Changeling (Re)Borne

Chapters

Eaten Back To Life
The Canterlot Incident
You Are (Not) Alone
You Are (Not) Safe
Defragmentation, Attempt No. 1
No Rest For The Wicked
Sol :// Orpheus
But The Depth Is Insincere.
So Listen To This. He Shot And He Missed!
Imprisonment was all that he earned
You Are (Not) Allowed To Die

Eaten Back To Life

Five. Hundred. Years.

A plan in the making. More accurately, the lack of one.

All of this, and for what?

Her heart beat steadily as she walked. The carved hallways winding, twisting, and turning. Darkness meant nothing to her eyes as she explored the ruins of an old home. A relic of a past where that incessant beating organ believed in something brighter.

Chrysalis explored the dilapidated system of the rotting changeling city of Mariposa. It was a project that combined the above-ground and sub-terrain to produce a massive superstructure. But it had begun to fall through after that one day. The day everything had started falling apart. Sure, the city was completed- but then they were all forced to evacuate. Consolidating all of their forces, she called it.

She heard whispers. Faintly. Sometimes. She wasn't too sure if... If they were the ones from her heartbeat or something else. Changelings had three hearts. But she had another one in her chest, an extra, a hold-over. The pulse of a second soul.

What would she do once she found all of the pieces?

Chrysalis turned over a pile of rubble. Shell fragments, petrified and dusty, littered the earth. If there was even the slightest chance of one of his remnants being here, it was quite slim. But they were drawn to these locations like flies. It wasn't the rot, it was the memories that drew them in. That was her theory anyways.

They called it the Stranding.

Some did, anyways. Weaker remnants, incapable of comprehending death. But it was a fitting title. That was what happened when he died, well and truly. The beings powered by his shattered soul were stranded, abandoned, with thousands of tiniest remnants, ones that were just fueled by soul dust and memories, dead. They were all lost, clamoring for order.

Her hoof stepped in something mushy. Fungal growth. A dead blisterlight, organic lights intended to replicate the warm glow of the sun. It's fluid spilled out and coated her hoof for a brief moment before it trickled down and left her shell clean. She was wary of them. Such mutated creations were known to be highly flammable.

Bereft of purpose and order, they had all turned to the one who had the strongest shard of him. The one who had eaten him. Her. Chrysalis. The New Allied Master. All because she'd been taken by a moment of weakness, she knew she shouldn't have reached out to that tiny flame, that little light. But she did, and now it was hers. Nestled inside somewhere neither blade nor magic could reach. He was hers. Alyosha.

Then she had to juggle three races under her control. Her loyal changelings, the lost and confused souls created in his image, and his pony followers. They could have housed all of them within the central hive. She should've made that the permanent solution. She should've started with all of that first instead of letting them gallivant around the land without a leash. They were obedient, but the ponies always wanted more. More land, more light, to break their frontiers. It had all started souring the second they had decided they would have more than one Allied Master. The Council of Am's, strong-willed ponies, shadows, and those of importance to their fractured hearts.

Chrysalis let out a tense breath. Something in her sights. A weird, soft, jelly-like thing. It had looked like a cross between a serpent and a changeling. A mishmash of what life should look like underground.

It all started the second she gave his remnants free will. Or more accurately, ordered them to continue having free-will. Stupid. He'd never actually allowed them free reign, only told them to live, and to record the world outside the tower. It spiraled from there. A traitor. A mole. Greed infected their ranks, and something had sold them out, their secrets. She should've eaten them. All of them. It would have saved her this near millennia-long hunt.

An ache in her heart disagreed with that idea. But that ache belonged to a foolish little idiot who killed themselves with their mercy. How could he have ever loved again after being killed twice in a row?

Fueled by hate, a black arrow of magic flew forward in a millisecond, a violent recollection twisted and formed into reality as it tore through the jelly-like facsimile of life. There were more. There was always more. The remnants tore themselves up to make more of themselves, falling to the same disease their maker had. Insanity consumed them, and they began to worship their origins as holy, sanctified, just. Others did not care. Other's saw them as an error to be corrected, dogs to be put down.

The thing gurgled. Material was splattered everywhere on the lightly dusty ground. No gore or viscera, it lacked organs of any kind, even any to be capable of long range offensive tactics. It had taken them all to be beaten back to near extinction before they revealed their trump card. Arms Of Light. This one lacked any such capabilities, and yet she was wary as she approached the pretending corpse.

Prototypes didn't die. They literally were never told they could be killed, so they didn't die. They'd return to the tower, time and time again, damaged, salvaged, machines and puppets made of synthetic flesh and molded abyssal energy. One of them used such tactics to be remade at the central hive, and delivered the message that called the fall of all their kind. Including hers.

One blast. It exploded again. A second blast. Concussive force ripped it into two pieces, and the jelly-like thing was liquified and smeared everywhere. His heart ached in her chest. Senseless violence he'd call it.

Then it started reforming. At one point, almost all of the shades that wrote to him or her disappeared. News of a finale, a grand staging ground mountains away, where all that was left was fire and rubble, and thousands of armored corpses. She knew nothing more. A kinetic blast tore off a malformed and hastily regenerated limb, something sharp and pointy. It wanted to imitate her structure. It wanted to understand.

Another one of his apostates, possibly using his Envy as a template. She ended it's farce of an existence with a teleportation spell, and she displaced its existence with her own, shattering it and splattering it around her as she fragmented it. Gibs of soft glowing tissue fell around her, and her horn flared to life with magic as she called upon the second soul within her and the pieces of it on the outside.

Naturally, it resisted.

Not him of course. As much as he hated the fact that she was murdering him, maiming him, he knew it was to bring him back. Aside from that, she was stronger than his will in any case. It had broken her heart to eliminate an entire workforce of their most valuable builders and thinkers.

It was the remnant that resisted. Ordered and operating to stay alive under any means necessary, reflecting the sheer terror of death he had in life. The kind of terror that gripped you in your quietest, most peaceful moments, the kind that kicked you in the heart and brought you to your knees, or stabbed and dug into your ribs with a hot iron, as you feel the air leave your body. The kind of terror that comes with finality.

This was it.

The flesh of the skinstealer turned to ash as she gripped a particularly large fragment of the soul she was looking for. Odd. Odd indeed. Maybe they'd been eating each other- who knew how many might have chosen to leave themselves behind? Mariposa was massive- too big to fall. It wouldn't surprise her if some of the sentimental pony subjects and their loyal scarecrows chose to stay behind. She pondered this as she bit into it. It crumbled. It was tough. Chewy. Worst of all it tasted like melancholy, a bitter aftertaste with only a mild initial sweetness.

All of this, and for what?

Once she'd finally put him together again- then what? Back to work? Come up with another idea to continue survival? To cling to this world by your teeth? What would she have in the next five, hundred, years?

Him. As the pulse grew steadier, warmer, simply more correct and whole, she at least knew she'd always have him. And for now, that would be enough.

The Canterlot Incident

Chrysalis won.

And she felt good.

Her footsteps had rung hollow and undisguised among the buttressed interiors that made up the regal hallways of the Canterlot castle, at one point she'd decided to purposefully scuff the tile in front of the room that made up Celestia's bedroom, just to be a little petty. It was not like it was undeserved either.

Celestia had been bested, Luna was kept dreaming peaceful while they were busy rearranging the entirety of the corridors by sealing off intersections here and there. But not everything was perfect

Yes, the element bearers had made a grand escape, that could in theory jeopardize the invasion, but she had them and Princess Cadenza on the run. Likely not for long, but every moment that the three imprisoned bearers were on the move bought more time for her and her drones that were in charge of capturing them. This crucial detail of the elements of harmony being loose was of little consequence. The decisive changeling population boom had been utter hell on her subjects, but it had done wonders in making them aggressive to perceived hostile threats. Anything else was just struck down with goo.

She had no illusions that she would be able to hold Canterlot long, even if it fell there would likely be insurrections or riots at the borders of Equestria where her influence would be little to none, the possible attacks by the dragons and neighboring countries notwithstanding. In truth, the invasion was a front to get a more important, personal matter attended to. The plentiful bounty of love being harvested and shipped off to the main hive was a pleasant byproduct, it was mere commensalism.

Chrysalis had not won. Not until she had successfully slain the phoenix known as Philomena. Not until all the pieces had fallen back together again. With her target in mind, she trotted along the halls with purpose and vigor, the comforting whistling and thrum of the drones outside hard at work with the occasional scream of a pony made an almost harmonious melody of chaos. An alien determination led her to stay strong thus far, but she couldn't hang on to it for much longer. It was fading, and fast.

