Dropping In!

Chapters

Falling Sands
Chrysalis Cascade
The Dark Beneath

Falling Sands

My sleep is filled with darkness, as always, and my senses feel naught but the bed I am on. Drifting . . . falling . . . slowly . . . faster . . . wind . . . wait, I’m really falling. My eyes snap open and I see the clouds whiz by, small puffs of cotton against the bright blue sky. I then proceed to panic as my mind races to find out where I am. Due to my facing upwards, the horizon remains an enigma to me and this causes my stomach to do a flip or two. Before I can actually attempt to flip myself, I hit a cloud and feel a spike of pain.

Wait . . . how did I . . .? Where is that pain . . .? My eyes go wide and my brain abandons all previous thoughts as I view the surface of the body of mass to which I am falling; a great expanse of orange and yellow sand expanding for quite a while, with the exception of a sliver of green to my right on the horizon. Then a thought occurs to me that this is taking quite a bit longer than expected, so I assume I started from somewhere near the edge of the atmosphere. But again, my mind abandons all conventional thought as I see the ground racing towards me ever faster.

I yelp as I brace for impact; it doesn’t work due to my lack of bodily function at the moment. I hit a particularly large sand dune and bounce with sand flying everywhere as I cartwheel into yet another dune. After a second such impact, and an equally impressive trench, I lose consciousness and the world fades to black. I guess that sort of thing tends to happen when you hit the ground at terminal velocity.

My mind is still spinning as I regain my precious consciousness and I look around. Even though everything is fuzzy and oscillating around my vision, I conclude that I am still in the same place as before and I still hurt just as much. I attempt to get to my feet. I fail. I attempt to sit up. I fail. I groan and growl at the same time as I see to analyze the exact reason to my successive failures. This is what makes me spin into unconsciousness again .

The second time I regain consciousness I immediately look back at my body again. I would say it was almost like a horse or pony, with the exception of being obsidian black and full of fist sized holes; if only I still had fists. I continued to look incredulously at my new hooves for a while, hoping they will change back at some point. As I sit there, I arrive conclusively at the statement : “They’re not changing back any time soon.” Like my usual self I adapt and start to work on standing.

After some time, and innumerable failures, I manage to awkwardly rise to my fe- hooves, and get a better view of my surroundings. The sand, which was the only thing I saw if you would care to ask, was making it quite hard to stand. This caused me to fall and unceremoniously meet my wings for the first time.

Oh hello . . .

After my short slide down the dune and after I was bent rear to face, I discovered three things. One, wings were like an insects, two, my left one was crumpled painfully, and three; painfully also; I had a horn. Kinda like a uni-pega-corn. Of course . . . the proper term was alicorn. That really only left one additional question, what’s with the whole insect thing? I pondered this as I rose to my . . . hooves . . . in a ridiculous fashion once again. After regaining stable footing I grinned for the first time since arriving. All of these facts led to one thing and one thing only, initially anyway. I was in the world of MLP:FiM and I was a sexy-ass changling.

On second thought . . . they aren’t really that sexy . I laughed a little as I felt the wind of change blowing in my favor. But I still appeared to be not in my favored Equestria but perhaps in the changling kingdom . . . which was kind of funny. I look towards the grassy green horizon of Equestria with a big smile on my face and took off, as fast as you can go on four on uncoordinated legs. Before going more than a couple of yards, I was knocked off of my feet by a speeding . . . something, and made another trench just as deep as the previous.

My assailant scrambled off of me as I started cursing like crazy and rose to my feet even more awkwardly than usual. As I turned to face them I heard him laughing, which caused me to get even more angry than I already was. Then I saw it was another changeling.

“First time on your hooves - guffaw- , little foal?”

“Yes, yes it is. Problem?” My tone of voice and my statement itself shut down his laughing as he took on a surprised and quizzical expression. “ I just fell from the top of the atmosphere, hit a cloud and crumpled my wing, – which still hurts, by the way – and was just bowled over by you. I think I have a right to be unsteady on my feet, even without the excuse of never being four legged before. I’m now going to go to Equestria, any problems? Then good day.” The changeling sat in a stunned silence as I turned away from him back to the border.

Then, once again, I was struck from behind and we tumbled through the sand once again.

“Don’t go unless you want to start a war! You’re crazy!” I stopped at that and hit him with a heavy stare. I could tell he wasn’t used to this intensity of scrutiny. He quivered only for a moment before succumbing to my gaze and sat on the ground.

“If that is all, my changeling sir, I will go now.” I continued to walk deliberately towards the lush green haven on the horizon. As I went, I heard a gust of wind and turned around. He was gone. I smiled softly to myself before continuing not only to get the hang of this darn four legged thing but to trudge on through the sands of the desert.

As I got closer to the border and as the sun was setting on the horizon behind me, I could see some strange clusters of buildings sitting there as if waiting for me. Before I could get close enough to see who was there I saw a small glitter at the edge of one of these camps. After a moments delay, a very particularly designed bolt of god knows what slammed into the ground next to me. I paused for a moment and looked back to the camps. As I looked, approximately one hundred or so of these glitters repeated themselves all the way down the border. My jaw dropped and I made a little whine, this was going to be fun . . .

As I retreated post haste away from the border, my posterior was being pursued by hundreds of said projectiles, and I yelled exceptionally loud and girly. One caught up to me and made a most unpleasant greeting to my rear. Suddenly I found that my suddenly propelled hindquarters were threatening to overtake my front and I ran harder. This helped minimally as my now vulnerable undercarriage was greeted likewise. As my mass was hurtled forward by these distance amplifying entities I tumbled end over end faster and faster. Sometimes cartwheeling, sometimes front flipping, sometimes somersaulting, but always moving faster than the previous second.

