H0p3

Minnesota is known as the land of ten thousand lakes. The true number is a bit higher than that, but residents know it as such. During the summer months, the normally frigid state is surprisingly green and lush, and with all that surface water, there is plenty for the foliage to survive. In the northwestern side of that state, the water of an unassuming lake glowed briefly, unnoticed by the occupants of the single house situated on that lake. A handful of minutes later, a black body was thrown from the water, landing heavily on the green grass. Into this land of green and blue was cast a figure of jagged black.

Queen Chrysalis groaned softly as she got to her hooves, her horn extinguishing and the faint green outline of her magic fading from her body as well.

She brushed herself off and glanced back at the water, noting the sun of this world as it was disappearing under the horizon. She shook her head, only moments ago, she had interrupted the purple princess in the middle of one kind of spell or another. She growled, “She’s going to follow me.” She glanced around, noting the trees and grass all around, a quick glance at the structure had her turning away from it. Nopony trusts changelings. And while she had been trying to end the fight between herself and the pony princess, she needed time. A truce, with the loss of her brood to that damnable magic from Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle, she needed to build back a new brood, a new hive. One that was stronger than the ponies. Twilight had responded to her arrival with a blast almost as big as the pony herself. Only quick thinking by the changeling queen had prevented her from being vaporized on the spot. Instead, the blast had nearly overwhelmed her own magic and had blown her into the wall. Though instead of becoming green paste on said wall, somehow she’d gone through the wall, through some sort of magical gateway. She blinked, the passage through that portal was beyond gut wrenching. If she had the capability to eat food, she would be vomiting it back up right then.

The water splashed softly as another body emerged. Though instead of a pony princess, it was some crazy looking creature, dark of skin with almost black hair, that somehow kept the gumball pink and purple stripe. That was Twilight Sparkle, so, the portal changed the form of the one going through it. She briefly wondered why she hadn’t been affected. Chrysalis groaned, this had to be Twilight Sparkle. She watched as Twilight glanced around, and her eyes focused on the changeling.

“You!” Her voice rang out, causing a chill down her carapace with the venom in her voice.

Chrysalis charged her horn and teleported before the pony turned into that crazy creature could do anything. Without a good reading on her environment, she only made if a few hundred meters. She could see the other creature in the distance as she scrambled to get away.

Twilight squinted a bit, trying to charge up her magic. Then she gasped, her foreleg going up to her forehead. She looked at her skin. “Well, that’s different.” She felt the smooth skin of her forehead for a long moment. “Ugh, no magic.” She looked where the flash of the changeling’s magic teleportation had ended up. The evil queen had managed to keep her form on changing, yet she was changed. She pondered for a long moment before smiling, Chrysalis had been protecting herself with magic. She turned and dived into the water. Though barely had the water settled before it was disturbed again by a purple alicorn hauling herself to shore, her magical aura clung to her body. She let go of her magic with a smile. “I can do it to.” She growled, then she charged her horn and disappeared.

The soft pop of teleportation got the Changeling Queen’s ears to perk up. She gasped. She had found a fallen tree and had wedged her body in as deeply as she could. The soft hooffalls came to her ears, she suppressed the need to twitch them, any noise, any movement, could attract the hunting alicorn. Why had she come herself? She had her own guard contingent at her damned castle, why weren’t they following her? When she had been amped up with Twilight’s brother’s love, she had been able to best Celestia herself. But she hadn’t fed off anypony in a few days, her own stores of love were fine at the moment, but fight the princess or escape, she couldn’t do both.

“I know you are out here. You come into my home, lying about trying to seek peace between ponies and you. You’ve somehow escaped the stone prison. I will find you.”

She shuddered. She hadn’t been fully conscious while encased in stone. But she did have time to think. Her old hive, finding a new source of love, and changing to that crazy shape, they were now weak, without focus. Thorax was not a leader, he wasn’t born royalty. He had no right to claim her hive, her children, as his own. She closed her eyes and shrank back. No! She had to escape, become strong again. Deal with the ponies from a position of strength.

“Princess!” A gruff mare’s voice caught the changeling queen’s attention. She felt her fear rising. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, I was studying the original portal’s magic when she came in. I lost control of the flows, and before I was able to shut them down, I think I accidentally opened a new portal, to an entirely different world.” Chrysalis could hear her pawing the ground. “I’ll have to learn more. Judging by the structure by the lake, there is intelligence here. But for now, our priority is to find the changeling queen.”

