Infinity's Edge
From Old High to New Low
Previous ChapterNext Chapter"Why is this happening to me...?" I groaned. Opening my eyes and looking to one side, I spotted where I had dropped the too-yellow gold coin. It was thick, and I could see, on one side, the embossed image of an emerald-like gem. It once again impressed upon me just what had happened yesterday, assuming it was, in fact, a new day.
"Everything is the problem, ADA. I'm in a suit of unfamiliar armor talking to an AI from a game while stranded in an unfamiliar world, with the better part of my body having been turned into something other than what I was born with, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with all this. I didn't ask for it all to happen." I paused. "Ok, well, I kinda did... I was getting fed up with Earth, to be honest, especially since there was nothing interesting for me to do, and the geopolitical climate was only getting more annoying by the day. I'd kinda wanted something to break up the monotony, but... I wasn't looking for anything like this."
"Don't even. I don't operate the same as other, normal folks: I have ADHD, which means I process things differently from everyone else. And this whole thing is... it's overwhelming. Which means that, if I'm going to be stuck here for any length of time, I'm going to need time. Time to adjust, time to--" I abruptly sat bolt upright. "TRAINING BEGINS NOW...!" I declared, almost nonsensically, then chuckled at my own joke.
"It was a quote, from a thing." I waved my hand dismissively, then began disentangling myself from my sleeping bag. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still upset about it all, but I'm gonna need to find food if I'm gonna be stuck here, and possibly find another place to crash."
"There's a dead dragon in here," I said, already having left the tent and begun stretching. "Dead things start to smell pretty bad real quick, and I'd rather not have to deal with that."
"NO." I was very forceful with the word, to get my point across. "For one, it'd be sorta disrespectful to do that. Not that leaving her as she is would be much better, but it's still more natural. Secondly, ew...! I'm not gonna let my hammerspace -- what you call my 'personal claudication' -- get all corpse-y, even if everything is stored separately." By now, I had started pulling my sleeping bag and the cloak out of the tent, intending to roll up and store the former, and perhaps put on the latter.
I paused, blinking a couple times. "Actually, I kinda forgot I could do that..."
Dropping the sleeping bag, I planted my hands on my hips in as businesslike a manner as I could. "ADA," I said, "one thing you're gonna have to learn about me is that I'm rather absent-minded. I can get distracted by something for five seconds, and completely forget what I was doing or thinking about. I can get so lost in thought that I start wandering around on autopilot, and not realize that I'm doing it for several seconds at least. Also, the whole hammerspace thing is something I'm not used to; you spend your life living without such an ability, and you get used to a certain way of thinking about how you carry stuff." I bent over, grabbed the sleeping bag, and began rolling it up again.
I looked at the sleeping bag in my hands, now with its elastic bands holding it in a form optimal for storage. "What, I can't just roll up my sleeping bag if I feel like it?" I asked, tossing it back into the tent and grabbing the cloak. Slinging it over my shoulder, I zipped up the tent and used the cloak to make it vanish. After a quick double check of the cavern to ensure nothing interesting was left behind, I turned to looking about the cave. There really wasn't much left that I hadn't already stowed in my hammerspace prior to resting... save for the large, saurian corpse.
Y'know, it'd be a shame to just leave her here like this... I thought to myself, I should at least give her some kind of send-off, asshole though she was.
"Hey, weird question... There wouldn't happen to be anything flammable in the stuff I picked up earlier, would there?"
Silence.
"ADA...?"
"That was addressed to y--"
"Oh, that's... thoughtful of you. Sorry."
"I wanna cremate the body. Dunno why, I just do. Yeah, she tried to do God-knows-what to me, but she still sorta deserves a send-off."
While ADA was weighing options, I went to investigate the corpse of... what was her name again? Gil-something? Eh, didn't matter, really. Honestly, the body wasn't too bad, really. The place where I'd severed her head from her neck had been cauterized, so there was no real amount of blood or gore-related mess left behind. There was, however, a pool of some mostly-dried waxy substance around the severed neck, but I wasn't about to investigate too much further.
"Thanks ADA, I'll take the lot."
"I said I was gonna burn the body. I never said anything about putting much thought into how." I began spreading supplies of the proffered substances as liberally as possible, hoping to get this done quickly. "Honestly, when it comes to burning shit, more is usually better. Just make sure we save at least a little bit of each: I wanna see if any of it's valuable in the local shops sometime later."
"There, done! I think... Hey, d'you know if dragon corpses are actually crematable? If I remember correctly, some varieties are immune to lava, especially the fire-types, so... Eh, too late to turn back now. Ignition!"
With that, I drew my handy lightsaber and, using the plasma-y blade, touched off the corpse. Of course, it was only after I'd done so that I remebered yesterday's doubts as to it ever working again. The materials in which I'd doused the body were quick to catch fire, spreading all over the body in an array of colors and throwing up a fair bit of smoke. To be honest, it was probably time I left the cave, unless I wanted to suffocate.
Upon stepping outside, I was once again greeted by the sight of the less-than-hospitable forest around the mountainous spire, as well as the distant small town.