I impacted approximately the same distance from when I started into a sand dune. Turns out this sand dune wasn’t a sand dune. As I flew into it, iron doors closed behind me and I was sunken into darkness. Then the whole array started to move and I was jostled around roughly for several hours . . .

Why does this have to happen to me . . . I hate this . . .

As the containment device came to a halt, the doors opened and I was blinded by a soft green light. Then while I couldn’t see, I was roughly taken hold of and lifted off the ground whilst being carelessly chucked onto the floor outside. I landed on my face and slid before stopping and falling over.

“Welcome to the hive youngling. I see you have been attempting to reach the lands of Celestia. State why, and if I believe you I might let you go without punishment.” The majestic voice echoed around the room compelled me to reply, but I refrained from doing so until I could see my speaker as my vision cleared. Soon I saw that my theory as to ‘whom’ was answered once I could see again.

“Oh hello Chrysalis. It’s awesome to see you in person.” I grinned at her as I shook the dirt off and spoke. “So I’m guessing you’re still sore about the whole ‘get-my-ass-kicked-by-celestia’ thing. I just need to visit the Princess to talk about some important matters.” Her jaw dropped, assuming she had never been spoken to like that before. This made my grin even larger.

“You . . . but . . . what? Who are you youngling and how did you get here?”

“Me? I guess you could call me Infineas. AND I fell from the sky . . . problem?” My trollface induced an indignant look from the Queen.

“Why fall when you can fly?”

“Can’t”

“Can’t what?”

“Fly . . .” She gave me a shocked look for a moment then continued the interrogation.

“Why didn’t you use magic to stop yourself?”

“Can’t” She gave me yet another of her many quizzical looks before her forehead furrowed in confusion.

“So you are a flightless, magic-less, changeling who happened to fall out of the sky and thinks he can have an audience with the Royal Sisters? Who thinks after that ridiculous story, deserves and audience with me?!” She burst out laughing along with anyone else who happened to be listening in on the conversation. It slowly died down and once they were done, all that was left was silence.

“Yes. That sums it up.” I gave her a blank stare as she trotted towards me with a small smile on her face.

“I guess you can’t even change, now can you?” She laughed again as if it could never happen.

“Nope . . .” Everyone froze. The Queen stopped and looked at me in the strangest way, along with everyone else.

“Now you HAVE to be lying.” I responded with the usual negative and she started to become infuriated. “Don’t waste my time now! Change now before I banish you!” I sat there and shrugged painfully; my crumpled wing hurt whenever I moved it. She gasped at me and then growled.

Now THAT is pretty hot! Too bad she’s actually pissed at me right now . . .

Now her horn was glowing with the same green light that illuminated the entire amphitheater/throne room. My eyes grew wide and I squeaked in surprise as she unleashed some probably destructive and unholy spell upon my head.
I blinked as the light faded and looked down at myself

I’m in one piece! A point for me being awesome! I wonder why . . . “ . . . I am not dead?” The Queen looked at me as if lost. She shook her head in disbelief.

“How is this even possible? You didn’t change! You were supposed to change, that spell made sure of it!”

“Believe me now?” I frowned at her. “I’m a pretty trustworthy g- . . .colt. I really can’t use magic, fly, or change. All I want is some help.” She looked at me sadly for a moment before announcing a single fact.

“You’re telling the truth . . .” She finally relented to that fact. “But I still don’t know why I didn’t want it to be true . . .” I smiled at that and chuckled just a little as I admired the light reflecting off of her chitin. “What’s so funny?”

“You’ll probably figure it out someday. But until then it doesn’t matter.” Just then a servant of some sort entered the chamber and announced meal time. Chrysalis frowned in thought and then looked surprisingly in my direction and gasped. “Now it does matter . . .” This then instigated a panic in my heart as her jaw dropped and she started to advance upon me. I froze for just a moment before dashing in a direction away from my current position.
It was at this moment that I hit an invisible wall with my face and slid to the floor. I groaned and rolled my eyes before slowly turning myself to face the Queen.

How many times am I going to run into stuff with my fac- “Holy crap!” She had gotten quite close to my aforementioned anterior with a most curious look on her face. We sat there for a minute and all that could be heard throughout the chamber was our breathing; her breathing was more labored than mine. Then a small grin started to appear on her face and she made a small laugh.

“You love me . . .” Her voice creeping into my ears, I looked left and right quickly, and then back to her.

“Magic. Could’ve expected it. Probably should’ve. I would love to learn some time.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Umm . . . that wasn’t a question that –“ I stopped myself just short.

“- was a statement.” she finished for me. She lifted her eyebrow and gave me a small smirk.

“ Not . . . love . . . per say, more like . . . a healthy appreciation.” Chrysalis stared blankly at my response, it apparently wasn’t very amusing. Then she suddenly shrugged and turned away back to the butler-servant-guy.

“I will be going to my chambers accompanied by my new companion, continue without my presence and enjoy yourselves.” Suddenly I was yanked up by magic and then dragged by my tail, which then started to follow her majesty. She continued out of the room with me into one of the many adjoining hallways. She trotted down the hallway in mostly silence while admiring the many artifacts filling the alcove.

“Soooooooo . . . how long has it taken you to collect all of these?” My eyes drifted after a passing chest plate that sparkled in the ambient light.

“Too long . . .”