The guard obviously saluted. “Yes, Princess. I have half your contingent through, the mages cast shield spells on the pegasi and themselves when they came through as you directed. We can start searching immediately.”

“Bring the rest through, and remember what I said about encasing everypony in magic so they don’t change forms. Get started.”

“Yes, Princess.” The sounds of the pony retreating had Chrysalis charging her horn. Another teleport was definitely in order. The area was just about to be covered in ponies.

The glow of her horn had grabbed the attention of the alicorn. Her shout reached her ears as the teleportation took hold. Instantly the changeling was hundreds of meters away, dashing wildly. In moments the ponies would be in the air, searching. A vengeful alicorn among them. Chrysalis shuddered before she charged her horn again in another teleport.

She stumbled and tripped over a tree branch, vaulting forward and rolling, ending up on something she’d never seen before. In the darkening night, she stumbled to her hooves. Glancing around, she could see a ribbon of some hard surface, she scraped her hoof on it, confirming it was some kind of rock. Though it was nearly perfectly flat. There were colors other than the black of the surface, yellow painted stripes in the middle, and more on the edge of it. It almost looked like some sort of cart path. As she was inspecting what she was standing on, she noticed that her hoof was lit up, confused she looked up, some…thing was coming at her, very fast. Two bright orbs of light were bearing down on her. In horror, she watched as the orbs of light came closer, then suddenly the orbs made some sort of loud siren noise, along with some sort of screech. She chirped and teleported off of the ribbon of a path. She turned to look at the orbs, only to see they were just part of some larger…thing. It had four wheels and had careened off the ribbon and headed towards a tree. With a tremendous crash, it wrapped its front end around one of the trees, the two lights extinguishing and leaving everything in the semi-dark, the sun at this point was but a memory and the deep blue of the fading twilight in the western sky.

Part of the side of the machine opened, and Chrysalis didn’t want to see anything more, she teleported again, deeper into the forest. She panted as she charged her horn again in another teleport.

Stumbling to a stop from her headlong rush, she looked around. More of those machines were here, though there was something wrong about them. They weren’t moving. They seemed to be abandoned, damaged as they were, some of them had looked as though they had been crushed and piled on top of one another. Crazy machinery was everywhere. But so much of it was obviously damaged, much like that first one did with the tree. It was all junk. As she was looking around, she gasped. Her insides were roiling!

“Oh, no, not now! Not Now!”

Her entreaties were ignored by her body, forced by her biology to procreate. It would not be ignored. She poked one of the machines, and only got a soft thunk for her efforts. She looked wildly about, she had to find someplace safe. She grinned, there, a metal building, almost falling over, it had the look of years of disrepair. She scuttled over to the building. “I need to do this quickly,” she muttered, knowing what was coming. She used her magic to yank the door open, the rusty hinges screaming out in the evening air. The musty smells assaulted her nose. Yes, this would do nicely. She pulled the door closed as the initial twinges gave way to actual pain. A few gasps, her ovipositor extended as she groaned, and she started to lay her eggs, one after another being deposited on the bare dirt floor in the building.

It only took about ten minutes for her to be done, she stepped away, looking at what her body had produced, something she had seen many times over her lifetime: a large clutch of eggs, laid precisely in neat rows, bunched together. A Queen spent her life eternally pregnant, even now she knew there was at least one more batch left in her without needing another mating. She glanced around in her relative safety. She laid down, curling her large body around the clutch of eggs. She swallowed a bit. Time to feed them, or they would die before having a chance. She focused and poured her reserves of love into them, she could feel those reserves draining. She would have to find some sort of sentient to be able to replenish her stores after this. But right now, she had to focus on her eggs. Despite her desires, the growth of her hive was paramount.

In response to her outpouring of love, the eggs brightened and glowed. She stayed like that for what seemed like eternity. Though after she judged the right amount of love had been poured into the clutch, she pulled away. “Okay, until I get some more love, this will keep you going for a good long time.” She growled. They would live, with this amount of love they’d stay like this indefinitely, ready for any input of love to cause them to hatch. She looked around, there’s intelligent life here, she could make this work. She needed to find some sapients, and soon. Her love reserves were low, she knew it would be at most a few days before she starved.

She spent some time coating the inside of the shack, making a suitable initial nest for her eggs. Though finally, her hunger drove her from her nest. She had to find food, some love, any love. She crept slowly to the edge of the junkyard, keeping her senses looking for the emotions of any sapient. Her magic could feel life all around. But she needed love, from an intelligent, thinking, creature.