I should probably get going before the smoke from the "cremation" catches anyone's attention down there, I decided, I mean, I know I told ADA that I intended to sell stuff later, but I don't wanna be here when the inevitable investigation party comes asking questions; I'm not sure I just wanna walk into town so soon without a fallback plan for a place to stay, either. I doubt they'd take kindly to strangers wandering out of the forest wearing full armor and a cloak, regardless of how draconic they are.
KWH-BAMPH...!
I was almost thrown off the mountainside by the unexpected explosion from inside the cavern, and I was left coughing in the resultant outpouring of smoke. As I did my best to step out into clearer air, aided by ADA, I reflected upon the idea that maybe I could've been a bit less liberal with the flammable substances, then sat down and leaned against the rock face.
"Oh, come on, I just can't get a break, can I...?" I asked, not looking for an answer. I really needed to get gone, before I could be found by the locals. And the quickest way out was to leave the mountain by air, which I wasn't entirely sure I could do: I wasn't entirely in control of my new-ish wings, but I didn't exactly have time to try them out before I made this next move...
"It's time for me to take a crash course..." I said, cutting ADA off as I leapt off the far end of the ledge, "in falling with style. Let's hope it won't be our last...!"
I turned myself to a rough approximation of a dive as the lower half of my visor snapped over my face, feeling my cloak billowing in the wind while my fledgling wings flapped ineffectually against the air. I was moving away from the mountainside enough to keep myself from crashing into anything, but only barely; I was still "falling" more than "gliding".
OK, this is definitely not the time for a Hiccup-and-Toothless test flight moment...! I thought to myself, then did what I could to reach behind myself, grab my wings, and try to support them against the air through which I was falling. The result was nigh-instantaneous: they snapped to their full extension, and I almost screamed aloud from the strain that came from cupping the air at such a speed. My descent slowed abruptly, crudely converting my vertical airspeed into horizontal thrust.
Fighting through the slightly-fading pain, I tried to angle myself forward and down-ish, aiming for the distinct landmark of the ruined castle in the near distance. Less than a minute of improvised, panic-fueled aerobatics later, and I was briefly tangled in the unfriendly embrace of a tall tree. Seconds later, I fell, hitting several branches on the way down. I was lucky nothing broke when I finally hit the dirt, though I hurt all over.
My response was a simple, pitiful groan, though even I had to admit, battered and abused as I was physically, she was right. So, with what seemed an almost Herculean effort I slowly got up and, with a bit of guidance, stumbled off towards the castle once more.
~~~~
(Sometime later...)
I finally reached the ruins, covered in twigs, dirt, bits of vine, and other forest debris, and I was ready to crash. "Fuck this whole place in particular," I said, as I began searching the gorge around the ruins for a bridge that was still intact enough for me to try crossing. Fortunately, I found one a little way away. "All it's brought me is nothing but trouble."
"Wh-- no, not the ruins: I meant Equestria in general, which is where I'm pretty sure we are right now."
"Course not. Not exactly a fan of the place, myself," I said, and then kicked at a small patch of stupid-looking blue flowers. "Then again, if we -- or, rather, I, -- am in Equestria, that means we're in the Everfree Forest, those so-called 'ruins' are what remains of the Castle of Two Sisters, and that town we saw is likely Ponyville."
"Remember those things that chased us at the cave? They looked a lot like what my people call 'pegasi', and the body proportions I think I saw belong to a version of the species that I'm pretty sure is native only to the world of Equestria."
"I'm not fond of the show from which the concept of the place originated," I replied, glaring at nothing as I walked. "That doesn't mean I can't have a soft spot for the villains of the show, purely because they consistently and repeatedly manage to fuck up the central characters' oh-so-perfect lives. Speaking of which..." I turned and looked back at the now-distant patch of flowers I'd kicked. "I hope to God those weren't Poison Joke, because if they were, things're gonna get weird pretty soon."
I took a moment to gather my thoughts as I crossed the bridge I'd spotted earlier. "Well, the effects are rather diverse and, as far as I know, hardly documented. The only common factor is that the folks who've come into contact with the plant succumb to effects that could be construed as 'prank-like,' at best. As for the timing... It doesn't take hold immediately, manifesting instead some undisclosed amount time later."
The conversation continued between the two of us as I ventured across the bridge -- which, thankfully, didn't decide to collapse on me, -- and onwards into the ruins once more.
As I got closer to the broken-down former castle, I could better appreciate just how big the place had been before the Sisters' falling-out. Even partially leveled and age-weathered as it was, it was a magnificent sight to behold. Not that I had the time to stand around rubbernecking, of course; I needed to keep moving, and so I did.
"So," I said as I pushed through the overlarge front doors, "about that matter-energy stuff you were telling me about earlier. What's up with that?"
"What... are you saying, here?" I asked, hesitantly. I was fairly certain what ADA was getting at, but I wanted to hear her confirm my suspicions before springboarding off of them to a possibly fatal conclusion. "Put it in layman's terms for me: a simple analogy should do."
ADA sighed, which I believed was a first.
"Wait, how'd you know about the Arcanical energy stuff? That's not even Ingress related...!"
"And yet, you still had me define 'weird' for you."
"That's... disturbing." I said, and paused momentarily to run the conversation back a bit. "So you're basically telling me there's literally magic in the air."