“Okay . . . are we talking about the same subject here?” she continued to give me silence after that as we made a couple turns. I was starting to feel a bit of rug burn as she continued to drag me along the ornamental carpets and such that rested on the floor. I shifted uncomfortably as I futilely tried to not get burned. “Do any of these things have any function?”
She paused to think and we stopped. I gave a sigh of relief that I quickly reversed as she turned to face me. “Yes, but most have been forgotten over the years we have been secluded here . . .” She eyed a particularly intricate necklace nearby before looking back at me and smiling. We then proceeded to go up several flights of stairs. With me still being dragged. So much pain.

It took a while, but we made it. And my chitin was only slightly melted. We arrived at our destination. That being a very large set of ornate doors. She opened them with her horn gently.

“Welcome to my special place. The place where a queen can be at peace . . .” She threw me inside and closed the doors behind us. I eyed them carefully before giving up on the thought of escape. At least as long as I don’t know magic. But her last statement brought me to think about a very curious question.

“If you’re a queen . . . then shouldn’t that mean that there is a King?” The atmosphere became very awkward for just a moment as she turned to eye me carefully.

“It’s just a title.” It was at this point that I actually decided to look around the room and know my surroundings. Or something.

Nothing unexpected. I saw the usual things you would find in the room of royalty. Gilded furniture and king (duh) sized bed; it was covered in silks, an armoire full of elegant clothing with a full height mirror nearby, luxurious rugs and tapestries all around. There were even throw pillows and cushions encrusted with gems. I turned my attention back to my captor.

My eyes went wide, just a bit, as she was on the bed in a very suggestive pose . . . I would think I blushed, but I’m not entirely sure that chitin allows for that sort of thing.

“I though I would retire to bed early tonight as to rise in the morning ready to teach you everything that makes a changeling a changeling. I would imagine you are tired after today and would be pleased to join me.” I felt my jaw opening and closing without a single word coming out of my mouth. It’s at this point that I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

ARGH . . . why does this have to happen?! I shuffled nervously while looking around the room. Anywhere but on her. Just . . . don’t think about it. Just go over there and sleep. Hopefully she won’t . . . try . . . anything. Minimalizing all thought processes, I shuffled anxiously over to the bedside and climbed upon it. As awkwardly and stiffly and herp derp as I did it, I managed to get up without many issues. After a moment I shuddered in careful anticipation as I heard a very throaty laugh behind me and I froze.

Author's Note

Yes, there were intentions to make this into a clopfic.
No, that will never happen.
Yes, my grammar sucks. There is a reason however. I prefer to use my grammatical structure to tell the reader how it should be read. Kind of. Like, cinematically. Regardless, I will work to improve it.

If you liked it and would perchance like chapter 2, leave a comment and a like. The more attention this gets, the sooner chapter two will be released.

P.S. Iv'e been told it gets better in the later chapters, so hold tight! Also, the storyline and plot will come, you just have to gimmie a shot, eh?

Chrysalis Cascade

After a VERY curious night, I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed and well rested. I turned in the bed to look at the Queen, who was currently still asleep. I gave a small grimace at the now familiar necklace she was wearing.

I REALLY don’t like that thing. I quietly got out of bed, at least as quietly as I could while being the equivalent of a new born foal. The morning sun was softly shining through the curtains on the windows as I silently stretched and looked back towards the door. I mimed a good groan and turned back to Chrysalis. She was breathing softly and quietly. Now that is D’AW worthy.

Instead of going against my judgment and opening the curtains, I decided to take this time to learn some magic WITHOUT the supervision of someone who actually knows what they are doing. I looked around and unsurprisingly found the bookshelf I had been looking for; this princess probably was well read. I ran up and quickly looked for a reference book on magic; I didn’t want to blow the area up by screwing around with something as powerful as magic. I needed some reference material. I found something after a minute but it was not what I had expected. It was an older leather-bound tome on advanced magic theory. This made me blink.