Some crazy noises got her to turn around as her body was again illuminated by light. She cringed, thinking it would be one of the crazy machines had come to life. But she was surprised by a tall bipedal…ape thing. They definitely didn’t have those in Equestria. The sounds it was making were odd to her ears, almost like some sort of language, but nothing she could understand, she grinned, a sapient. A living, thinking, creature. No matter how good or bad its life had been, it would have some memory of love. It was perfect for her.

The light in its hand, a large flashlight, dropped to the ground, illuminating only her feet as it stumbled to a stop on seeing her. She was slightly taller than the biped, he was wearing some kind of clothing, but none of that mattered, the magic, the love and emotion in their brain is what was drawing her. She hissed, leaping at the creature, it screamed and tried to move away from her. But she was too fast. Her forelegs grabbed and her mouth came down onto its neck, injecting her venom into its bloodstream. In only moments, its struggles slowed and finally ceased. She lit her horn and picked it up with a smile. “You shall be a wonderful meal for me. And if you live long enough, for my children.” She fed gleefully from the creature, replenishing her own reserves. As she fed, she could see its memories. A small child, loving their mother. She pulled away, her hunger sated. “Good, keep dreaming of dear old mum.” She murmured softly as she turned back to the ramshackle structure. Her magic yanked it open and she stepped inside. She growled a bit as she cocooned the biped and hung it upside down on the ceiling. A glance around got a small snort. It wouldn’t be all that long before she would be laying a second clutch. There was so much to do. She had to recon the area, find her forces, secure the nest sites, and find more food.

Awakening from disturbing dreams had her popping her head up, looking around frantically. She saw her eggs and the one creature hanging peacefully. She stood up, checking on her eggs. Should she hatch them now? Rushing changeling eggs and dumping too much love into them will cause them to hatch, but the drones will not be as powerful. If she needed a massive number to assault another hive, or to invade a pony city, underdeveloped drones would do just fine. But for building a new hive, she needed to take her time, give them small doses, let their bodies and minds develop over weeks and possibly months before the new grubs are hatched.

She unfurled her wings and rose up to the entrance, covering the hole in the ground and pushing open the shack’s door. She stepped out into the sun, blinking in the harsh light. She looked around. The yard seemed unchanged. She stopped for a long moment. It would be smart to not stand out too much. Green fire covered her body as her form shifted. In a few seconds, she was a carbon copy of the creature hanging down in her hive hold.

She inspected the hand of the new form and smiled before she opened her mouth. Then she frowned. The normal trills and sounds of ponish were impossible with the vocal cords of this creature. She growled under her breath. She took a step with the bipedal shape, and promptly landed on her face. She pushed with her hands to get back onto two legs, windmilling her arms a bit to try to learn to walk on just two legs. It was several minutes before she could actually move around, unsteadily, on just two legs. She briefly considered reverting back to her natural form just so she could talk. But the roar of some sort of machine in the sky caught her attention. She gaped, watching this machine fly. The ponies had airships, but they didn’t make noise like that. It looked like a dragonfly wearing a hat, for lack of better description. She shuddered, was it looking for her? She didn’t want to find out, Twilight would be hauling her back through the portal without delay if she was caught. Her only hope was to keep away from the alicorn. She cast a fearful glance at the shack that was the basis for her new hive. She needed to keep the ponies away from here. So, she had to stay away from her natural shape. She took one step, then a second. And quickly she was shambling towards a structure in the distance, where the creature had come from late the night before. She almost fell trying to climb the few stairs onto the porch, but she was able to finally open the door and get inside, where she collapsed against the door, breathing heavily.

A happy noise got her to turn, a large black dog bounded towards her. Though it slid to a stop, it’s hackles raising. It sniffed the air, pawing at the ground before barking at her. Was its nose sensitive enough to notice any differences in scent? She gingerly reached out a hand, which caused the dog to stop barking, and lean forward to investigate. It got a good sniff of her hand before it bared its teeth in a snarl. She smirked as green fire covered her body, reverting back to her natural shape. “Surprise.” She crowed before she grabbed the dog in her forelegs, again injecting venom into another creature. Love from a dog or other lower life forms would keep a changeling alive, but it wasn’t nearly as good as from a sapient creature. But having the creature attack her would not be helpful. She spent a few minutes cocooning the dog before walking through the house.