"And that magic's essentially what you 'filled' those energy capacitors or whatever with--"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. And you used some of this stuff to reform some of this armor I've got on me, yeah?"
I gave an amused snort. "Ah. And... would it be possible for me to learn this power too...?" I paused a moment after that, musing on how close I'd come to quoting a younger Anakin...
"Oh, you and I are gonna get along just fine," I said, then paused to survey what looked like a long-disused library. I'd have to investigate that later, after I'd possibly set up camp.
"Har har. But seriously though, you made artificial 'constructs' outta this stuff, yeah?"
"And you said it's sorta similar to various fictional things, including XM from Ingress, where you're from, right? At least, I assume you're the same ADA from Ingress..."
"Well, if you can make 'constructs' like armor, and it's like XM, couldn't you recreate other XM constructs from Ingress...?" ADA didn't reply. "ADA...? You still with me?"
"Awesome. That's something we'll have to figure out later, then..." I replied, now looking up a staircase. I wasn't entirely confident I should use them though: the supports looked questionable at best. "Of course, d'you think it'd be possible for me to learn how to do that stuff too? In addition to the armor-manipulation, I mean?"
"Well, I may not always be able to call on you in drastic situations, be it for timing reasons, or issues of stealth. As such, it'd be prudent for me to have some independent control over this stuff. Also, we could tag-team or something in a pinch, with you on defense, and me on offense."
"Sweet, thanks."
And so, I continued exploring the castle, looking for a decent place to crash. Fortunately, ADA was kind enough to throw up an impromptu map of the areas I'd explored, so I didn't get lost.
As I progressed, I made my way deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ruins, being wary of possible traps. Yes, as un-fond as I was of Equestria and its inhabitants, I'd seen an episode or two of "Friendship is Magic," including where the central characters had explored this very castle and subsequently fallen victim to various pratfalls scattered throughout. The whole thing was pretty much staple of the "abandoned ruins" concept across fiction, so it wasn't too hard to anticipate most of what I came across. That said, ADA saved my bacon on more than one occasion when I did the real-world equivalent of failing a perception check.
"Seriously...!" I exclaimed, after narrowly avoiding one such inconvenience, "why are these things even here? Did they, like, install them after the castle was abandoned? Or did they just live with the constant threat of death from day one of the castle's existence?! None of this makes sense!"
"Oh, hush. Let's check that dungeon cell over there: I've got a good feeling about it."
"Har har. Now, let's see what--"
A burst of green light sent me flying backwards into the bars of a nearby cell, which rang with the impact as I slid to the floor.
"Well, well, what have we here...?" A buzzy and unfamiliar voice mused. "Bad luck for you, it seems. Can't have you running off and telling ponies I'm here, now, can I? Guess I'll just have to kill you instead..."
I looked up I to a face that I vaguely recognized, though only by race. "B-bug...!" I stuttered, still half dazed from the impact. The being before me, of course, wasn't a giant bug, though there were several insectoid qualities to its otherwise equine silhouette. In short, it was undoubtedly a Changeling, with mostly-black chitinous flesh and all the other usual accoutrements.
"Yes, yes, thank you for that overused racial slur," the Changeling said, voice dripping with disdain. "Now, die."
I hardly had to be told. By the time the next blast came, I had already rolled to one side, somehow using the ensuing momentum to bring myself to my feet. As I did, I found the weight of a sword in my hand. It was light, even for the ones I'd brought with me, which I found unusual. See, despite what you might see on TV, most normal swords aren't much more than two or three pounds, with even the biggest "normal" swords barely cracking the five-pound mark. As such, they don't take much muscle to hold or lift, though being able to swing one around for minutes (or even hours) on end is a different story.
By now, I was moving practically without thought, leaping over a third blast and preparing to bring the blade down on my aggressor. Unfortunately, I never connected. Both the blade and my hand were seized midair and yanked backwards, slamming me to another wall. The blade dissolved into green light, and vanished. Goddamn magic, being all unpredictable and shit.
"A fighter, eh?" The Changeling asked. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know anything about a dragon hereabouts, would you? I mean, aside from yourself."
"Well, there was this one bitch in a cave up on a spire nearby," I replied, almost casually. "With 'was' being the operative word in that sentence."
"Was...? What happened?"
"Blew her the fuck up, that's what happened...!" I proclaimed. "She went out like the total bitch she was, too, in the end."
The Changeling squinted at me, though I couldn't read the exact reason: I wasn't the best at judging human facial expressions, so equine ones, similar though they were, had their own language that I couldn't quite get. "You didn't happen to catch her name, did you? Or what she was doing...?"
"Uh..."
"Yeah, thank you," I replied, momentarily glancing to one side as I spoke, then turned back to the Changeling. "It was Gilraea, and I think she was doing some weird pseudo-science stuff. Something about potions, or whatever? She kinda mutated me into what you see now, so, she must've done something at least partially right."
"You... Gilraea?" The small figure asked, taking a few steps backwards. "No, no, that... you can't've."
"And yet--"
A blast of green energy slammed me into the wall again, jarring me more than I expected. As I looked up, trying to keep an eye on the Changeling, I found myself being hoisted in a field of green-ish energy, which matched the smaller field surrounding the wickedly-curved horn on the Changeling's head.