She’s learning all of this? She is more capable than I had previously thought.
I did my best to knock it down as quietly as possible so I could awkwardly read each page by flipping it with my hoof. I only fell six times before completing my task in getting it open. The wild array of diagrams and well versed paragraphs were daunting as I worked my way to the first chapter, now it was time to reverse engineer all of this . . .

~~~

Chrysalis finally woke up several hours later, apparently that necklace has some negative qualities. I grinned ear to ear when she gasped as I flung the curtains open for her. After such I continued to read through the Reference Theory book and experiment with my new found utility.

As she got out of the bed she viewed me with amazement as I made miniature models of planets, suns, and subatomic wonders. Electrical arcs and heat waves, whirlwinds and earthquakes. I was micromanaging a wonderland of science (or magic as they would say) and revealing the fabric of reality to all in the room. She trotted over to look at my creations as I blissfully continued to read and experiment. This horn was a beautiful utility to do anything I could want.

“Umm . . . how are you achieving these feats?” This snapped me from my reading, which then dumped all of my multitasking from my subconscious to my conscious. I panicked as I couldn’t control it. I cringed as all of my work collapsed, imploded, and detonated in a flurry of wind, lightning, and unholy fire. As the maelstrom of magic dissipated, I could hear a gentle laughing in the background. It was Chrysalis. ”Now THAT was quite impressive . . .”

“Eh, are you okay?” She nodded and then laughed again. “SooooOOOOOOOoooooo . . . I can do magic now!” My grin grew as it caused her to stifle more laughter; it was completely ridiculous.

“Looks like you covered one third of that which I was going to teach you. Congratulations.” It was at this point that we both realized there was a gaping hole in the floor surrounding me; I was being suspended in midair by my own levitation. “And now you have instinctual levitation. Splendid . . .”

After carefully hopping over the crevice and onto marginally safer ground, I let go of my spell. The resulting crash shook the foundations of the entire building. I also assumed I made a very crude elevator to the ground floor. I cringed horribly, hoping that I hadn’t hit anyone.

As I peeked over the edge of the jagged hole, I heard a muted gasp from behind me. I turned around to see Chrysalis stuffing a hoof in her mouth. The look on her face was also equally surprising. I looked back to me and then once more back to her. I gave her a quizzical look and she slowly took her hoof out of her mouth which revealed a very worried look.

“Uuh, what’s the issue here Chrysalis? Are you that worried about your floor or something?” It took a moment before she responded.

“You have a cutie mark . . .”

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“You . . . eh . . . have a cutie mark.” This caught me by surprise and I sat there for a moment before saying anything.

“Wait . . . that can’t be right. You’re telling me that a CHANGELING has a cutie mark?”

“Yes.” I spun around for a bit before finally craning my neck to see it properly. It was a strange set of four-pointed stars. The underlying one appeared to be made of blades, the other made of small dots or particles. “That IS impossible. But you have one.”

“Well, that’s a curious development.” I thusly ignored it for the remainder of my stay. Chrysalis exchanged looks with me and then we laughed; this is getting much more interesting. But of course we still had other things on our agenda for the day, her list being infinitely greater than mine at the moment.

“As queen, I have my duties to attend to, so I must leave you now but feel free to explore and experiment. And play pranks, those are always fun. Be done as soon as I can little one. But before I go . . .” I saw her channeling magic into that damn necklace and panicked, disintegrating it.
She stood there for a moment with a look of horror on her face before frowning angrily.

“You just . . . just destroyed a priceless artifact! You will pa-,” she was cut of my incredibly intense and serious glare. “You didn’t like it that much?”

I nodded slowly and deliberately as we both turned and left the room. When we entered the corridor outside she split off from me and went . . . well . . . the direction I wasn’t going. I had no clue as to cardinal direction here, which no doubt was going to cause confusion and pain for me later; I had the sudden feeling it involved trees.

I shrugged off the ridiculous feeling and went back down the way I was dragged up, this time I was on all four hooves. I wandered past many of the artifact filled alcoves and read the brass plaques that were below some of them. All of them were old and were just little trinkets, but some had some interesting descriptions.

I ignored the majority of them though as I wandered towards the main chamber I was dumped in, in the first place. But, as I was about to finish going down the last flight of stairs

I blacked out.

~~~

I groggily awoke after what felt like an hour but was really only a couple minutes and looked around to discern my current position. Congratulations, I had just discovered another way to go down a flight of stairs. My pain stricken legs and body completely denied that tumbling was the best way to descend, but we all knew that it was.

I carefully got to my hooves again and shook myself off, quickly sorting out my confusion, before making the last couple yards or so into the main chamber again. It seems as if the Colony was suddenly brought to life, relative to how it looked the first time, because the throne room was chock full of insect-y changeling goodness. There were changelings buzzing and flying around with important diplomatic documents, changelings in armor going to some sort of military training, and changelings running haphazardly about to accomplish various tasks.

I smiled softly at all the hustle and bustle before my grin grew wider. I looked around for an unsuspecting, but knowledgeable looking changeling and trotted up to the nearest one who appeared to be incredibly busy.

“Sir, do your testicles hurt?” There was a slight pause as the changeling turned around slowly with an incredulous look on his face.

“What?” He waited expectantly for my response, which was quite quick.

“I molest small foals,” He gave me a horrified look as he started carefully backing away. I responded by approaching him at the same speed. “What I meant to say was: Can you please inform me as to the nearest exit; I need some fresh air.”

The changeling gave me a look I couldn’t read as his face scrunched up. I stared at him unblinking, awaiting his answer. He cautiously gave me an answer before promptly galloping in the opposite direction. I shrugged and looked for another ample target.

I found one, moments later, and the resulting conversation involved rusty spoons, female genitalia, and fetus baths, but got me an answer; now I also assume I have a reputation too. I wandered towards the exit contemplating my latest achievements in horrifying the multiverse. I approached the absolutely massive set of doors leading to the outside.

You’re retarded . . .

Yup . . .

These doors should’ve been quite easy to spot from several miles away, but creeping out the locals is cool too . . .

I shrugged off the inner banter as I examined these incredibly large obelisks whose goal was to protect those inside one rung doorbell at a time. Well, there wasn’t too much, actually, to say about it. It was large, stone, solid, and locked . . .; I stomped my hooves in frustration. Getting outside was the very key to relieving boredom in this situation. It was either that or start a large nuclear dance party where the dancers wore radiation suits and the strippers died of radiation poisoning, with everything glowing like a good rave. I took another look at the doors massive height before noticing there was a smaller set of doors inset in the center of the stone doors. I facehooved violently and fell sideways onto the floor.

You REALLY are blind. Didn’t you see all of the changelings moving in and out? I don’t think that that changeling would lie to you about something so mundane as an exit.

