. After looking for what may have been minutes or hours - time seemed to have no meaning in that place - Chrysalis found herself noticing actual shapes amongst the swirl. The harder she looked, the more she began to recognise some of what she was seeing. There were different pictures of all the species in Equestria and its surroundings, amongst many other unrecognisable things. The longer she flew, the less she saw of anything remotely familiar. The most prominent things she started to see were of strange bipedal creatures, doing a variety of things in an even larger variety of colours than even the ponies were capable of. Time continued to pass, and Chrysalis continued to fly. One Year Later Ah, the things she had learned. Chrysalis was, of course, a changeling. Changelings usually did as much research as possible into the pony they were disguising themselves as, including information about common interactions and the environment. The only reason she was discovered when impersonating Princess Cadence was that she had a lot less time to get into character than she needed, and so had to improvise based on limited information. An entire year to do nothing but study her surroundings was different. Eventually Chrysalis’ forced flight had slowed down. Unfortunately she still lacked any real control over her direction and speed, though she had been able to change her orientation within the strange space. It had been enough, though – she had come to learn many things about the goings on around her once she could actually see things for more than a split second. One of these things was that this purgatory was labelled anything from “the Internet” to “da webz” depending on where she looked, at least from the oddly almost-perfect Equestrian text she could read. It was also so full of interactions that she was able to siphon off varying forms of love to survive, though she was not in good shape. It didn’t help that some of the things flying around her did sometimes cross her path quite painfully. One particularly stinging incident somehow involved a lewd image of the Queen herself flying into her face! At this point she found herself nearing something she had been able to see for a very long time now, something that was sorely missed on her journey – an actual solid, unmoving wall. Or at the very least, something similar enough that Chrysalis was hopeful she might finally be able to escape this wretched place. She’d had enough of this ‘goggle’, ‘tube’ and ‘tumble’ nonsense for the rest of her very long life. Closer and closer she flew, and the ‘wall’ came more into focus. Chrysalis realised that it seemed to be made up of a collection of strange, differently-sized windows. Her changeling heart fluttered in joy for the first time in oh so long, as she found herself heading straight for a window. She then noticed collections of smaller objects in front of every window, and immediately hoped her exit wouldn’t be painful. Late September, 2013 A.D. "…Well, shit. I’d better run- ah! Stop that!” Hello, I’m Daniel. “Bugger off you skeletal wankers!” Right now I wasn’t having that great a time. Fighting for your life and pretty much losing against a skeleton horde isn’t normally what I would consider- “Ah, you little midget bastard! Come here, I’m angry now!” – sorry, what I would consider fun. I ran through the graveyard, a group of “immortal skeletaurs” or something chasing after me. I had to take down their health and spam my 'e' key near their bodies. Doing so would pull out the spirit sword that gave them their immortality, and would allow me to finally get rid of them all. Oh, did I mention I was playing Borderlands 2? Probably should have by now. Specifically, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. I very slowly managed to get rid of the skeleton enemies around me, running around while invisible and stabbing them or blasting them with sniper rifles or shotguns at close range – in my opinion, the best possible range for a weapon in games – and pressed on ahead. About half an hour later I found my character in a large stone room, a narrow doorway behind me and a skeleton on a throne at the far end. In the middle of the room sat a set of large weapon crates. I opened two and took all valuable gear. Feeling pretty confident and lax, I moved right up close to the third, opened it… As Chrysalis flew closer and closer, she closed her eyes and hoped she wouldn’t hit the objects in her way. … She peeked open her left eye, and noticed she was simply passing through everything painlessly. “…oh” Then she hit the window. That’s where the pain began. “AHHHH-!” I was greeted with an enormous fanged maw literally bigger than my character and couldn’t help but yell out, “WHAT EVEN-!?” I could’ve sworn I also heard someone else screaming as well. I made my character sprint back to a small doorway, more surprised and confused than scared. I fired at the monster repeatedly, only just remembering the existence of ‘Mimics’ like the thing before me. I fired shot after shot of my four weapons, even my rocket launcher, and it just took the hits and kept attacking. I finally killed it, sighed, and just sat for a moment, letting myself just relax a bit. I took my mouse in hand once more and set off further, though I seemed to have picked up a headache. I assumed it to have been a result of adrenaline or something. It’d happened before, so I just ignored it for now. About half an hour later I stopped playing and got ready to go to sleep, annoyed that my headache was still around and very persistent. It was a painful throb, like nothing I’d had before. I was pretty sure it was going to become a migraine or something, but decided that I was probably overreacting. I hoped it to get better in the morning, lay down and waited for whatever tomorrow would bring. Author's Note Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to read this. So since this is my first fan fiction, I'd appreciate as much genuine constructive criticism as you think this needs, or any positive feedback you want to give. Comments of those kinds would be wonderful. I've had some pre-reading help from ColdGoldLazarus and [Lunar Dust, so hopefully their experienced eyes will have helped make this readable. (It is already a lot better than the draft because of them. Thanks for the help, you two! )
Chapter 2: How I Met My (Attempted) Mind ThiefChrysalis woke up. That act itself surprised her; through the entire year-long journey, she had been incapable of sleep, relying on the love she pulled in from the space around her to remain properly conscious and alive. And sane. The area around her was… dark. A different kind of dark than normal. Where have I ended up NOW?! She was furious at finding herself out of one uncontrollable situation and immediately in another. Some manipulator I am… She was about to continue her ‘woe is me’ routine, until the dark around her began to lighten. As she finally got an understanding of her newest surroundings, she was hit by a feeling of dread. “I… wasn’t prepared for this…” How best to start your day; A Daniel’s Guide. Step one; yawn excessively until your lungs are empty. Step 2; quickly recover your ability to breathe. Step 3; walk out of bed to the… Actually, I’d rather not get into much more detail. I ran the tap water over my hands as the toilet flushed – oh, that was probably too much detail. Whoops. Anyway, I washed my hands and looked up to the mirror to check my face as norma- … What. … “Wh… What.” Now, I could be wrong, but I do seem to remember my left eye being a normal, brown one like my right eye. So why was it currently green – very green – and reptile-slitted? I blinked. Several times. My hands in front of my face didn’t solve the problem either. I then used them to close my hanging jaw before I drooled on something. I mean, need to get my priorities straight, right? I laughed, somewhat forcedly, and walked back to my bedroom. I lay down on my bed, and pulled the sheets up again. Naturally, I then slapped myself. Hard. “Ffffff… Ow.” I sighed. “…dammit.” I went back to the bathroom, hoping I was imagining what I had seen. “…Nope. Well, this is new. ” I tried continuing my morning routine – making breakfast, getting dressed… not much else – and thankfully my new eye didn’t actually seem to affect my vision. It was a holiday for me, so I basically had the day to relax, like yesterday. I was sitting down at my computer, about to log in to the Bronies Australia forum when I seized up, my headache having returned with a vengeance. I felt insane pressure in my skull, nothing I'd ever experienced before. I think I blacked out at that point or something. I’m not sure, because at that point my mind was… elsewhere. “…hello?” I looked around, suddenly very confused. I was fairly certain my living room wasn’t a big white space last I checked. I looked around, and saw nothing but myself. So, already two strange things had happened this morning. This was getting out of hand, and it was only 8:47 AM! “Ah ha! So you are my oppressor!” someone shouted from directly behind me, and I jumped in fright. “Fff- don’t DO that!” I stopped briefly and considered something as I turned around, “Actually, who are-” I