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.