I growled at myself and proceeded onwards. I managed to locomote myself along the floor, still on my side, towards the door; many changelings stopped for a moment to look at me before snapping out of whatever trance they were in and moving on. I grinned as I approached the smaller doors and slid my way through, still oriented horizontally. Once outside of the doors I righted myself and looked off into the distance for the landmark the second changeling had given me. As I trotted towards my destination I noted the significant lack of changelings outside of the Colony; I was alone in the desert as a horse with no name. I stopped and shrugged again before continuing onward.

~~~

So, the small trip was almost uneventful, exception being the fact that I mysteriously collapsed again, furthering my confusion on the matter. But eventually I made it to the canyon stairs; this is where the changeling had sent me.

I had asked for an interesting place to explore or visit. They asked if it mattered if it was dangerous. I responded with “hell no” and then proceeded to ask them about rusty spoons, female genitalia, and fetus baths. This garnered very strange looks from the changeling and surrounding changelings, but the level of not-caring was equivalent to the height limit on the Wonka-vator.

I descended downwards into the rocky gouge whistling a merry tune as I looked around for the interesting aspects of this barren vagina. It was indeed a peculiar canyon, it was approximately 50 yards wide with a completely flat bottom and was about 30 yards deep. It was fairly interesting because it just looked off, like I was standing on a roof or ceiling or something. I shrugged it off and blithely continued on down a ways looking for more things to pique my interest.

Congratulations! You found rocks! Now remind me what the fuck we’re doing here again?

I was bored.

We’ve been walking for close to an hour because you were bored . . .?

Yup.

Screw you. There was a pause in my head as the internal dialogue stopped for a moment and I stopped as well. You feel that?

What, I’m being watched? Yeah. But that’s supposed to happen whenever you walk into a creepy canyon that happens to be more interesting than expected.

You’re being followed.

I had been walking again as the conversation resumed, but stopped at this before using my peripheral vision to see shadows flitting around the sides of the canyon and on the ground nearby. This was very creepy and was not appreciated by myself. I groaned softly before continuing on in silence, finally getting why the changeling had asked if I had cared about danger.

I kept going for only a couple more yards before getting tired of the tension in the air. There was so much you could’ve cut it with a saw, built a house out of it, decorated it and furnished it with more tension, invited several unsuspecting people into it for dinner after you had met them the night before at a movie theatre where you had won the tickets for the movie in a radio game involving pickles and walrus eyes, and then murdered them ruthlessly in the basement before hiding their bodies in couches that you sold to small orphans.

I was suddenly confused. Shaking my head for clarity, I decided to confront my stalkers.

“I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR NEW BASEMENT,” I turned around to face a small posse of changelings dressed in flowing scraps of cloth and Arabian style headwear. “Ooh, I like your hat.”

They all froze for a moment before looking quite confused at my statement; I used this moment to glance behind me, only to see another group of changelings dressed ditto. Lucky enough for me, they all also looked confused as hell.

“So, what do you want from me? I don’t strip for free. Wait, I’m not wearing clothes. Perhaps you could offer me some of your cloth before I ruthlessly deny you the pleasure of me stripping naked and decline,” I smiled at them cheerily.

“Wat . . .?” One of them had stepped forwards, indicating his leadership, and had an exceptionally confused face, one which was beautiful enough to molest small children just by sheer look only if that child was a mutated ogre. He looked left and right at his colleagues before putting on a much more lucid appearance. “You’re trespassing.”

“Where? This canyon? Did you actually build that invisible tension-house? CAN YOU READ MY MIND?”

“What . . .?!” He paused in confusion for a moment before continuing, “Regardless of your obvious insanity, you have trespassed in our home and will be punished.”

“Torture? Monetary fine? Imprisonment? –,“

“Death.”

“Well, where is your house? I didn’t see anything posted that said I couldn’t be here . . .,” My happiness and chirpy attitude flooded out of me as I deadpanned seriousness at them. I raised an eyebrow as one of them literally died on the spot. The leader groaned.

“You are standing on top of it,” I looked down at the “ground” and hooved at it for a moment before coming into contact with some underlying support beams and a sandstone ceiling. “And now you have damaged our property too . . ., someone get this bastard already.”

“And now I’m gone,” I teleported a good bit away behind them, back towards the staircase so I could get out of here. Turns out I’m not used to it. Apparently twisting space-time to move from point “A” to point “B” messes with your noggin, so I stumbled around like a drunkard before falling upon my face in a nice pile of sand. “EEYEECHH!!”

After scrambling to my hooves I spat out as much sand as possible on the lam, trying to not die today. Going at the maximum speed I could while still not being used to my absolutely bodacious bod’, I turned my head around to fire a spell off at my pursuers. I watched as they just deflected my purposeless blast into the wall without breaking stride, I grimaced. I tried a little harder the second time before it was then met with the same result and then some.

I yelped and felt my eyes widen as they opened fire with something decidedly more lethal than what I had been packing.

Why must I suck at packing things? I should have brought a sandwich and some hotsauce to go with my healthy serving of GETTING MY ASS KICKED.

Because I had given up on trying to stop them, I decided to go forwards. I teleported once again, still not orienting myself properly on exit, and went tumbling into a very hard object which I had been hoping was the wall. After letting my head and the dust clear I got up and stumbled a couple steps backwards; turns out it wasn’t a wall.

I had found myself face to face with a particularly disturbing pair of creatures. Standing on either side of the stairway was a pony, but these had a few added features. For example, they had little crab-like legs instead of front legs. They also had chitin on their heads, 6 or so bug eyes, and a very nasty looking scorpion tail with a barb on the end. My face twisted in a cross between horror and intense laughter.

Don’t do it . . .

“That musta’ been one HELLA one night stand,” I teleported backwards as he (presumably) struck with his stinger. I was laughing the whole time, mental distortion just amplifying the amusement, as I tumbled backwards out of my teleport and struggled to my hooves before turning around to retreat and promptly clotheslined myself with a root of some sort that was sticking out of the wall.

All of these events eventually allowed my posse to catch up to me, tired and fuming. I got up one more time before the leader lined up his shot and hit me with something oddly familiar. I went flying backwards into the wall, leaving quite the impression on my rocky ally before falling out of it onto the ground. But something was wrong . . .

“Time to face your punishment little worm.”

“Wait . . .,”I groaned.

“Ready!” The entire entourage bent their heads to aim at me.

“Hold on . . .” my pleas were getting weaker as my vision started to fade to black, flames leaping along the sides.

“Aim!” The lights on their horns almost made it too bright to see. I exhaled softly as I finally lost consciousness to my condition and abuse; the last thing I heard before being consumed by pain and heat was ironically . . .

[center[“FIRE!”

Author's Note

So sorry this took so long. Turns out that the entire last 7/8 of chapter two vanished. I went looking for it. Failed. Then I rewrote it. Success! Anyway, sorry for the abrupt change in style as well, it kinda just happened because I had to rewrite it. It fits better with Ch.6. Please enjoy, I should be posting more of the story soon!

The Dark Beneath

Author's Note

Before reading, please note what I said in the previous Notes; this chapter is a little rough and rushed. It's pretty old and was from before I sorted out the speed of the story and how the main character should be. The only reason chapter two might be better is because I had to rewrite most of it.

So at that, if you liked chapter two, stick around and it should get better and things should smooth out as we go along.

The Dark Beneath

As I regained consciousness, it struck me as odd that I didn’t hear anything; nothing but the wind blowing. Even the air smelled the same, the same dusty hot air that I smelled previously. I hadn’t moved. Then I opened my eyes to confirm such. I was still on the ground, check. There was my hole in the wall, check. There are all the changelings trying to get me so they can kill me, negatory. I got to my feet to view the situation. It was surprisingly barren, no changelings in view.

YES! I’m safe!

Wait . . . I gave the area another once over and was horrified by what I had found. The reason there was no changelings, is that they has all turned into spatters of blood and red mist. I walked towards the stairs, soaking in the massacre that had occurred. Blood and craters everywhere, changeling chitin scattered with various remains lying around. The fires and black char that coated most of everything, including myself, hinted at complete destruction. They had been vaporized. My horror grew to its peak once I reached the stairs. There was one left alive, mostly. The scorpion-pony I had laughed at. He was still alive, mostly in one piece . . . and he still managed to speak, even with half of his limbs and organs missing.

“And you think WE are the monsters . . .” With that, he expired, and it all somehow came back to me now. The entire event. I had never remembered what happens when I black out, but now . . .

They were screaming. They were all running in fear as their leader was struck by a bolt of energy that immediately made him explode. Some tried to defend themselves, but it was futile. Their spells did nothing more than make me flinch. I responded in kind, either using invisible blades or the same bolt as before. They screamed as they flew away, or tried as I pulled them back in with my telekinesis. I teleported amongst them; breaking their blades, melting them, using them against them. Blood was everywhere as I became a whirlwind of death, destroying them all, black fire left in my wake. I approached the two quivering scorpion-ponies, they were begging for their lives. The first one; time was reversed around him as he became a fetus once more, the second; I laughed as my telekinesis tore him limb from limb before . . .

Dear god, this needs to end . . . I need to find the Elements. I forcibly stopped remembering, shuddering as I hid it all away in the recesses of my mind. I quickly ascended the stairway and galloped back to the castle.