froze. Of all the things I expected, a fictional horse-like character was not one of them. I opened my mouth and closed it several times, like a- “Will you stop acting like a fish, and instead explain yourself to me!” the character in front of me shouted, cutting off my train of thought. I slammed my jaw shut, and proceeded to slap myself again. I hissed a bit this time, since I’d put a bit more force in the slap than when I was lying in bed. “…I don’t know why I keep thinking that will help me.” “I will say it again; cease your foolishness and explain your reason for keeping me here! I am a Queen, not a lowly drone or pony!” And with that, my suspicions were confirmed. So, for some reason I found Queen Chrysalis in front of me. As an intelligent person, I asked the only logical question. “Okay, Queen Chryssy. Since I’m clearly not asleep anymore, did I get high at some point? I’ve never done so before, and I figure that since you're a figment of my imagination you’d know.” She was positively fuming now. “Augh! That is it! If you won’t act sensibly, I’ll just have to remove you myself!” She charged at me, curved horn lowered to my midsection. I instinctively sidestepped to my left, before grinning as I realised that as an imaginary being she wouldn’t be able to hurt- Her sharp horn cut into my right arm and left a large and painful, if superficial slice. I was too shocked at her making real contact to think about the pain, strong as it was. To add insult to injury, she kicked me with her hind leg as she passed, knocking me over. Apparently the white space did have a full floor, since I landed on what felt like hard ground. Understandably, I was confused as to how what I thought was a hallucination was attacking me, and why I was feeling pain from this whole experience. I hoped I wasn’t simply irrationalising something else, but that felt unlikely. I opened my eyes, though I didn’t remember closing them, and looked up to see the changeling queen looming above me. I swallowed nervously. “Now, I will ask one more time,” she said, her tone strained but filled with clear anger. “Why are you keeping me trapped in here?” “…Okay, I promise you that I have no idea!” I blurted out, and scrunched my eyes shut. “I seriously have no idea where we are or what’s happening or why! This probably makes less sense to me than you!” I waited a few seconds and wasn’t met with further exclamations or stabs to the arm, so I opened my left eye to have a look at what she was doing. Thankfully, she was simply thinking. I hoped for my sake about nothing bad- “Well, I suppose I should just kill you then.” “WAIT, WHA-“ She drove her horn right through my heart and I seized up, clutching at the air and trying to breathe. I felt my life flashing before me, my breaths slowing and my life draining away… … …why did I still feel the same as before? “Wait, I’m pretty sure I’ve just been stabbed in the heart. Why am I still okay?” Chrysalis, her horn now out of my chest and dripping with what I assumed was my blood, was staring at me in shock. I looked around my chest and saw a very clear hole. I unfortunately looked inside and nearly lost my breakfast. Or rather, I instinctively dry-heaved, then realised I didn’t actually feel sick in my stomach as I would normally be. I looked up at the Queen again, as she was slowly backing away from me. “I get the feeling you understand why I’m not dead.” She cursed under her breath and sat down, shaking her horn free of my blood. “I believe I might, unfortunate as it might be. We are in some sort of non-real dimension created by your psyche.” I was confused, and she could tell, since she sighed. “I believe we are in your mind. You annoyingly dense creature.” “Oh.” I gave the idea some thought and attempted to ignore the insult. “So… I can make stuff happen here, right? By thinking it?” She again looked at me like I was stupid, “Why are you asking me? It’s not my mind. If I am right about my assumption, that is.” “Hmmmm…” I closed my eyes, and tried to think hard about my chest closing and being healed. I felt something there shift and opened my eyes to see my chest back to normal. I grinned and looked at Chrysalis. “Heh, I guess you were right!” “And you doubted me?” Her tone was imperious and mildly insulted at the thought. “So, will you now release me?” My smile dropped as I realised something. I looked up to her, “Yeah, I have no idea how.” She put her forehoof to her face in response. “Oh, yeah, I’ll try the same thing again,” I said, and this time even I sighed at my stupidity. I shut my eyes again, and thought hard about the idea of leaving the space, and sending her out with me. I focused harder and harder, and unfortunately started grunting in a constipated manner, when the white space blacked out entirely I opened my eyes and immediately felt relief; I was back in my normal body, sitting at the table in front of the computer just like before. Well, I had splayed out a bit more, but I was still back. I checked the time on my computer; apparently not even a full minute had passed since I was forced into my psyche by the crazy queen. I then gave what had happened some thought, and decided I was probably wrong; none of it had been real, and I had just fallen asleep! I grinned and stood up, heading to the bathroom to check the mirror again just in case I had imagined my new eye too. My grin fell a little when I saw that my left eye was still different. Now that I thought about it, it looked a lot like Chrysalis’ eyes… Well that was a downer thought… I let my smile drop completely. Maybe just having her in my head stuffed me up temporarily? I hope this goes away before school starts again. I was turning around to leave when, oddly enough, I felt and saw my mouth move. In the split second in which I saw this, I realised that a) I wasn’t doing that and b) that should not be happening. “Ugh, that idiot didn’t make the journey easy… where am- Oh please no.” My third thought; that was not my voice coming from my mouth. “What is-“ “Why am I-“ “Are you-“ “When did-“ In an attempt to stop further incomplete sentences, I clamped my hands over my mouth and took a deep breath through my nose. I slowly removed my hands, and calmly said, “alright, let’s try talking one-“ “WHAT IN TARTARUS DID YOU DO TO ME?!” I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. This day was going to be a long one. Author's Note Hey look, I actually made a second chapter! So this is where the first interactions between Daniel and Chrysalis occur, and I'm hoping I didn't stuff them up. Well, I trust ColdGoldLazarus on this one. Oh, thanks for the pre reading, Coldy! So, as before, comments with advice, constructive criticism, or even just telling me you like the story are all appreciated. Tell me what you think!
Chapter 3: I Run My Mouth Back And ForthSo this day was going just perfectly. I woke up with someone else’s eye, was dragged into my mind by an angry queen, nearly murdered – I say it still counts as attempted murder – and now this. ‘This’ being the fact that the changeling Queen had not left my mind, but instead seemed to have gained the ability to talk through my mouth. I had no idea how to explain it – the why and how were beyond me at that point. “Can we perhaps let me finish a sentence?” I was understandably confused and annoyed at this point, especially considering Chrysalis was very good at interrupting me. “…Okay, thank you.” “Don’t mention it.” The hate in her voice was palpable enough that my mouth felt… wrong. “So then could you perhaps explain to me WHAT EXACTLY YOU HAVE DONE?!” “I KEEP TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT I DON’T KNOW!” I was getting frustrated at the fact that she couldn’t accept me having as little idea of the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of this situation as she did. “Can we please set some ground rules here though? I have really bad feelings about this mess we’re in now.” “What?! Why? You’re going to send me out of here right now! There is no need for any rules!” I was sure her screeching was going to make me lose my voice, or worse, so I tried something to stop her from complaining. “Look, I’ll try to ‘send you out’ again, but I can’t promise it will work! You might end up stuck… here…” My face filled with dread as I realised what that would mean. “Okay, I think I want you to leave about as much as you do right now.” “What is that supposed to mean?” I felt my face twist into a distasteful sneer as she said that. “I think I might be insulted.” Okay, so she can use more than just my mouth, I thought. Actually, it makes sense that she can make expressions, mouth is controlled by facial muscles, isn’t it. I mentally face palmed at how long it took me to realise that, before dismissing the stray thought. “Never mind what I meant! The point is that I’m going to try and send you out again, so… maybe help me or something.” “And how do you propose I do that?” “Um… think about wanting to go?” “…That would make sense.” “Glad to hear it,” I deadpanned, feeling a bit snarky. I closed my eyes and tried to think of pushing her out of my mind and away from me. I put as much effort into thinking as I did when I tried to return from