"You really care about your sister, don't you?"

Mercer sighed. He really didn't want to talk about Dana right now. It made him want to tear through this entire planet just to get back.

"I don't want to talk about it, to be honest."

Arisa nodded. She was the type of changeling to poke fun at someone until they explode, but she could tell when something was seriously eating someone up. She might be a changeling, but she wasn't completely heartless.

"No worries. I'll try my best to not mention her again unless needed."

He nodded in thanks. "Thank you. Anyway, what do you think about Chrysalis's plot to take over this joint?"

Arisa stood up, sharpening her spear. "Hmm...I'm not sure, honestly. She's my queen and I will serve her until my dying breath. But, sometimes, I'm slightly concerned about her willingness to just discard the weak of our kind or ones who fail her. Hell, I'm one of her most trusted drones, but even I could be exciled or killed if I messed up on an important mission. She is as reckless as she is magnificent."

Mercer raised an eyebrow. "She's that ruthless to you guys, huh?"

She nodded. "Indeed. But, as I already said, she is our queen."

He scoffed. "I haven't trusted her since I met her. She tried to have me killed, for one." He flicked his fingers. He really needed to keep an eye on her.

Arisa grinned. "Well, you did appear out of nowhere and she sensed how powerful you are."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. All I know is that I need to get back. You're the only one that I've met so far that I don't want to kill."

Again, another grin by the violet eyed changeling. "I'll take that as a compliment. We should prob..."

Mercer noticed her pause. He stared at her in confusion, Arisa now taking a more serious look on her face.

"What's wrong with you?"

She turned to face him, her grin now completely gone. "The queen is calling us. She has a new mission for us and it is quite important."

He rolled his eyes. "Great. Let's go, then."

She nodded. "Indeed."

They now both stood before Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings now sat on her throne with an angry expression. She looked down at both of them.

"We have an issue. Twilight Sparkle and her friends have come across the bodies of Malok and Nox in the Everfree forest. This means that they are no doubt now aware that we've been spying on them."

Mercer crossed his arms. "Didn't you say that it was a high possibility that they'd already sensed your presence anyway?"

She nodded. "Indeed I did, Mercer. But I had hoped to at least keep our mission somewhat secret. They will now be aware that we've been watching as I already said a minute ago, which might make things more...annoying in the longrun. You should have brought the bodies back."

Arisa stepped in front of Mercer before he could retort. "Your highness, forgive us. We were not thinking clearly at the time, considering we were focused on quelling the Manticore threat."

Chrysalis hummed to herself for a moment, before finally nodding. "Very well. In anycase, this means that we will have to be more vigilant. Mercer, Arisa, you will go back to Ponyville. I want you to capture Twilight Sparkle."

Mercer narrowed his eyes slightly. "Sparkle? You mean the one who you think could be apart of my arrival here?"

She noticed the sudden change in his tone and grinned. "Yes, I do. She is quite a powerful being and it wouldn't surprise me if she had botched up another one of her spells and brought you here."

He felt his anger rising. He was here all because of some idiot messing up a magical spell? Just his fucking luck. He clenched his fist.

"Consider it done."

She grinned again. "Excellent. Now, both of you, go. Make sure to bring her in alive. I don't care if you harm her, but at least make sure that she is alive. She can't be dead if my plan is to work. At least, not yet."

Arisa nodded. "Yes, my queen." She looked to her right to see that Mercer had already walked off, going towards the door. He turned.

"Coming or what?"

She noticed his sudden change in attitude. She had a bad feeling about this. However, on the other hand, Chrysalis was smiling. It was working. She waited until they had both left to snicker to herself.

"Seems like it was easier than I thought to get him to help us. Never the less, he will be an excellent asset to our cause. Enjoy your time while you still can, Twilight Sparkle."

Mercer and Arisa arrived back in the same spot where they were before, the corpses of Malok and Nox were no longer there.

"Must have been moved by the ponies." Arisa looked around, scanning the area. The blood pile was still there from the Manticore. She shivered slightly as she remembered what Mercer had done to it. She turned around to see him already walking off towards the village. She ran up to him and put a hoof to his chest. He slightly snarled and turned around, angry. "What?"

She really wasn't liking this change in attitude. "I know that you're angry, but calm yourself. We won't get very far if you just go storming in and start killing everything."

He scoffed. "Who said I'm killing everything? I'm just killing anything that gets in my way. I need to get back to Dana and I'm not prolonging it because your queen wants to take over this place. If this Twilight Sparkle knows how to get me back to my sister, then I'll drain her memories dry."

She suddenly remembered what happened to the Manticore and stopped him again, this time, he pushed her away several feet, causing her to get in a defensive stance. "Seriously, calm yourself. I'm sure the queen will let you have your revenge on Twilight Sparkle if she did indeed cause your arrival. But you cannot kill her yet. The queen needs her alive. I don't want us to fight, Mercer."

He snarled. "Just keep out of my way. I don't care what your queen wants. I need to get home."

She sighed, getting back into a more relaxed stance. "Listen to me. If you consume Twilight Sparkle before the queen puts her plan into motion, you could screw up the only chance you have of getting back to your sister. What if she doesn't know the answer? Then you've just washed away your best bet of getting out of this place."

He scoffed. "If she doesn't know, I'm sure someone will."