As she made it into another room, she could hear a voice, though the words being said escaped her. The picture on the wall was moving. She couldn’t read the text on the screen. But somehow, it was showing the area where she had emerged from the pool. Twilight Sparkle showed up on the screen after a few moments, speaking the same crazy language. She squinted as she looked at the screen, symbols, obviously some sort of language, was flashing across the screen. She had a serious deficiency of information. She turned and galloped to the window. That crazy flying machine had moved off apparently. She decided to risk it, she picked up the cocooned dog in her magic and dashed through the yard into the shack. She hurriedly hung the dog next to the other creature before lighting her horn again and stripping off the cocoon from the head of the first one. Her horn lit brightly. A simple knowledge transference spell was all she needed, something the ponies didn’t know about. She touched her horn to the forehead of the creature and cast the spell. In moments, a lifetime of memories flooded into her. She staggered back from the creature, trying to comprehend everything that just got dumped into her skull. She hadn’t had to do a spell like that in centuries.

A soft sob got her attention, being unwrapped from the cocoon had awoken the human male. She grinned, she knew what he was now.

“Please, don’t kill me.” He whimpered.

She lit her horn. “Oh, it’s far too late to worry about that.” Her mouth felt weird using his own language. His eyes widened as she started to close back up the cocoon. “You will eventually succumb, but for now, you will feed my brood.”

He tried to open his mouth to scream, but it was too late, the cocoon was past his mouth, though his eyes were wildly looking around until they were also covered. In moments his struggles ceased as the enchantment in the cocoon took hold and he was back in his endless final dream.

Once again, fire encased her form, though this time, she was a copy of the dog. She had retained the ability to speak though, she hated being silenced by her form. “Everypony loves dogs, don’t they?” She smirked as she scrambled out of the hive and headed out of the junk yard and down the road. There is a town nearby, And Ulen, Minnesota might just be a place for her to feed.

“Ugh. This is a town?” It was a lot smaller than even Ponyville back in Equestria. Armed with the new knowledge of that human, she could identify what she was seeing. But such a small town? Ugh! She trotted up and down the street, ignoring humans that seemed to be trying to get her attention. She was right, humans did love dogs. The tendrils of love she captured wouldn’t be noticed by the humans yet they were able to keep her reserves high. Maintaining a form was always a use of her love energy, the closer to her natural form, the less energy used. And for certain, quadrupeds like the dog were far easier to maintain than a human shape. She was heading south on what seemed like a main street of the town. Her ears perked, noticing the fire department. Older, yet serviceable equipment was being cleaned by the firemen as she walked down the street on this fine summer day. Humans were everywhere, with a town having a population numbering in the hundreds, nearly all of them seem to have turned out. Though she was confused. There were more vehicles than she would have thought there would be in a town this small. After a bit, her muscles were pleasantly tired, she got near a major intersection, well, major for a small town like this, so she sat down, letting the body pant happily. The humans were bustling about, and she watched them move around. Though the similarity of all their clothing concerned her. She took a moment to review through the knowledge she had gleaned from that one human. That got her to stop panting.

Military?

She shuddered. “All this for just me?” She whispered. She got to all fours and padded to the intersection, staying on the sidewalk as she turned right, then what she saw had her stopping once again. She had to force her body to stay calm and pant softly as she watched several identical vehicles that have been set up on the outskirts of this little town. Two of those flying machines that she had seen earlier were sitting there, humans bustling around them. But what had nearly stopped her heart were the ponies. Twilight had apparently not been kidding when she said bring all of her guards through. Dozens of ponies in armor were working with the humans, and in the middle of all that madness was that bitch herself, Princess Twilight Sparkle. She suppressed the urge to growl at the alicorn, standing next to and talking to an older human with two stars embroidered on his shoulder. They were standing next to a table with a large map spread on it. Chrysalis sidled closer, trying to hear what was being said. Twilight wasn’t speaking ponish, but the language of these humans.

“Remember, she can change forms, and she has magic. It’s not the same as the magic that unicorns have, but it’s close enough for your purposes.”

“But how can we tell if whatever it is is this changeling?” The man asks.

That gets a click of the tongue from Twilight. “Their magic is very good when it comes to changing forms. You’d have to look for subtle differences. They don’t get the knowledge of what they copy, so a soldier that doesn’t know what to do, or a deer that acts weird. We will get plenty of false positives until we actually find her. It really can’t be helped.”

“Understood, Princess.” He turned away, calling out orders to the other humans, the two helicopters started to whine as their blades started to turn. Humans were running every which way and everywhere.