She just had to hold Canterlot long enough to take that damned phoenix under her control, and everything else would sort itself out after. She didn't need Canterlot forever this time.

Chrysalis' shell split in two as a hairline crack formed on her face, the brilliant blue flowers in her mane dulled as the crack grew to her elytra, something visibly trying to force its way out. Ponies looked on in shock and horror as the flowers dropped off and withered to dust as something red crawled out of the split, pulling itself out with nothing to accompany it but the wet squelching noise it made as it squeezed out of Chrysalis' body. It gasped for air, tearing a mouth open as brilliant red eyes came out of its head.

It looked like another changeling matriarch, but smaller. The thin wispy mane was just like Chrysalis' but with a deep crimson color, the eyes initially red and slitted like a dragons kept changing styles with each blink, with the only constant change being that the pupil had turned and stayed blue. There were also some features missing. The right eye was gone and had brilliant blue flowers budding forth instead, and where a changeling would have holes grew flowers as well. The horn was hardly standard, instead appearing like two thorny vines that twisted around themselves to end in a pointed double helix. The menacing pearl-white changeling freed itself with one final crack, stepping out from the hollowed shell of the queen.

And almost immediately collapsed into a murmuring mess in front of everypony.

"Uh. What?"

"D-Do you think they're okay?"

"'Shy, I don't think now is the best time to ask that. 'Doubt it though..."

"Well do what you want! But I'm getting her while she's down!"

"Wait! Rainbow it could be a trap-!" But of course, Rainbow never listens, and Applejack either wasn't able to stop her or didn't and now she was off to pummel the Queen.

"EYES! I GOT NEW EYES!." The sound barrier might've cracked from the speed she twisted to face RD, or it might've come from the fact Rainbow immediately stopped and backed off from the crazy bug-mare.

"Nope! Not dealing with crazy and fast!" Rainbow was back on the other side of the throne room with the rest of her friends, getting an admonishing look from Applejack.

"What happened to being the fastest flyer alive there? You a chicken now?"

"HAIR? What color- What color? Red? No... NO! Ginger?! I lost my soul? How does that even- No wait, red, not ginger. It still might be there-" The chat was interrupted by an odd sight, seeing the albino changeling fuss over something like hair in an increasingly distraught voice. Twilight was confused, and partially wished she could record this in some way other than paper.

"I would have to agree with that, darling! Red truly doesn't suit your color!" Rarity called out loudly, though she wasn't sure if she was heard by the changeling before she was shushed by Rainbow Dash.
"What are you doing?!" She hissed.

Rarity rolled her eyes and whisper-shouted back. "Playing along, If I can keep this up you can all run to find the princesses and the phoenix she's missing. We can't use the Elements now and expect her to be able to tell us what she did with them after!"

"Great Idea! Rainbow Dash, Applejack, with me! We'll split up and see if they're hidden in the castle, she couldn't have had long to do this!" Twilight butted in, gesturing to a hallway they could take from the left.

"Oh, am I a girl? No! Wait- No! I'm a guy! Hooves- No hands, one- two? Two horns, a snout, I've had worse. The eyes are defective, why is it always the- GRAAGH!" The others wisely decided to bolt out of the room faster, leaving the others behind. They'd be fine! Probably!

"Oh no! Um- Are you okay?" Fluttershy called out. That was about as much courage she had as she still decided to use Rarity for cover since Pinky Pie had bounced away somewhere. The changeling king(?) had fallen over itself in a tangled heap of limbs and hair, grumbling something in fast breaths and with twitching legs.

"HEARTS! Gagh! Three hearts! Two hearts and a half too many! Need to stop them-" He was spasming and twitching every which way before somehow managing to right themselves and stumble further away from the approaching pegasus and closer to the changeling husk, having gone oddly unnoticed until the albino changeling suddenly licked their teeth. "Wait. Wait- I know these teeth. Three hearts- I'm not supposed to feel any of this unless-" "Chrysalis...?"

Fluttershy was still approaching the changeling, slowly. Rarity was watching with a very mild case of intense fear as her horn glowed with about all the offensive spells she could give. (Hint, only one.) The changeling had suddenly gone quiet, the ears twitching as if straining to hear something.

"Alyosha"

Who is that? It sounds familiar. His ears strained to hear it reflexively as he attempted to focus on the voice. The voice was familiar, who was it again? Why couldn't he remember? It was the only voice he could hear for ages, wasn't it?

"Alyosha. Can you hear me?"

He was compelled to listen, but he wasn't sure how to respond to the command. The hearts were still beating too fast, too intact, this body was way too fresh for him. It felt like too much.

"Steady. Steady now. One hoof in front of the other now."

"Listen. I know you're confused, but I can explain everything but I need you to trust me right now. You are in terrible terrible danger-"

The world went white and noisy as some incessant noise rang in his ear, the cold marble underneath him slamming into him as he felt something impact his head and detonate, taking the full concussive energy of an offensive spell. Snapping out of the high he'd been riding from suddenly having a body for the first time in eons, he could feel something backlogged in his throat and something trying to dribble out of his nose. Nothing was cracked, but his 'skin' felt like it was shifting in all the wrong ways.

"Alyosha? Alyosha, if you can hear me, run! RUN!"
He could only pause to cough up some red resinous material before scrambling to his feet- hooves, getting back up with a minor limp. His vision was blurry, but that was okay, having good vision was just a luxury. Alyosha gripped the awkward royal husk and hoisted it onto himself. Memories were slowly coming back as he was barely able to maneuver out of the way of live spell-fire, Chrysalis didn't leave him, and he wasn't going to leave her behind.

Run. Run. He couldn't hear anything, he could barely see, he was going to die to spells again, wasn't he? Sprinting down the hall he could make out a smudge of various colors getting bigger as it got closer, taking a sharp turn into a hallway he lost the blur for a while, hopefully. There was still a purple smear chasing him, and various gray and yellow smudges of guards charging spells at him. His horn glowed with twin-colored magic as swirls of green and red aura covered the smudges, lifting them to slam them into the ceiling. This also slammed him into the ceiling as well, and he felt like something in him was punctured as he started feeling the urge to spit and wheeze.

Lesson one, no magic. He couldn't identify targets beyond 'throw what has a body' which didn't work when one had a corporeal form. Lesson two, don't get slammed into solid metal with someone's horn pointed at you.

Escape. Extract. Evacuate. Voices, voices, too many were telling him too many different words that meant getting the hell out of there while the aggressor was down. Fleeing the vaguely pony-shaped masses his limp had exaggerated from a minor one to a major one, and his center of balance was off as he tried to run away. Light was coming from somewhere bright, a rectangle of light called a window.

He dared to launch himself at the light and was attacked by a pony-shaped rainbow, as he was pinned to the ground he struggled to match with his attacker's pace as hooves struck against his carapace, but eventually managed to get a half-decent strike on the cyan being before punting them from the closest thing an equine had to the supine position, scrambling to upright himself he still had the queens deadly horn impaled in a lung, and jumped with the husk out the window, shattering it and plummeting to the ground.

"Oh my goodness she jumped. Twilight said breathlessly. She had managed to catch up with Rainbow Dash who was busy groaning in pain from the hoof she took to the gut, and the royal guards they were able to find were busy assisting each other up and ditching the occasional piece of compromised armor. This entire day was strange, and it was slowly turning into a nightmare. The princesses were missing, Queen Chrysalis came back and turned into... something! And for the life of her she couldn't find Cadence either! She was supposed to be visiting, where was she?

Oh goodness, where where the others? She'd totally left them in the dust back at the throne room! Were they on their way already? Would they be mad? No! They'd understand! Probably.

"Now that truly is surprising. I suppose trigging the little ones trauma was enough to get him running properly. Points off to me though for not dealing with all the guards." Came Chrysalis from behind her. Somehow she wasn't a husk, and looked a lot more lively than what she'd usually seen. The eyes were still as scary as ever.

So Twilight started blasting.

Chrysalis didn't even flinch. She was completely unharmed by the first blast and the second one just went straight through her, and by the fourth mana-draining shot, she called it quits and let herself quietly hyperventilate her stress and fear away for a solid minute. "H-How?"