"You know what I think...?" They asked, obviously not looking for me to answer. "I think you're faking. Probing us for information, after seeing her lodgings blow for whatever reason. Why are you here though? Looking for more information to pass to your master, Celestia? We know she has at least one dragon working with her precious ponies: who's to say you're not working for her, too? Talk, spy...!"
"Wow, paranoid much?" I asked. I was pretty sure, just from that little rant, that this bug was irrevocably convinced of his own conclusions. I still had to find a way out of this if I wanted to survive, though. "Seriously, I'm not a dragon. Or, I wasn't, originally. She turned me into this, I tell you. I used to be something called a 'Human', but now I'm about 90 percent dragon--"
<91 percent.>
"91, yes, thank you. Seriously though, flip up my visor, you'll see just how serious I am--"
"I can see your lower jaw just fine -- yeah, it's freaky, I get it -- but who the heck were you just talking to?"
"Literally a voice in my head. No idea where she came from, but I call her ADA."
Seriously, I thought, hoping ADA would hear me, if this guy tried to blast me again, a shield would be nice...!
"A likely story, spy," the Changeling said, sarcasm obvious in his voice. "Fine. If you won't tell me the truth willingly, we have ways of making Ponies talk."
"Good thing I'm not a pony..."
The words slipped out before I had a chance to realize what I was saying, and it earned me another slam against the wall.
"That's it, I'm taking you to be interrogated. And to make sure your troublesome mouth stays shut..."
My mouth was forced open, and a chunk of rock was less-than-gently inserted, leaving me unable to do much more than give the guy dirty looks. It wasn't exactly the nicest-tasting rock, either.
Like what...? I thought, still not entirely sure she could "hear" me doing so. I'm almost literally tied up here: there's nothing I can do. I was being towed through the air by the Changeling by this time, who was making his way back into the cell from whence he'd appeared.
There was a flash of green light as my captor activated some sort of arcane-looking circular array thingy on the floor, and after a few seconds of enduring a dazzling lightshow, we were all suddenly somewhere else. Somewhere bad.
To be honest, I was officially willing to accept that I was presently in Equestria, on whatever planet the land (Country? Continent?) was part of; I'd seen more than enough evidence to throw all possible arguments out the window. That said, in contradiction to the downplayed explanation I'd given ADA, I'd looked far enough into the MLP franchise for me to be able to recognize my current surroundings.
I was smack-dab in the middle of some sort of Changeling hive.
The place wasn't well-lit, but it didn't have to be for me to tell that the place was literally buzzing with activity. As I was subsequently dragged through the air behind my captor, I caught some decidedly unhappy muttering from other Changelings we passed. From the gist of it, I was pretty sure it was directed at my "host," and not at myself, though I wasn't exactly sure why.
As we moved into deeper and darker tunnels, I could've sworn I saw strange creatures moving just out of sight, which definitely didn't look like standard Changelings. I wasn't entirely certain, though, so I did my best to put it from my mind.
Uh... What was that thing you were telling me about a minute ago? I replied silently. Whatever it is, it's probably better than nothing, so tell me about it.
I don't care about risks: can you do it?
I was wordless for a few seconds, considering my options. I had no idea what having access to the armor's reserves would do for me, but if ADA suggested it would help, then I had to take the chance.
Do it then. If you think it'll help, somehow, then do what you can.
Thanks, ADA. If you're of a mind to report the progress at all, go ahead and throw up a progress bar on my HUD with a percentage counter or something: I may need to focus on my surroundings here shortly.
Yeah, don't be afraid to speak up then, friend, I reassured her, and turned back to watching my surroundings float by. Honestly, if this soul-binding thing was anything like the enchantment of the same name from Minecraft, did that mean the armor would somehow come with me if I died...? I could only hope it wouldn't come to that...
My musings fell short as my captor and I entered a large chamber, one much grander than the one in which we'd arrived. Somewhere left of direct line-of-sight from the door and a fair bit beyond the room's center, there rested a less-than-pleasant-looking throne upon a slight dais. Upon this throne, which felt strangely familiar to me, there sat an armored bipedal figure of tall, slender, and effeminate features; her eyes closed, her wicked fingers steepled before her breast, and her breathing slow, she could almost have been asleep... save for the fact that one eye opened lazily as we approached, followed by the raising of an eyebrow.
I wasn't exactly sure, because of the lighting, but she seemed to be wearing some sort of full body-armor that looked dark, organic, insectoid, and vaguely unpleasant in strange ways. Well, either it was armor, or part of her body... after all, the Changelings I'd seen on the way weren't wearing anything that I could see, though I'd never caught a glimpse of Chrysalis herself, thank the gods. That said, this figure bore ratty, dark-teal hair like Chrysalis, and she had a cruel horn protruding from her dark forehead with Swiss-cheese holes through it like Chrysalis. But, all in all, she looked more like Roodaka (a Vortixx from the old Bionicle franchise) than Chrysalis...
"Why do you disturb me with this intrusion into my private sanctum...?" The voice of the being, buzzy and multi-tonal as it may have been, was just as disturbingly familiar as she whom it belonged to. Before I had time to contemplate where I might have seen her before, I was roughly tossed to the ground by my captor and then pinned in a splayed position by his power. "Did I not order you to investigate Gilraea's status a mere few minutes ago? Why have you returned so quickly?"