~~~

I approached the front doors to the main chamber, where I had met the Queen the first time, they opened as I came in. Any conversation that had existed beforehand now ended abruptly. That tends to happen when someone walks in with scorched chitin covered in blood and dust. No one said anything, all they did is watch, as I walked towards the staircase behind the throne. My quiet questions were responded to tacitly after I approached some guards with them. All was soft and silent as I continued to my destination.

~~~

Queen Chrysalis continued on with her meeting with the representatives from Saddle Arabia as they day passed. They were talking about border issues and trade when doors opened forcefully. All their heads turned to see what impertinent fool was interrupting their important meeting. As he walked in, everyone gaped in shock and dismay. The Queen made a sound, as she knew this youngling, and softly walked towards him. The representatives attempted to ask him questions and get him to speak, but he said nothing to them and shrugged them off, head held low and covered with a copious amount of dust and blood on his charred chitin. As Chrysalis approached him, she spoke softly.
“Infineas, what are you doing here? In a state like this?” Silence was the only response as Infineas fought for an answer.

~~~

I sat for a moment as I pondered her question, searching for an appropriate answer. I gave up and responded gruffly.
“It’s time for me to go. There are issues that need to be dealt with before it happens again. I’m going to Canterlot. I need to see the princesses.” She looked at me with a worried face as she quickly ushered the representatives out for the room so we could speak in peace. She closed the doors behind them and turned around to face me, sitting where she had stood.

“What happened? Why are you covered in . . . what is that? Blood?!” I nodded to her.

“Do you recall a group of bandits north of here hiding in one of those canyons?”

“Yes . . .well, those weren’t . . . bandits.” she said slowly.

“ Well, let’s say that you won’t have to deal with them ever again . . .” She looked at me and thought for a fraction of a second before putting two and two together.

“You did WHAT?!”

“Well, no. Not me per say.”

“Then I assume you have a good little story to tell me . . .” And so I told her about how I had been experiencing these blackouts periodically, getting worse and worse every time. Then I explained what happens during those blackouts, where I lose control of my conscious self and, more recently, can commit great acts of evil. “At least, this time it was actually to protect myself and you. But the way I did it . . . nothing but evil.”