"Magic" Chrysalis said smugly. "I wouldn't expect you to understand it if I just spoonfed you how I survived that debacle. I'm just going to stand back, and watch it all unfold until he figures it all out."

"What did you do with our princess!" THUNK! There was an attempt to slam Chrysalis into the tile below, but that really just resulted in Rainbow Dash crashing into the ground instead, who was again out for the count. And all Chrysalis could do was give a smug smirk, and roughly shoved them off to the side.

"Untouchable~!" She sang, "I'm in such a good mood that I might humor you for a moment, not for your sake since you're out cold, but because I think it might be just a bit more... Fun. Well. Follow along then." The apparition of Queen Chrysalis began to walk off into another corner of the castle, disappearing behind a wall as she turned off into another hallway out of sight of the busy guards.

So of course, the group followed. Sans Pinkie Pie, oddly enough. She was still at large somewhere in the castle.
"Your precious princesses are gone. For good. They're fine, of course, but I just thought you should know that this time, Princess Celestia and Luna aren't going to save you. In fact, if you want to save them, maybe you should brush up on the history of magic again in the forbidden archives, hm?"

"Y-You're lying! We'll find them, and it'll be over for you, Chrysalis!" Twilight declared.

Chrysalis chuckled softly. "Over? Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. I'm dead. This is just the beginning of a bright new future, for all of us. Ha, you have no idea how many times he said that before the princesses eliminated every single one of his kind. But they weren't nearly fast enough." The apparition paused to look out the broken window, watching the white changeling crumpled to the floor. It was an unpleasant sight, and the red hair splayed out everywhere helped conceal the glowing blue blood he'd splattered on the ground. "I win this time, Purple Smart. It's up to him to take the last stretch."

"H-He? Who is he?"

"Just a little colt of mine, he used to be about a thousand years out of date, made by Starswirl in a lab. Oop- You weren't supposed to hear that." Chrysalis gave a broad grin, snorting to herself before beginning to trot away from the group to turn the corner of a hallway. Twilight's hair poked out slightly, and she was about to ask questions when Fluttershy had beat her to the punch.

"Your colt? That's horrible! You can't just drop a child as a distraction! You're a horrible mother! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Shouted the yellow pegasus. She had screamed at her with about as much fury as she could in that outburst.

"Oh, sorry. I suppose I was just supposed to let myself be captured before he could be free?" Chrysalis spat back venomously, an even glare at Fluttershy revealed that something she'd said had gotten under that thick chitin of hers. "This little scenario is the two of us being even. I'm sure you've all realized by now that I didn't need Cadance alive. Her being alive is purely because she was lucky enough to have taken care of one of the brats pieces when he was all ripped up after-"

"Chrysalis!" Screamed Cadance, a pink bolt of magical energy went soaring to the changeling ghost, phasing right through her and impacting a wall with a minor explosion. She was not amused.

"Pah! Why do I even bother with you fools. I have a newly made changeling that needs... Orienting. Toodles~! Oh, before I forget. This is your last freebie from me, Cadance. It's over next time."

"No! Wait!" Twilight Sparkle's horn lit as she readied a spell to contain her in vain, she had just walked straight through it and straight through the floor, and possibly even the wall. "What did- Oh darn it!" Exasperated, she beat her hooves on the ground and stopped dead in her tracks before she ran into a wall.

"Urgh. I'm back up. Well, uh, she got away. Now what do we do egghead?" Coughed Rainbow Dash.

Twilight sighed and walked to look out the window, her eyes widening in surprise when she looked down. "Well. We find ourselves a confused foal before Chrysalis does."

Cadence stared out at the broken glass with a confused stare. "Er. Mind filling me in, Twilight?"

Heavy bleeding. Guards searching. Heal. Heal. Heal.

His flesh wouldn't listen to his command to heal.

Damn it! When was being a meat suit so difficult? He didn't remember it being this hard being human! No, not a human, but still- The degree of controllability, the perfection of being pure darkness- It was nothing compared to being a fragile hunk of flesh, a broken automaton piloted by neurotransmitters.

Something his older brother said, mind over matter. Would that still apply? His memories were still scrambling together to recombine in something even remotely coherent. Right now all he had to work with were a few childhood memories combined with various times he had died in the hooves of Chrysalis, and at the magic of the twins.

His hooves scrambled to find purchase on the grass, but at least it was easier than running on the cobbled stone he'd landed on. He wasn't able to run off very far, or at least it didn't feel like very far. In maybe a minute or two he was in some sort of garden with blurry statues everywhere. His vessel was cracked in spots, his flowers were leaking out of him and so was something that tasted like iron and colored blue. Blood? Was he copper-based like a crab? Forget that, he was leaking. STOP. THE. BLEED. DAMN IT!

"This way! We found her!"

"I got her- Gah!" Flowering magic slashed at the pony guard, leaving them a crumpled mess with a little trickling of red. Memories of horror returning to him as he staggered through a bush, finding a shortcut through some grassy knolls and shrubbery, azaleas crumpled underhoof as he tried to find a path away. Flashes of moving colors, twisting into frightening images. Hallucinations. Felt so real. Memories of horror. Equestrian atrocities. A thousand hearts beat with his in fear as he pounded the earth to escape the encroaching guards. He could hear something buzzing and more shouting, but he did not care to focus in on it at the moment.

He tried to get his wings to move, but they bent at his command instead. He had no idea how to use these things properly. Were they rotated or flapped? How to generate lift? UNKNOWN. No appeal to take it any longer. He got back to running, but not before trying to jam a broken branch into the hole to plug it. The jagged edges stung painfully and dug around in something inside him as it prodded valuable organics. Or it would have, had he not forgotten that there was currently a wicked horn sticking him. He broke the husks horn off and let it stay in. He was ruining himself by running around with it, even more so when there was the added weight of a corpse that he wasn't going to leave behind. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't going to do it.

What a wonderful day to be born again. Welcome to the kingdom of light, you've gone beyond the chalk, too far. Too far. His hooves trembled. Where was he? Everything hurt. He stared up blankly, watching swarms of black fly around the sunny sky like storm clouds. He liked it when it snowed. Maybe there was a spell for that? ...He had definitely lost a lot of blood. He could hardly keep his thoughts in line now that he had somehow managed to lose the guards. Two guards.

"Killing streaks don't matter to those monsters." He thought to himself. Now... Now what?
Well, he wasn't going to be safe forever standing around in one spot. He was certain that anything black and in the sky was friendly, but everything felt off. Like there was a pressure weighing him down, a tense atmosphere that he could detect. He wasn't sure if it was something magical or just him feeling woozy from standing up with so little fluids in his system.

Trains. Someone liked trains. Trains existed. Probably. Find a train station and use it to escape. There was... At least one. Where's the voice that's with me in the dark? Was another thought he had. Guidance from them would be appreciated. Guidance at all would be very much welcome. He had no idea where the hell he was. Black clouds were swarming everywhere and diving at random, he could see ponies running in the distance, and now he had somehow wandered into a city back alley.

Also, his legs hurt. He was certain he fell from somewhere and managed to land here. He felt like laying down. Just for a moment.

"There you are. So you managed to get away. Good for you. No sleeping, I need you to walk." Said the voice from inside his head. Except it was coming from outside, somewhere to his right side.

He pounced straight into a wall and heard a disappointed sigh. "Not you too. We can have the annoying pony emotions later, but I need you to head south- FORWARD! And to the newly minted extraction team waiting for you." Chrysalis spoke, nudging the white changeling around. "Come on Alyosha, get up. Start running again."

Alyosha started dragging himself along at first, leading into a steady crawl that became a slow walk along abandoned streets. He'd passed about two windows when the voice decided to start talking again.

"You're doing... Fine. But I need you to hurry. Hurry on. Your wings. Use them. Try."

"No, no- Stop, don't-" But it was too late. The white changeling had jumped, generated a second of lift, and promptly swerved and crashed into their own face on the stone road- instantly going limp from a combination of blood loss and self-inflicted trauma.

"...jump. Damn it."

Author's Note

One brain is two, two brains is four.

You Are (Not) Alone

Gentle knocking filled the cabin.

He was tired, so very tired. The train wasn't helping either. The rhythm of the train chugging alone was calling him to return to the peaceful void, forcing him to hark the siren call of the dead as his eyes unwillingly closed, but he could still think, he could still hear the train moving, still feel Chrysalis somewhere.

