I burned. It was the only way I could describe what I felt in that moment. It was hot, and cold, and tingly, and nothing, and it was my everything. In my desperation, I had grasped the force behind the pain, and now the pain was no longer of concern to me. There was only the power, and the rage.

See, just like most people, I'd never been fully in control of my life, and I had been wholly out of its control since the museum, which felt months ago now. But now, I had the power: I could make the changes, and I could be free!

Tickled with a euphoria that only helped the rage burn brighter, I giggled, then chuckled, realizing I had somehow become upright once more. Looking up, I saw Chrysalis had apparently backed off, looking shocked, or concerned, or something. Not my concern, really...

I decided it was time to have some fun with this new power. I left it flow and dribble where it wanted, and I could feel it pool in my hands and horns as I prepared my impromptu attack. It felt like that singular moment was at a momentous turning point, and I was certain that it was time to channel some madness; Jevil should suffice...

"Vee hee hee...!" I said, garnering Chrissy's undivided attention. "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 spat back, slashing a claw horizontally through the air: oooh, she was piiiiiiiiiissed...!~. "I'm through playing your games!"

"Aw, boo-hoo," I said, mockingly, "but how can you refuse me when you're already playing?" Coyly, I placed a hand to my faceplate, just over my mouth, just to be annoying: fortunately, it was something I had years of practice in doing. "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?"

She had taken my bait: perfect. I settled into an aggressive slouch with a chuckle to myself, and I could feel my still-sore wings splaying up and out, above and behind me, probably as a newfound instinctual thing. As the lower half of my visor/faceplate thing snapped open, and new icons flashed into vision on my HUD, I gave Chrysalis the most mirthless, predatory, axe-crazy grin I could. I held out my arms then, just to show her how many fucks I gave in that moment: goose-egg. "Simple," I replied to her question, "when your HP falls to zero... You die!"

I jabbed my left hand forward, remembering a spell I had become fond of in my days of D&D, when I played an unwilling warlock dragonborn: Eldritch Blast, one of the staple cantrips for the class. The magic that now flowed wild through my very being responded without hesitation, sending a triad of dark beams sizzling across the distance to Chrysalis.

She got up some sort of shield to block the attack, but my right hand had begun moving half a second behind the left, channeling another spell I was fond of, though usually far less successful at casting (usually due to crappy dice, and nothing else): Witchbolt! The deadly arc of electricity managed to get past her defences, slamming into her stomach and throwing her across the chamber, ass over teakettle.

I didn't even pay attention long enough to see her crash against the wall: I was already belting out a few lines from Lynard Skynyrd's "Free Bird" as the appropriate music began playing from thin air.

"♪'Cause I'm as a bird now... and this bird you cannot chaaange~...♪

My attention was drawn by movement all around, and I saw a veritable horde of small, dark, rustling, blue-eyed shapes that were likely very angry I'd bitch-slapped their Queen. I didn't even break time in my singing as I spread my arms wide in challenge, relishing the imminent fight. "♪Lord knows, I can't... cha-e-aa-e-aa-e-ange, yeah, yeah, yeah,♪ YEAH!"

Without a further word, I launched forward into the forming crowd with a flap of my wings, tail lashing as Free Bird's signature epic guitar riffs played loud and clear around us. I swung wild and free with my fists, I kicked savagely where I could find purchase: I sent forth blasts and beams of pure destruction with my blazing new powers. My rage, my soul, my very being burned brighter and more intensely than it had ever before, and I found myself going all-out berzerk on every single one of them.

And it was easy.

And it felt wonderful.

I yelled with the full fury of my rage, I screamed aloud with delight, I cackled with abandon at the onset of madness, and I was, in that moment, untouchable.

I summoned blades of dark energy from my hands, and of pure crystals pulled from the ground all around me. I sliced and diced, I reached and grabbed, crushed and thrashed and tossed, I moved faster than sight or thought, and then something hit me, hit me hard enough to register through the red mist that had descended upon my vision. It staggered me, made me tingle in unpleasant ways, and restricted my movements. Then another unknown something hit me, and I was hindered yet more. I shouted wordless hate at the air, the cavern, at my foes, and tried to power through this new obstacle, but I could not do it. I was struck again, and again, and then again, and I found myself unable to keep from falling.

And I could not maintain my rage.

And the pain came, then. And it was worse than even the burning I had felt those mere moments ago, before I had been flooded with power. In my heart, my rage lost its hold, and died, and my glorious power faded with it, and I was left with naught but pain and immobility as foe after foe piled on top of my rigid form.

What will become of me now...? I wondered to myself, my thoughts filled with sorrow. It hurt, to be made to let go of that moment of impossibility. For a brief time, I had spun, and the worlds had spun with me. But now, I had crashed, and the worlds spun on without me. It was so unfair...

I closed my eyes, ready to let the encroaching darkness take me.

~~~~
Chrysalis sat up with a groan, pressing a hand to her aching head. The sheer amount of input she'd suddenly had to take after this Caldoric character's attack had overwhelmed her, and the pain her kin had felt had momentarily driven her unconscious. But now...

"Ah, you have finally awoken."

It was the voice in the shadows, the voice of her new master. It held no emotion, nor any concern for her well-being.

"Are you done napping in the dust, little insect?" He asked. "I had to step in at the last moment and appropriate control of a number of your forces to settle this debacle of yours. Are you even worth the powers I gave you, I wonder? Or must I always do everything myself?!"

Chrysalis' first instinct was to begin spewing apologies, but experience taught her that it would be better to wait out her benefactor's wrath, silently accepting his judgement when it came.

"You will rectify this situation," he continued, the voice itself still only audible to her. "You will deal with this intruder promptly, and then return to the creation of new forces. This setback has already cost us months of effort."

"As you command," she replied silently, and made her way over to the dogpile of underlings currently holding Caldoric down. Commanding them to move aside, the interloper's prone form was quickly revealed to be encaged from head to toe in a dense net of crackling, sizzling energy, and Chrysalis took a moment to look through an artificial reconstruction of the brief scuffle, created by the many recollections and viewpoints of the Hive-mind.

What she saw shocked her: after she'd been rendered unconscious, Caldoric had leapt into combat like nothing she'd seen before. She watched as he became a veritable dynamo of destruction, quickly turning into some unholy cross between a tornado, a blender, and a possessed woodchipper. Honestly, she was amazed that any of those he'd encountered had been left even marginally whole.

Now, however, as she looked down into his eyes, she could sense nothing of the earlier rage: dazed confusion seemed to be the only thing in its place. She held out a hand, full of pure destructive energy, ready to reduce Caldoric to little more than slag.

"You wretch... You have cost me much more than you can know with your actions here today. As such, you shall know the sweet taste of Oblivion, but not before I have a little fun first: perhaps I should pull the wings off the butterfly before me, to start...?"

"No, no more fooling around!" Her master's voice sounded again, this time as normal sound that carried through the air, the source appearing to be a tall, ragged figure leaning heavily on an unusual scythe-like staff in a dark corner. At those words, however, Caldoric jerked against his restraints and fought to turn and look at the source.

"Who... is that...?" He groaned, laboring to get the words out.

"Knowing would do you little good, wayward fool," the figure responded. "You shall perish imminently."

"Try me," Caldoric spat back, gaining strength. "I almost recognize your voice, but I can't place it. I just need a nudge: a name, even."

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow in the general direction of the shadowed figure, awaiting instructions. There was a moment of silence, and then...

"I am known as Makuta, Master of Shadows. Know it, and tremble in fear."

~~~~
I immediately burst out laughing, much to the surprise of Chrysalis and the self-proclaimed "Makuta". The voice, now that I thought about it, sounded much like what I remembered the voice of Makuta in Bionicle: Mask of Light to sound like, but that didn't really mean anything.