“Hi there, pooch.” A male human voice got Chrysalis’ attention. She turned and looked at the human, he was tall, fairly well in shape, with dusky brown hair and big blue eyes. He wasn’t in a military uniform, instead was in a simple character t-shirt and blue jeans. Clutched in his hand was a leash, leading down to the largest dog Chrysalis had ever even seen. It was nearly double her size. She backed away, her hackles raising.

“Oh, you don’t need to be afraid of Hercules. He’s a sweet boy.” The aforementioned Hercules was sniffing at Chrysalis, though his lips quivered, on the edge of starting to snarl. As Chrysalis backed away, the dog seemed to have made a decision. He leaped forward, checked by the leash, teeth bared.

“Oh crap.” Chrysalis muttered as she turned tail and scampered off. She couldn’t change forms around all these humans looking for her and the pegasi and human vehicles in the air. She gulped as she ran, she had no access to her magic in this form. She risked a glance over her shoulder, and what she saw made her put everything she had into running. Hercules was galloping for all he was worth, his leash fluttering along behind him as the confused human shouted and tried to catch up. She zigged across the street, causing a military vehicle to slam on its brakes and the driver to lean on the horn. She yelped in fright as the enormous dog bore down on her.

She made it back past the fire station, barreling between the humans and the fire truck as she rushed headlong to get away from the monstrosity nipping at her heels. She skidded around the corner. And apparently more humans had joined the chase. She needed to get away from this behemoth, and now.

“Oh no.” She moaned as she rounded a house, a tall privacy fence was blocking her way. Well, time to see if the body that she had adopted was strong enough. She gathered her hind legs and leaped, able to hook her forelegs over the top of the fence, she scrambled her hind legs against the wood when the enormous dog finally arrived, its massive jaws closing in on a hind leg, he growled and pulled her off the fence, allowing her to tumble to the ground. As she landed, she lashed out with her teeth, but only succeeded in getting a mouthful of fur. The other dog was trying its best to sink his teeth into her, but she was keeping moving and the dog couldn’t find a good place to bite. After a few seconds, the dog’s teeth closed down on one of her forelegs.

Her scream could be heard for a block. She shrieked. “Get off of me you damned dirty mutt!”

The screech had surprised the dog, and the humans who had followed. She looked at them as she tried to extract herself from the mass of fur and fluff of other dog. It seemed confused and backed off a bit, long enough for his owner to grab his leash and pull him back further.

“A talking dog!” One of the guys in uniform said in wonder. Then he blinked. “Hold it right there.” He pulled his object and pointed it at Chrysalis, who froze in place. It looked like a block with a hole in it; Chrysalis knew she wouldn’t like what would come out of it.

A pegasus swooped down, holding a unicorn in her hooves, the unicorn guard galloped forward. “Got ya!” Crowed the unicorn as magic enveloped her body. She tried to move, she was frozen. She tried to hiss at the unicorn, tried to move, tried to do anything, even trying to revert back to her natural shape. But the unicorn was too strong. “Oh, go ahead and struggle, queen of mischief. Shield spells and capture bubbles are my special talent.”

If she could whimper, she would. She hadn’t fed nearly enough, given all the exertion in trying to keep away from that behemoth of a dog. The unicorn trotted off, floating the changeling behind her with the military humans in tow. Chrysalis couldn’t even move her eyes, with how tightly the unicorn had her bound. She was stuck, floating along as the pony trotted happily through the town. Once again she was at the same intersection, turning towards where the Princess was. She couldn’t even groan as the unicorn trotted with her in her magic. The pegasus that had brought the unicorn had grounded himself and was trotting happily next to the unicorn, both of their tails waving happily. They shortly made it to the camp where the Princess was. The guard floated her closer to the alicorn, who broke off from the humans and looked at her curiously.

“You brought me a dog?”

The unicorn nodded. “Not just any dog. One that talked.”

Twilight frowned, glancing back at the human she had been talking to. “Do dogs talk on your world?”

“No, do yours?”

“Not this sort.” She stepped forward, her horn lighting. Chrysalis tensed, if the alicorn or the guard fumbled transferring their magic, she might be able to escape. But that didn’t happen, instead, the magic around her head lessened and she was able to speak. Though she kept her tongue still.

“They heard you talk.”

Silence from the changeling queen.

“Are you going to say something now?”

“Woof, woof.”

