Charlotte started to open her eyes groggily, but they quickly snapped open wide as she realized she was shaking and it was dark. What was happening? Was it an earthquake? Where was everyone else? Panic came as she realized that not only was she shaking, she was unable to move.

"Stop squirming! Hard enough to try to run with you without that! Don't get any ideas, or I'll drain you!"

"Bursa?" Charlotte asked in confusion. "What's–"

"Be quiet!" the changeling queen hissed.

Charlotte now realized she was upside down against Bursa's abdomen and that the bug was holding her in two of its legs as the changeling rapidly scuttled along the ceiling. Where they were beyond that was a mystery. It was pitch black. She only knew she was upside down because her hair was hanging over Bursa's side, and she was being pelted with pebbles from the ceiling as the bug dislodged them in her haste.

She tried to think back to how she had gotten to where she was. Cadence and Josie had just returned with Bursa. It had taken them a while, but they'd come back unscathed. She'd gone to see if Empathy was coming back with them, and Cadence and Phobia had gone to speak with Prime about possible treaties. Empathy had been fussing with Heavyheart, and Charlotte, not wanting to butt into their domestic squabble, had instead gone to find somewhere to piss. She couldn't remember what had happened after that. She just woke up to this.

This stupid bug is kidnapping me! Charlotte thought in shocked realization.

"Where are you taking me?" Charlotte demanded.

"Not sure," Bursa responded without slowing.

"What's your plan?"

"Not sure."

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Shut up, or I'll drain you!"

Okay, the changeling queen had no plan and decided to just do this out of the blue. She must have realized they were returning to Equestria soon and didn't want to lose her opportunity to nab Charlotte. Whose brilliant idea was it to bring the nutso changeling on this mission? Didn't they even say Bursa would want to pressure Charlotte into getting her to Earth via portal? They said over and over that Bursa was dumb, and the current lack of a plan illustrated that, but including her along when she was bound to pull this crap was just as dumb, if not more! Charlotte should have been terrified, but she was so outraged at the fact the alicorns and Bursa both made such hair-brained decisions that she found it difficult to manage any emotion but anger.

It was best just to sit and wait for this to play out. There was no way that Bursa was going to get away with this. They were on an alien world. The bug had no idea where she was going and wouldn't dare hurt Charlotte. The others had to have already realized what had happened and be in pursuit, and between them and the Autobots, it would be mere minutes before the bug was caught, and Charlotte could proceed to scream at Cadence for insisting Bursa come along. Maybe they could maroon the bug on this world and be done with her. They should have left her stranded out with the Decepticons. She wondered how Sapphire and Apple Bloom felt about Bursa's betrayal after pushing so hard to get her back.

The bug paused and seemed to be unsure what direction to go. Charlotte couldn't see anything, but she could feel Bursa turning back and forth as if conflicted about which path to follow. Given that the Autobot base was under a mountain, there could be miles of tunnels, and many of them might not lead to the surface. That further highlighted how poorly thought out, or rather, how completely unthought-out, this kidnapping was. It also presented a problem. If there were miles and miles of tunnels, and Bursa was wandering them aimlessly, it could make it difficult for the others to track where she went. Maybe sitting tight and quiet wasn't the best course of action.

"Bursa, you have to know this is a bad idea," she said with forced calm. "I can't even use my powers. Sunset has to use them for me. You were there!"

"Shut up!"

How certain was she that Bursa was just bluffing about hurting her? It was a gamble. What would Sunset do? Probably blast Bursa to smitherings, but what if it was Sunset before she got freaky powerful? What would that Sunset do? That was easy; Sunset would piss Bursa off and hope that made Bursa make a mistake. That was Sunset's go-to method for dealing with things when she was out of options. She wasn't thrilled about copying what Sunset would do, but it was a method that had served the unicorn well, and if there was one thing she knew she could do just as well as her other self, it was the ability to completely piss someone off.

"Hey, bug brain! I would ask you if you realize how stupid this plan is, but I doubt you see that. I would explain how stupid it is to you, but I'm probably already using words too big for you when I say something with more than one syllable! That's each part of a word– never mind, too complex an idea for you– whoops! I did it again! Words too long!"

"Shut up!!" Bursa snarled.

"Tell me, when you were disguised as a rock, did you get smarter? I'm just wondering if you gain the traits of what you take the form of."

The changeling let off an angry growl. "Shut up, or I'll kill you!"

It might be time to remind her that was a bad idea.

"If I'm dead or unconscious, I can't very well make a portal. Killing me makes this all pointless."

"Aaarrrhhhh! You are more aggravating than nasty Twilight Sparkle! More aggravating than snooty Queen Chrysalis! More aggravating than that fat white pegasus! MORE AGGRAVATING THAN EMPATHY!"

"Be nice to my elephant; he never did anything to you!" Charlotte yelled but continued to mock the bug. "And good for you. You repeatedly used a word with four syllables. I didn't know you had it in you. You pathetic loser!"

The reaction was so immediate that Charlotte didn't even know what happened. She just knew she was in pain, primarily in her hands, knees, breasts, and that she had hit her head against something.

"We'll see how well you make fun of me with your mouth filled with goo!" Bursa screamed.