Arisa looked down, sighing again. "Let's just capture her first and I promise you, you'll get your answer."

Mercer took a second to try and calm himself. If he let his rage take control, he wouldn't know what he'd do. He needed to think about this logically. If Twilight Sparkle knew how to get him home, then he could consume her. But if she didn't and he consumed her, she might not even know anyone who knows. Chrysalis said that she was a princess. Maybe the other princess's knew?

He sighed, relaxing slightly. He might as well just see where this goes. And, in all honesty, he would rather not get aggressive with Arisa, considering she was the only being what had really tried to help him at this point and seemed to actually care. It would be in his better interests to work with her and not fight her.

"Fine. Let's go and get this Twilight Sparkle."

Arisa nodded. "Good. Calmed yourself a bit?"

He rolled his eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

It was a fairly decent night in Ponyville. The pegasus ponies had really outdone themselves this week. Sunny days all along, barely any rain or cloudy weather. Even the night had a nice, cool breeze. Not too warm or cold. Twilight Sparkle currently sat in her castle, staying up and reading some of the reports that Princess Celestia had sent her regarding the bodies that they had found in the Everfree. Said bodies belonged to two male changelings. She could only guess that they had been spying on the village, which concerned her greatly.

"Are we really ready for another invasion by Chrysalis?"

She remembered her brother's wedding and how bad that could have been if the others didn't realise that she was telling the truth about imposter Cadance, who turned out to be Chrysalis herself. She sighed.

"Spike? Spike!" It then hit her. He wasn't here. He was in the dragonlands, spending some time with his fairly new friend and recent dragon lord, Ember.

"I hope that he's keeping safe. It's probably better that he wasn't here to see all of this."

A knock on her door startled her. She wasn't expecting anyone, especially at this hour and all of her friends were currently busy with their own things. She got up and trotted to the door, opening it slightly. Her jaw nearly dropped at who was stood there.

"Princess C...Celestia?"

The sun princess was smiling down at her, nodding. "Hello, my dear student. How're you doing?"

Twilight finally remembered to breathe again. "I..I'm doing fine, considering the circumstances. What are you doing here, princess? You didn't alert me that you were coming here?"

Celestia looked wary for a second, before looking back at her. Odd. "Strange, I sent a letter to you. Is spike not with you?"

Twiight was suddenly confused. "Erm, no...he's in the dragon lands with Ember. But...you knew that, didn't you? I swear that I told you..."

She suddenly laughed, causing Twilight to be slightly concerned. The princess was acting strange.

"Ah, so you did. Sorry, my memory must be going at this old age. Anyway, back to why I'm here. You must come with me now. I have found something very concerning in the Everfree and I think you should be made aware of it."

The purple pony raised an eyebrow. "At this time of hour? Where are we going?

Celestia rolled her eyes. "The Everfree."

The Everfree? At this time of night? Something was certainly not adding up. And the way Celestia was acting...

"Princess...are you feeling okay? You seem slightly...off."

Celestia looked at her, no expression currently on her face. "I am fine, Twilight. Now come, we must go at once."

Twilight had a really bad feeling about this. Her gut was telling her to not go, to just stay here. But she couldn't disobey her mentor, even if she tried. She nodded.

"Okay, princess. Should I get the others if it's this important that you came at this hour?"

Celestia quickly nodded a no as she walked off and beckoned her to follow her.

"No no, I shall tell them myself when the time is right."

Again, this felt really bad. But...against her better nature, she decided to go. She could trust the princess...right?"

Celestia and Twilight both arrived at the Everfree via teleportation, next to the strange puddle of blood that she had come across when she found the bodies. She figured it belonged to them. Would only make sense. She looked around, confused.

"Erm, so, princess...what was so urgent that you wanted to show me?"

Suddenly, Celestia spun around, an evil grin on her face. Twilight shivered.

"P...princess?"

Celestia's form disappeared, a green flame surrounding her, now revealing a curvy, black figure. A changeling. Twilight readied her horn, but before she could summon any spell, she was knocked back onto the floor, the air escaping her lungs. She coughed as she held her stomach, pain rising in her fast. She took a moment to collect herself, before standing up and seeing that there were now two figures in front of her. One was the changeling from before who was currently sat there with a smug grin on her face and a strange, new creature. It stood taller than her on two legs and had two appendages by its side. Two arms. It looked a bit like an hairless ape with some sort of clothing on. It currently stared at her, a deep hatred in its eyes.

A hatred directed towards her.

She once again tried to charge her horn, but the creature moved faster than it should have been able to and grabbed her horn, causing her to scream in agony as it crushed her horn with brute force. She flailed.

"Please! Stop!"

The changeling went up to it and patted it on the back. It turned around and rolled its eyes and then...it spoke.

"Fine."

Judging by the voice, it sounded male. It...he let go of her horn, her tears washing down her face, agony still coursing through her body. She couldn't even summon another spell. All she could do is look up at her assaulters and wail in pain and anguish. "Why....why..."

The creature knelt down and looked at her, causing her to shiver. "My name is Alex Mercer. And you've fucked with the wrong creature."

Before she could even ask what he meant by that, her vision turned to black as she felt his fist connect with her face, sending her to sleep.

Author's Note

Here's another chapter to keep you people entertained during this qurantine. Keep safe.