Alyosha wanted to focus on something, so he tried to think about where to go now. More accurately, just what had happened? There were changelings and dying, and also resurrection and he jumped out of a window. Lots of stuff. He even had a few memories that he was certain were not His, but instead from the Many that came from Him.

...Why was he thinking of himself like that?

'Doesn't matter. Not important.' He thought to himself. He didn't even know what was more important than that right now. Well, there was something. The pain in his sides. His difficulty breathing, and his broken body. Born defective. Again.

The train ride was going to be very uneventful. Nothing was going to happen soon, so his focus was drifting. First his hearing went, drifting away into nothing as the unchanging melody of the train was tuned out. Then the feeling in his body, he couldn't feel the way he shook ever so slightly anymore. Then lastly, his thoughts went.

His thoughts went mad. Alyosha's eyes flew open and he fell out of his chair. He almost stopped thinking, he almost stopped being. Where was he going? Is that death? That's death. Ceasing to think is death. Ceasing to exist is death.

"I need you to sleep, child. You'll die if you don't. I can't bring you back if you die this time." Chided the ghost of Chrysalis. Right. She was still around. Her normally calming presence had no typical effect as Alyosha just breathed harder, faster, twitching on the seat, fighting to stay awake.

"I don't want to. It's dark. There's nothing there." He whimpered.

"You need sleep. It's an unchangeable fact. You are biological now, you aren't a shadow anymore. Didn't you always want this?"

"It's terrifying. I'm scared."

Chrysalis sighed. "I know you are. Look, can you get back on the chair? You'll break your seals like that, and then you'll be bleeding out all over the floor again."

Alyosha quickly hopped back onto the chair, settling into a loaf-like shape. It was hardly a proper way to sit, but it helped keep all of the correct organs in the right positions. As Alyosha whimpered, Chrysalis sighed. She had been trying to help him - to put him to sleep so that his mind could rest.

"It's ok, Alyosha," she said softly. "It's ok." She placed a hoof on his shoulder, pulling away his attention from oblivion to her as she stared him in the eyes.

"Nothing's going to hurt you," she told him, and in her eyes, the voice, was reflected a promise. Admittedly a very weak promise, but it was enough to get Alyosha to breathe deeply, and exhale.

"That's better. Listen to me, child. You remember me still, right?" Chrysalis asked, and she stared into the remaining good eye of Alyosha.

Familiarity. Distant.

He did not. Or perhaps he did. He remembered one mind, one goal, one body. Peace. Love. He didn't remember why, but he did remember the name.

"Chrysalis" He murmured.

"Good. Anything else?" She asked, prodding for answers. Questions he didn't know the answers to. Alyosha's eye tracked the interior of the train. Faux leather upholstery, like the vinyl of a restaurants booth seat. Carpeted flooring, built it. Lamps. Electrical. Modern. New.

None of what he saw matched what a different name of his remembered, but his other name, his first one did.

"No." He lied.

Calm.

Didn't want to be. The alabaster changeling didn't want to sleep. He remembered that now. In spite of all his freshly sealed injuries he didn't want to sleep. He remembered the last time sleep embraced him, the embrace of death. Inevitable, cascading, furious, white hot, painful.

Thoughts came cascading downward, he was going to die. Not this second, or maybe he would- maybe in an hour or a day or five years. His eyes widened, and his breathing turned sharp and rigid. "I don't want to die." He mewled pathetically.

"Shh..."

Chrysalis's voice was calm again, trying to ease Alyosha's fears.

"It's just sleep, child. Sleep is good. Let yourself rest."

Chrysalis placed both hooves on Alyosha's shoulders, trying to soothe him.

"Rest now, Alyosha," she whispered. "You'll feel better when you wake up."

"I promise," Chrysalis said softly.

She could sense Alyosha's fears and hesitations, and she tried to provide him with all the reassurance she could.

"There's no need to be afraid," she told him. "Just close your eyes and rest... That's all I ask of you, child."

Hesitant. He closed his remaining eye, and curled up his legs close to himself like a cat would loaf, and tried to rest.

A minute passed, and his breathing turned slow and rhythmic, as the flower that had claimed his other eye closed into a bud as well, signaling his passing into the hold of sleep.

Chrysalis exhaled in relief.

She gently placed a gossamer wing over his body, faux security. "You're safe now." she whispered to him.

As she gazed down at him, her heart felt filled with a strange mixture of pride and anguish.

In spite of everything, he had made it out alive.... She'd done it. She'd brought him back. Incomplete, and wrong, but he was here again. Her first friend. Her first equal.

....

The train cabin shaked softly as it glided on steel tracks, taking them to their destination far away from the beaten city of Canterlot.

As the train glided along the rails, Chrysalis couldn't help but think. Think about everything, every step and every day that has brought them both to here, the present.

She thought back to his last moments before his death, his true death. How terrified and alone he had been. And then how quickly he had come to trust her, even after everything she'd done. And now, this, blindly trusting her still after being reborn in active combat.

She felt a strange sense of pride, knowing that she had helped him in his time of need. And she felt a strange sense of guilt as well. She felt guilt because he had trusted her, and she knew that he shouldn't have. Because she was behind all of this.

She wanted to hiss at herself, at her emotions. He was obedient, willing. All of it was his fault, his consequence for choosing to place his trust in her.

This... This mercy, this empathy, was a passing fad. It would leave soon enough, and it would be just like old times.

As the train continued on its journey, Chrysalis found herself slipping back into her old, cold persona. She was the Queen of the Changelings. She couldn't afford to let emotions like empathy or mercy cloud her judgment.

Just as she began to feel herself slipping back into her old ways, she felt another presence near her.

She turned to find that Alyosha was stirring. Alyosha was sleeping.

Something to dream about, though what he had to dream of that was still pleasant, she had no idea.

As Alyosha continued to sleep, he had a dream. The dream of the dreamless sleep.

The void.

It was familiar.

The void.

It was where he'd been for nearly a thousand years. Since he was a child, he could never dream. Always stuck in a memory, or here, in the abyss where he would rest until his living body awoke.

The void was peaceful. Empty and safe and secure, and only lasting just a moment before the daylight brought him out.

Alyosha didn't mind the emptiness. In fact, he found it comforting. He felt free here. He had no worries or fears. He could simply exist.

As he drifted deeper into the void, he heard a faint voice in the distance.

"Alyosha.."

It was so faint, that he wasn't sure if it was even real. The whisper of a devil hiding in the dark, soft tones sending shivers up his spine.

But it sounded like... Like her.. The voice of a name most unspeakable.

His heart stopped with shock and awe as a wave of memory struck him fiercely. All perspectives. To watch how the sun wrought down pillars of flame on cities, screams beginning and silencing, the howling of balefire winds and Equestrian atrocities.

The voice of someone he remembered only once upon a time, as a friend.

Was that real?

Alyosha's mind and his heart raced as he tried to figure out what was happening.

The voice calling to him seemed familiar, and it sounded like her. But that wasn't possible...

But... What if it was?

For the first time since the beginning of forever and the end of all things, the void bent to his will.

His mind was a canvas of black ink, and he ordered it to reveal the source of that voice. The voice of the one who left him locked up in that tower. The one who killed his creations.

Celestia. Caged.

As the void obeyed his will, Alyosha could see a vision forming in his mind.

He saw Celestia, being held captive. But he also saw her looking straight at him, as if she knew that he was watching her.

"Alyosha..." She seemed to be saying.

Her eyes met his, even across the vast expanse of the void.

"Please... Help me."

She was kind. Kind once. The tower. They first met there. Shared tea. There was two of them.

His eyes squeezed themselves shut and averted her sight. Don't be afraid. It's just a dream. It's a just a dream. Not real. Not real.

He waited. For a response. For them to go away. Anything.

But you can't avert your eyes from death.

As he waited for a response, for Celestia to go away, for everything to go back to normal, instead, he heard her speak again...

"I know that you're there, Alyosha. Please... I need your help."

He couldn't help but feel the emotion in her voice.

Could it be true..? Was Celestia really asking him for help? Not really. Not plausible.

He wanted to scream at her to go away. Summon forth hate, shout and cry and scorn her with all his venom.
But he had no fangs with which to cast, meak jaws long since rendered harmless and ineffectual, and his well of emotions was dry.

Alyosha whimpered. "What do you want?"

Celestia seemed shocked by his reply.

"Alyosha..." She spoke softly, as if she couldn't possibly believe what she was hearing.

"It's.. It's been so long since I've seen you. I know that we didn't always see eye-to-eye, but I.. I do need your help."