“This is an issue. Do you have any idea when it might happen again?” I shook my head. “Well, you can’t go right now, you would need to know how to fly to get past the border line; that is difficult on its own and would take months of practice.”

“But we don’t have time.” Chrysalis grimace as she agreed herself. It would be too much of a risk to hold me here until I could fly. “Perhaps I could disguise myself or something. Aren’t changelings good at that?”

“Well, yes, but you would need a target to disguise. You see, you need to know exactly how your target looks before you can cast the spell that changes you, and if you couldn’t tell, most of us around here are either changelings or beasts. Neither of which are appreciated by the Equestrian border.”

“Wait, I just need to know exactly how they look?”

“Yes . . . where are you going with this?”

“Just teach me the spell.” We only spent about 5 minutes working on it. Apparently the spell is instinctual in all changelings, so it kind of just comes naturally without thinking. After we both were convinced I could do it, I proceeded to show off like an asshole. “Watch me! HAHA!”

First, I was Twilight Sparkle, then I was Applejack, then I was Rarity.

“Wait . . .”

I moved on to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

“What?!”

Finally finishing off with Pinkie Pie.

“You never told me you were familiar with Equestria and the elements!” I grinned, which probably looked right at home on Pinkie’s face. I of course moved on to the finale, the best for last. After only a second to focus, because I never actually saw him in the show, I became the brainchild of mine, Infineas, my OC. Once I was finished, I looked in a nearby mirror to see my handiwork.
“What is this; or more precisely, WHO?” Chrysalis queried. I grinned at her for a moment before I revealed to her that he was my original character in which my name was based off of that I had created myself.

“THIS, is my disguise to get out of here.” My tone darkened. “Before it happens again and I destroy your kingdom.” The Queen sat there for a moment, analyzing my new form approvingly. I could’ve swore I saw something more in that look. Surprisingly I was still charred and bloodied, even with the disguise. So, I was taken upstairs back to the Queen’s quarters where I could use her bathing room . . . area . . . place . . . thing.

As we passed by her room, I poke my head in and noticed that the floor had been repaired. Remarkably fast I must say. Chrysalis yanked me out of her room and then we trotted through a set of doors to an adjacent bathroom. This bathroom was as opulent as expected for royalty, and it was like a larger scale shower. Like, larger larger.

They have the strangest things here . . . and I’m completely stumped as to what kind of tech they have. Geez.

As I enter and get it running, Chrysalis enters behind me, curiously reserved. I take a moment to glance back to see her fuming and mumbling to herself. She sees me looking at her and abruptly stops before turning and leaving the bath area, but not before giving me a very mixed look that was quickly covered up by her usual regal composure. I was slightly worried for her, because I did like her a lot, and I was hoping she wasn’t still mad at me for toasting her amulet. This would be a perfect opportunity to use it.

Okay, perhaps I DO like the whole amulet domination thing . . . on like . . . a really really deep subconscious level. Maybe.

Once I was complete with the idiotically awkward task of cleansing my chitin, which was still hard even with magic. It still hurt to move my crumpled wing; I would have to get that fixed eventually. But the soothing warm water relaxed me and made the pain fade away, if only for a little while. Another plus is that it helped clear my head and put things in perspective as I went over the events of the past couple of days inside my head. It was all making me kind of fangirl-scream . . . until I hit the wall of that last incident with the bandits. This is what brought me back to focus on the moment and restore my somber mood, which was bringing much unpleasantness. After I had finished dying myself off, wrapping my towel artfully around my hindquarters just for amusement and the feeling of privacy, I stepped out while wondering where my Queen had gone.

Wow. “My Queen”. Talk about dominatrix and mind control.

I shrugged that quick thought off as I wandered back towards her quarters, my hooves clopping softly on the black red and black stone tiles; the swirling of the colors reminded me marble. I entered carefully, searching not too long before spotting Chrysalis in the center of the room with a stand and quite an odd object resting upon it. She turned to me gesturing towards the object on the stand.

“This . . . is a gift I would appreciate you having before you leave. It can turn actual food into the emotional energy we changelings feed off of; It’s something I would use on occasion to provide for my subjects when sustenance would become scarce. It also happens to have a good number of additional enchantments and enhancements.” There was a slight pause as she finished, becoming almost awkward as we sat and looked at each other. Then her royal façade melted, softened would be a better word, and she became uncertain. This is the first time I had seen her like this. “I know you should leave . . . but I don’t want you to for some reason. It’s strange, you aren’t a prince or any royalty for that matter, but I just want to be with you. I don’t know why.” She paused again, her confidence and composure returned to a degree. “But I have a Kingdom to secure safety and power for, and you are currently a threat to it’s people.” At this point she almost started crying. “So it is my duty, to thusly declare, that you are banished from this land for as long as it stands a country whole and unbroken.” Tears started to come faster and faster, surprising even more was that she still managed to keep her composure.

We sat there for a minute of two, the sound of tears dripping onto the floor the only thing heard. It was tugging on my heart to see her like this, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. It was disappointing for me, but we both knew I had to leave.
After levitating the neckpiece onto me and securing it, a curious look came across her face as she asked a pretty important question.

“Why the Royal Sisters?” I sat for a moment before responding.

“Well, they have the Elements. I’m pretty sure that it’s the only thing that can help, or send me home, though I want to stay.” We finished that relatively easy task in silence and I slowly walked to the doorway before I made my leave. As I turned around to face her, she looked away for a moment. She looked back at me with hope, before altering my ultimatum.