"Ohh-ho-ho," I finally choked out, "that's, that's hilarious. Tell me, which Makuta are you supposed to be? Mutran? Krika? Oh, oh, maybe even Teridax...?" I couldn't help myself: I began laughing again. "Seriously, if you're supposed to be a Makuta, then I'm Toa Vakama, and Chrysalis here is Roodaka!"

I barely had time to register the sound of Chrysalis readying herself once more to kill me before "Makuta's" voice called out again.

"Stay your hand, Chrysalis!" He barked, voice still ringing as deep and edgy as when I'd first heard him speak.

"But sir, I--"

"Silence!" That shut her up. "I would hear from him how he comes by the knowledge of those names. Speak, whelp, and I might allow you a quick and painless death. Waste my time, and it will be slow, and painful."

"Oh, what next?" I asked. "You know a thousand ways to kill me, and 941 of them hurt? Don't try to quote Bionicle lore to me, faker: I was following the story as it came o--rrk...!"

My wrists and ankles were seized in what I could only assume to be magic, and something large, angular, and blunt shoved itself into my back, forcing my restrained (and tingling!) body into a painful, semi-vertical position.

"I will give you one more chance," the edgelord intoned, as Chrysalis visibly smouldered before him. "Tell me, if you take me to be false, then what do you make of this very real Visorak...?"

No sooner hand the speaker finished, than a dark, squat shape entered into my field of vision. I was too shocked to provide any sort of real answer: before me was, as I had been told, a very real Visorak. I could smell its foul stench from here.

You see, Visorak are large, four-legged spiderlike creatures from Bionicle lore, a sort of intelligent beast that liked capturing and occasionally mutating less-fortunate prey they happened across. They had massive mandibles that were almost as long as the rest of their body, and each of the six separate breeds was capable of launching an energy spinner from its back, the specific breed determining the spinner's effects on the target. They also did not smell good.

The one I was looking at, however, was not one of the six normal variants. Granted, it looked much like an Oohnorak, the black variant known for eerily perfect vocal mimicry, but it didn't have the yellow-orange accent colors indicative of that breed. The whole thing was almost entirely black, save for its eyes, which were the same strange teal as those of the unconscious changelings around me, and on its forehead it bore a crude mockery of a changeling's horn.

"The fuck...?! That's no Visorak I've ever seen before!" I proclaimed, flinching as the energy field that still coated my body caused a fresh wave of tingling to race across my battered frame.

"It's a new variant," I was told, "created thanks to the generous donation of time and genetic material from young Chrysalis and her hive. What say you to that...?"

"That's... interesting, but how are you even here? For one, the Equestrian and Matoran universes were from separate fictional franchises, created by two equally separate toy production companies. Admittedly, I'm somewhat willing to accept this place as being real, because Multiverse Theory, but not that the real Teridax could ever really be here as well, which brings me to my next point: Second of all, aren't you supposed to be dead, Teridax? Could'a sworn you took a fuckin moonlet to the head in that final fight with Mata Nui, and on Spherus Magna no less, not whatever the hell planet this is."

"And how could you be so sure this isn't Spherus Magna?" Teridax asked, smugly, as if he'd somehow caught me out. "Aside from your so-called 'multiverse theory', that is."

"Sir, forgive my intrusion, but is this conversation truly necessary?" Chrysalis asked, sounding impatient. She had already taken a seat on the floor, and begun tapping her clawed fingers against the cold stone. "I would advise that we dispose of him, swiftly, and be done with the whole debacle."

"Hold, Chrysalis: I would hear what this whelp would say before passing judgement upon his head." He then fell silent, and I could tell he was waiting expectantly for my next words. I merely scoffed as if the answer were obvious, and summoned as much false bravado as I could.

"Pshhh, the answer's easy," I eventually explained, and found that I wasn't exactly lying. "The fucking moon, man. Equestria has a sun and a moon, the latter of which Princess Luna supposedly moves into position at the start of the night. After Mata Nui whooped your backside and completed Bara, Aqua, and Bota Magna's Reformation into Spherus Magna, there were no moons or other satellites left orbiting the reforged world. Honestly, if there's anything my people have come to understand quite well over the last several decades, it's things like orbital mechanics, and the natural formation and acquisition of satellite entities by larger astral bodies in a stable or semi-stable solar system.

"Hell, we've sent folks to the moon of our own world using machines with less computational, calculation, and processing power than the 'smart' device in my pocket, and all entirely without any of the magic that the people of this world hold so dear. We've even gone so far as to isolate and split the atom itself, and then weaponize that technology to make bombs that were then used on a couple of our own cities, just because they were being assholes. Of course, we also put a stop to doing that ever again because of how devastating it was: we're not completely stupid, after all. And you think yourself so clever for deciding to take over the Matoran Universe, when you stole the entire idea from Pridak and the other Barraki of the League of Six Kingdoms. And yeah, I know about that."

I then proceeded to give him a variation on the speech delivered to Batman by Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises," though I wasn't exactly paying attention to what I was saying, so I'm hazarding a guess when I say that my version probably went something like the following: "See, you merely adopted the shadows, expunging yourself of all inner Light until your 'mastery' was absolute, and only from there did you plot and scheme. My kind, however, have carved their very existence from the twilit realm between Shadow and Light over the last ten-thousand-plus years of our history, and we are all the stronger for it."

After that, I believe I concluded my "reason you suck" rant by reading him and Chrysalis a very foreshortened riot act about the great and terrible things that Humans of times past have done, and how interlinked it all has been. I even pointed out how the final death toll of World War 2 swings wildly between 15 and 85 million depending on what any given person is willing to define as a "casualty of war". Chrysalis was looking a little pale by the end of it all.

"And... You say this all has taken place over the last ten thousand years?" Makuta asked at last, after a brief silence.

"Yeah... Our natural lifespans are the blink of an eye for the likes of you, so we gotta make a big splash if we wanna be remembered in the history books. Nowadays our life expectancies range anywhere from seventy- or eighty-something on average to a little over a hundred-ten at the outliers. Standard of living has had a big impact on that. And as for the whole 'ten millennia" thing... I may be misremembering on the low end, there. Mosta what I told you about happened within the last thousand, maybe fifteen-hundred years: we've got excavated fossils of our ancestors across the globe that go back ten 'kay' at least, maybe even a couple hundred."

"And what do your people call themselves, again? As a species? After all, you've routinely mentioned acts I know the dragons and their kin to be incapable of, and you've made mention multiple times of having been 'changed' by my former underling, one 'Gilraea' the Dragoness."

Teridax seemed dangerously interested, but I humored him. I really wanted to just get outta there, and I was thinking that compliance might just be my key to survival in that moment.

"In scientific terms, we refer to ourselves as Homo Sapiens, though in more commonplace conversation we just call ourselves 'humanity,' 'humankind,' 'human beings,' 'humans,' or, more often than not, just 'people'. Far as we know, we're the only sapient race on the planet, so we never really have to talk about our species in a more formal general sense in day-to-day speech."

