Author's Note

Lucid: Hit Publish when I went to hit Save. I kinda went more horror-y though I don't know how well I did it. I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway.

Containment Bug

John was groggy. His mind was a haze as he awoke and blinked his eyes blearily. A brick wall painted white came into focus. He was on some kind of green mattress-like thing. He shook his head and rolled over only to fall off of whatever he was on and smack into the freezing cold tile of the floor. He gasped and locked up as he sucked cold air into his lungs.

He started to cough as he weakly got to his hooves. He roughly shook his head as he took shallow breathes of the cold air. He blinked a few times and looked around. White tile floor, white brick walls, a small-ish square room, a metal cot (with that green mattress on it ) bolted to the wall, what looked like a small metal toilet in the corner, a single metal door with a small window too tall for him unless he stood on his hind legs, and what looked like a few cameras on the corners of the ceiling.

He was in prison.

Or jail.

Both were bad.

A cold chill ran down his spine as a feeling of nausea boiled in his stomach.

He felt his magic rise in response to his growing panic- Only for a shock to snap from his horn. He snapped his eyes shut at the immediate headache. He flopped onto his haunches and raised a hoof to his horn. There was some kind of ring around the base of his horn. Probably some kind of anti-magic thing so he couldn't transform.

'John!'

He jumped and snapped his head around. "Solaire?! What happened?! Where am I?!"

'I'm being blocked, Blasted Hellspawn. I don't have much time. You've been taken by the Committee. As has Lorraine and Alastor. Fear not, help is coming. You'll be out of there in no time. I will continue to probe their defenses so I can keep you informed. Stay strong my son.'

A cold ball of anxiety now sat in John's stomach along with the nausea.

His face fell. As he looked at the floor.

His mind began to race.

'What am I going to do?'
'What are they doing to Lorraine?'
'What are they doing to Alastor?'
'I can't stay here.'
'I've got to get out of here!'

A loud buzzing and the metallic clank of a lock being undone made him jump. The door swung open and a pair of large, burly, red-skinned demons in what looked like black riot gear stared at him.

"Come on." One grunted.

John blinked.

"Out." The other said.

John actually scooted away, shaking his head.

One of them sighed as the pair came in and roughly grabbed the smol bug. John yelped as pain lanced into his head from his horn.

He was dragged out into a white metal corridor lit by fluorescent ceiling lights. Not that he saw much because he was dragged from one hallway to another. They all looked the same to him. There was the occasional demon in a lab coat that he managed to glimpse when he decided to look up from staring at the floor.

He looked up in time to see a large metal door slide open.

He was dragged into a large domed chamber with the same white tile flooring.

He immediately saw that robed unicorn he vaguely remembered attacking him, as well as Sir Pentious and a few things that looked like eggs with arms and legs. The serpent demon turned and smiled on seeing him.

"John! Hello, happy you could join us." Pentious smiled as the bug was deposited in front of him.

John just sat there, slumped on his haunches.

"Come now, buck up John, I have so many questions." Pentious said as the bug looked up at the snake.

"Ask." John stated emotionlessly.

"Wonderful." Pentious said with a smile and a nod. "Now, we might use this place for various things in the future. But for now, let's get the paperwork out of the way." Pentious glanced over at the unicorn who levitated out a clipboard.

"Name?" Pentious asked.

"John." The bug replied.

"That's it?" Pentious raised a brow.

"Sure." John nodded.

"Right then. Race?" Pentious said with a nod.

"Primordial Changeling." John replied.

"And do you know what that is?" The snake asked with a hungry look.

"From what I was told, they're a precursor to modern changelings. They change their physical form via biomass as opposed to magic. They were near mindless and fought to survive and evolve stronger than their siblings. They were modified and granted some kind of intelligence by some ancient god called The Serpent." John stated, just decided to go along. He was too drained already. He could panic later when he had to to process. If he had time to process.

"Oooo, The Serpent I like the sound of him already." Pentious snickered. "Now, think you could do some changing for us?"

"You blocked my horn." John replied bluntly.

"Oh, not magically." Pentious shook his head.