"I come, bringing something of interest, my queen," he replied, dipping his head. "I found this miserable wretch wandering the bowels of the old castle ruins in the woods near Gilraea's cave."
"I'm well familiar with them. What of it?" The Queen snapped.
"Well, he claims that he, and I quote, blew her the fuck up, endquote." He reported, ears drooping, but he quickly continued. "Unfortunately, it seems a team of local pegasi from the nearby township were already at Gilraea's cave by the time I arrived, and are turning what's left of the place over as we speak. Luckily, one of our local plants managed to weasel their way onto the team before they left, so at least we'll know what they know, and a bit more besides with our helping of context."
"Yes, yes, I can see them now. Looks like a lot of stuff was either missing or destroyed. But what about him?" The Queen asked, beginning to tap a foot in annoyance as she gestured to me. "What does he have to do with all this, aside from his absurd claim to her death?"
"Ooh, ooh!" I said, putting on an excited tone. "Tell her about the part where you think I'm a spy, and somehow thought it'd be a great idea to drag me into the apparent heart of your leader's camp...!"
"YOU WHAT...?!?!" The queenlike being demanded, rounding on the unfortunate Changeling.
"Ahhh, um, I mean, I figured we could pump him for information or something...?" The Changeling suggested, speaking much faster than before. "Of course, I could've jumped to conclusions about the whole thing, it's just that his claims seemed so outlandish, and I've heard rumors of a tall bipedal stranger walking around in full armor that apparently sided himself with the ponies a while back, and I figured this might be him, so--"
"SILENCE!!!" The queen demanded, leaping to her feet. "Lest you burrow yourself any deeper into the hole you've dug."
"Yeah, you're drilled so far into the bedrock that you were still accelerating when you hit the bottom of the barrel," I added.
"Hold your tongue, outsider...!" She snapped at me. "I'll deal with you later. Now, as for you..."
"Please! Please, Lady Chrysalis, I beg you! I'll not be so careless again...!" The Changeling began bowing and scraping, inadvertently releasing me from his magical hold. As he did, I carefully took the opportunity to get into a cross-legged sitting position.
"You're right," the so-called "Chrysalis" said, appearing not to notice me as she summoned a ball of green energy at the tip of the jagged horn protruding from her forehead. "You'll never fail me again." She then blasted him with a wave of green hellfire, and I briefly saw his silhouette disintegrate within the inferno before it all dissipated, leaving nothing behind.
I swallowed heavily, and turned my attention back to "Chrysalis," not caring how evident my fear was. She was wearing a grim, satisfied grin and chuckling slightly. All too soon, she fixed her dangerous gaze on my seated form and began walking over to me. Without my even thinking about it, the faceplate beneath my helmet's visor snapped closed, covering my mouth and nose once more.
"Oh, dear, don't be that way..." One of her sharp, clawed fingers found its way under my chin as she leaned over me, and she lifted my gaze to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry you had to see that unfortunate exchange. You see, I can be quite merciful to those serve me well, or at least stay on my good side. After all, their service is what I pay them for." Her voice was soft, almost caring, though still marred by that buzz...
"Wait, you actually pay these guys...?"
"Allow them to live for," she corrected, her finger scratching against the bottom of my helmet as her composure briefly showed cracks all of which were quickly smoothed over. "But no matter: what is of greatest importance to me at this time is you, stranger. Who are you? Where do you come from? And to whom do you bear allegiance?"
"Uh..." My gaze briefly flicked to the progress bar ADA had thrown up on my HUD: she was approximately 73% finished with her "preparations," whatever that meant. "You just vaporized that guy..."
"No, no, he's just been transported to a nearby empty lava pocket until such time as I have a much cooler head, and can deal with him personally. Now, about my questions..." She smiled at me, dangerously, with a hint of a dark glitter in her slitted eyes.
"Ah... well, I guess you can call me Caldoric. As for the other two questions, well, they kinda go hand-in-hand. See, despite what I said earlier about the guy thinking I was a spy, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time: I actually don't owe my allegiance to anyone on this world, or plane of existence, or whatever it is in this reality..."
"Wait." The figure before me held up a hand, standing tall once more. "Do you mean to imply that you're free-roaming? Or that you're somehow from 'another world'?"
"Mostly the second, though I guess also the first now that I'm basically a stranger in a strange land like this one." I shrugged, then continued on before I could be stopped again. "I gotta know, though: why'd that guy call you Chrysalis? You certainly don't look much like her, though there are some passing similarities between the both of you. I mean, she was an insectoid-equine quadrupedal ungulate, but you're a bipedal... I don't even know."
"Believe me, I am indeed that same Queen Chrysalis of which you speak, though I must wonder..." She leaned over once more and glared into my eyes. "If you're a stranger to this land, and have no allegiance to anyone here, how do you know what form I previously took?"