"Impossible...! I heard Makuta mutter, and was unable to formulate a response because, just then, the Visorak that had resolved itself to crouching just below my limited field of vision finally popped up again, and then I felt the ends of its massive mandibles clamping around my midsection. There was no sense of crushing or puncturing, no indication that my armor had been completely and violently breached, yet I still sensed my form being pumped full of what felt like pure hydrochloric acid, and the pain of it quickly rendered me unconscious.

~~~~
"What are you doing?!" Chrysalis demanded as Caldoric's form went limp. "I thought we were going to kill him for--!"

"I am subjecting him to a test..." the shadow among shadows spat at her, its glowing orange eyes briefly flared red with blue irises, and Chrysalis shuddered to think upon the battered mechanical monstrosity they inhabited. "I would learn whether or not the venom of your bastardized Visorak is viable, and what effect it may have on the already altered form of this... most interesting guest of ours."

"...Master, there's something you're not telling me about this. What is it?"

"You will have him bound in Visorak webbing, and taken to an observation cell. A close eye will be kept upon him, until further notice. He may yet be of use to us..."

"Sir, I must ask what is going through your mind at this moment." It burned Chrysalis, and quite obviously so, to know that she was not the one in charge of the situation, that she wasn't holding all the cards: it wasn't fair, she believed, and she felt that she deserved something right now, so she pushed her luck. "You've commandeered my experiments again, despite claiming I would have free reign with the results of my efforts. You've appropriated my invader-slash-impromptu-assassin, and forced me to sit through more than enough of his inane chatter.

"There are many things that I do not tell you, Chrysalis!" The form of Makuta snapped, and everyone awake in the cavern just then flinched at his words. "Enough, in fact, to span many dozens of libraries' worth of books. But know this: A long time ago, my kind were tasked with the creation of many various forms of wildlife for the world in which we found ourselves. This duty, as well as the powers inherent with it, have since been handed down to you, my little Harbinger of Pestilence. Yet, even with all of that, I have taught you a mere fraction of what I know of such genetic modification, and if you wish to live long enough to learn more, to discover if the genetic well-being of your own kin can be salvaged from its abominable origins, then you will do as I say.Am I clear?"

Chrysalis was momentarily taken aback by her master's tone, but she recovered quickly and gave him a curt nod in leu of speaking her mind any further.

"Good. Now, clean up this mess and leave me be; there is much that I must now consider, in light of our guest's revelations." The shadowy form of Teridax turned and lurched off into the darkness, disappearing from sight and earshot into the shadows themselves. The Visorak that had incapacitated Caldoric gathered his unconscious form onto its back, and scurried off in another direction, seemingly acting on Teridax's orders without waiting for Chrysalis' permission.

Chrysalis carefully pinched the bridge of her nose -- a gesture she felt she was going to become all too familiar with in the future -- and ordered any and all available and able-bodied Changelings still nearby to swing around and assist with the dead and injured in the chamber.

~~~~
My whole body ached, and I was most definitely not in a comfortable position when I came back to wakefulness. Honestly, I was getting tired of "waking up" in these new, less-and-less-favorable situations. This time, for example, I was stuck inside something that seemed almost like a mummy-style sleeping bag wrapped in duct tape and filled with untold numbers of sharp, pokey objects along the inner surface-- oh, who was I kidding, I was stuck in a Visorak cocoon with only the facial portion of my helmet sticking out, presumably so I could breathe. Also, it felt like my very veins were faintly burning with some distant infernal fire, and I could hardly move my extremities.

"ADA!" I exclaimed, gladly, only to stop short and cough a few times: the flesh of my lower abdomen, just below my ribs and around my lower spine, was severely achy, feeling like just after having a week-long flu where the lingering cough wears out the deep-coughing muscles. "Hoo boy, glad to have you back, buddy!"

"Eh, it'll be fine," I lied. "I think I know what it is, and what it's meant to do. It's a known evil, and one I think I'm prepared to deal with, assuming I survive the initial changes that come with it."

<...really? What exactly happened while I was out?> She asked.

"Ah." I took a moment to consider how I'd answer her request for information. The fact that she could be disrupted had me a bit concerned, but it kinda made sense, given that she was a self-proclaimed AI. "Well... I think the best way to put it is that the sudden influx of power kind of ran away with me, and I went berserk on everything. So it seems the whole ordeal affected us both in less-than-optimal ways: at least it's a one-off, eh?"

I chuckled a bit, taken aback by the sass. Yeah, she had to be doing alright if she was cracking those kinds of jokes.

"No, nothing so dramatic as that. I just... ran into a ghost straight out of a childhood story, who then had an equally mythical monster attack me, then I blacked out and woke up here."

"To whom are you speaking...?"

"Waagh...!" I exclaimed, and instinctively rolled away from the unexpected voice of Teridax: it was every bit as deep, menacing, and slow as I remembered. The room in which I had found myself was a bit dark, to say the least, but it hadn't been a concern until now, because I had forgotten Teridax was capable of communication through shadows... and apparently travel through them as well, given the fact that there was now a massive armored shadow in the chamber with me. "Uh, n-no one! I just talk to myself sometimes as if I'm having a conversation with someone else, because it helps me deal with things..."

Run silent, run deep! I silently told ADA. But still stick around, and wait until he's gone before talking again; I dunno what he'd do if...

"Oh, really...? It wouldn't, perhaps, be the so-called 'AI' of which you spoke before? When you first were captured in the old Castle of Two Sisters?"

"H-how d'you...?"

"There is much I see through my control over the shadows... I even noticed your arrival to this world, though I admittedly paid you little mind at the time; you are not the first from beyond this reality to arrive in such a fashion, but perhaps the second or third of which I am aware."

"And why d'you care?" I asked, after a moment. "Even if the other anomalies you detected were other folks like myself arriving here -- which isn't even guaranteed, mind you, -- they won't bow to you, or anyone else like you: we may bend a knee to those we respect, but never truly bow. We humans are headstrong, unlike the submissive ponies and other races of this world."

"So you claim. And yet..." Makuta strode forward, allowing his massive form to become more easily visible. He was always a stickler for being huge, the bloody shapeshifter... "I have seen your kind before, more than three millennia ago, before they all vanished from the face of this world."

"Wait, w-what? I asked, confused both by what I had been told, and by Teridax's appearance. I had been expecting to see what might best be called his "Shadow Titan" form, being his normal, iconic look that most Bionicle fans are familiar with. Instead, I got... something entirely different. "Wait, w-why are you a busted-up Exo-Toa? Is that what you jumped ship in after you got mooned? How are you still possessing that thing with all the holes in it? It looks like when Ultron first showed himself to the Avengers in their second movie, dear God!"

Indeed, the figure before me was that of a set of Exo-Toa armor, massive and battered, with pieces missing or rusted clean through. It leaned heavily on an almost-as-battered streetlamp post, which had been converted into a sort of staff. A long, scythelike blade had been crudely affixed to the top, welded or fused to the arching armature where once had been a gas or possibly-magic lamp. The staff itself was part of a mechanism attached to the wrist of the suit's left arm, where I was sure there once had been an electro-rocket launcher. The punching apparatus build into the right arm was heavily damaged as well, with a pair of vital pistons broken and dangling freely.

The suit whined, rattled, and creaked when it moved, and it was a marvel that it was even remotely functional enough for the energy-based Shadow Titan to still be inhabiting it. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the fact that Teridax's race had once spontaneously evolved, aeons before the main events of the Bionicle storyline, into beings of pure energy that required hermetically sealed vessels to contain their essence and keep them from dying? Amusingly, one of the first substitute vessels for their initially empty suits of protosteel armor was a single suit of Exo-Toa armor. Amazing how things come full circle, isn't it?

"That... is a long story, and one I'm not willing to fully relay at this time." Teridax said, at length.

"Fair, but... Still, how'd you drag that sorry hulk across dimensions from Spherus Magna to Equestria? And what'd you mean, 'you've seen us before we vanished?' And three millennia? Didn't you hear me say we have more than ten or a hundred thousand years of history and genetic roots on Earth?"

The Exo-Toa's glowing eyes dimmed briefly as it shook its short, squat head. "It seems I gave you credit for more intelligence than you were worth, human. You yourself mentioned a theory of the Multiverse, did you not? Does your theory not allow for the idea that time may pass differently betwixt other, disconnected realities? Do your orbital mechanics not allow for other planets in other systems to have a difference in the length of their years, or days, depending on planetary size and local position within the solar system's hierarchy?"