the ‘dream area’ or wherever we were earlier. I ‘pushed’ and ‘pushed’ for a while, and I started to think I was making progress- *PPPPHHHHRRRRBBBBTTTT* And of course I farted. What a way to have your focus destroyed. “…are you actually serious right now.” I said, then sighed again. I looked around the room, and realised I hadn’t gotten another remark out of Chrysalis. I immediately perked up, “Yes! I di-“ “No, I’m still here.” “OH, COME ON!” I – or rather, she – started to laugh at that. It was an odd experience, really. I could feel the laughing, and it managed to make me a little more positive, but at the same time I felt detached, and the laugh itself felt quite… mean. “That was a much better reaction than I could have hoped for, especially from a useless creature such as you.” I scowled at her insult. “Okay, given that you do now appear to be stuck here, maybe it would be best for you to not piss off your host. That means ‘please stop insulting me’, got it?” “I find much more fun if I don’t stop, actually. I’ve realised that I’m stuck, and neither of us can do anything about it. Despite the fact that I am still quite angry,” – Which was true, I could actually feel it somewhat – “I wouldn’t be a good changeling if I wasn’t able to take advantage of any situation.” I started sputtering at how final her decision sounded, and how much it sounded like it was going to be an enormous pain in my neck. Or brain. “J-just… please. If you’re going to insult me do it in private! I can’t exactly have you running your- um, MY mouth off in public! I’ll look like a crazy person!” I felt my mouth move as she smiled “And that would be bad for you too! If you want to live well, even remotely like a Queen, you have to let me… Let me be the one of us that talks, okay?” Chrysalis dropped the smile and grumbled but didn’t argue. I hoped that meant she was accepting the idea. We- I mean, I, dammit – returned to my computer and sat down. As I was about to start logging in, I get a question I should have expected, “What even is this thing? It’s a curious box, certainly.” “What, my laptop? It’s just- wait,” I stopped as I realised something. “You don’t have these in Equestria, do you?” Something dawned on me then, “There is so much I need to explain to you… well, this is going to take a while.” I started with some of the basics of our world’s current state, from the utter lack of magic to some of the technology we possessed. She asked a few befuddled questions, especially about the absence of magic – the most prominent being a simple, “h-how?!” – but mostly sat in what I could feel was a mixture of confusion and, surprisingly to me, awe. “You strange creatures… without magic you have achieved so much more than Equestria in so much less time. As much as it pains me to say it, I’m somewhat impressed.” I couldn’t help but grin at that, “Though you personally are still an idiot in my eyes.” And of course she ruins the moment. Well, I’d promised she could do that when no one else was around, so I decided to just take the insult. I was going to ask her what I should explain next, but I only got partway through the question before I heard a familiar sound that I realised was about to make this situation so much more difficult than necessary. The front gate creaked closed as my mother returned home from her long morning walk. If it was physically possible I would have dropped a brick out of- never mind, not important. What was important was either successfully hiding Chrysalis from my mother or getting her to accept the situation and help me out. Despite the fact that the rational part of my brain was going to tell me that my mother was kind and accepting of most things, I was a bit too gripped by fear to be rational or logical. I swore under my breath and attempted to think of a way to hide my new eye, the most obvious change from yesterday. Getting Chrysalis to shut up would also be trouble, and she had just noticed something was off. “What is happening? Why did you suddenly stop talking?” “Quiet! My mother is why!” I hissed at her as the front door opened and closed. “I need you to be quiet, okay? I agreed to letting you insult me, as long as you please follow my lead in situations like this one.” I pleaded with her desperately, trying to figure out a way to cover my eye. My hair was far too short and I didn’t have any sun glasses on hand, or coloured contacts anywhere in the house. “Your own mother?” she asked as she gave an evil grin. “Well, this should be interesting to watch. I do expect a burning carriage wreck at the end, you know.” “I don’t care what you expect right now, I just have no idea what she would do about this!” I heard her footsteps coming down the hallway to the back end of the house, and where I was seated at my computer. Feeling like I had no other choice, I just put my left hand over my eye and pretended to rub it sleepily. Mum walked into the kitchen/dining room combo with a smile on her face and a cheery “Hello!”, and I immediately felt bad for my upcoming lies. She was roughly four fifths of my height – I was about six feet tall – with long black hair and round multifocal glasses. “Hi mum!” I spoke up, still ‘rubbing’ my eye with a nervous grin “How was your walk?” She could tell something was up pretty quickly – she had known me longer than I had, as she would joke sometimes – and she frowned. “Are you feeling okay?” “Um… yes? Why, is something wrong?” “That’s what I’m asking you.” She was looking a little less amused now. “Is something wrong with your eye? Do we need to see a doctor?” “What, for my eye? No, no, of course not! I’m just a bit tired and having trouble getting the sleep out of it!” I laughed uneasily, and I could feel Chrysalis’ mental presence cracking up at how badly I was handling the situation. Shut up! This is difficult enough as it is! I thought at her angrily. This is just too perfect! she managed to think back in between bouts of laughter. You’re doing this completely against what my common sense and experience are telling me to do! You’d handle this situation just as badly! It’s not like I have shape-shifting powers or anything, and I doubt I picked something like that up when you popped in! I realised my mother was talking so I brought my attention back “…you just keep rubbing your eye, its suspicious is all. And why do you look so angry?” I felt that my smile had dropped somewhat and my face had gotten tense. I quickly tried to bring it back, “I, uh… I’m just angry that the sleep is still not out of my eye!” “Okay, that’s enough. Please stop rubbing your eye. Tell me what’s wrong.” She looked fairly neutral now, but I could tell she was concerned. I was only digging myself a deeper grave, so I gave in and showed her my – Chrysalis’ – eye. Her eyebrows raised, and she asked, “Where did you buy that lens?” I paused, thinking I might have found another way out, then stopped – I should just tell her, I thought. She was my mother, best that she was the first to know. “It’s not a lens, mum.” I mumbled. “I’m sorry?” “I said it’s not a lens. It’s my new left eye.” “Could you perhaps explain to me not only why you needed a new eye, but also how, when and why you got one that looks nothing like your normal one?” She was clearly holding in a lot of disbelief at this point. Before I could say anything in response, I felt dread as my mouth started to speak without me. “Perhaps I should interject now- *mmmph*!” I cut Chrysalis off by slapping my hands over our – I mean, my – mouth. I thought we had an agreement! I thought at her, doing my best to convey the anger I was feeling. Well, you changed your own plans, and I got bored. She gave off the mental equivalent of a shrug. You gotBORED?! That’s your reason? What are you, a child? We managed to fit all of that mental yelling in to a less than a second timeframe, but my mother’s reply to what she had heard stopped us from continuing. “Could you perhaps explain to me just what exactly is going on here? When did you learn to put on a voice like that, and why did you stop yourself?” She was looking fairly confused at this point, and her facial expression was telling us ‘I don’t want to deal with this right now.’ Please let me do this, okay? I thought to Chrysalis. When I received only the mental equivalent of an eye roll in response, I spoke up, feeling nervous. “So, the longish version might be the best then. Um… basically, a character from that show I watch – you know the one, with the colourful ponies and whatnot – has somehow gotten stuck in my mind, and that’s why my eye is different, for one. And that voice was hers before. And… that’s pretty much it.” I could feel Chrysalis becoming curious at the mention of My Little Pony, but I gave her a ‘later’ thought that seemed to placate her for now. My mother closed her eyes, took off her glasses and ran her free hand down her face. It was pretty clear that she was having some trouble believing me, to say the least. It probably didn’t help that I used to fib about my homework a few years ago, but I’d never lied about anything big before, so I hope she could trust that this was really happening. “So… do you know why this has happened then?” she asked tentatively. “Um… actually, I have no idea how she got here, honestly. I woke up this morning and my eye was just like how it is now.” I recapped more of what had happened to her, and she seemed to absorb the information. “But as I said, I have no idea how she got here.” Chrysalis spoke up again and I was about to shut her up until I noticed what she was actually saying, “I can actually be of some use with that question.” “Actually, that would make sense,” I thought. “Well, feel free to tell us everything after you were expelled from Canterlot.” Her surprise was quite easy to feel then. “Yeah, I’ll explain how I know that later, alright? I promise, but for now, tell us what happened.” “Well, alright then. I expect you to keep this promise, though.” She explained to us what her journey through the internet was like before touching on details of my own retelling I either didn’t know or had somehow forgotten. She sometimes went into detail about what she saw, but much more often than not she didn’t feel the need to expand on it. “And then, he started teaching me about your culture. Then you arrived, and that’s all that happened.” “Geez, you spent a year in that place?” I frowned at the thought, and was somewhat disturbed. “Some people have enough trouble finding a way out after a few hours, and they aren’t even in it like you were!” “One question I have for you, Ms Chrysalis,” my mother asked, “is how you’re able to speak through my son’s mouth like you did. Do you have any idea why?” “Probably because we’re sharing the same brain, mum,” I said. “I believe she asked me that question, not you.” Chrysalis said haughtily. She then calmed down as she realised, “…actually, that’s probably got something to do with why.” I rolled my eyes. “And besides, that’s Queen Chrysalis to you!” “Well, you’re in my house, and so you’re just as equal as us. ‘Royal’ titles dropped here, understood?” “Wha-WHAT?! Never! I shall not give up my royal title on your whim, you foolish creature!” Mum smiled slightly at that. “I never said you had to give it up, just that we won’t be using it in this house. Okay, Danny?” I was slightly embarrassed at the nickname, but nodded and shrugged. “I’m okay with that arrangement.” I grinned slightly. “Alright, so since you’re apparently stuck in my son’s brain – I’m still considering how much of this to believe, honestly,” Mum gave an indecisive face at that, but continued regardless, “but I’m going to go along with it for now. Anyway, until you’re proved to be a lie, you get to be one of the family; pretty much equal. I think this all sounds like it deserves a big breakfast; how about some bacon and eggs?” Author's Note Hey look a Christmas present from Hivey! Hope you guys like it. Gah took me far too long to get this done. I can only blame school and exams for that. Preread by ColdGoldLazarus again, give him love and praise for being so helpful and good at writing. :3
Chapter 4: Doctor Doctor, Give Me The NewsDespite my assertions that I’d eaten some toast already, my very Italian mother insisted that she cook me – and my new ‘friend’ – more food. So we ended up having the bacon and eggs, though I managed to convince Mum that she didn’t need to fill my plate like it was a bucket. After I had finished eating, I realised I hadn’t had any interjections from Chrysalis since her attempted insult earlier. “Hey, Chryssy? You okay over there?” Out of my mouth then came the most satisfied groan I had probably ever heard. My eyes were wide as I looked to my mother in confusion. She was looking back at me with the strangest look on her face; though to be fair, she had just seen and heard her son emit whatever sound I had just heard. Then her expression broke into a thoroughly amused one and she started laughing. In the middle of this, I sat there with no idea what had just happened. “…Well that was the strangest answer I’ve ever gotten.” “Wh… what?” Chrysalis spoke somewhat normally this time, but her voice sounded a bit weak. “Um… Chrysalis, what was that you just did?” Because I don’t understand what I just heard, I thought. “I… what? Oh, the food! The food was simply divine…” she sighed again. “…Thank you, I think?” Mum said from the kitchen. I realised something from what Chrysalis had told us about her journey here. “You haven’t had any real food or anything for a year, have you? I’m surprised you’ve been able to talk as much as you have at this point.” “Actually, so am I.” She hummed for a second, thinking. “Though it’s love we changelings feed off, not food. I believe I felt some in the food, which is why it was so nourishing to me.” I gave my mother an amused eyebrow raise. “Well, I guess in this case the secret ingredient being love isn’t just advertising. Though, no offence to you, Mum, but I’m not exactly sure how that’s possible without magic.” “That’s probably something best thought of another day,” Mum said, as she looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Since I did just remember that we wanted to go to the shops tomorrow.” I grimaced as I realised how much our plans might have changed. She spoke again, “If you still wanted to do that I think we could… though I think it depends on your new friend-“ “She’s not my friend!” “And he is not my friend!” Mum looked at us, somewhat concerned, before continuing. “I think it depends on whether or not you’re both okay with going. You should probably try to decide now, while I go call your GP.” “Wait, what? Why are you going to call my doctor?” “Because this is an entirely new experience and I think we should make sure it doesn’t adversely affect your health. And we might also have to cancel with Ray.” “Wh- no, why would we… I can understand your point about seeing the doctor, but I haven’t seen Ray in months! Besides, we should at least check with him first!” I was frustrated now; I started to see the bigger picture of this situation and realised how many things were actually going to be changed by it. Suddenly things looked a lot less potentially fun than they had ten minutes ago. “Hah! So just by being here I’m hurting your chances at doing things?” Chrysalis said with a smirk on my face. It was quite annoying being talked down to out of your own mouth. “I am suddenly much more okay with this arrangement.” “Oh, no you don’t. I’m not going to stop my son from doing things just because of you.” Mum looked disappointed at Chrysalis – Well, I’m fairly certain that’s who the look was directed at, hard to tell when you’re using the same body. “We are going to the doctor, yes, but I’m leaving it up to him as to what he can and can’t do, just like before.” I gave Mum a smile, then turned my attention to Chrysalis. “So. I want to be able to go out today, since I saved up money specifically for several things I want. However, I want you to give me good behaviour as per our agreement.” I then hesitated for a second. “Actually, given you already broke our first agreement, let’s revise it. You can talk, okay, but I want you to not do it often and to not insult people… unless we’re clearly out of earshot. You understand?” Mum pretended not to hear the last part, but I could tell that she understood. Controlling Chrysalis was going to be hard enough without disallowing her freedom. “Hmmmm… Fine, I agree to your terms,” grumbled Chrysalis with a bit of hesitation. “As long as I keep being fed and am not kept quiet forever, I think I can stand not talking to a few of you humans.” I sighed in relief. “Alright, then. I’ll get us ready to visit the doctor, and we can go soon hopefully.” Mum turned on her phone and called the clinic. As I went to my room to get dressed, I heard her start to talk, and picked up on the word ‘emergency’. I sighed as I thought more about this situation, until Chrysalis interrupted. “’Emergency’ indeed!” she said in disgust as I walked. “This is the least covert appearance I’ve made since… oh, the last one, actually,” My mouth pulled back in a bemused sort of expression as she realised, and internally I chuckled at the slightly embarrassed feelings her presence emitted. “Well, I suppose it could be worse,” I said. “You could be an enemy of the state already or something.” I stopped outside my room and looked up in thought. “That would probably end badly for both of us.” I reigned in my imagination before I scared myself. A few minutes later, Mum and I (and Chrysalis, of course) set off for the doctor. Luckily enough, the doctor I’d gone to for years was about five minutes’ walk from where I lived.