"Multiverse Theory: ever hear of it? Well, in layman's terms, in a Multiverse with infinite worlds, everything is possible. And it just so happens that, in the world I come from, everything here exists within a story, except dumbed down and told to children for their entertainment." I paused, momentarily unsure if I should go on, then pressed ahead with reckless abandon. "It mostly follows the adventures of Twilight and her friends--"
"Everything?" Chrysalis seemed suddenly interested. Almost dangerously so, in fact. "What does this story say, pray tell, about myself and my hive...?"
"Well, you're one of a few villains who crop up to disturb the otherwise peaceful world of Equestria -- a rare recurring one, and one of my personal favorites at that -- but you still ended up getting your ass whooped by the old 'Power Of Love' bullshit a couple times..."
"Damn it all to Tartarus!" Chrysalis shouted, stomping one foot with enough force to crack the stone beneath her before stalking off to one side. She paused, covering her face with a splayed hand as she shook with rage. "I never can seem to catch a break, can I? Even in another world..."
"Hey, it's not all bad: I mean, if it helps, there was one tale of what most folks would consider a 'bad ending' timeline, where you prevailed at the wedding and managed to take over most of Equestria. Of course, there were still a couple pockets of resistance afterwards, led by a zebra named Zecora who seemed to be the only one sensible enough to suss out Changelings from 'normal' folks, but that's not necessarily a constant across all timelines. After all, in the 'original,' you never ended up looking like... this. I mean, it's a bold change, but what exactly happened with that?"
Chrysalis turned to look at me again, her expression one of dangerous caution, mixed with a bit of lingering anger. "Honestly... what you say does help, to a degree. Imagining the entire nation within my grasp, its subjects slaves to my very will, and the future of my hive practically set in stone... it pleases me. Pray, tell, what set that timeline apart from this one?"
"Eh, someone went back in time and dicked with something that normally would've started a chain reaction that caused the Elements to get together in the first place, though that was only one of several attempts to disrupt their friendship through time-travel, with other attempts resulting in other major villains ending up in control, such as Sombra, Tirek, or Princess Luna's alter-ego, Nightmare Moon. Bad endings, all of them."
Chrysalis gave me a strange look, and I could almost see gears turning in her head. That... probably wouldn't be a good thing for me in any timeline...
"Oh...? A working time-travel spell was finally created? And the timeline of my success was but one of many? Tell me, those others... How did they fare?"
"Uh...?" I flicked my gaze to the progress bar again. 86%. Honestly, why did I care about that? It probably wouldn't do me any good... "Well, uh, Sombra was back to being at war with Equestria proper, using an army of mind-controlled crystal ponies from the North; Nightmare Moon had seemingly irrevocably banished Celestia to God-knows-where and thrown the world into what one could only assume was neverending night, (though I doubt the logistical viability of such an action given that plants need light and the world needs heat from the sun); Discord was... well, Discord; nobody's really sure what happened with Tirek, though I think the blasted wasteland that Twilight showed her aggressor back in the 'present' to get her to rethink her actions was probably part of the Centaur's doing. And you already know yours."
Chrysalis growled dangerously. "Twilight Sparkle...! Her and her little friends, her fellow little Elements of Harmony...! Always ruining everything I worked so hard to set up! And whom, might I ask, was responsible for the time-travelling itself? For altering the timeline on such a scale, as you so claim, and putting little Twilight to so much trouble to fix it...?"
"Er... If you're thinking of nabbing her means of temporal displacement, I'm not sure she's created it yet, or if she's still even on the same destiny-path thing that would lead her to doing so in the first place! I don't even know where or when I am -- or rather, we are -- on your timeline in comparison to the quote-unquote 'alpha' timeline presented in the sho-- the stories back home!"
"Her name...!" Chrysalis demanded. "I want her name! I wish to propose... an alliance..."
"Y-you really shouldn't" I stammered, and became momentarily incoherent as I scrambled to find the words. "S-s-s-she, uh, if she hasn't done it yet, then it uh, it means twilight hasn't fucked with the thing she's working on r'now, and, uh, she hasn't subsequently gone crazy enough with revenge to like, try fucking with the spell...? Like, time-travel's heavy shit, you know, and-- Aack!"
My rambling was cut short by the sight of Chrysalis conjuring a ball of green flame in her bare hand. "Tell me what I want to know, or there will be repercussions."
"S-suns-- wait, no, that's the other--... Starlight, uh S-starlight Glimmer. But, uh, y-you really don't wanna--" I flinched as Chrysalis raised the fireball, and shouted the first thing that came to mind. "Y-YOUR HIVE STARVES!!! I-I mean, it w-- it will, or a-at least it'll come close, if you keep up this warlike behavior towards Equestria, but s-she fixes that, later, sorta... but only after her madness is a-allowed to run its, uh, its course, and Twilight's reformed her and shit... s-so, uh, y-you're b-better leaving her al-alone for the time being, if you really care for your Changelings...!"
Chrysalis was silent for a few moments, letting the fireball dissipate as she took in what I said. At long last, she spoke.
"I do care for my Changelings, I'll have you know. There's not much I wouldn't do to keep my people, my flesh and blood, alive. And so, even though you have no reason to speak either truth or lies to me, nor I to even remotely trust you, I'm choosing to have a little faith in you. Your words, though spoken in fear and haste, they have a taste of honesty about them, with a lick of desperation and regret. For that, I will allow you to live."