"N-no, I just... I mean i-it's something that crops up in s-science fiction sometimes, b-but I didn't think that--"

"No, of course you didn't think." Teridax thrust the dull edge of his scythe under my chin, which shut me up. "Now, hold your tongue, whilst I'm still inclined to spare your pitiful self a meager quantity of knowledge." At my tentative nod, the blade was removed from my throat, and he thumped the cracked stone-like chunk at the other end of the staff against the ground. "Good. Now, listen carefully, as I'll not be repeating myself. Interrupt, and I'll like as not leave you to the rigors of your fate. After all, I assume you know what now courses through your body, do you not?"

I nodded hurriedly, then let my eyes unfocus as I spoke before he could. Not that he could see them through my helmet... "It is that which would reduce me to the ancient, the primal;" I recited, "the most basic, instinctual part of myself that the civilized of my kind like to believe progress has made us all forget. Hordika venom is its name, and it is the bane to all free-thinking life..."

Makuta seemed taken aback at my words. "Indeed," he said after a second, his tone betraying little emotion, though the glow of the Exo-Toa's eyes narrowed noticeably. "That is one way of putting it. Regardless, listen closely, and I shall reveal all. This world, this planet, is indeed Spherus Magna: upon my fortuitous escape from the wreck of my brother's former body, I acquired this stray Exo-Toa, battered though it was, and it was a matter of little consequence to have it repaired enough to contain my essence: where there is the light of civilization, -- even one as shattered and disorganized as that of the Agori, the Matoran, and their protectors, -- there are those that skulk in the shadows who are willing to aid the likes of myself. Over the ensuing millennia, I silently watched this world as it evolved, and the wildlife evolved with it.

"A most interesting concept, evolution; in all my time before the reformation of Spherus Magna, I'd never known Rahi -- or any other living being, for that matter -- to display such an ability to change over the course of mere generations... The beings that I and my kind made were all designed for specific purposes, and they fulfilled them well in the course of time: they never had room or reason to change. And yet, to the far North of the Agori and Matoran civilizations, the rahi-like creatures became more and more organic, with shorter and shorter lifespans. Eventually, as I wandered, it felt such that I merely needed blink, and dozens of new subspecies would come into being within that instant."

"Such is the curse of longevity," I chimed in, unable to stop myself; not having a good filter between my brain and mouth was a curse of its own, but that was a topic for another day. "To see the world rush by, swift as a river, while you seemingly stand still. Watching empires rise and crumble in mere moments, and never being able to truly appreciate the wonders they bring in their brief existence..." I ground to a halt as Teridax glared at me again.

"I'll forgive you the transgression of your speech, if only for the unexpected grains of wisdom concealed within that statement..." He grumbled at last. "That said, among the many beings I saw arise as I journeyed further to the North, I witnessed the progenitors of the current Pony races. They were far grander and more majestic than the pathetic progeny of today, and above all else, they held far more power than they do now. Granted, it was a wilder form of the magic now prevalent across their kind, but it was still stronger.

"In time, as they learned to shape the magic more towards the light upon which they so dependently leaned, I put my mind to crafting a darker form of it, and I easily succeeded in my task. You yourself used it not so long ago, which I must admit intrigues me to no end. For as I watched the ponies and the other, less interesting races arise from the dust of this world, so too did another unusual species catch my eye. Can you guess which one it was...?"

I waited a couple seconds, unsure if he actually wanted me to respond. "Uh... The Draconequi? You know, Discord's race?"

Makuta blinked for a moment, then gave a faint chuckle of laughter. "No, not them. Though they do have their merits, given their affiliation with Chaos itself. No, the species that truly caught my attention... was yours."

"Wait, the fuck?!" I demanded. "You're still on about that whole 'Humans are from Equestria' thing?"

"Not from Equestria, no. But your ancestors, the first humans, wound up creating quite a nuisance of themselves amongst the other races of this world. Their constantly shifting alliances with other races, and even between their own individual clans, as well as their incredible adaptability and the speed in which they expanded their territory across their corner of this world... there were few who didn't wish them gone, after a time. And one day, about three millennia ago, every trace of humanity vanished without the barest trace. Save for one, that is: there was the faintest hint of a great magic left behind, though not one of their own working. They had never acquired magic of their own, you see, relying instead upon their ingenuity. No, someone else made them vanish, and no-one knew where they had been sent, till now.

"Recently, I have felt multiple instances of a similar kind of magic to that which removed your ancestors from this reality, coinciding with the arrival of a number of individuals. You are the latest of these arrivals, and in light of the information you have so graciously provided about yourself and your kind, I have a proposition."

I raised my eyebrow, but got no response from Teridax. I quickly realized the issue. "Uh, I'm raising my eyebrow here, man. Sorry 'bout that, my helmet's in the way..." The way Teridax dimmed the lights of the Exo-Toa's eyes in that moment, and the way he sighed, made me realize just how much he was beginning to question this conversation, and I could almost hear him thinking something like, "why do I suffer this fool to live...?"

What he actually said, however, was this: "In light of all I have revealed, and what few strange things I have overheard you saying to various others since your arrival... I offer you the choice to join forces with me, and those who trail in my wake. As you know quite well, I have an open position that recently became available. You have expressed that you possess no love for the Ponies of Equestria, or most other races upon the surface of this world, or even the world itself. You also seek a way to return to the world from whence you arrived, Earth, which your people have called home for generations untold, do you not? I can fix this for you, if you so desire: I could acquire the workforce necessary to create a Kanohi Olmak, a Great Mask of Dimensional Gates, by which to send you on your way... or, perhaps, to even repair the one you already possess...?"

I blinked, confused. An Olmak? I didn't have... wait, the masks from the museum back home: one had been mostly golden, with wide and angular cheek-fins that might almost be considered "bladelike" by some... could it have been an Olmak, the same sort of mask worn by former Order of Mata Nui member, Brutaka?

"That... was an Olmak?" I asked, more muttering to myself than speaking to the hulking villain in the room with me. "I mean, the lines were kinda wrong, but then again, it wasn't unheard-of for Kanohi to have been custom-forged in the shape of an unrelated mask in the M.U., for various reasons: even one of the Toa Hagah had their primary done up like that, if I remember correctly. But how'd an Olmak get on Earth, I wonder? Was it actually made there, by human hands? Or did it somehow get sent, by intent or accident? And where would the raw protodermis have come from to make it if it was man-made? The stuff's not real, not in our solar system at least...!"

"Indeed, an Olmak it is," he reassured me, as if I hadn't been talking to myself. "I'm sure of it: I've spent long enough in the Art of Mask-Making to be able to recognize most any Mask brought before me with a mere glance. And that is most assuredly an Olmak, though one damaged beyond all real use at this moment, yet not beyond salvage... But your other mask, the one currently worked into your helmet, is unknown to me. The style of its design reminds me of my brief tenure upon the isle of Okoto, and yet, I cannot discern its power..."

I inhaled slightly, intending to ask why the island of Okoto had been mentioned, but thought better of it: the less he knew I knew, the better. Probably. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite quiet enough...

"What is it? Does Okoto somehow mean something to you, who proclaims knowledge of events prior to my greatest failing?" His voice was soft, but carried just as much of a dangerous edge as I'd ever heard from him, either in person or in the Bionicle movies.

"Uh, it's, uh, from a less-well-received second-generation reboot of Bionicle, and..."

"And just like that, I no longer care." He said. He was beginning to sound frustrated. "Now, will you accept my invitation or not?"

"That depends," I replied, as honestly as possible. "You're asking me to join 'your' side of what I can only presume to be some sort of conflict, either present or soon-to-be, but you've not told me who you're up against, or why. You've promised me a possible way home, but you've not exactly laid out what would be expected in return. You've also laid out a veritable wealth of information that, assuming I believe any of it, could totally shatter the worldview of everyone back home. And that has me the most concerned: anyone who knows anything of the original Bionicle franchise would know that you, of all beings, trust no-one besides yourself, and play everything close to the vest. You've historically only ever reveal anything close to this level of information to a person just before you either killed them, or otherwise rendered them unable to relay said information to anyone else, usually on a permanent basis. And so, I ask... what the ever-loving fuck are you playing at this time, Teridax?"