* Inside, Mum and I went to the counter, where a bored looking receptionist sat. She almost began to ask the standard, time-wasting questions, but Mum cut in immediately, knowing what would happen if she didn’t. “We’ve made an emergency appointment with Doctor Maxwell Andrews and we’d like to see him as soon as we can,” she said, her tone slightly forceful. “He told me over the phone about five minutes ago that’s he’s free and will see us now, so sign us in and let us go through, please.” The receptionist stared at her for a few seconds before looking down to her computer, tapping a few keys, and then dismissively waving us through to the doctor’s office and examination room. “Thank you,” said Mum as we walked past. I smiled at her and she jumped a little in her chair, reminding me about my new eye. I had been thinking up how this situation would go during the walk, short as it was. I was worried, and because of that, Chrysalis was worried, which worried me even more. Mum noticed as we walked down the hallway, and stopped me where I was. “Hey, don’t worry, okay?” She smiled at me and put her hands on my shoulders. “I’ll make sure you’re alright, I won’t let him do anything to you. Though I don’t think he suddenly would act that way after all the times we’ve seen him.” She gave me a hug. “What about me, hmmm?” Chrysalis finally spoke up again. “You’ve both made it very clear that nothing like this has happened before, and I can’t say I’ve had any experience with this kind of situation either.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t thinking highly of us or how we might act. “…actually, yeah. What about you?” I said. My tone wasn’t indignant, but she was feeding the worries I had. “Whether or not the doctor finds us to be fine this way and not likely to destabilise mentally, or reports what happens to some ‘higher power’, I worry the government will find out somehow.” Despite Mum’s continued hug I was working myself up with my thoughts again “I mean, god knows what kind of stuff they can intercept, what they’ll be interested in.” I felt a squeeze in the hug, and sighed. “Let’s just put this all to rest and go talk to Dr Andrews, okay?” Mum pulled away from the hug and gripped my arm, leading us into the examination room. Dr Andrews sat at his fairly undecorated wooden desk, the only ornaments being photos of his close family. He looked up from his aging work computer as we entered the room. It was large for both a single office and GP examination room. Dr Andrews’ desk was to the left as we entered, the right wall being an old, sealed off fireplace adorned with more personal photos as well as many medical diagrams, posters and models. Even in all the times I’d been to that room in seventeen years – a great many times – I still didn’t know all the different medical things inside, there were so many and they were too varied for me to remember. “Daniel, and your lovely mother of course, how are you both?” he said, smiling at us. He barely reacted to my changed eye when he noticed, but he had the slight twitch on his forehead that told me he’d seen it. He made no comment and waited for us to sit at the two empty chairs near his. “Well, that’s why we’re here…” Mum began, though she was clearly a little unsure of how to proceed. Dr Andrews noticed that too, and raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing it has something to do with Daniel’s new eye decoration? I’m absolutely certain I remember nothing like it before.” Turning to me, he continued, “Where did you get that, Daniel? And is the reason only one is visible the problem? Let me guess, you’re not sure how to remove the second from behind his eyeball? Classic problem, and I understand why you felt you needed a trip here,” he incorrectly decided was the case. He had the tendency to talk, so this was fairly normal, though usually we said a little more first. “Um, no, it’s… a different thing entirely,” I said, almost not wanting to cut him off. As pressing as Chrysalis was, it was always interesting to hear what he said, and I half-wondered what else would have come up if he continued. “Though yes, it has to do with my eye.” “Ah, then is that why you’re wearing a coloured contact? If I didn’t know better I’d think it was real, it looks so well-made.” I glanced at Mum and looked back at Dr Andrew. “Can you examine the eye and tell me what you think?” I was hoping that this would convince him this was my actual eye while avoiding any sort of argument on whether or not that was physically possible. “Nothing is stuck so please don’t push anything too hard,” I added worriedly. “Please don’t worry, I’m a professional,” he grinned at me. He walked over to the other side of the room where his tools were kept and picked up his… eye examination device. I wish I was more sure of what he would do, but I still had the strange mental image of him discovering the truth and pushing a giant red button on his desk to call some sort of government agency team to capture and examine me. I think I watch far too much sci-fi. You really have no idea what either of you are doing, thought Chrysalis, making me jump a little in my seat. Stop surprising me like that! I thought back at her. What, would you prefer I give you warning next time? If you get surprised by whatever I say, what would be the point? She thought-snarked back at me. …Stop being right, please. And stop distracting me! I’m already worried about this enough that you aren’t helping. She thought-harrumphed at me – a very odd sensation – and began to grumble. She didn’t stop by the time the doctor walked over- wait. The doctor only just walked over? Does that mean we can effectively communicate at the speed of- This train of thought was interrupted by a light shined directly into my eye, and the obtrusive measuring tool following it. I know how obvious this would sound, but that light hurt. As in, staring into the sun for a few minutes kind of pain, if not more. I must have reacted to it because next thing I know I was on the ground, hand over my eye. “JESUS, ow, what the hell was that?!” I yelled out. “FOOLISH CREATURE, HOW DARE YOU ATTACK US WITH YOUR MAGIC LIKE THAT?!” Chrysalis screeched, pain blanking her mind of the idea of staying quiet. I froze, as did Mum. “I… what?” Doctor Andrews replied blankly. I snapped out of it and tried to react as calmly and logically as possible. Of course, having a new resident in my brain seemed to have scrambled me a bit, because next thing everyone knew, I had just slapped myself really damn hard across the face. “AH, you IMBECILE! How dare you both attack me!” “SHUT UP YOU STUPID BUG!” I yelled out. "BUG?! YOU DARE-" I interrupted Chrysalis by clamping down my mouth, nearly biting my tongue. Looking nervously at Doctor Andrews, I said, “I’m guessing there’s no way to pretend that didn’t happen?” “I… I don’t…” He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked back up at me. “So part of that could be easily explained as Dissociative Personality Disorder, more commonly known as Multiple Personalities.” “Um… and what isn’t explained by that exactly?” I asked. “The whole… part where your voice sounds like someone else’s…” He said, staring at me intently. “So this has to do with your new eye…? Because quite frankly the only explanation for such a dramatic change exists purely in science fiction.” “Yeah, see, about that-“ “You, human doctor! Free me from this idiot’s brain, restore my magic, and I will reward you!” Chrysalis yelled over me. “…Well, there’s her,” I finished my sentence lamely. “Her?” he asked. “Why does this… it sounds like something out of bad sci fi or fantasy… is this ‘she’ some kind of... demon? At this point, I have no idea what to believe about this...” “Daniel was somewhat able to explain it to me but I still don’t get it.” Yeah that’s… probably not going to happen anytime soon for him, I thought at Chrysalis. “Okay, so, Chrysalis here has come through from another dimension, right? One full of, um...” I was usually fine with mentioning I watched a show like My Little Pony, but for some reason I felt embarrassed now. “...colourful, talking, magic ponies.” Doctor Andrews looked at me like I was crazy. Probably for much better reason than normal, considering the talking pony-bug thing in my brain. He looked at Mum. “Yeah, just... go with it,” she said to him. “It’s not actually that bad, for a cartoon. Lots of pink and hearts though.” I jokingly shushed her, and felt Chrysalis becoming even more confused. I’m still going to explain later, don’t worry. The doctor sighed. “Well, I... You haven't lied to me before, but this is really hard to believe. I guess I need to technically put you on some regular checkups, until it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be true. And as in, more regular visits than normal; like after an operation.” I gave him a look telling him I wasn’t happy with that, which Chrysalis reinforced. “So... what does that mean for us now?” I asked, a bit wary. “I suppose you’re free to go? Doesn’t seem like anything is out of the ordinary.” I gave him another look. “Health wise, I mean,” he added quickly. “So now let your mother pay at the front desk for today and we’ll be square,” He said with a smile, as professionally fake as can be. “Thanks,” I said with an equally fake but less practiced smile. Mum had far less trouble paying than she did talking to the secretary before, and we quickly left. As we walked home, I had a thought. “Hey, can we go to the store now? I have an idea for keeping a promise, as well as the whole ‘waiting for weeks to go’ thing.” “For keeping a promise?” She looked at me, slightly confused “Alright, we definitely have enough time...” “Yay!” I yelled out. “You get to come shopping with us, Chrysalis! Isn’t that exciting?” I gave my best evil grin and felt her scream in annoyed frustration. JUST LET ME OUT OF HERE ALREADY! Author's Note *The doctor being a short walk from home is actually true. See, way this story works (even before my hiatus; sorry about that guys) is some things are very closely similar to life, and most are only partly inspired if at all. E.g. name changes for everyone, unless referred to by username. So, I apologise profusely for the incredibly long hiatus, especially after my promise in September, but final year managed to either make me busy when I had inspiration, or drain my inspiration when I had free time. Also, most of the next chapter is complete already; originally it was going to be chapter 4, but then this needed to go in, so I struggled and came up with what's here. Sorry if it's not as good, guys! This chapter edited by the lovely Gherkin!