“I will lift the banishment if you can fix your problem. Please, come back.” And with that, I walked through the doors and down the hall a ways. I took the towel and cut it a bit, trying to make my new persona as convincing as possible by making a scarf. I mean, who would be in the desert without some form of protection? After I wrapped it accordingly around my face and started channeling my usual teleport spells to get down to the doors. But there was a catch, instead of channeling through my horn like usual, it channeled through the gem in the neckpiece and was severely amplified. This caught me off guard as I warped only once, being caught off guard also changed my landing location. Suddenly I found myself outside in the desert, surrounded by glass and a fading ring of red. Some sort of sonic boom. My landing had apparently melted the sand around me into glass.

I changed form into a pony yet again as I crunched across the desert towards the equestrian border line, in silence. This neckpiece was a very powerful tool, one that someone would need to be careful with. I left the glassed dunes now, trotting closer and closer to those . . . friendly . . . colts on the border. Hopefully they’ll scout ahead and I won’t get blasted when I walk up.
The sun was starting to set in the now amber sky as I reached the approximate distance I had last time before getting sent back. This time was different, there was a sort of hesitation before the bolts started coming. I cursed to myself, one hit and my disguise was useless.

“Fuck.”

Wave after wave of energy barrages were sprayed at me as I panicked and teleported to avoid them, clouds of sand erupting as the bolts hit where I had once been standing. Doing some complex teleporting acrobatics, I could just barely avoid getting hit.
“C’MON! GUYS! STOP!” They ignored me. “SERIOUSLY?! I’M NOT A CHANGE-“I was forced to teleport before I could finish that statement.

“GODDAMN IT!” I screamed as I was cart wheeling through the air to avoid more of the nice friendly blasty bits. My screaming was still to no avail as they proceeded to continue ignoring my pleas. “FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA!” Surprisingly, the bolts stopped.

“Now you hear me! Sheesh m- . . .stallion . . .” I cantered towards the line before any of them decided to have some more target practice with their apparatus. I was still panting after all of that; I need to get back into shape.

Haha . . . funny joke . . .

The soldiers gathered around me as I came up to the very edge of the border; It seemed they weren’t going to let me pass until I was properly inspected. I sat there as we seemingly waited for nothing. Then a Pegasus mare covered in battle armor floated down to stand in front of me. We stood for a moment, me glaring at her and her scrutinizing me. The silence continued for a minute or so before I decided it was safe to break it.

“Why the HELL did you not stop firing at me?”

“Why the hell did you identify as a changeling to our spell?” I was caught off guard, thinking my cover was blown. Then it occurred to me that I could still salvage this situation and my mind started racing for an answer.

“Well, it’s probably my neckpiece.”

“Where’d you get it, colt?”

“I happened to acquire it directly from the changeling Queen’s armory.”

“How in Celestia’s name did you accomplish that, a full on assault with the elements of harmony or something?” The entire platoon started snickering and laughing in disbelief. I smiled a little and slowly turned to all of them one at a time until it nervously faded. Then the silence became full of tension as all of the stallions, and mares, coughed nervously and shifted under my gaze.

“No. I battled the changelings that I found there and picked it up in the queen’s chamber. . . and what makes you think the elements wouldn’t help me anyway?” They all started to stare at me even harder now. Then the Pegasus captain shrugged her wings and most of the soldiers trotted back to their posts. I tried to shrug in response with my wings, but my injured wing still hindered me and the Pegasus clearly noticed.

“What happened? Did they get you?”

“Eh, an uncontrolled fall from a couple thousand feet up can hurt, even into sand.” She chuckled a little before asking another question.

“So, REALLY how did you get that thing?”

“Stole it.” We both laughed for a bit before she guided me to some barracks nearby where the rest of the force was resting and gambling.

“So, what are you doing crossing the border? Where do you need to go?”

“Well, I’m an ambassador from lands far past the changeling land and actually wanted to talk to the Princesses about something very important. But I got captured by the changelings and had to escape. So now I’m here.”

“What’s so important that you need to travel that far?”

“There is a great evil that is rising alarmingly fast that needs to be dealt with. The only thing I could think of is the Elements of Harmony.” She made a long whistle before she responded.

“That’s a tall order. Only the princesses can call for the Elements like this, and even then it’s in a time of great danger.”

“Trust me, the danger is significantly greater than anyon- . . .anypony can imagine. But enough about the troubles I bear, I don’t think I got your name.”

“Ironhawk. And you?”

“Infineas. Have I met you before? You look familiar to me. Do you have any siblings or something?” she laughed a little before making her statement.

“Yeah, I get that a lot, my sister is captain of the Wonderbolts. Spitfire, you know?”

“That’s quite a shadow to live in. What are you doing here?”

“I get by. I’ve always been a rough and tough flyer, so I joined the military. After the changeling incident at the royal wedding, Celestia herself put me here. So here I reside.” An energy blast echoed off in the distance.

“Are they always trying to get in like that?”

“Yeah, we have to stay alert or they would get through. You gonna stay here tonight or is your quest that urgent?”

“It’s pretty important Ironhawk. I probably have to leave soon. I need to arrive ASAP before something terrible happens.”

“Well, I’d see you off, but I need to get back to my duties too.” She walked me out of the barracks and then completely across the border to the edge of the forest awaiting me. “Stay safe soldier. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”

“Maybe.” So at that, I part ways with my first friend I made in Equestria and I trudge deeper into the night cloaked forest, moving ever closer to the Elements of Harmony.