There was a sigh from Makuta, before he adjusted his stance and sank his gigantic borrowed form into a crouch, holding his scythe sideways as he did. "In all this time your kind have been gone, for all the changes you claim your people have gone through, rest assured that there are some things that have remarkably -- and even annoyingly, -- stayed the same. Chief among them is your curiosity, your insatiable lust for knowledge. Other races of this world operate best when given only a sliver of the greater picture, but not you. You have this innate need to see all the angles, to be 'fully informed' before coming to a decision. And so, I deign to share this information with you, in hopes that you will return my investment."

"Ok, fair," I admitted, nodding. He did have us pegged, on that point at least.

"As for the who and what of your questions... I seek what I have always sought, since the fall of the Barraki: complete and utter dominance of all things in this world. And, as always, there are those who would stand in my way. I believe that having a human among my forces, such as yourself, might be beneficial. You possess a certain element of unpredictability that is unmatched, even by the Draconequi. This, coupled with the fact that your kind have not been seen in over three millennia, would be quite a weight in our favour."

"Alright..." I said, acknowledging his words. "And you're saying that, in return for working with you to take over the world, you'd help me find a way back to my own reality?"

"Correct."

"And yet, I know for a fact that Equestria possesses something that might be able to do the same, perhaps with some fine-tuning. What else can you offer me that they, or any other nation, can't?"

Teridax's borrowed eyes narrowed again, and he was silent for a moment. I was beginning to wonder if I'd finally pushed the envelope too far, when he finally spoke.

"I could offer you power beyond what you could ever hope to come by on your own, be it here or on your homeworld. The augments I gave Chrysalis could be yours as well; she now possesses the same powers as a fully-fledged Makuta in addition to those she was born with, even if she doesn't realize that fact just yet. I could also cure you of the venom now coursing through your body..."

"And yet, if he still lives, Keetongu could do the same with regards to the venom. Assuming I found him before it set in permanently and reduced my mind to that of a slavering beast. The power, however... that's definitely tempting. It's also a classic test of greed and ambition in a potential subordinate, and a typical subtrope to the age-old 'what you are in the dark' trope. Indeed, the power of stories itself is strong in this reality, and neither you nor I are immune to the strength of legends retold, Teridax. That said, I'll have to give your proposal a definite maybe for now. Would you willing to give me time to consider it all, and weigh my options, before I come to a final answer?"

"Know this: the power I have to offer you is one that bears a brief window of opportunity. Accept my invitation, here and now, and it can all be yours. Take time to consider it, and you'll find that power, and perhaps even the cure, to be off the table."

"With all due respect, Teridax -- which is an absolute fuckton, considering that you're my favorite villain of all time -- I've gotta say that you're sounding uncharacteristically desperate right now. And while I'd not be unwilling to mess with the locals a fair bit, I'm not sure I'd be willing to sign on with someone who's in a bind trying to fight Equestria. As such, I must say that my answer is, unfortunately, a resounding 'no': I think I'd rather try to finagle my way through the Equestrian systems, with all the risk that entails. But I wouldn't tell them anything of you or what you're involved with, of course, nor would I get involved against you in any way. All as a courtesy to you, Teridax."

"Then I hope you enjoy what happens next," Teridax replied, standing up abruptly, and I could tell by his tone alone that he would be scowling if he had a proper face. "I've held back the venom's effects for the sake of this conversation, but no longer. I know I'll be watching the ensuing events quite closely: after all, I cannot be entirely certain that the Visorak with which you were acquainted earlier even injected you with Hordika venom at all. There are so very many variables in the field of genetic engineering... so many wrinkles to smooth out, so many bugs to squash. Perhaps you'll change your mind after the poison has had its way with your body, assuming you survive the experience. After all, you're no Toa Metru, so there are no promises you'll be resilient enough to weather the coming storm. Goodbye, Caldoric... Pray you do not further draw my ire, or any continued existence you may have shall be cut short."

And just like that, the hulking, shambling robotic suit just vanished into the shadows around me. I was alone... for now.

ADA...? I queried silently. ADA, you there?

Gods above, it's good to hear you again. Hey, uh, can you interface with my phone at all...? Specifically, can you hit up "Spotify" and set off my playlist?

There was silence, and then...

Right, right, I thought, not exactly concerned at that moment. Hit "shuffle play" on my saved playlist, would you?

Thanks muchly, ADA. Go ahead and run silent again, until-- "Aaargh...!"

I was cut off by the sudden feeling that my veins and arteries were suddenly made of pure lava, and not in a "suddenly powerful" way. No, it was pure pain, unlike anything I'd ever experienced before in my life. As Skillet's "Monster" played in my ears, my back arched reflexively at the overall pain, and though I'm not sure whether or not I screamed, the probability is high that I did. The feeling spread from the blood vessels to my muscles, then my bones, and everything else. If you've ever had the misfortune of feeling any of your bones' growth plates in action, (I usually had it in my shins,) you'll understand a fraction of the pain. Take that persistent ache that lasts all day and night, multiply it by about ten billion, and you'll be close.

In short order, as I began writhing and squirming against the pain, I could feel my bones begin grinding and reshaping themselves, as my muscles rippled and shifted, and my skin burned where it came into contact with my armor. But none of it compared to the splitting agony my head became. It was like untold swarms of red-hot pins and needles were forcing themselves into every square manometer of my flesh, drilling through bone to everything beneath. My eyes were consumed in acid, only to burn even more as my skull wildly reshaped itself according to the whims of the poison within me.

My arms were second in terms of pain, morphing to unknown extents beneath the swiftly-shredding cocoon I was still entrapped in. My legs, already half digitigrade, completed their transformation, and I felt my toes stretch and fuse into deadly talons that would likely make a Jurassic Park Velociraptor jealous. Summoning a fraction of rage through sheer desperation, I focused it into my right hand in an attempt to create a blade of sorts from thin air, by which to cut the cocoon. Not that I needed bother: I soon found myself shredding it with taloned feet, my clawed left hand, and a previously unknown strength.

As I desperately struggled to get upright, I felt the worst change yet begin taking place. The blade I had created, a strangely crystalline structure by any means, suddenly burned in my hand. I couldn't let it go, either. Instead, I felt its hilt begin phasing through my hand as my wrist joint reshaped itself drastically, almost duplicating, even. In moments, the blade was now part of my deformed right arm, embedded in my new "hind-wrist" such that it served as the new primary appendage of the arm. Yet I could still feel my mangled hand against the blade, where it all folded back along my forearm's underside.

The pain faded as I gasped for air, and began taking in my new form. Yeah, it'd been Hordika venom, all right, though it'd had some strange ideas about how it reshaped my helpless body. Yes, there was the semi-standard physical build of the Toa Hordika from the Metru Nui arc, but the mix of mechanical and organic elements was more... I hesitate to say "graceful," because that wouldn't quite work, but there was definitely a sort of sleekness in the meshing of biological and inorganic elements. My armor had even fused itself with my body, though as more of a crude approximation of scales, chitin, and "actual" Hordika armor. I shuddered to think of what my head and face looked like now, given I no longer felt the weight of my helmet, nor could I find a sign of my former HUD.

I stood there, hunched over like the half-animal beast-person I now was, breathing heavily. As I did, I realized two things: first, the music had stopped. Second, I could hear voices in my head. They started out faint, and few in number, but they slowly and inexorably began multiplying and getting louder, until it felt almost like I had an entire city -- no, and entire nation -- shouting to be heard within the confines of my skull. Not trying to get my attention, specifically; it was more like my brainspace was being used as their medium of communication, without any awareness that I was even there.