"T-thank you...!" I murmured, briefly dipping my head to her. "To be honest, I have uh, n-nothing in this world right now, not family or friends or... or even a place to call home. So I have nothing to g-gain by lying, and everything to gain by being honest. That, uh, said, there is one thing in this world that I know of that m-might be able to get me home, but unfortunately, it's in the care of the... nnnh..."
"Speak up. I'll not be taking requests, but I would hear what you have to say: it may prove invaluable should we need to effect a tactical retreat."
"Um, well, see, it's in the care of the Equestrian diarchs, and uh, it's not small or easy to transport, and f-fragile, very fragile... It, uh, as far as I know, it connects to, like, at least one iteration of my world, but I dunno if it can be, uh, recalibrated or something? I think Starswirl or someone made it, so I d-dunno how it works, or anything about magic in general but... It's my only hope right now."
"And what is it...?"
"A m-mirror, of sorts... Huge, for a pony, t-tall, purplish frame, horseshoe-shaped, 'bout eleven red diamond-shaped gems set into the frame? B-but it only opens once every thirty moons or some bollocks, unless Twilight gets involved, in which case it opens whenever anyone wants..."
"Well? Do you expect us to sneak you in there on a whim?" Chrysalis demanded. "I'll not have anything to do with that mare, unless it involves her destruction!"
"Y-you don't have to...! I was just... I was gonna j-just ask for their help on this -- they're really big on helping folks in need, I'll tell ya that -- she'll probably jump at the chance to do something new and unexpected w-with magic..."
"Oh, so you'll bargain for your passage with what information you've gathered here, then? I don't think so."
"N-no, please...! I wouldn't tell them anything, I s-swear...! I already told you a number of times, I owe them no allegiance, I wouldn't even tell them you were still kicking up trouble. I just wanna go h-home, alright? But, I do g-gotta know..."
"Speak, whelp." All trace of friendliness was gone from Chrysalis' voice.
"Well, y-you never answered one of my questions... H-how did you, uh, end up looking like, well, the way you do now?"
She sighed, heavily, then knelt down so she could look me roughly in the eye. "Remember how I said there wasn't much I wouldn't do for my people?" I nodded, and she continued. "Yes, well, I was offered a significant increase in power and ability, as well as physical modifications to my very self, in return for allegiance to someone of great power. Power so great, it boggles even my own mind to try and comprehend his command over it all. And he shared some of it with me..."
"Hah, you sold out to somebody else?" I asked, shocked and amused at the revelation. "Wow, I never figured you for the type to do such a thing!" I then lost myself to a bout of chuckling at the absurdity of the idea: Chrysalis, someone else's gopher? Damn, that must really chafe...
Chrysalis, however, was less amused. "Indeed, some might see it as such. Yet, with your apparent knowledge of things to come, our plans against Equestria would fall into place much more smoothly. Join us, and your wildest fantasies could be realized: you could have anything you so desired."
"Well, as much as I like the idea of fucking over random Equestrians, my deepest desire right now is to just go home, and although I've no allegiance to either side of this little conflict you've got going on, Equestria has what I need to achieve my goal. Sure, I'll have to probably kiss up to them a bit to get Twilight to try and fiddle with the mirror, but I wouldn't do anything to implicate I had any sort of Interaction with you and yours; I'll swear it on anything you care to name, if that helps." I held my hands out to either side, and grinned hopefully. "As far as they'll know, this meeting never happened, and I don't even know you exist...!"
Chrysalis chuckled darkly, and I instinctually checked the progress bar. 97, no, 98%. "Oh, I think you misunderstand. I said I'd let you live: I never said you could leave. After all, you know too much about us now. And I wasn't offering an invitation to join us... I was telling you what your future entailed."
"How 'bout fuck off?"
I was immediately caught up in a pocket of nebulous green magic, which was synched to a matching bubble of magic around Chrysalis' hand. With a gesture, my back was slammed to the ground and my limbs were drawn in all directions and held there. I was officially stuck.
"How 'bout no?" She replied. "You're too much of an asset and a liability to let go. You'd best prepare yourself: you'll be staying a long time."
I didn't wait for ADA to finish, or even allow myself to think, before I acted. "Chrysalis, you're never going to get me to cooperate. Whatever your beef is with the Ponies, I don't care: it's not a cross I'm gonna die on, and especially not for you. The only way you're going to save yourself the sort of trouble I can cause you is to kill me, so you might as well--...!"
Meanwhile, as I was tirading at Chrysalis, I was sending a simple message to ADA. The only way I can see myself getting out of this is if you set that soul-binding thing, so...
"Just do it!"
I said and thought those last three words at the same time, sending a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that I might survive to see another day, or, failing that, that my death would be quick and painless.
At this moment, I was overwhelmed with intense anger, an unyielding rage at everyone and everything around me, but above all at myself for having let myself get into this situation. No matter what I'd done so far, it had all led to this moment, possibly the last of my life.
"Then perish!" Chrysalis spat, replying to my seeming invitation.
The self-proclaimed leader of the Changelings drew back her free hand, which was already engulfed in green flames, probably the herald of my coming doom.