"I... haven't really done that much at all. I only just learned about the Primordial thing recently." John said, feeling the blood suck away from his face and his stomach start to feel sick again. And there was the panic coming on.

"Could you try?' Pentious asked with a smirk. "For me? I'd love to watch you change."

John shuddered as he held out a hoof.

Nothing happened.

"Come on now." Pentious said. "It's not hard."

"Don't pressure me." John glanced at him, then looked back to his hoof.

No itching.

Nothing.

"John. Don't test my patience." Pentious frowned.

"It's not working! Something's wrong!" John said as his breaths came in short gasps.

"No, I think you're doing this on purpose just to fuck with me." Pentious growled at him, looming over the smol bug.

John's eyes widened.

'Get mad Johnny. That normally helps, right?'

Anger flared up in the bug's chest.

"You want me to change?!" John snarled back.

"Please." Pentious snapped.

Green flames lit the floor at John's hooves. Magic rushed from his limbs through his chest.

"Fine!" John snapped. "I'll change!"

The raging fires of magic swelled and shot towards his horn.

"Gom-"

Everything went white.

There was a loud bang as John felt himself get thrown back. His ears rang as his brain screamed in pain. He could feel hot blood running down his face as hurl curled up into a ball. He couldn't breathe.

He gasped air into his paralyzed lungs only to wail out in pain.

"Medics! Now!" John heard Pentious scream in both fear and anger. "Get him to medical and don't you dare lose him! You hear me?! He's far too important a subject! And get someone to collect those pieces! We need samples anyway."

John began to fade as he felt cold.

He vaguely felt being lifted and planted onto something soft.

John sat on the couch, lazing against a few pillows. He was watching... something... on EweTube. He yawned and got up. He didn't have any energy today.

The bug plodded into the kitchen, looked at the fridge and blinked at it sleepily. Water was dripping from the freezer for some reason. He shrugged and opened the fridge and pulled out an energy drink. It was brown and he was having a hard time reading the writing on it.

He shrugged and plodded back to the living room with the drink in his hand. Hand?

He blinked. His hoof was now a hand.

He blinked again. Then shrugged.

He plopped back onto the couch.

He yawned again and looked around.

Where'd everyone else go?

'They're fine. They're just out.'

"Oh, hey Solaire." John said with yet another yawn.

'Tired?'

"Yeah. Don't know why." He shook his head as he popped the top of the drink and took a sip. Mmmm chocolate.

'I know the feeling. Say, I'm outside, mind letting me in?'

"Huh?" John blinked. "Just come in like you normally do."

'John! Don't listen!'

'He can't do anything if John doesn't-'

'I'm feeling quirky today, just come open the door.'

A weird buzzing filled John's ears. He shook his head. "Ugh, fine. Weirdo. One sec." The bug got up and plodded towards the back door.

'John, my son, please hear me! That's not me! Nightmare how is he blocking us?!'

'Who knows how he managed to worm himself into our world again. His seals are still intact. Wait... He's using John as a temporary conduit. So long as he does not allow him inside he should be-'

'Just end the dream Nightmare!'

'I've been trying!'

John got to the back door, which was fogged up for some reason.

'Come on. It's cold out here.'

"Cold? But your the fucking Sun God." John frowned.

For some reason the carpet was wet by the back door. He looked down and furrowed his brow.

"That's weird."

'What's taking so long Johnny?'

"Johnny?" John paused. "You've... never called me that before..."

'John that's not me!'

'John. Please.'

John tentatively raised his hand towards the door.

'John! That's not me!'

John froze.

Wait-

That was-

His hoof touched the door.

The door burst open. Purple-black water rushed in. Beyond the door was only darkness. A pair of red pupils stared at the bug from the darkness.

'Thanks Johnny.'

John's eyes snapped open as he gasped and sat up. White light stung his eyes as pain lanced through his forehead. He immediately flopped back down. He groaned out as his hooves went to his face. He rubbed his eyes and he vaguely felt gauze around his head.

His head was fuzzy. Like, on painkillers fuzzy.

He heard a door open, the clop of hooves, and he opened his eyes. Thankfully his eyes adjusted to see white ceiling tiles.