It wasn't painful, so much as it was distracting, though it all faded to a sort of white noise after a few moments. I had no idea where it all came from, but I was confident I would eventually be able to tune it out completely, much like I had learned to do in my brief stint in retail, blocking out the general chatter of customers and suchlike as I went about my business. After all, they mostly seemed to be going about their own, some with more determination than others. On occasion, there would be a faint ripple in the chatter, as if something was causing a disturbance, but things would quickly settle back in place. Every ripple came from the same approximate "source," as well, which raised a few questions and suspicions.

As I got over the initial shock of the experience, I realized there was a faint sound coming from one corner of my chamber, as of someone -- or some thing, -- scratching against the wall. It was an irregular sound, with a varying kind of pattern to it. There were short and long scratches, pauses, and other scrapes that changed pitch or tone smoothly, as if the source were making smooth curving or looping motions as they worked. Was someone digging? No, no, it felt off. It was almost like Morse code, in a way, but not anything I could "translate"... not that I knew anything in Morse anyway, besides the universal "SOS".

Whatever it was, it was getting annoying. More than it had any right to be for how short a time I had been aware of it. Why was I so sensitive to it, all of a sudden...? I hardly had time to ponder the sentiment before I felt aggravation building within me, and the blade of my right arm was suddenly unlimbered and moving on its own. It plunged, tip-first, into the solid rock flooring of my cell by about a foot and a half, then twisted, cracking the living stone. With a swift jab and a mighty heave, I found myself yanking a massive chunk of floor out of the ground and chucking it surprisingly accurately in the direction of the scratching's source.

The debris crashed against wall and floor, shattering violently and loudly enough to make me flinch: either my hearing had been amped up, or the acoustics of the cell didn't like that kind of sound, because it was way louder than it should've been. Actually, could've been a combination of the two factors, if I'm totally honest.

Whatever the case, I was surprised to hear a sort of echo of the sound in my mind, among the voices in my head, as one voice seemed to recoil in shock and fear, and others scattered across the soundscape suddenly turned their attention towards the sound and the one who had flinched.

"Fuck off, every one 'a ya's...!" I growled, both aloud and mentally. "Get the fuck outta my head: 's crowded enough with just me boppin' about in here, I don't need yer chatter making me mentally deaf, ya hear?"

Many of the voices quieted down at my words, at least briefly. It was quickly replaced by a conglomeration of different sentiments, which generally went along the lines of "Who is/was that?" or "An intruder...? In the hive-mind?" I mostly ignored them, as I had been doing, and briefly reflected on the hope that the source of the scratching had been a rat, or some other sort of indigenous subterranean wildlife, and I'd scared it off, in addition to having scared a potential neighbor in an equally potential next-door chamber. After all, I couldn't be their only prisoner if they were at, or preparing for, war, now could I?

A voice -- unfamiliar, yet somehow more direct than the rest of the ambient chatter in my head, -- spoke to me. It felt like the one I'd startled mere moments earlier.

{You, uh... you alright over there?} The voice asked. {Did something happen?}

In that moment, my mind came to a conclusion or two. First of all, I was pretty sure that the "hive-mind" I'd passingly caught word of in reaction to my rock-throwing was most likely connected to Chrysalis and her 'ling buddies in more than just the literal sense. After all, the Bronies had long theorized of such a thing, but I'd not personally seen any canonical evidence to support either side of the argument... at least, none that I could remember just then. Second, I was somehow connected to this hive-mind as well, which meant there'd been more than just Hordika venom in that Visorak's fangs. It was hard to tell, but looking at my left arm, I could see holes in certain spots that were reminiscent of the changelings' general swiss-cheese look, and they were very out of place on me for sure. Not to mention the normally white armor on my arms now transitioned swiftly to black just shy of my wrists, making it appear as if I'd scorched my hands. Made me begin to wonder just how much else I now had in common with the little buggers...

On top of all that, someone (or something) was trying to communicate with me via my mind. This day just kept getting better...

"No, I'm doing terrible," I said aloud, hoping it would somehow transmit. "Half the room just collapsed on me, and I'm likely bound to die a long, slow, and painful death a la the Monkey King-- OF COURSE I'M FINE! I just chucked a hunk of floor at the wall to still that annoying-ass scratching sound...! Now who the hell are you?"

{Can you, uh, not broadcast across the entire network...? The guards will likely be coming after that...!}

"Look, I got no idea how to use this shit, so I gots no choice. And guards, you say? Heh, well, I'm not worried: I could just kill for a good kebab about now...!" Dear Lord, where was this bloodlust coming from? I unfolded the blade of my right arm, giving a good hard look and hoping it was getting sent out and about, like my words. "If y'all take my meaning, that is! Heh heh heh...!" I paused then, brow furrowing as a realization came to me.

"That shady FUCK! He never told me 'bout the damn moon!"

{W-what?} My newfound brain-chat friend asked, clearly confused.

"I specifically asked that bastard Teridax why Equestria had a moon if there wasn't one after Spherus Magna reformed, and he completely blew off the question, so the bastard's obviously lied to me about the whole thing!"

{Wait, how can you tell...?}

"First off, I forgot the guy does it out of force of habit, 'cuz he's fucking evil. Second, because fucking science and probability say so!" I was pacing the chamber now, not even paying direct attention to my surroundings as I began ranting and gesticulating wildly: my vision had turned inward, to the realm of imagination, as I considered various factors. "There's no freakin' way a perfectly moon-shaped, moon-sized, and otherwise moon-like hunk of space rock came be-boppin' along the perfect trajectory to perfectly intersect the orbit of this planet such that it ended up in a perfect satellite orbit of its own. The odds are literally astronomical!"

{Did you really have to make that pun?}

"I'm serious, the odds are longer than my fuckin' dick--" I had to stop as a section of what I had assumed to be wall suddenly opened quite organically, allowing spears of light to come lancing in and almost blinding me. No, it wasn't some attack, I'd just been in the dark too long.

"Cease and desist, interloper...!" A voice called out, as several armored changelings stepped inside. "However you gained access to the hive-mind, you are to cease doing so and remove yourself from it."

{Uh, y-you should do as they say, if possible...} The lone voice in my head told me.

"Hah, you and what army?" I asked, temporarily setting the mind-voice aside. Before they could answer, I attacked. Not physically, of course, -- I couldn't possibly survive that, not just then -- but mentally. I called to mind the most annoying, bass-boosted, ear-rapey sound I could think of -- this being a modified version of the THX "Deep Note" sound effect, -- then thought the sound as hard, long, and loud as I could.

Fun fact: normally, the volume in one's thoughts is the same, regardless of if you try to "whisper" or "scream" in your own head. Go ahead, try it; I'll give you a moment. There, have fun? Fascinating, moving on. As I was saying, the volume of one's thoughts almost never changes. This time, however, I could actually feel the modified Deep Note shaking my skull. It had to have been worse for the Changelings, however, given the oh-so tough-looking guards were now twitching on the ground, mewling and whingeing pathetically. I laughed at their plight, though through gritted teeth, and kept sustaining the assault.

Sidling past the prone 'lings, I made my way out of the cell and over to the entrance of the next cell-room-chamber-thing. Making quick work of the door, I stuck my head in to get a look at my "friend." Yeah, as expected, the guy was a Changeling, though he looked pretty emaciated. He must not've been fed properly lately. Acting on a rare moment of pity, I scooped the poor thing up under one arm and brought him with as I explored the rest of the hive. Well, I assumed it was a "he," based on my very human perception of various factors of the mental "voice" I'd received from the 'ling's cell's direction.