Chapter 5: How Much Is That Changeling In The WindowChapter 5: How Much Is That Changeling In The Window “What is that strange thing?” Chrysalis asked me as we walked towards Mum’s car. “That? That’s a car, an automobile,” I said. “It’s like a carriage that can move itself.” “’Move itself’?” Chrysalis repeated dismissively. “Now if that isn’t magic than I don’t know what is around here.” That comment brought an old quote to my mind. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” I recited. I felt a frown in response. “That can’t be something you just made up. Your intelligence doesn’t seem quite up to making something that sounds remotely profound.” Personally scowling, I snapped at her, “Yes, it was a damn quote; you didn’t need to use it to get another shot at me.” I opened the car door and climbed inside. “Actually, given I’m apparently stuck here, and now I’m under watch, I think I did. Besides, if you lived with real magic that quote wouldn’t exist at all. Magic is something quite special – even the intelligent humans or ponies couldn’t hope to emulate it with simple ‘technology’.” She seemed to spit the last word, though thankfully no spittle actually flew out. Mum drove us to the shopping centre, the closest ‘Direct Factory Outlet’ department store to where we lived. I decided to have some fun with Chrysalis’ ignorance when I told her the name. I made up several nonsensical things DFO could have stood for – ‘District Frankfurter Office’ being my favourite - until she started grumbling softly in our mind while I laughed and Mum rolled her eyes, amused. We parked the car and went inside the main building, where Mum and I split up. I headed to the JB Hifi electronics store on the first floor above while Mum went shopping for new chairs elsewhere in the centre. As I moved towards the escalator, I could feel Chrysalis’s confusion about the moving stairway. “So this is more of your ‘magical’ technology? Stairs that move themselves too?” With a smirk she continued, “You humans seem fond of making things move for you rather than simply moving yourselves.” I rolled my eyes and continued on, mumbling under my breath, “Well then you’re going to love elevators.” Of course with her living in my head she could hear me anyway. “What could that possibly be? ‘Elevators’?” I could feel the eyes of several confused or concerned shoppers on me at that point. It would be strange to see a teenage boy argue with himself and use such a different, female voice for half of the argument. I don’t think the new eye, which I had almost forgotten about, was helping me either. “Suffice to say there is a reason we need some of these things that move for us. It’s a bit difficult walking up and down seventy stories every day for several years.” “Seventy… WHAT?” Chrysalis spluttered fairly loudly, causing even more heads to turn in my direction. I gave them a nervous laugh and pretended to cough. Most people looked away, though some eyes stayed on me for longer – I could feel it even when I turned away from them. “Hang on, let me walk to the window,” I said quietly once people had looked away. The upper floor had a large floor-to-ceiling window looking over some of the city, though most of it was out of sight. I walked up to it, and a thought occurred to me. “Hey, you can actually see, right? I realised I’m not actually sure…” “Yes, I can see. I’ve noticed everywhere you looked. Yes, those places too.” Wait, WHAT places? I decided that she was messing with me and angled myself so she’d be able to see some buildings through the glass in front of me. “See those?” “What, those spires? What about…” I felt my jaw drop as she realised. “You… humans made those? Without magic?!” Getting control of my mouth back, I gave a smug grin, and with a bit of a laugh I said, “Score one for human technology.” I looked around again without moving my head and saw a few more eyes back on me, their owners thinking they were being subtle or unnoticeable. Their expressions mostly indicated suspicion, but at what I wasn’t sure. You noticing that? I thought to Chrysalis, my ‘tone’ now serious. What, the suspicion and fear they have? Yes, I have, she thought back, picking up on my shift in tone. I’m a changeling, though, I’m used to it. We deal with it all the time from those Equestrians… Yes, I imagine you would, what with you taking their place and feeding on their love for each other, I thought with a slightly joking tone. I then realised what might have been a big mistake and bit my lip. …How did you know about that? I haven’t told you about what changelings do yet. I could now feel her suspicion heavily directed towards me. Weren’t you also saying that you would explain something to me? I turned away from the window and headed back towards the store’s opening. I think I also said that I would explain later. Later being after we’re done here, okay? You’re just lucky I can’t threaten you effectively right now, she thought, her tone angry. Yeah, probably, I thought, reaching the entrance to JB Hifi. Um, the sooner I do this, the sooner I can tell you what I know, okay? Fine. But don’t expect me to enjoy whatever it is you want to do here. She did the mental equivalent of crossing your arms in frustration. Or whatever ponies and changelings do instead. Imagining it broke the tension for me and I giggled a bit at the mental image. Walking in the store, I headed immediately to the right, looking for headphones. I walked back and forth along the wall they all hung on, trying to decide what I wanted. Earmuff style, earbuds or something else? I didn’t notice Chrysalis become increasingly more annoyed as I stood there thinking. “What are you even doing here?” She asked out loud. I jumped a bit in surprise, somehow having forgotten about her already. “Oh, um… I’m trying to decide what kind of headphones I want.” “What kind of… what? What does that even mean?” "Oh, right. You don't have those in Equestria either... Basically they allow us to listen to music from our devices, but in tiny speakers for our ears instead of out loud." I waited a full minute and received no response. "...You didn't understand a word of that did you?" "Well... I understand listening to music, and your explanation earlier, though still not detailed, helped about devices... But how did you humans make your machines able to play music?" Pulling two boxes off of the wall, I said, "Let me quickly decide on which of these two I'll get and then I'll try to explain. Failing that we can research what you need at my home, okay?" It was a trade-off between cost and features as per usual. I looked between the two boxes, back and forth, unable to deci- "Oh, just choose already!" Chrysalis hissed out loudly, scaring both me and the poor shopper that had just walked up to the headphones area with me. I sighed, and turned to face the other person, ready to apologise, only to see them backing away slowly in an almost exaggerated way, before they turned around and walked quickly away. Confused somewhat about their behaviour, I shrugged and turned back. I put the less expensive one back and was rewarded with a relieved sigh from my passenger. "Finally. Now are we done here?" "What? No, of course not. That was just the starter, I have other things to buy-" "OH, REAL-" "BUT, I already know what they are, and where to look. Jeez, you're really impatient. It's strange to me for… various reasons." "I just want you to finally explain to me what you know about me and how.” She felt very, very annoyed at this point. “You said you were going to keep a promise and I’m assuming that you meant explaining everything to me. Given my status as royalty I’m also assuming some sort of hostage plan with the hive." "Alright, alright, relax please. And no, there’s no hostage plan, okay? I'm going to explain that later as I think I've already promised several times now." What Chrysalis didn't know was that I didn't really want to explain the real reason to her. As much as had been mentioned so far, I was pretty sure that telling someone they're from a children's TV show, simple, fictional entertainment, wouldn't go over well. Especially a villain like Chrysalis, given she came from something subtitled "Friendship is Magic". Trying to put the plans of my deception out of mind for now, just in case, I walked over to the video games area, easily distinguishable from the associated posters. Grand Theft Auto V was quite prominent, but I wasn't here for that. No, I had something in mind for