"Everything's white around here." He grumbled as he tried to lift his heavy feeling head.

It wouldn't budge. The soft pillow was too comfortable. It was like a magnet.

So he just stared at the ceiling.

"You're awake!" A feminine voice said with a gasp.

"Unfortunately." John said, rolling his head to the side to see a white unicorn mare, with a white mane, and very light gray eyes looking at him. He could vaguely see the outline of a white snowflake on her flank.

"Hi. I'm Winter. I got sent to check on you." The mare smiled.

"Am I still in jail?" John asked bluntly.

"Jail? Oh! Oh no!" Winter giggled as she shook her head. "You're at the Tartarus branch of the Conservation Committee. My brother and Pentious got a tongue-lashing from Ashira when she heard what happened. Don't worry, you're not gonna have anything like that happening again. We want you in one piece, and we want to work with you as opposed to forcing you to do anything."

"So, what's that mean?" John blinked. "Kinda out of it."

"Well, Pentious, Boreal, Pentious' Egg Boys, and a ton of people under them all got in trouble for how they went about getting you, and where they put you when they got you, and how they treated you." Winter said with a nod. "Which is good."

"What happened?" John asked, his brow furrowing. "Can't... think."

"Well..." Winter winced. "You tried to transform when you had a magic dampener on your horn. You were kinda too strong, but..." She took a breath. "Your horn exploded, taking the ring with it. It was a horrible reaction that should never happened. We want you in once piece and we want you happy so you'll cooperate."

"Cooperate with wha- Wait, my horn's gone?" John crossed his eyes and... couldn't see his horn.

"While we were preforming surgery to implant your replacement, your regeneration kicked in. It took our replacement as we were putting it in and fused it with your body." Winter looked a little green. "It was honestly gross... Anyway, to be perfectly honest, there were a ton of charms and spells on the replacement to make you more complient according to Pentious. And you... You kind of... ate them?"

"Huh?" John blinked.

"You ate the curses, the charms, the enchants, everything. Well, maybe absorbed would be a better term. Now it just functions like a regular horn as far as our scan could say. It seems like your body won't allow certain things to effect it." The mare explained, taking a breath. "Once it was in place, the doctor's had to leave."

"Why." John blinked again. Everything was going over his head at the moment.

"Your body started eating things." Winter said, looking nauseous again.

"Da fuck?" John's face twisted in confusion.

"You grew mouths and- You know, new topic." Winter shook her head.

"Might want to tell me all this when I can actually comprehend it." John said bluntly.

"You have a very good point." The mare nodded quickly.

"How are Alastor and Lorraine, are they okay?" John blinked sleepily. "Where are they?"

"Oh! They're- They're fine." Winter smiled weakly. "They're being cared for in a different part of the complex."

"Oh, that's good." John yawned.

"Maybe you should rest." Winter suggested.

"Yeah... Good idea." John nodded, feeling a haze wash over him.

"I'll be back to check on you later." Winter said, turning away.

"Sounds good." The smol bug said as his eyes closed.

John sat on his haunches in the middle of Ponyville town square. A weird fog seemed to have rolled in, covering the whole square. That'd probably explain why it was devoid of ponies.

He got up and looked around. Something felt... off. This wasn't normal fog. And there had to be a few ponies out even if it was, right?

"Where is everybody?" The bug thought aloud.

'They all left Johnny. You're all alone. But, that's normal for you, right?'

John whirled around. "The fuck?! Who are you?!"

'Who? Oh, Johnny Boy, I've gone by many names over the years.'

John got up and trotted towards the town hall. "Oh yeah?" He tried to sound fearless. The doors to town hall were boarded up and something was leaking from between the boards.

'Yes indeed. The Serpent. The Deceiver. Father of Chaos. The Dream Thief. Anarchy. Lately... And this is all thanks to the delightful world you and your girl come from, I've grown to like a new name.'

"And what's that?" John asked trotted back down to the road.

'Discord'

A chill ran down John's spine. "U-uh huh. That's nice, I guess." He couldn't keep the quaver out of his voice.

Something moving above the fog cast a shadow over the town.

'Isn't it? It's delightful. Oh and I should be thanking you.'