A voice, unfamiliar and uninvited, began echoing in my head as everything hyperfocused and slowed to a crawl. "Thunder in your right hand, Lightning in your left: Frost behind you, Fire before you: Stars above, and Earth below. Where you must stand, there is neither up-ness nor down-ness; at the center of all, all things pass untouched, for there, there is only... BALANCE!"
My entire form was suddenly nothing but pain, but beyond it I could sense something greater: a power, a strength, that I had to reach, I had to master, or all would surely be lost: my rage wouldn't let me entertain any other option. I reached as best I could, and...
~~~~
If there was one thing Chrysalis prided herself on, it was her ability to sense the emotions of a nearby being on a surprisingly intrinsic level. All Changelings shared the ability, of course, but her senses were the strongest among her entire hive (and, she told herself, out of all the other hives as well.) And, thanks to the augmentations she'd been so graciously given by her new benefactor, she could also divine the approximate thaumic power level of a given being as well.
The entire time she'd endured the presence of the strange young not-quite-dragon presently lying before her, she'd been able to read him like a book. One written by a very eccentric author, perhaps, but a book nonetheless, with a beginning, a middle, and an all-too-predictable end in the imminent future. He was cocky and overconfident, sure, yet he was also scared, confused, and full of a despair that almost bordered on full-on loss. And there was just a hint of something darker, a shadowy seed deep within, hidden behind the strangely complex layers of his personality. She had to commend him on holding his composure so well this whole time, too; most normal ponies would've been cowering and weeping by now, near to pissing themselves if they hadn't already at the mere sight of her. But this stranger? No, he was defiant, even now.
Stranger than that, however, was the fact that his magical power was so absurdly low, even for someone of draconic blood: it was practically non-existent, even. She almost thought it impossible, yet she had also heard tales and reports of magicless entities scattered throughout the known world, so it wasn't entirely unthinkable...
She'd been savoring the moment of the impudent wretch's coming demise too long, she realized, and moved to release the spell she'd prepared especially for his destruction.
That was when it all went wrong.
She felt a sudden upsurgance of dark energy within her audience of one, yet he was not the source of it: instead, it felt like some form of remotely activated spell, the exact nature of which she could not identify. In that initial moment, her hold upon the stranger who called himself "Caldoric" was forcibly broken, the released energy of which was strong enough to send the Hive-queen sliding several feet backwards. Chrysalis was left momentarily rattled, though it was but the work of an instant for her to regain her composure and once more lay eyes on her quarry. As she did, Caldoric's back arched and he gave a strangled yell, though she knew not why. Chrysalis, unsure for a moment, mentally pinged her hive and told them to be ready for trouble.
By this point, Caldoric's body was fully engulfed in the now-familiar clotted haze of dark magic, and was being bodily hoisted into the air by it. A moment more, and he was upright once again, having ceased his infernal screaming. He stood hunched, breathing raggedly, as a spark of magic ignited within him. This time, it seemed to Chrysalis to be a spark of his own, instead of some unknown benefactor. As it grew, and expanded to fill his soul almost to the brim, Caldoric looked up, locking his unseen and unseeing eyes with Chrysalis'.
This isn't good...! She thought, as she took in the sight of him. Even though she couldn't see his eyes from this range, she could tell they were pouring out purple smoke and practically glowing green. His stupid little tattered cloak was billowing in a nonexistent wind, his clawed hands and the two horns protruding through his helm were all engulfed in similar clouds of purple-green energy, and rage was just about the only thing Chrysalis could feel from him as he began chuckling darkly. What was this, some absurd sort of thaumic surge? Whatever it was, it did not bode well for Chrysalis or her forces. My children! She cried over the mental link, Your Queen is threatened! Come, lend me aid!
With but that simple command, she could feel the entire force under her command moving to her defence, and she could even now see shadowy figures slinking into the chamber through unseen entrances.
"Vee hee hee...!" The unusual words, as of laughter spoken aloud, caught Chrysalis' attention, and she looked at Caldoric. "So, won't you play a game with me, me...? I'll teach you what it truly means to be free!"
"Cease your tomfoolery, and surrender!" Chrysalis replied. "I'm through playing your games!"
"Aw, boo-hoo, but how can you refuse me when you're already playing?" Caldoric brought a hand to the approximate location of his mouth, and chuckled. "See? 'Tis but a simple game of numbers!"
"What of it? What is this foolish numbers game you so desperately seek to play with me?"
Caldoric's back hunched a bit, his wings splaying in a show of aggression, and his visor snapped open to reveal a mirthless and predatory grin. He spread his hands out wide, in a gesture that begged her to guess. "Simple: when your HP falls to zero... You die!"
Chrysalis barely had time to throw up a defensive shield before the bolt of magic Caldoric launched struck it. Not even half a second after, she was punched in the gut by a bolt of electrical energy that sent her flying across the room, where she smacked against the far wall. Dazed by the impact, she noted that he seemed to be singing, but the words escaped her. Sounds of battle and magical music echoed in her ears as her consciousness threatened to fade entirely, and left her wondering one thing:
For someone with no natural magic, how had he gotten off those two spells, let alone in such quick succession?
Author's Note
The "Spire," btw, is the same one seen previously in the show, where that one red dragon takes up brief residence and nearly smokes out Ponyville. Early season, idk which.
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