She sounded sincere. Sickening. Disgusting. Vile.

"Please, Alyosha.. You're the only one I can count on..."

"J-Just tell me already. B-Before I change my mind." The child snapped back. Or at least he tried to. His voice shaked. Such a pushover.

There was a moment of silence on the other end, as if Celestia was thinking carefully about how to phrase her request.

"The changeling swarm has attacked, Alyosha," she said carefully. "I have been captured, and-"

She paused for a moment, trying figure out how much to tell him.

"-The only hope I have of being rescued is if you come and help me."

Silence.

She wanted his help? This.. This apparition.

No. No more. Too many times had he died in the dark alone. No more.

"I... Waited..." He struggled to speak. Every word had suddenly turned to shards of glass in his throat as it turned to dry sand.

Alone. Locked away. Obedient. Good child. Death was the reward.

"I... waited... for.. you." He choked out. He'd waited years. Locked up in that tower. Forgotten about. Patiently waiting, for anyone, to come home.

There was another moment of silence on the other end.

Then, Celestia spoke again, "Alyosha... I..."

She was at a loss for words, unsure of what to say. The tree remembered, and the axe could not forget what had chipped its blade.

"I'm sorry, Alyosha. Please... Please forgive me."

Her voice sounded so sincere. It was hard to believe that she was just a figment of his imagination.

Maybe it was because she wasn't.

"Please, Alyosha... I need you..." She called out again to him.

He wanted to forgive. A part of him wanted to, anyways. A part that wanted to go back to the old days, the easy days, the piece of him that liked following orders and helping no matter what.

And he felt a thousand shattered hearts guiding him against that want.

"Y-You.. Your ponies killed me. I left- looking to see where you'd all gone, and you killed me. You killed... all of my friends." He choked out. Tears spilled from his eyes. The world felt heavy, existence felt heavy, a crushing darkness that fell over everything and every thought as it was all consumed by memories of atrocity. The smell of charcoal and burnt meat. The scent of ozone in the air. Such things that could have been peaceful were marred by what they really meant.

Death. The death of many.

Celestia was taken aback by his sudden outburst. But her eyes remained kind as she listened to him.

"I know... I know what happened all those years ago, Alyosha," she told him softly. "And I'm so sorry..."

Her voice was sincere, and even in the void, her heart was filled with sadness as she thought of him and his friends.

"I wish things could be different," she continued. "I wish I could have prevented that from happening..."

She seemed to be struggling to speak.

He was silently crying in the void. Tears flowed freely in rivulets like a stream.

Memories surfaced.

`I'm not leaving my mother!'

A flash of light. Buildings disintegrated in an instant, as solar fury ruined years of work in an instant.

'To those still alive. You have to survive. You have to go. Flee genocide. Leave it behind, the world we know-!'

Celestia listened silently as Alyosha remembered more and more of the past. She could sense his sadness and pain, and she wished that she could take it all away from him.

"I know that I've hurt you, Alyosha," she continued, gently placing one of her hooves on his shoulder. "And I'm... I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for everything."

She wanted to wrap him up in a hug, to hold him close and never let go.

"I don't want you to suffer anymore."

He flinched at her touch and backed away. Terror filled his heart.

He was afraid. How did she get out of the cage?

As Celestia noticed the fear in Alyosha's eyes, her heart broke even more.

She knew that she hadn't healed the wounds between them, not by a long shot.

But she would try, she told herself.

"Alyosha... I know that I haven't earned it.. But please... Trust me."

She hoped that he would be able to find it within him to forgive her. She hoped that he would be able to believe her.

She hoped beyond hope.

But hope was a sad thing.

Alyosha was a frightened child. Deeply disturbed. Though the wounds of his body long healed, and the atrocities committed against him forgotten after a thousand years...

...He hadn't forgotten. He didn't see the kind and modern ruler. He saw the ruthless solar tyrant that slaughtered his creations and anyone who dared to stand for them.

He saw a monster. A devil that masqueraded itself in the coat of the righteous. An angel of death.

A demon.

She knew what she had done to him, and his friends, his creations.

She knew that she was the monster in his eyes. They both knew what had been done couldn't be washed away. There was no river water or sanctified oration that could wash away what had stained so deeply in blood.

And yet, she wanted... She wanted to believe that she could make things right between them.

"You don't have to forgive me," she tried. "But please... Just... Help me..."

Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

"I can't escape from this prison on my own... Please, child..."

"I waited." He whispered. In the void, He took a step back. Distance he would build, for she had gotten too close.

"I waited. Wondering. Years. Years and years of waiting for a sign, for anyone to come home. But nobody came. I tried to take care of Starswirls tower as the food began to rot and the reagents neutralized. I waited, wondering every day and every night if I should just leave or if maybe, all three of you had somehow gotten yourselves killed."

"I.. I missed you. And you.. You-! You come back, after giving the order to burn me- all of us to ash."

"After a thousand years. The first time we meet. You want my help?"

Celestia knew that she deserved what he was saying. His pain, his anger, his hatred, was all justified.

She had done horrible things to him. Horrible things to his friends and his creations.

She'd been foolish to expect that she could so easily regain his trust.

And she couldn't deny that, at least a small part of her, wasn't surprised.

But she still wanted to try, the idiot. Turn back. Stop trying to pull the blade out.

"Alyosha... Please... I'm begging you. Help me... Please..."

"I want an answer and I want you to be true." Alyosha spoke lowly. Evenly. The edge of a knife dancing in his words.

"Why. Why did you give the order to exteriminate us?"

Celestia felt a stab of pain as she heard that question. She knew what she had done, and she knew what she had to say.

"Because I was afraid.." She spoke softly. She didn't want to lie to him, not anymore.

"I was afraid of what would happen if I allowed your colonies to grow in Equestria. I was afraid of what you might do."

Her words were filled with regret.

"I... I let my fear control me... And I did something unforgivable."

"You were afraid?" Alyosha choked. In an instant even the tiniest shred of spine he had shattered and turned into dust, and any retort lay broken like glass in his throat. Razor sharp and self-harming.

Why? He... He might have been odd. Never really spoken to anyone. But. But.

But he loved this world. He didn't belong to it. He'd been stolen from his home. He remembered that. But he didn't hate.

He didn't hate them.

Celestia felt a flicker of relief as she saw her words were beginning to reach him. Perhaps there was still hope for their relationship after all.

"Yes," she said, "I was afraid. I was afraid that you would hurt my ponies, that you would take over my kingdom. I had seen the potential, for terrible things."

She wanted to believe though, that she was beginning to fix her mistakes.

"I... I should have trusted you to do what was right."

She sounded genuine, as if her words were the truth.

"I made a mistake. I'm sorry, Alyosha.."

His trickle of emotions grew into a stream, a great bubbling and roiling rapid that would shatter him into pieces.

He sobbed. His face twisted as his vision turned wet and hot, tears forming at the corners of his vision. He wasn't alone in these tears. So many others had expressions like this one too, the face of one who needed comfort. Solace.

The only comfort they ever got was from a cold blade, or a burning wall of fire.

"...You even killed the ponies that trusted us." He whispered. Quiet. His brain could barely keep itself composed enough for anything than sharp, quick and quiet responses.

No matter how right you feel. How just your act might be.

When you fire that first shot.

You have no idea. No idea how many are going to die.

How many hearts will be broken.

Whose children are going to scream and burn?

How many lives shattered.

Until it boils down to what should have happened in the very beginning. Sit down.

And talk.

She knew what he was thinking, and she knew that he was right.

All this could have been avoided. If they'd just ever found a chance to talk.

She saw the pain in his eyes, the pain that she had caused all those years ago. And she felt guilty, as if she was responsible for it all.

"I-I'm sorry!" She managed to get the words out.

In that moment, she wanted nothing more than for her and Alyosha to be able to fix what had been broken.

And in this chat, Alyosha was king.

"Please, Alyosha. Forgive me.. I beg of you.."

Alyosha slumped over, and fell into a heap.

Now he was appointed as thenew king, he decreed that it was too late to start caring about him.

Fear. Again, and again, they killed him out of fear. Tears flowed like a stream as he cried silently. He wanted to scream. To shout. To rage. At long last he had a mouth. And he couldn't scream.

All he could do is boil, and loathe, weep and mourn. Grief devoured him, and he mourned the losses of every single identity he held and everything and every one he knew. His family. His home. His friends. Himself. Every cloud and sea, every child of peace, to this corruption in disguise.