John started down the road, heading towards his house. "Thank me for what?"

'For existing, of course. Without you I couldn't poke a hole big enough for me to get back into the world. At least, for now. Only two of them actually noticed, and they're both so weak compared to last time. The other gods either haven't noticed or don't care. Sure, let an eldritch serpent run free on your world again. It isn't like he turned everything upside down the last time or anything.'

"You sure like to talk." John commented, trying to get his racing heart under control.

'Of course I do! You'd be the same way if you were locked out of reality for eons! Seriously, they lock my son beneath an ocean, they trap my daughter in the stars, and what do they do to me? Oh, just-'

boot me out of existence itself and lock the door behind them!

The ground around John cracked as a terrible weight fell over him. He staggered as everything was bathed in a red light.

Who do they think they are? These so called gods? They think that they can just kick me out?!

A searing lance of pain stabbed into John's brain, right behind the eyes. He fell to his knees.

As you can kind of guess, Johnny, I'm a little stressed. Perhaps I should work some of that out, hmmm?

"Please-" John gasped out. His head felt like it was going to split open.

"Stop!"

John gasped as he snapped his eyes open and sat up. The bright light was painful, but for some reason the sterile white of the room was almost welcoming. He shook his head. He had a bad headache for some reason. That and he felt kind of achey.

He looked down at his arms.

He blinked.

Yes. Arms.

He'd apparently been sleeping as a biped.

However there seemed to be cracks running through the chitin of his arms. He frowned, and as he did he properly felt the gauze (or whatever it was) around his head. His arms started to itch a bit and he looked down to seem the cracks in his chitin sealing themselves shut.

He blinked at it.

"Huh." He hummed before a throb of pain from his head made him wince.

That pain in his head throbbed again.

'Johnny boy... I thought about it.'

Tag in.

John's eyes widened, only to slam shut as the searing pain behind his eyes multiplied tenfold. His breath was driven out in a gasp. Everything went white.

John gasped out only for his lungs to fill with liquid. He choked as he suddenly found himself surrounded by deep purple water. He was pulled under by a wave. He flailed his limbs and managed to get to the surface. He managed to see eerie black clouds before a wave tugged him under again.

He felt water fill his lungs.

His head ached.

He tried to swim for the surface.

Something lashed around his leg.

It yanked, driving what air he had left out in a spray of bubbles.

He was pulled into the cold depths.

'Enough!'

John felt himself yanked back.

He hit soft grass with a thud and immediately started coughing up water as he curled into a ball. He heaved in breaths as his lungs cleared.

'I have you. Fear not, John.'

John rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. Among the purple leaves high in the treetops he saw stars swirling above. His head lolled to the side and he saw the giant, starry form of The Nightmare.

'I pulled you from that horror that The Serpent left you in.

"Did..." John blinked as he sat up and looked at her. "Did you pull my mind, or soul, from my body."

'Yes.' The starry mare nodded. 'To save you from his torment, I pulled your mind from your body.'

"Thank you... Really." John nodded at her as he took a breath. "But..." He looked at her with a frown. "You're an idiot."

The mare looked affronted. 'Excuse-'

"Now there's nothing stopping him!"

Winter hummed happily as she entered John's room. She froze when she saw the bipedal bug standing next to his bed. He stretched and rolled his neck both accompanied by a few loud pops. The door shut behind her, not only causing her to jump, but also drawing the bug's attention.

His eyes...

His eyes were a faded, dull green, almost gray.

An unnaturally big smile split his face. "Evening." John said, even has his voice started to distort.

"J-John?" Winter asked, taking a step back, only to bump into the door. "A-are you o-okay?"

"John" turned to face her. There was an audible cracking as the chitin of his arms and legs split and reformed his limbs started to lengthen. The wings on his back shriveled and shrank into his spine. His hooves cracked and split into claws. A pair of large secondary mandibles grew from his lower jaw making as four more eyes erupted into existence on his face.

"Sorry Honey." "John" chuckled as his fingers lengthened into sharp claws.

"John's not here right now."

The chitin of his thin forearms split open only for a long silvery blade to erupt from the split.

"But I can leave him a message."