months now, and I had been saving my money for it. Well, them. Walking into the Xbox games area, I felt my mouth crinkle into a frown of confusion. Chrysalis wasn't sure what to make of the various game covers I was looking over. Halo, Bayonetta, Kinect Adventures... There were quite a few different ones, and though I couldn't tell exactly what she was thinking about them, it was clear she was having trouble processing the information. "You alright in there?" I asked her as I began moving some of the covers to find what I wanted. Flip, no, flip, no... "I'm just... I don't know what these are, what this means." I took a pause in my flipping to give her more attention. "Oh, actually... Are you able to read the words on them?" "Yes, I can. The symbols that make up words here are oddly familiar and yet not. I understand them as if I had learned them all my life, but they are not the Equestrian Runes I grew up with." Flip, no. Flip, no. Oh, yeah, it makes sense that changelings would learn that, I thought, careful to keep it to myself. Flip, no, flip,n- Wait, that was one of them! "Ah, here's my 'secondary'." I thought aloud, holding a copy of Doom 3 BFG Edition. "Man, it's been a while since I rented this..." Chrysalis was interested in the cover, simple as it was. "What are you supposed to do with this?" I remembered that I hadn't told her about games earlier, since as fun as they were, it wasn't as important an advancement as everything we talked about. "Oh, this, along with all the other selections here, are video games. Wonderful technology, I think, and a lot of fun sometimes." I explained some of the basics, the whole concept of the virtual world you act in, and she seemed fairly sceptical if interested. "A non-real space? Created without magic? Absurd!" Chrysalis harrumphed. "No, not... What, that's not want I said! It's not a 'non-real space' exactly, or at least I don't think it is by your weird magic standards." "'Weird'?" "Yes, weird, now shush and let me find what I'm looking for." "I refuse to be ordered by such an insubordinate little foal!" Her near-yelling almost attracted other people's attention once more. “Hey, keep it down, remember?” I reminded her. “Don’t forget this is not a normal human situation and all sorts of things could happen if people here catch the wrong remark or something out of context,” I paused. “Or in context as well, actually. Point is, you want us, and therefore YOU, to live, don’t screw me over like that.” “Rrrr... Fine, but you owe me if I comply.” “Agreed-“ “And I STILL require and explanation!” “Just...” I sighed, and turned towards the games shelf again. “Oh. Neat.” By sheer luck, I managed to make the first thing I saw on the shelf what I was looking for. “Neat?” Chrysalis asked. “I found the game I wanted,” I said as I pulled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance from the shelves. “What in Tartarus does that mean.” “What? I found the game...?” “No, the words on that object-“ “Game case,” I interrupted. “Shut up! The words are still horribly nonsensical, and frankly ‘Revengeance’ sounds stupid.” I knew she was right, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to argue back as I headed towards the DVD section. “Yes, BUT I heard it was fun and awesome so I’m buying it, stupid title or not. Also the soundtrack is awesome, from what I’ve heard of it so far.” “It still has a stupid title, and you are stupid for wanting it.” “Y’know, for a queen, you use stupid a lot. Nothing else in your vocabulary?” “Be quiet, foolish human.” “There we go, new words!” I grinned. “You’re almost at a medium-average vocabulary.” I couldn’t help but joke. She just grumbled in response. We reached the DVD section and a moment I was dreading. “Okay so,” I began, “this is where things might get complicated and crisis... ey,” I finished lamely. “Do I even want to know?” Chrysalis asked, sounding almost bored. “Actually, given the whole promise thing... yes, you do,” I said nervously. “You may regret it later.” I could feel Chrysalis’ curiosity, it was so strong. “I am both intrigued and slightly concerned. What kind of information could a human possess about me that I may not want to know?” “Hnnnn, you say that now.” I went to the ‘kids/cartoons’ section. It was hard not to find the incredibly purple DVD cases with their pink, heart shaped logos, but I read the sides, looking for the right volume. The whole time, I felt Chrysalis react to what I saw, though I was not sure exactly how she felt yet. I found the words ‘royal’ and ‘wedding’ and closed my eyes, bracing myself for a situation I really couldn’t prepare for. How do you tell a shape shifting succubus-esque creature she’s from something like this? “Okay, so, again, you ready for this?” I asked, still somewhat hesitant. “Oh for- Yes, I am ready for whatever paltry information has to do with so much ‘friendship’ it would probably make even Equestria gag.” “Yeah, about that,” I couldn’t help but snicker at that a bit, as serious as this situation was going to be. I opened my eyes and pulled out the Wedding episodes DVD. “So... Recognise these two?” Under the hard-to-miss title, surrounded by images of the equally recognisable Mane 6 ponies – these of course being Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash – there stood Princess Cadance and Shining Armour, in their wedding clothes. “I... Those are... What... I can’t...” Chrysalis was almost speechless, something I felt was a first for her. I then remembered I should stop her from having a mental collapse before I’d even explained the hard part. “Alright, you need to hear all of this to understand, okay?” “I... why do you have pictures of them... I can’t...” “Hey! Listen up! What are you, a Queen or a pathetic bug?” I tried appealing to her ego and pride. “I...” she took a couple of seconds to process that, but I felt her perk right back up. “Do not presume, foolish human! I can take this information in stride, no problems at all!” “There we go, thought I’d lost you already!” I then noticed a few people watching me squat in front of DVDs of children’s shows, holding one, talking to myself. “Ummm...” Thinking quickly, I made what was hopefully a good decision as I put the DVD back and went to pay for my games and headphones. “We shall continue later, after we are away from people who might call an insane asylum,” I said under my breath so only Chrysalis could hear. I was surprised to not receive an answer even after I had waited in line and paid. Maybe Chrysalis had used tact for once? As I got out of the store, I started to get worried, as Chrysalis still hadn’t said anything. She was definitely still there, I could tell. “You there? Chrysalis?” My whisper got nothing in reply, so I kept on going downstairs. Reaching the bottom of the escalators, I felt that Chrysalis was... unsure, and if my guess was right, she was going through a metaphysical crisis or something similar. ...This was not a good day for her. And a really, really bad first impression of Earth. Okay this is probably bad, I thought, pulling out my phone.So how do I fix this… Wait. Yes, this is sure to make her talk again! A somewhat devious smile appeared on my face. I cracked open the box holding my new headphones and plugged them into my phone. I navigated my music collection to something I knew would get Chryaslis to end her silence I felt Chrysalis ‘jump’ as the drum beat started, and the synth came with it. The vocals faded in, “Hello, hello, hello…”, and I could tell this was already starting to become annoying to Chrysalis’ presence. There was even an odd sense of tension as the “Hello” continued to repeat. It peaked at the words becoming a sentence, but it was definitely still irritating her. Unfortunately for her, I somehow enjoyed this music, so I kept it going. As the words kept going, I could feel Chrysalis getting ‘closer’, and could feel that she was already seething at this. “rock’n’ roll, rock’n’ roll, rock’a rock rock’a rock rock’n’ roll.” “ROCK’N’ ROLL!!” The drop started and she was blown back by a cannon of noise. She crawled through it, resisting the force, and at this point I could almost see it happening in my mind’s eye. As much as I felt bad for doing this to her, it was pretty funny. The first half of the drop ended and the sound wall evened out. As I saw her stand up, I realised the image was getting clearer, until I was standing in the white dream space with her again, the music still going on around us. Chrysalis was absolutely furious at this point. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS IS THIS?!” She screamed at me over the music. “ YOU DARE ATTACK ME WITH YOUR VILE MAGICS?! IS IT NOT ENOUGH THAT I AM HELD HOSTAGE IN YOU MIND?!” I could see tears forming on the corners of her eyes at that point. “IS IT NOT ENOUGH THAT YOU MAKE MAKE ME QUESTION MY VERY EXISTENCE RELATIVE TO YOUR OWN WORLD?! WHAT AM I TO YOU HUMANS?!” Wow, I thought to myself. Great job, you bloody moron. The drop had well and truly finished at that point, and I reached out with my consciousness to my physical body and stopped the music. She seemed to unconsciously relax her stance, but the tears were flowing now. I decided to start on a good note. “I’m sorry about the music, but-“ “That was MUSIC?!” “-that was the quickest way I could think of to get your attention. Clearly we need to talk, and if I remember correctly, this place gives us a lot of time to do so.” I sat down on the… Still unnerving white space, determined that it would hold my weight if I applied ghost physics – it’s as solid as you believe it is. Chrysalis remained standing, shooting me the most hateful glare I’d ever seen. Excellent start. “So. Where to begin?” I tried. Given that she didn’t immediately yell at me again, I took that as a good sign. Her voice was quiet when she spoke up, maybe a minute after. “In that place, the store…” She hesitated. “What exactly did you show me?” “Well… On Earth, we have a thing called television. Moving pictures, complete with sound, all done by converting light and sound signals to electricity, sending it through vast networks of cables, only to be taken for granted by billions around the world.” “…humans are strange.” “I know, right?” I sighed. “Humanity is both amazing and terribly stupid at the same time. But that’s a lot to cover, so; television. “So on T.V., as it’s regularly known, we have two main categories of programmes; movies and serials. Not as in the breakfast. Movies are… like plays, but often not as long, and these days they are made to be without intermissions. “The serial programmes, also known as a T.V. series or show, are usually a lot shorter than movies per episode, and have multiple episodes per series.” “So far this has not at all answered my question,” a less-teary Chrysalis interrupted. “Good place to interrupt! I was just about to tell you about the series named ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’, and its relevance to you.” I couldn’t help the snarkiness, as bad as I felt about her situation. This was the tricky bit. “In the magical land of Equestria, the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends are probably not overly well known. Here on Earth, in the years leading up to 2010, a children’s show called My Little Pony that had existed since the 1980’s was in the process of being reworked to be… More appealing. In October 2010 it aired, beginning with Nightmare Moon’s return to Equestria and subsequent defeat, and somehow people beyond the target audience took notice.” I didn’t notice as it happened, but the white dreamscape behind me changed to show things I had seen; pictures of the original eighties show, the Hasbro logo, Lauren Faust, and even some clips of the show. All of it slightly more clear than if I tried remembering normally. Chrysalis watched with some interest, and even sat down. As the story continued, so did the picture show. “Fast forward to 2012, and we get to a time where the second season of episodes is about to come to a close. The ‘brony’ fandom, this being the other people, especially adults, that took an interest in the show, has grown large despite pretty constantly taking flak from other fan groups. The most important part, though, is the actual season finale; a two episode special titled ‘A Canterlot Wedding’… In which we are introduced to a third alicorn, after Celestia and Luna, and shown that she seems to be hiding something evil.”A few flashes of Chrysalis laughing or basically not properly being Cadance while disguised caused the queen of the changelings to wince. “I… See.” “When the plot twist hits, ‘who is this fake Cadance?’, we are introduced to another character we didn’t meet any time prior, an unnamed queen of the ‘changelings’, a race many seemed to quickly, if not instantaneously, fall in love with.” A few bits of half remembered fanart: Chrysalis with a green heart behind her, happy changelings, more pictures of Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis. “In… Love with?” I could tell she was surprised, but still wary. Probably about how humanity even had My Little Pony in the first place. Also probably an existential crisis, I realised. “Pretty much,” I responded. “Sometimes to more… Extreme senses than others. Such as dedicating themselves to you despite having no way of communicating with you in the first place.” I shrugged. “Happens a lot around here actually. Except normally it’s a religion, or at least pretends to be one.” “There is not much need for religion in Equestria, or among the changeling hives. Although… there is a general belief in the Founder of Equestria. No one, excepting maybe Celestia, Luna, and the oldest Griffon Lords have any idea what she looks like, however.” Her tone was hushed as she said this. It was interesting hearing about this, and idly I wondered how many fan theories had predicted that at all. Probably a few. “So, in terms of the whole TV Entertainment thing, I’m 90% sure that doesn’t make Equestria not real,” I tried. “My personal belief is that the writers, or at least some of them, are just channelling what happens, or at least an approximation of it, into words.” We were both silent for a few seconds. “Multiverse theory!” I said suddenly. Chrysalis just looked at me, and I waited for some kind of response. A few minutes later she spoke up. “As much as your presentation was… Lacking, and quite terrible, your basic idea has some odd sense to it.” Her posture straightened and she stood again. “The Founder works in mysterious ways. Creatures like Discord are prime example of that.” She gave me an odd look, almost like a cross between wariness and acceptance. “Given reports that he returned several months before my failed invasion, I am assuming you know of Discord. Is that correct?” “Yeah, he was something else. Oddly popular though, probably because of his voice actor’s fame from a similar role.” Next to me, Discord appeared so suddenly that Chrysalis jumped, thinking for a second the spirit was actually there with us. When she noticed it was more images, she tried to act as if it didn’t happen, but she didn’t do a good job. The fake Discord laughed, a clip taken straight from the first part of Return of Harmony, and was quickly replaced with an image of the Star Trek Character Q, surrounded by a Mariachi band. “John de Lancie. His character, Q, was similar to Discord, and originally an antagonist, in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’” I explained. “Long time before Discord was ever in MLP, though.” “’MLP’? ‘Q’? You humans are fond of using letters to name things.” “Direct Fart Oyster-“ “Cease! I thought that nonsense was done with?” “Well I haven’t heard you make a suggestion.” I smirked, and couldn’t help myself. “Make one and it will be over.” Chrysalis eyed me seriously. “Do you swear it?” “At least until next time we go, yes. I Pinkie Promise,” I said just as seriously, performing the actions related to Pinkie Pie’s special promise. I also swear I heard ‘forever!’ echo in the distance, though I assume that was just my imagination, literally. I mean, it can’t actually have been Pinkie Pie. Right? “I will assume that means something to you, but I would not be a good queen of the changelings if I did not remain alert.” Somehow, I wisely refrained from pointing out the terrible failures from Canterlot Wedding, and simply nodded. Though she could clearly tell I wasn’t saying something, and briefly scowled at me. “Well. A suggestion... We should perhaps end this conversation for now. I need more time to think.” "Uh-uh, not until you play the game." "Urgh... Dire... flame... oliphant." I nodded again. “Alright.” Wait. She said ‘perhaps’ before? That was almost not imperious of her. I shrugged it off, and focused on returning my awareness to my body. Thankfully, no one was staring at me, and Mum only just appeared around the corner. I stood up and waved to her. She arrived near me, and we started walking to the car. “No chairs?” I asked. “No, unfortunately they didn’t have what I was looking for. I also think one of their products wasn’t actually in stock…” We had a full conversation on the way to the car about product sales, false advertising and chairs. Chrysalis didn’t say anything as we did, but neither of us really noticed. I felt my stomach growl as I opened the door, and looked over the car at Mum. “Hey, do we have lunch at home?” “Food?” Chrysalis piped up immediately after, sounding rather excited. I tried not to, but I ended up giggling like an idiot at her reaction. Mum rolled her eyes at me and climbed in the driver seat. “Yes, food at home. We have wraps you can make.” “Oh cool. Lamb from the other night?” I got into the passenger seat. “Yes.” “More love? This is sounding too good be true. Even if you aren’t holding me hostage on purpose.” “Or really at all,” I said. “Accidentally stuck in my head is not the same as being a hostage.” “Well I would still like my hive to rescue me regardless,” Chrysalis shot back. “This place is bad for my health.” Author's Note So thankfully this didn't take ANYWHERE NEAR as long to write as the last chapter. Sort of. Technically it took longer since it was originally chapter four but there's only a three month gap instead of fourteen so who's counting? Not me. Nope. Also CHAPTER LENGTH DOUBLED HUZZAH Plan on, well, not continuing to double, but I want least five thousand per chapter from now on.