Alyosha laid there. Crying to himself.

Celestia could barely contain her own emotions. She was heartbroken at the sight of Alyosha, his tears falling softly down his cheeks.

And so, in a moment of impulsiveness, she threw her hooves around him in a hug.

She couldn't find the words to say.

She simply held him in his time of need. And she hoped that he could forgive her.

Alyosha didn't move. He didn't even flinch. She was a monster, a demon, the bane of every creature that lurked in the night. And he didn't even move. His eyes were glassy and glazed with tears. Staring off. Like he wasn't even here.

"Please, please..." Celestia continued to beg him, holding him tightly in her arms as tears clouded her eyes as well.

She wanted to say more, but she felt him beginning to slip away from her.

She could feel his emotions leaving his body, as if he was closing up.

"Alyosha, please.... Please, don't leave yet... Let me do something... Please..."

She didn't want him to go... Not like this. Not after coming so far...

His lucidity was quite terminal. As the crushing tidal wave of grief subsided, loss and realization took its place.

What was there even left to do? So what if he was alive again? So what if Chrysalis had brought him back. His whole world was dead. Nothing could change that.

He was right; his whole world was dead. Nothing she could do would bring it back.

And yet... And yet, she couldn't bear to see him in so much pain.

"Alyosha..." She said softly, trying to coax him back to lucidity. She didn't know what else to say. But she had to try, she had to.

"Alyosha. Please. Don't go."

She hoped desperately that he would listen to her.

He was being unraveled the more he thought, in silence he died again. Why did he get to come back? What about the dozens, no, thousands of others he'd known. He'd known them through different names, different faces, but the attachment, the love had been there.

And now it wasn't. It was all gone. How could he ever hope to try again without feeling as if he was just replacing them all, like garbage. Bodies were temples, books, arts, canvas. What was he now? Violated. Twisted. They cut off his paint, stapled new linen and painted whatever they wanted. Cut away like trash. He was trash. Used. Unworthy.

"Please, Alyosha, stop thinking like that..." Celestia whispered softly.

Her words sounded so sincere, so passionate. She could feel it in her heart. She was trying to reach him, trying to convince him.

"It doesn't have to be meaningless, you know? You're alive again, you have a second chance at life. That has to mean something, right? Please, don't throw that away."

She was desperately trying to convince herself that her words would make a difference. It was almost as if she was pleading with him to listen.

The void itself began to cry. Rain fell down gently in thin, small drops.

Alyosha felt one last thought.

It all returned to nothing.

It all came tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down.

"No! No, Alyosha!" Celestia cried, as she tried to cling to him. She knew it was useless, though; he was slipping away.

In his heart of hearts, he knew that he could never love again. He'd lost everything. Everything.

Now everything that mattered to him, has no matter in this world.

He wished, that he could turn back time. He knew, he couldn't forget the past. He can't forget death and pride, and all for that, it killed him deep inside.

She held him tight, tears falling down her face.

She wanted to believe that he was still there, that he was still with her...

But he wasn't.

Alyosha woke up. He was back in the train carriage.

He rubbed his eyes with his hooves. They were wet with tears. He'd been crying in his sleep.

Now what? So he was alive again, and now what?

He supposed that he'd have to ask Chrysalis about that.

Chrysalis...

At least she was still around.

Just then, he heard a knock on the door.

He could feel his heart racing.

Who could it be? Who was coming to see him?

He hoped that it was Chrysalis. He needed her right now.

He got up, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. Then he walked over to the door, and slowly opened it.

It was a changeling. A regular drone.

"We are within three kilometers of the destination. Once in Apploosa, we will head straight to the hive."

Alyosha nodded slowly. He was still trying to get his bearings, and the appearance of a changeling was just too much.

Still, he needed to appear calm and composed.

"Right, right... Apploosa..." He said slowly, as if to himself.

Then he turned to the changeling drone.

"Apploosa..." He repeated, his eyes darting around. "Of course... I remember... Yes, Apploosa..."

He was trying so hard to remember. To figure out how he had ended up in this train. His head. His head was fucking killing him. He laid back down, alone in the carriage, and waited for everything to settle.

You Are (Not) Safe

Author's Note

Special thanks to everyone reading my little piece of high-speed dumpster fire tragedy, especially those of you who took an interest in it from the side-works and read it all. While it wont be necessary for you newcomers to read the side-stories, this story will allude to them some more, and clarify a few subjects brought up in them.

Now sit back and watch the fire burn a bit yeah?

You Are (Not) Safe

Appleoosa was quiet.

Not a single soul dared to leave their homes after the news trickled out from Canterlot. The town that was filled with hard work from sun-up to sun-down was still. There were unpicked apples, and fields only partially watered. Everyone had decided that they would have to hunker down for their safety. Not a foal was to leave the safety of the watchful eyes of the adults, and every pony kept weary eyes open as they waited, and waited, to see if a changeling swarm would descend upon them too.

In the silence, the squealing of metal grinding upon metal rang out as the train stopped at the local station, cutting through murmurs of fear hidden behind walls as the brakes engaged, too roughly, too quickly, as the train was forcefully jockeyed and stopped with a screech.

Inside, the two changelings made way to move, and the train doors opened as a white one staggered out, and the ghost of Chrysalis followed him. As quickly as the train had braked, it began to chug along, and with a single bellow of its horn, it departed.

Appleoosa was still.

And Alyosha flopped out onto his face on the platform. If his chitin were still soft as putty, he'd have something far more serious than a few hairline crack on his snout.

"Up on your hooves. You can do better."

Green magic righted him, and he stumbled around where none could see him, except for a Ticketmaster in his booth wisely deciding to keep his head down. Chrysalis was annoyed, Alyosha was a mess- and so far she was fortunate that nobody had decided to attempt to show up to bravely stop the changelings. The local constable was elsewhere and occupied, and nobody in their right mind would try to show up a heavily armed invading army of changelings.

Demoralized. All was right and according to plan.

"Drones. Gamma-One, Gamma-Two. Assist him. Five and six, clear the path." Chrysalis ordered.

Alyosha stumbled away from the platform, his body still weak and soft from recently undergoing his change. He was in no condition to fight, especially since his powers were still immature and his body undeveloped. Chrysalis was frustrated by his current state, a frustration she chose to not unleash upon any pony.

For now.

The drones obeyed their master's command without question, moving quickly to assist Alyosha and clear a path for him. They had one goal in mind: to ensure that their escort through Appleoosa went exactly as planned.

Alyosha was a major investment. And his survival was paramount. Chrysalis, in her ghostly form- took point as the spearhead of the group, with the drones forming around him.

Everyone present was essential for protecting Alyosha and ensuring that his survival was guaranteed. They formed up around him like a shield, protecting him with their bodies and guarding him from any potential attacks or threats. Their numbers were enough to intimidate anyone who might consider challenging them too.

The group made their way through the quiet town of Appleoosa, making as little noise as possible. The drones scanned the surroundings, keeping a watchful eye for any potential threats. The town was eerily quiet, with only the sounds of their own hooves breaking the silence. The ponies of Appleoosa were hiding in their homes, too fearful to go out. They did not know what awaited them if they stepped out, and they did not want to find out.

Alyosha stumbled and swayed, and the group kept him on his hooves. The path through Appleoosa was without anything notable- not a single pony insofar had dared to stand up against them.

Just a bit longer and his safety and security would be well and truly guaranteed, beneath the surface and behind the walls of the Hive.

As the changelings continued their journey through Appleoosa, Chrysalis couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. It had been almost far too easy thus far, with no resistance or unexpected complications to interfere with her plans. And yet she couldn't help but feel her excitement build at the thought of finally securing her investment's protection and safety inside the Central Hive.

A heart of gold reforged by the powers of the sun and moon- an obedient and willing rook had been placed on the board. The power to reshape the world.

And it would all be for nothing if he were to be captured, or worse- killed.

His escorts, as well as Chrysalis, saw it as their mission to protect him and ensure his safe arrival back to the Hive, where he could be sheltered and shielded from the rest of the pony world.

Even though Equestria had suffered a devastating blow in the form of the loss of Princesses Celestia and Luna, Chrysalis knew that she could not risk dawdling around for too long. The elements, and more importantly Twilight Sparkle, were bound to discover a lead to her plan sooner or later, and then they would surely attempt to unravel Alyosha to return the two princesses. For her to successfully ensure the long-term safety and protection of her investment, she needed to act quickly and decisively.