It was hard to focus, and she was probably bleeding in multiple places. Bursa must have thrown her down on the ground. At least she wasn't running deeper into the tunnels. She couldn't be allowed to goo up Charlotte's mouth. That could cause her to suffocate. The bug wouldn't think about that and, at this point, wouldn't listen. However, it hurt to move, the ground was uneven, and she couldn't see a damned thing. Panic started to set in. This wasn't the first time her life had been in danger. She had faced mortal danger at least half a dozen times since she was six, but this time was different. This time Sunset Blessing wasn't around to save her. It was just her and a monster in the dark. She had made a severe miscalculation. She shouldn't have enraged someone who already didn't think actions through.

"Hahaha! You just peed yourself! Who's a pathetic loser now!" Bursa cackled. The area then was bathed in angry red light as the changeling lit her jagged horn, revealing her face and open mouth full of serrated teeth.

Charlotte did what was instinctual; she threw her hands up to block her face and turned away.

The changeling gasped, then started laughing.

"It seems you can open portals on your own!" Bursa shouted in victory. "Where does it go?"

Charlotte shook her head. "I don't know! I don't control these things! They just happen! I can't even see it."

"A likely story!" Bursa hissed. "Just so I know that you aren't trying to trick me because you think I'm dumb. You're going in first! If it isn't Earth, you'll have to do it again and keep doing it until you get it right."

Charlotte's eyes went wide. "It's not safe! We have no idea where that opens to."

"Not the bottom of an ocean. No water is coming out," Bursa remarked, and before Charlotte knew what was happening, she was lifted and hurled.

She came down hard on the ground, but it wasn't rocky this time; it was grass– bright green, healthy grass. The sun was shining, but there was a nip of autumn chill that seemed at odds with the bright green grass.

"IT'S EARTH! I MADE IT AT LAST!" Bursa shouted in triumph.

Charlotte looked around and beheld a familiar angel fountain with a very familiar house just beyond it. Of all places for her to open a portal to, she had opened one right on the grounds of Wabash Manor. On the plus side, another very familiar thing about the manor was that there were lots of guards, and they were already enclosing them in a circle.

"NO! I won't be captured again!" Bursa screamed in terror. Her screams transformed into a roar as she suddenly grew to massive proportions, standing more than two stories tall. Her chitin transformed into reptilian scales as the changeling shifted to a giant black dragon.

"We need backup! Not sure if bullets will work on that thing!" one of the guards shouted.

"Hold your fire; we have a civilian in the zone! It's Charlotte Portsmith!" another guard shouted. Nice of them to notice her.

"Goddamn, I can't believe I wish Blessing was here," another guard said.

Bursa turned to her with a toothy grin. "You're my ticket to freedom. They won't fire if I'm holding you." The dragon moved to grab her but instantly roared and clutched its head instead. "What?! It hurts! Be quiet!! Aaaggghhh!!!"

"And Tempest thought I needed martial arts courses to fight!" someone vaguely familiar declared with a laugh.

Charlotte had no idea what was going on, but it was clear that Bursa was under attack somehow. That might have been great except for one thing; Bursa was now aimlessly thrashing around in pain while still in the form of a massive dragon, and she was precariously close to Charlotte.

"Doctor Middleton, stop! The civilian is in danger!" a guard shouted.

"Fudge! Didn't think she would wail around like that!"

Whatever happened to Bursa must have stopped because Bursa suddenly regained control of herself and whipped around towards the voice of her attacker. When she did, her tail whipped around, too, straight towards Charlotte. Charlotte held up her hands to brace for impact, and another portal opened.

This one opened midway through Bursa's dragon tail, severing it in two. The severed half of the tail went hurtling through the air and barely missed hitting Charlotte by mere inches.

Bursa reverted back to her changeling form, and oddly, it was half of one of her legs that were missing. The changeling stumbled around, disoriented, unbalanced, and in agony. The leg was leaking what looked like green pus everywhere she went, leaving a trail through the grass. Charlotte was unsure if this was the same as bleeding out, putting Bursa's life at risk, and at the moment, Charlotte's primary focus with Bursa was staying out of the stumbling changeling's way. The original portal was gone, but the newer one she had severed Bursa's tail…leg…whatever with was still there, although shrinking. Maybe the changeling would stumble into it.

The changeling moved towards Charlotte. It wasn't deliberate. Nothing Bursa was doing at the moment was deliberate. She was a wounded monster, utterly unaware of her surroundings and in so much pain she couldn't muster any intelligent thought. Charlotte rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being trampled by Bursa's remaining five legs. A bit of the pus did splatter on her arm, and she hissed as she learned the hard way that it was highly acidic and burned. She sat up and tried taking her shirt off to use as a cleaning cloth, unconcerned about her modesty due to the need to find something to wipe the vile goo off her arm. What would have been a blinding red light if not for the upraised shirt shielding her eyes suddenly flared from Bursa's direction.

"Take cover! She's about to do a large discharge!" one of the guards yelled.

There was no cover to take, and Charlotte was right next to the changeling in the explosion radius. It struck Charlotte like a bus, knocking her back. She felt herself get knocked through the portal and landed hard on a rock before tumbling down what must have been a cliffside. Her head hit a rock, and all went black.

End of part one.

Author's Note

Second part of story is starting soon.