That got a smirk from Twilight, her horn brightened. “Not many know the spell to cancel a changeling’s magic. Though I could simply knock you out and you would revert naturally. But I want you conscious.” In a moment, the changeling queen’s life was pure pain. She howled in agony before fire washed across her form, leaving her natural form behind. She hung in the alicorn’s magic, panting. Twilight nodded to herself. “Good job!” She turned back to the human from earlier, Hercules was straining against his leash, which was now looped around his hand so he wouldn’t escape again. She bowed her head. “To think the queen of the changelings was thwarted by a dog.” She giggled. “Thank you, sir. You have helped the ponies more than you know. I’ll take this.” She shook Chrysalis a bit. “Back to Equestria to face judgement from Celestia.”

“You will be back, right, Princess?” The human with the stars on his shoulder asked quickly.

Twilight turned to him with a smile. “Yes, I will, General. When your police called you to help me. I promised that once this crisis was averted, we would have the time and ability to formally meet in the diplomatic sense. I also need to find a way to move the portal from the lake that it’s currently residing. As I told you, any sufficiently reflective surface shall do. And it seems that this portal will stay open for longer than simply three days every thirty moons. I will try and bolster it to make it permanent. I will also be bringing Princess Celestia through to be able to meet with your government, once I take this creature back home.”

He gulped, looking at her. “You had mentioned something about eggs?”

Twilight looked at Chrysalis in her grasp. “I don’t think she was here long enough to be able to lay any. Though we can sweep the town and down south to Hitterdal where the portal is, looking for any magical signatures.” Chrysalis kept her body from reacting, if she could get away, she could hatch them. But as it is, they would be marooned on this world. But she wasn’t going to give Twilight the satisfaction of finding her brood. They were safely underground, away from this town to the north. They would be safe. She blinked as she was moved by the alicorn. “Time to get you home, to face justice.”

Chrysalis couldn’t even make any sounds, facing Celestia’s judgement once again. And there was nothing she could do.

***

Charles Kranz drove his ten year old Ford truck onto the junkyard grounds. His friend, Russ, hadn’t been heard from in several days, and he was getting worried. He parked in front of Russ’ house and killed the engine. He blinked as he slammed the door of his truck. Ginger wasn’t barking her head off. He walked up the stairs and opened the door, his nose crinkling at the stench. He looked around. “Russ? You around? You let your food go to rot. He walked in the kitchen, noting the flies buzzing around the plate that had apparently been left mid meal. He picked up the plate and dumped the entire thing into the garbage, letting the lid close off the smell. He looked around and took a moment to dump the rotten contents of the skillet into the trash as well. “Ginger, c’mere girl!” He called. But no black shape bounced up to greet him. Now he was more concerned. Russ wouldn’t leave food out like that, unless something had happened to him. He took a moment to walk up to the master bedroom, and not finding his friend dead on his bed from a heart attack or something like he feared. He finally exited the house, looking around. The junkyard was how it always was, dozens of wrecks waiting for people to pick over them for parts before the remains were crushed and sent off to be shredded and made into new steel for new cars or other products. His eyes fell on the old shed. He frowned. There’s no way that Russ would go and hide in there. After a few moments of contemplation, he shrugged. Maybe Russ has decided to finally fix up the shed like he’d always talked about.

Wrenching open the door of the shed, he waited for a moment for his eyes to adjust. Bare dirt floor, tools neatly laid out on the two benches on two walls of the shed. It looked like Russ had been busy. He stepped forward, and yelped as he fell through the dirt floor. He tumbled down, rolling a couple times before he ended up in a heap. He coughed and blinked, looking around. What the hell was going on here? He looked up, somehow what looked like a bare floor was an open hole, he could see it clearly from below, but from above, it looked entirely normal. He struggled to his feet then froze. He was only a few feet away from small, green, glowing orbs, laid in neat rows. There were dozens of them, well over a hundred. His brow furrowed as he poked one, noting the leathery feel of the orbs. He blinked and turned around. And he shrieked! “Russ!” He rushed over to his friend, who had been encased in some sort of cocoon. And right next to him was his faithful black lab, Ginger, similarly cocooned up. With a shaking hand he pulled out his cell phone, dialing three numbers then hitting send before holding the device up to his ear.

“911, what is your emergency?”

He gulped. “Yeah, I’m at the junk yard, Russ…I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“What’s going on?” The operator asked gently.

“I think it’s related to that pony thing that went on a few days ago.”

“I’ll get the police on the phone right now and they can contact the guard.”