The first steps of a plan were generally the most influential.

Meanwhile, Alyosha stared at the world around him with wide eyes, taking in the sight of a world he was still mostly unfamiliar with. Confused and disoriented, sights and smells that were so near and yet so far away. Burning memories.

While Alyosha stared at the world, starry-eyed like a newborn, Chrysalis asked questions.

"Gamma-Two. Distance from flight zone?"

"14 kilometers, my queen." Gamma-Two replied, keeping a close eye on the distance that separated the group from the changeling flight zone. Chrysalis was making sure to stay vigilant, ensuring that no one would interfere with their journey.

"Farther than expected," Chrysalis muttered. "Is Beta company here as instructed? We may need them here sooner than expected."

"Yes, my queen. Beta company is at the perimeter of the town, awaiting your orders." Gamma-Two replied.

Chrysalis was concerned that their journey through Appleoosa was taking longer than expected. It seemed like the town was further from the secure flight zone than she had anticipated. She also realized that Beta Company might be needed sooner than she had originally planned. Things were not going according to schedule, and she needed to adjust her plan accordingly. There was no way they'd make it with a flightless and ground-bound grub for even half of that distance.

"Tell Beta company to scramble. We're taking flight early and I want nobody in this backwater town tracing us." She paused and turned to more nearly cookie-cutter drones. "Gamma-Three, Gamma-Four, you'll handle Alyosha's flight."

"As you command, my queen." Gamma-Two communicated the message to Beta Company and waited for them to scramble and get ready for an early departure.

Gamma-Three and Gamma-Four acknowledged the order, and they would be responsible for handling Alyosha's flight out of Appleoosa. Literally. Unable to fly without exhausting his meager amount of blood and dwindling reserves of magic, they needed to make sure that the young changeling made it back to the Central Hive safely and securely. The mission was of top priority, and they could not afford any mishaps or delays.

"Gamma-One, Gamma-Two. You're with me. The rest of the drones, secure the perimeter." Chrysalis ordered, leaving Gamma-One and Gamma-Two at her side as the three of them prepared to leave Appleoosa.

The other drones would take up perimeter security duties, ensuring that no one could come in or out of the town without their permission. The drones made up the majority of the strike force, all with the same goal: to ensure the safe relocation of their young changeling companion.

The changeling strike force created a fog of chaos and distraction wherever they went, raising confusion and fear amongst the inhabitants of Appleoosa. As if spawning in from the shadows themselves the population of Beta Company wrought upon the town the pandemonium needed for the rest of them to leave.

Alyosha was still starry-eyed despite all the chaos and commotion, remaining a vulnerable and innocent figure amidst the mayhem, the eye of the storm. Chrysalis couldn't help but feel a tinge of sympathy for the young changeling, who was being whisked away just when he was beginning to adjust to his new identity. But she knew it was necessary, and his long-term survival took priority over all else.

She took a deep breath as it all took flight like dust in the wind.

Chrysalis couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Between the shouting and the silence; some things, indeed, never changed.

...

Within the next three hours of flight, between babbling brooks and deep scars that cracked the earth- they had made it. And in record time no less, to a barren wasteland of hot sandstone and thin 'topsoil'.

The Hive.

They had managed to avoid detection or any serious incidents during their journey from Appleoosa to the hive, keeping their precious young asset safe and sound. It had not been an easy trek, but it had been a successful one.

The changelings were finally back at their home base, and they could breathe easy knowing that Alyosha was safe within the walls of the Central Hive.

They descended down a hidden path-way, a dark tunnel like an open maw that led them into the outermost echelon of the hive. Things were lit sparsely, glowing gelatinous bulbs and crystals made up most of the green lighting, used wherever it was truly needed.

While some might have expected some above-ground fortress, the changelings had chosen to utilize the underground sandstone layers as the foundation for their home, excavating deep into the earth to create a vast underground fortress. It was a strategic choice that allowed them to remain hidden and protected from any possible threats from above. The pathways made from resin and stone were tall but narrow, and were imposing and claustrophobic to anything that couldn't fly.

Alyosha took in all of the sights of the Central Hive with a sense of cold nostalgia. He couldn't help but recall the memories of his time imprisoned in a stuffy flask, or even as a mere flower.

However, this current version of the hive was different, and it did not evoke the same warmth or nostalgia that he had felt when he had last visited it. There was a sense of wonder, something that could never be scrubbed away- but it was tainted by estrangement. It was like visiting an old friend's home and seeing that things were no longer where they used to be. An empty kennel where the childhood dog once was. The carpets have changed, the furniture moved and new, and the wallpaper dulled and peeling.

He remembered how this had once been the closest thing he ever had to a home. Not his real home, but it was safe, and there was life just- buzzing throughout the whole facility. You could hear it. Hear it inside the walls, feel in it the ground itself.

But now, that warmth that it had once exuded had long since disappeared. Instead, the hive now felt cold and hollow, devoid of any comfort or solace that it had once offered to him during the darkest of times.

This wasn't Home. It was A home. The closest thing he ever had to a home. But there was no warmth here. The fire was gone.

He did not feel at ease here. The rush of internal chemistry coursing through his body and the fragmented memories of past events from the time he had been caught in between life and death all combined to leave his mind in a state of fog. He stumbled away from the group in a daze, unable to process everything that the hive brought up in him.

While Alyosha struggled to make sense of his memories and emotions, he was approached by one of the drones that had accompanied him on the journey.

"Young lord," the drone spoke in its monotone voice. "Are you in need of assistance?"

Alyosha had been lost in the rush of his memories, trying to make sense of them and reconcile them with his present state. However, the drone's words brought him back to the present.

Lord? I am no lord.

Then, more memories pieced themselves together- and stayed together. He was lord, he was technically using Chrysalis' body. Did that make them related now? They did feel a little together then, like... Like siblings. Was that the right word?

Then his head decided it had thought too hard and too long, and his brain felt like a hot iron had been run through it for a split second. Slipping between clarity under duress and haze in calm was a strain in more ways than one.

"I... I'll be fine." Alyosha said, wincing.

"I-I'll be fine." He repeated to the drone, his voice still wavering slightly as his brain processed the sudden rush of thoughts and memories. He might have been firmer this time- but so was his pain.

"Are you certain, Lord Alyosha?" The drone asked, a note of genuine concern in its tone.

Chrysalis's drones were made to remain loyal and obedient to her at all times, so it was no surprise that it would show such concern for the young changeling. Especially when his exterior didn't look all that healthy. Blood coming from one eye is rarely a pretty sight.

"Y-yes. I need... to recollect myself." He spoke softly.

The drone nodded politely, then backed away, giving Alyosha the space he requested.

Unfortunately, however, the drones still also obeyed Chrysalis, and far too soon she had cut into the conversation the second a moment of weakness was present.

"Gamma-One." She began. "Please escort Alyosha to my chambers for the time being. The rest of you are dismissed. Consider your squadron dissolved for the time being."

"Yes, my queen." Gamma-One obeyed the order, stepping forward to approach Alyosha and usher him to follow.

Once the other drones had been dismissed, Gamma-One motioned for the young changeling to come with it. The drones remained loyal to Chrysalis, and they would obey her orders without question. Gamma-One's task now was to escort Alyosha to the queen's private chambers to ensure his safety and well-being.

And of course, he continued to stumble on blindly through the tunnels.

As he stumbled through the tunnels, following Gamma-One's direction through winding tracks and past chips in the... glass? He began to notice the subtle differences between this hive and the one that he had once known.

Changes that his mind had not yet fully grasped. The lighting was dim compared to the way it used to be, and the architecture seemed less precise and carefully crafted. It was more organic and utilitarian as if it had been built to prioritize functionality over form. Great works that had been stolen- pirated and reinvented were absent and lacking.

The changes were unsettling, and they made him feel as if he was no longer in a familiar place. He was wandering blindly through tunnels that he had once known so intimately, normal as the water to a fish, and now seemed so alien.

Even if his sight remained unimpaired, the world around him felt dull, muted, and foreign. The lights, the walls, the architecture—everything was unrecognizable to him. The designs seemed to be built to achieve function over form, rather than emphasizing beauty or elegance. The structures grown and carved, reductive, not additive.

Indeed, this was no hive that he had ever known.

As Alyosha struggled to make sense of the strange world around him, Gamma-One led him through the complex labyrinth of tunnels that made up the Central Hive. The hive was vast and sprawling, with winding tunnels that seemed to go on forever.