Honestly, it was kind of amazing how small the guy was, compared to me, and yet, also how large. I'd had my own thoughts as to about how humans and ponies would compare, size-wise, if the two met, though I'd never expected or hoped it would happen. I wasn't too much taller now, far as I could tell, but it was still a bit jarring to see the comparison in person. Not to mention how light he was, either: it was basically like hefting a large, dense stuffed animal, albeit one that had a mostly medium-hard plastic "skin" on the outside instead of fuzz, fabric, or faux fur. He was also squirming a bit, doing his best to paw at his ears.

Frowning, I briefly tried focusing on not sending the maintained Deeper Note his way, and he seemed to relax a bit, though he still bore a demeanor of discomfort. I did what I could to hold him gently, yet firmly, under my arm: I didn't want to pinch or damage his seemingly fragile wings.

"W-where...?" My new companion asked, shakily, still looking like he was fending off a headache.

"I'm getting outta here, come Hell or high water, and I'm takin' ya with me." I said, stepping over a few twitching changelings on the ground. It was honestly not the easiest thing to do, trying to navigate this web of tunnels in the semi-dark, but I could manage.

"Why...why, me?"

"First off, I hate bullies, and you look like someone's been giving you a bad time. Second, I'm pretty sure you can navigate me out.."

"W-we're... in the B-badlands... No towns... For miles..."

"Then we'll fucking walk it or something. Maybe I'll figure out how to fly on the way! Now, which way's out?"

"Uh... back, uh, back a bit then... Aah, h-hang a right..."

"Ah, sweet, thanks." I skidded to a stop, turned and dashed back the way I had come. I quickly returned to a small intersection I'd blown through a few seconds prior, and hung a right as I'd been told. "Alright, keep me posted, new best bud--HRRKH!"

I had been so busy glancing at the guy that I didn't see the arm that popped out of an upcoming intersection and clotheslined me. I definitely felt it when it happened, and when I flipped in midair to land flat on my wings and ass. It hurt. I had no idea where my companion landed, and to make matters worse, my concentration on the Deeper Note had been shattered.

"Well, well, well," Chrysalis said, idly massaging the arm she'd caught me with. "I must commend you on that attack of yours: it was one of the most effective I've seen unleashed upon a hive-mind for ages, though you might consider adding some variation next time. My Changelings were beginning to grow used to the lone sustained sound."

"What d'you mean, next time? Aren't you gonna kick me outta your hive-mind thing? Flay me alive and stick me up on a wall in a weird parody of a crucifixion? Turn me into some kind of semi-conscious love-producing battery or something?"

"No, none of the above: I believe you would be a grand addition to my forces... but first, you must be broken. And believe me, you will be broken, after the shame you brought me before Makuta. I will break you, and I will make you mine, understand? As for you..." Chrysalis turned her gaze to my co-escapee. "I'll deal with you shortly, you useless wretch..."

"Oi! Fuck off, ya cunt! What'd he do wrong?" I exclaimed, once again drawing her attention. As I did, I was sitting upright once more, and managing to get a better look at her than I'd had from my prone position.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was being influenced by her weighty presence in the hive-mind I was part of, or if the more bestial nature I possessed (courtesy of the Hordika Venom) had something to do with it, but she suddenly looked kinda hot. Physically, she hadn't changed: that much I knew for sure. But whatever it was, my normally-dormant libido was telling me she was looking totally fuckable, which was highly unusual for me given the fact that I identified as Aro-Ace and wasn't into Ponies of any origin.

And yet... I could use that to my advantage. Barely taking the time to consider the repercussions of my actions, lest I give myself away through the hive-mind, I set my mind to conjuring up a collection of the most outrageously lewd thoughts and images surrounding Chrysalis that I could, and then did my best to blast them directly into her mind via the hive-mind. At the same time, I brought my good hand up in front of my mouth, extended my first two fingers in a "V" shape, and then rapidly flicked my tongue up and down between them as I stared aggressively into her eyes.

Of course, given my lack of control, practice, and acclimation with my access to the Hive-mind, I probably ended up just broadcasting everything all across the entire "network", but I didn't care if I had. Judging by how Chrysalis had recoiled in shock (or disgust, or horror, or all three,) I had provided myself with enough of a distraction to grab the other guy and get lost, so I did so. Not half a second later, I heard a scream of inarticulate rage from behind me as I raced on, and redoubled my efforts. I hadn't gotten far before Chrysalis appeared right in front of me, seizing me violently by the throat and then slamming me against the wall hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

"YOU. ARE. A. MENACE...!" She snarled right in my face as I struggled vainly to get free. Her slitted eyes were mere inches from mine, wild with fury and outrage. "You will learn your place, whelp; you will treat me with the respect I deserve, and live in fear of my wrath...!"

"I... already give your due respect...!" I choked out. "And I'll... never fear you... Bug-bitch...!"

Her eye twitched. "Then I'll teach you to fear me!" She cried, drawing back her free hand, which was already swirling with an eerily familiar reddish energy that I could almost --but not quite -- place. Before I could even react, she had slammed her hand against the center of my chest, and I was pierced by an ungodly chill that left me nearly frozen, yet had nothing to do with temperature. I was more afraid now than ever in my life: my heartbeat screamed in my ears, my vision narrowed until I almost couldn't see, and I could hardly get a coherent thought through my mind.

My body, devoid of any sensible input, did what came naturally: in this case, reverting to the fight-or-flight response all living beings possessed. And I couldn't flee, so apparently the decision was made to try and fight. My right arm, blade and all, brought itself up as high as it could and unfolded to full extension, then snapped back down towards my captor. Before I could connect, she tossed me aside and effectively removed herself from my greater-than-average slashing range.

My blood pounding in my ears, my vision starting to go red, I could feel myself preparing for attack again. It was hard to concentrate, though, given the new and frightful thoughts swarming my mind, born of the devastating fear energy she's flooded me with. Thoughts of oblivion, loss of self, of never getting home or seeing my friends and family again, of falling to my death or being turned into little more than someone's toy... all this and more nearly drowned me out inside my own head. Oh, right, some small, still-rational part of my brain said, more in concepts than real "words," Fear powers... That's a Makuta thing, probably don't wanna take too much more of that, or I'll end up like Jaller did with that Turahk...

I was hardly aware of what was happening beyond the confines of my mind by now, but I could definitely feel myself moving, so I guess I was still alive and fighting? Holding my own, even! No, I told myself, I would not die: I would fight! My vision began clearing, and my fears began turning to rage as I strove, more and more actively, to destroy Chrysalis. I was still enveloped in the fading red energies of her earlier fear blast, and some loopy portion of my mind made an internal callback to Gundam 00...

"Tohranz-Ahmmu...!" I muttered, giving it my best faux-Japanese accent, and charged her, faster than ever before. Not that doing any of it gave me any kind of boost... I tried kicking off the wall to my left and going for a sort of spinning, one-two behind-the-back attack, swiping first with the claws of my left hand and then with my bladed right arm. Both attacks missed, due to some well-executed acrobatics from Chrysalis. As I went in with a lunge at her abdomen, she sidestepped me and grabbed my arm just behind the point where the crystalline portion of it began.

Her hand was now wreathed in purple-black energy, and I almost immediately fell to my knees as I felt all my strength waning. My will to fight, my personal energy, my very life was being sapped...

Vorahk...! I hazily thought, the one clear part of my mind remembering quite well how this other Makuta power had been used in the past. In mere seconds, everything I had was all but gone, and I felt like I was about to pass out.

"Now, you see, don't you?" Chrysalis asked. "Is it not easier to just kneel in the face of such a greater power as I, or my master, Teridax? Does it not feel all the more natural to bow before your betters, your destined masters?"

"Knocking out someone's footing... Is not the same... As them bowing..." I gasped out, trying to stave off unconsciousness.

