Prototype: A new world

"What is he?"

"I do not wish to know."

Arisa winced in the throne room as she heard the screams of agony from the prison cell. Mercer had been left alone with Discord in order to..."consume", as he called it. Hearing the screams from Discord even made Chrysalis wince and that wasn't an easy feat. After a few more minutes of this, the door opened to reveal Mercer. He grinned and walked towards them. "Done."

Chrysalis nodded, albeit still wincing somewhat on the inside. "I assume you're replenished now?"

He nodded, smirking. "Yup. I also absorbed more of his chaos magic. Feels good."

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at that. "He's getting more powerful. Better watch my back." Never the less, she walked back to her throne, sitting down. "Good. What is the status of Twilight Sparkle?"

He chuckled, leaning against the wall. "She woke up when Discord started screaming. She then fainted pretty soon after."

He'd forgotten that Arisa was even there until he heard her giggle. "Great with the ladies, aren't we?"

He grinned. "The best. Anyway, are the princess's near?"

Chrysalis shook her head, stretching slightly in her throne. "I sensed that they were close, but I lost track of them. I assume that they sensed what happened to Discord and it spooked them. So they will have no doubt gone for reinforcements. I doubt they will stay away for too long. Princess Celestia could never leave her precious student behind."

He chuckled. "Can't even go through with their plan once their friend got eaten. Figures. I'm going to see what more our guest can tell me." And with that, he turned around and walked out of the room. When she was sure that he was gone, Chrysalis grinned and looked at Arisa. "It's all coming to plan, Arisa. Do you know what to do?"

She nodded, bowing. "Of course, my queen. It shall be done."

Chrysalis raised her hoof, signalling that she could leave. Arisa did just that and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. When she was far enough away, she sighed heavily, rubbing her head. "I can't go through with this. I've got to tell him."

"I'm not telling you anything, you murderer!"

Another smack. This one sent Twilight flying into the wall behind her, causing blood to practically pour from her mouth. She coughed, spitting out all the blood that she could. Mercer grinned, crossing his arms. "That's fine. You'll break eventually. And if you don't..." He pointed a finger towards the blood stain that was once Discord himself. Twilight winced, sobbing silently to herself. He rolled his eyes at the display and sat down. He heard the door open behind him. He didn't even bother turning around. He knew the voice all too well by this point.

"Mercer, we need to speak."

He slowly turned around to face the voice, smirking as he saw Arisa. "But I'm having fun with our guest here."

She didn't even respond. She just walked out of the door and ushered him out. He raised an eyebrow. She usually could take a joke. What was up? He stood up and followed her, closing the door and looking at her, confused.

"What's going on?"

She turned around and walked away. He followed, catching up to her in no time. After a few moments of silence, she sighed heavily, looking at the floor. "The queen is..."

Mercer chuckled, causing her bring her head up off of the floor and look at him. "What's so funny?"

He rolled his eyes, grinning. "She's going to betray me. I already know."

She stuttered, not sure how he could know. "B-But....how did you..."

He tapped a finger against the side of his head, smirking. "I'm more aware than you think. I also now know who brought me here and why."

Arisa stopped, looking at him for a moment. "How did you find out?"

He scoffed. "When I consumed Discord, his memories showed me. Princess Celestia. She conjured up some sort of summoning spell. She wanted to summon the strongest being in the universe to add to her assets. She was scared that Chrysalis was going to invade again after the whole Canterlot wedding incident, but she was delayed, which is why I've only just arrived here. Guess paranoia broke the bitch."

Arisa chuckled at that. Mercer grinned in response as she started to walk again. "So, what's the plan?"

She sighed, walking faster. "We need to get out of here as fast as we can. The only issue is, I don't know how I can get away from here for long. We're all connected to a hive mind, remember? The queen can..."

Before she could finish, Mercer put his hands on her head. She was about to ask what he was doing before she suddenly blacked out. After what seemed like only a few moments, her eyes opened back up. She was on the floor and Mercer was knelt down next to her, looking down at her. "Yo, you alright there?"

She shook her head, groaning. He offered her his hand as she stood up, gratefully accepting it, steadying herself as she got back onto all fours. "Ugh...what just happened?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, smirking. "I severed your link with the hive mind so Chrysalis can't track you."

Her mouth opened wide. She couldn't even form words. After a few moments more of her sounding like she was having a stroke, she regained her composure. "How is that even possible?"

Mercer transformed into a changeling. Malus, one of Chrysalis's higher ranking guards. He then transformed back to his normal human form, grinning at her. "I consumed one of you lot and it gave me access to the hive mind. I gained the ability to cut links with it if I needed to."

She put a hoof out in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. He looked back as she slightly growled. "You...you killed one of us?! And one of the queen's personal guards?!"

He nodded, seemingly unfased by her sudden outburst. "Yup. He was one of the guards who tried to kill me when I got here, so after me and Chrysalis had stopped trying to kill eachother, I killed him. He came up to me and started talking shit. His own fault."

As much as she wanted to tear his throat out for murdering one of her own, she sighed. She understood. Malus was a complete dick. But she was confused about one part of that information.

"How did Chrysalis not sense it?"

He smirked. "After consuming him and gaining the ability to enter the hive mind, I mimicked his link. Chrysalis still thinks he's alive. Just missing. She's been searching for him since."

That confused the hell out of Arisa. She shook her head rapidly. "Hang on...so, not only do you now have the ability to cut links from the hive mind, you also have the ability to mimick them too? And I thought you couldn't transform into anything other than...humans, was it?"

He nodded. "Yup. And yeah, before I came here, I couldn't. Guess the magic that I've adapted to has changed that somehow."

She stayed silent for a few moments before smirking. "You're something else, you know that?"

He chuckled. "Sure am. Come on, let's get out of here before anyone sees us."

Arisa nodded. Mercer shapeshifted into the changeling form again and used its wings, flying next to Arisa as they quickly made it out of the hive. Mercer knew exactly where they were going.

Canterlot.

Celestia was currently sat in her private quaters. She sighed heavily. "We need to make a move soon. Otherwise, Twilight could..."

Her door slammed open. Luna rushed in, almost scaring her to death. She held a hoof to her chest as she breathed heavily. "By the sun, Luna, you nearly killed me! What's wrong?!"

Luna bashfulled looked away, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. "Sorry, dear sister. We have just received word that Cadance and Shining Armor will be here in the next hour."

Celestia calmed down and walked over to her sister, hugging her. "Thank you, sister. I did not want to leave Twilight there for a moment longer, but I know that Chrysalis won't kill her. She needs her to get to us. But still, we must be fast. The thought of my dear student suffering...I can't even describe how it feels."

Luna nodded, smiling sadly. "We know, sister. And trust us, she will be okay. We will make sure of it. But after what we sensed of Discord..."

They both winced. They knew that he was dead. They didn't want to think about it.

"...We had to get out of there until reinforcements could arrive. I could sense that if we had stayed there any longer with the few guards that we had, we would have been dead. Whatever Chrysalis is working with...it is more powerful than even us."

Celestia nodded, sitting back down on her bed. "Let us just hope that Cadance and Shining Armor's aid will be enough..."

They both sat next to each other, hugging, wondering what was going to happen. The ball was currently in Chrysalis's court. She had all the time in the world. Celestia and Luna, on the other hand?

Not so much.