"Then you truly are a fool," Chrysalis snarled, grabbing me by the back of the neck and dragging my a little ways down the hall. "You. Come with me."

"Y-yes...!" My former fellow escapee said, after having been silent this entire time. I was so tired and drained, I didn't even have enough energy to look at him. My ears still worked, however, and I could hear him sullenly falling into line in Chrysalis' wake as she dragged my limp form down the hallway. I wasn't sure how I was picking up sullenness from the simple clip-clop of the little guy's hooves, but I did nonetheless. Oh, wait, maybe it was something coming over that hive-link-mind thing... damn, I was really gonna have to get used to that, wasn't I?

Hold on, no! I wasn't about to just accept something like that as part of my life! I wasn't part of this hive, and I had no intention of sticking around if I ever caught an opportunity to bug out of this situation. Theoretically useful as it might be in another circumstance, being mentally tethered to these nutjobs was more of a liability than a boon, so the sooner I found a way to cut myself off, the better.

As I internally raged, Chrysalis had been talking, though I caught none of it. I wasn't about to listen to the likes of her after all this.

Moments later, I found myself being flung bodily into the very same cell I'd escaped, only this time, I could see my fellow prisoner -- I was probably going to have to get his name, sooner or later -- wandering in as well. As I mustered what strength I could to try and push myself up, muttering curses to myself the whole while, I saw him turn and take a seated position as he tried to plead or bargain with Chrysalis, to no avail. The door-like apparatus snapped shut between them with an anticlimactic sound, shutting out almost all of the light we'd had, and as it did, I felt the now-ambient buzz of voices in my mind come to an abrupt end, and my mind rang with the silence.

It was almost unbearable... save for the one sorrowful voice that now cried out into the void in shock, terror, and pain. The voice was not my own, thankfully, but if my guess was right, it was more than likely that of my new cellmate, who had given a vocal cry of anguish as well before clapping his forehooves to his temples and flopping over onto the floor. I could vaguely hear his voice in my mind, going on about how terrible the newfound silence was, and I had to chuckle.

Hello, there...! I sent across the mental distance between us, hoping against hope that the Obi-Wan Kenobi voice came across properly. Regardless of if it did or not, I could just see my cellmate's ears and head perking up, swivelling this way and that, before he slowly turned to look at me with his faintly-glowing cyan eyes.

{Y-you...!} He sent back. {Th-this is all your fault! I was two days away from being let out of solitary, and then you... Now I've been cut off from the hive, a punishment reserved for only traitors and the worst violator's of the crown's will! Normally she'd cast the offender from the hive to survive on their own, but I've been left here... with you... and only my own voice in my head to differentiate me from the unlinked lesser folk of the unblighted lands-- o-oh, uh, I didn't...!}

"What, think?" I asked aloud, my tone one of jest, though with a hint of an edge to it. "Course not, it's hard to with zillions of other peoples' voices rattling around in your head. Trust me, as someone who's used to just the one voice, being dragged into your little hive-mind thing was like being teleported from a quiet library to an overcrowded convention center filled entirely with screaming children; 's no wonder you all hang on her every order when she gives them."

"Where do you get off...?" The Changeling demanded aloud in his shock, quickly trailing off. "You would insult our way of life? Our very biology?"

"Breaking news...!" I muttered, still loud enough for him to hear, "pot calls kettle black! But first, the latest on Carol, the water-skiing canary!"

"...sweet Chrysalis, you're insane."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. Besides, 'insane' is a relative term. All the brightest minds usually qualify as such, in fact! After all, who else would think to look beyond the 'normal', to push the boundaries of what's known and commonly accepted?"

There was a pause in the conversation. I was pretty sure my night vision getting better, because I actually saw the silhouette of my roommate lift a forehoof as if to accentuate a point, freeze got a moment, then drop it again with twin clicks: one from the hoof coming to rest, the other from the abrupt closing of his mouth as he acknowledged his lack of an argument.

"Besides," I continued, "I never insulted anyone or anything: I just commented that it was loud, from the perspective of someone from my background."

"But... but now, it's too quiet! I can't stand this, this... this silence! It's like an aching void that needs something to fill it, or... or I don't even know what!"

"Oh, dude, big mood; I get where you're coming from, there. I find that music usually helps, if only to have something mostly enjoyable playing softly in the background. Life's generally better with a soundtrack anyways."

"Um..." The Changeling muttered, seeming suddenly unsure of himself. "Music, uh, i-isn't something we do, uh, here. Or, well, anywhere. It's more of a pony thing, honestly? Like, Chrysalis doesn't allow it on a, uh, casual basis..."

"Oh, nonsense; music is a universal language of sorts, capable of transcending cultural and social borders. Every culture I know of has some kind of song or other music to it. You guys just need to find yours." I rapped my knuckles on a patch of ground near me, indicating it to my cellmate. "C'mere, little guy, lemme sing you a song my father always sang to me when he was trying to get me to sleep."

"N-no, I think I'm good..." He protested, scooting back a bit.

"Fine, then, I'll just come over there...!"

"Wait, no, I...!" But it was too late. I'd already scooted over, right up next to him, and put my good arm over his... what were they called, again? Shoulders? Withers? Eh, didn't matter. I rested my left elbow on his "upper" back and used my hand to massage the softer chitin both near his ears and around the base of his fin-mane thing. He resisted at first, hunching his shoulders/withers/forehips and slightly drawing away a bit, but he quickly relented and leaned into the gesture. I almost, but not quite, could've sworn he even started purring.

I took the opportunity to clear my throat, do a couple vocal experiments to test my tonal range (nothing had really changed in my time here, surprisingly...) and then began singing. It was low, and slow, and a bit dirge-like, just as my father had sung the song, as opposed to how it was originally produced. He'd always put a sort of soul into it when he sang, an almost regretful sort of tone that evoked a nostalgic longing for enjoyable events now long past.

♪Far have I traveled... and much have I seen:
Darkest of mountains, and valleys of green.
Vast painted deserts, the sunsets on fire
As they carried me back to... the Mull of Kintyre.♪

I paused for a moment, letting the first verse of the only Wings song I knew off the top of my head begin sinking into my companion's mind. As he turned to look at me, his eyes full of curiosity and intrigue, I found myself closing mine and letting myself go to the rigors of the song. The iconic bagpipe melody played in my mind as I began the chorus, and the song took me by the feels harder than ever before. I thought of my family, my friends, and even a few of my co-workers, all of whom I'd likely never see again. I thought of times past, both good and bad, and of opportunities for the future back home that I'd never see fulfilled. I considered my hopes and dreams, both former and current, and put it all into the song.

By the time I'd come to a close, I found that my voice was hoarse, and that I'd begun crying at some point, but I didn't care. What I did care about was that the Changeling had curled up in my lap, awkwardly, and was apparently concerned for my current emotional state, if the fact that his head was leaned against my torso. With no real plan of action, or any real idea of what to do, I gently yet firmly wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close.

"Hey, kid?" I asked. There was a pause.

"Uh... you mean me?"

"Unless there's someone else in here I should be addressing, that's you...!"

"Um... w-what's up?"

"What's your name?"

There was silence for a tense moment, as he briefly stiffened in my arms.

"My name is... uh, it's M-midge!"

"Midge, huh?" I repeated. "Well, young'un, my name's Caldoric, at least while I'm here, so it's nice to finally make your acquaintance. But hear me well: I will be finding a way out of here for us; I'm not doing too hot here, and you're most definitely not having a good time of it for whatever reason, so you and I, we can escape together."

"Y-you really... why? Why risk everything for someling like me?"

"Because I hate bullies. I swear it all on the moon, and sun, and just about anything else you'd care to name. And may the gods help anyone or anything that gets in my way."

Author's Note

Sorry this one ran long... I'll try to keep things shorter in future, but no promises that I'll be able to actually do that...!