Gamma-One moved quickly, making sure to move swiftly yet carefully so as not to confuse or overwhelm Alyosha too much. The drone was aware of how unsettling the hive had become to the young changeling, and it did not want to make it worse for him.

At long last they came before an atrium, or a space. Whatever it was it was a wider path than the typical tunnels, and there was a carved door.

After walking for what felt like hours through the winding tunnels of the Central Hive, Gamma-One finally led them to an atrium. The atrium was a wide open space, much wider than most of the tunnels they had traversed. And in the center of the atrium was a carved door.

The drone stopped in front of the door, motioning for Alyosha to step forward.

Alyosha stepped forward. The handle was silver, or some other shimmering metal. Or was it organic? Rainbows danced on it in the dim light, pearlescent. Iridescent? Like nacre.

The carving. Mockery of brick, imitation- a reinvention of baroque. Renaissance. Like someone sculpted as they pleased and let the mind fill in the details.

He opened it and went inside the queen's quarters.

When the carved door swung open, revealing the queen's quarters, Alyosha stepped inside. He was in an unfamiliar place, but he felt a subtle sense of familiarity around him. Perhaps he had been here before, but his mind and memories remained hazy.

Alyosha took a deep breath, closing his eyes and his flower of an otherwise non-existent eye, to achieve a sense of calm and clarity in the dulled and muddied environment of this new hive. His memory was still hazy and fragmented, but he needed time to collect himself and bring some sharpness into the dulled environment.

He sat down on one of the chairs in the queen's chambers and tried to focus his thoughts. He needed time to sort through the chaos and make sense of everything.

Another deep breath. He needed calm. Clarity. Just a bit of time.

The young changeling focused on the chair he was sitting on, exploring the texture of the cushions, the fabric and fibers that made it up. The cushions were made of a soft, spongy material that felt similar to a glob of dried acrylic or soft clay. Like gelatin, or maybe foam? Over it, was something made finely. So fine, made up of many threads. Silken. Insect silk. Fine fabric.

Everything in this world felt unfamiliar, and his memories were still hazy. But he could still process the world around him for what it was, albeit through a lens of mild confusion.

He could call himself a changeling. In technicality he was. No, he was a changeling in body. But this wasn't his original body. He'd been transmuted, transubstantiated- whatever other words for transform were, several times. But he knew that he was a human.

The young changeling could barely reconcile where his original body and memories began, and where they ended- blended together with a medley of pain and joys from a dozen others- But he was still a human. And he was also a changeling. Yet, he was only one in body, not in soul.

And a voice cut through his miasma of thoughts like fire.

"I thought you would have taken the bed." Was the words of Chrysalis. Her ghost was surrounded by thin wisps of green flame as she took her spot on the bed. For how long, he had no idea, he had only just now opened his eyes again.

"That bed belongs to you." Was his response. His voice was young, distinctly male, and hardly aggressive.

Smoothly, she replied. "Yet you use my body."

“Yet you gave me your body.” He said quickly.

Alyosha had no intention of being aggressive with the queen, but he was also not going to back down from the statement.

Chrysalis remained silent for a moment, observing the young changeling as he sat still in her quarters. Her ghostly presence was intimidating to even the most stalwart of creatures, but Alyosha was not intimidated. He was not willing to back down, to admit wrong or to submit to her.

'...That's a strange thought. We are equals. We are friends.'

After a moment of silence, she finally spoke again. “I did give you my body. But that does not change the fact that that bed belongs to me.”

Alyosha’s response was a simple affirmation. “That is true.”

“So why did you not take the bed?” she asked.

Alyosha was not one for rhetorical questions or implied meaning- though he did absolutely lovethe concept, the idea, of symbolism. Whenever she asked him a direct question like that, he answered it directly. If she had wanted him to take the bed, she should have ordered him to do so.

Or did she mean that was hers was his?

“You did not order me to take the bed.”

She frowned for a moment, not knowing how to respond to this. He was correct, of course. She had not directly commanded him to take the bed. And yet, it seemed like such a simple and obvious conclusion to make. How could he justify it any other way?

“Why did you not take the bed?” she repeated, this time with a hint of genuine curiosity in her voice.

“I felt more comfortable in a chair.” he answered simply.

Chrysalis blinked in surprise. It was such a straightforward and almost mundane answer. She had expected him to have some witty retort or elaborate justification, but he was completely straightforward.

She considered whether to press him further, but there was truly no need to continue with this line of questioning. This was just how he was, or how he could be. “You may stay in the chair then.” Chrysalis said plainly.

He nodded a bit, then fidgeted with his chitin. It felt weird, having hooves. And a physical body. The young changeling was still getting used to his new body, including the hooves and other physical attributes. For the longest time, he had been nothing more than a shadow, a formless entity without a physical presence. The sudden transition to a physical body was jarring.

"Did you... Want me to take the bed?" He asked.

Chrysalis considered his response with a slight frown. She had expected him to be more eager or receptive to her suggestion that he take the bed.

She studied him for a moment longer, then let out a small breath. She didn't really have a reason to press him further on the matter. If he was comfortable sitting in the chair, then there was no need to force him to move. He was not exactly her prisoner.

She paused for a moment, searching for something to say. "Is there anything you need?"

Alyosha was not one for small talk or inconsequential chatter. His answer was predictable and to the point. "No."

Chrysalis frowned again, slightly surprised at his brief reply. But if he said he needed nothing, who was she to dispute him? It was not like she wanted to micromanage every aspect of his life.

She paused for another moment, waiting for him to continue the conversation. But when he said nothing more, she was content to leave the silence hanging between them.

...

“Is there something you wish to ask?” she asked after a few minutes of silent reflection.

Alyosha had stayed quiet since the start of the conversation, his mind still wrestling with the confusion and haze he felt. He was not the sort to lead conversation or initiate questions of his own. But he was willing to answer those asked of him.

It was also important for him to know where he stood with the queen, especially since she seemed to have expectations for him.

"You've redecorated." He commented.

"I have redecorated." Chrysalis replied without hesitation as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

The queen's chambers were indeed different than he remembered. Everything was still made of the same smooth organic-like material, and yet the layout also felt entirely new. It had evolved into something different than how he had last seen it.

"Chrysalis. I'm going to have to ask. What happened? My head feels like garbage. I've got all these memories- these things aren't mine..."

"Many things have happened since the last time we spoke," Chrysalis responded solemnly, her ghostly essence pulsing a low ring of green flames as if reflecting her emotions.

"You have experienced many changes, and your memories have been... Warped and fragmented upon transfer to this new body." She continued.

She paused for a moment, her expression deepening before she continued. "I... do not know if I can return you to a state of normalcy. But I will try."

"Normalcy...?" He mumbled. Foreign word. Very foreign. "I... I've got my doubts there, Chrysalis. I wasn't even normal to begin with."

"You are correct in that you have never been normal." Chrysalis replied evenly, without any hint of judgment in her voice. "But you are still you, and I cannot just allow such a drastic change within you to go unaddressed."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that you remain yourself. Or at least return to a state of yourself similar to how you were before this body transformation."

He sat in the chair in silence, glancing up at a dim crystal that glowed overhead in the ceiling.
"...I think I'd prefer to stay like this. It's better than being a flower. Or a shadow."

The queen's response to his comment surprised Alyosha a bit. He had expected her desire for him to return to his old state of being, his past self. But instead, it seemed that she would be accepting his recent changes and even supporting them.

"If this is the state of being that you prefer, then I will not force you to change."

Chrysalis was a queen, a leader, bound by duty. Still, there was nothing more important to her than maintaining that which she held dear.

There was silence for a little while. Mostly as Alyosha sifted around his memories for something to talk about. They didn't need to, but this felt like the best time to ask questions.

"...How are we going to get you a body?" He asked. The old one was out of the question, considering he'd... Well, he'd torn it open like a chrysalis. He was also certain that it had been left behind in all the commotion.

The queen remained silent for a brief moment, her ethereal essence flickering with the green flames. The question was not one she had expected, and it caught her off-guard.

But Chrysalis knew better than to dismiss him. She was here to guide and advise him, not to avoid his questions. And she understood that her survival, and arguably the survival of the hive, was also at stake.

But it was clear that this would be a slow, gradual process, nothing that would happen overnight. Even with all of the resources that the queen had at her disposal, her powers had limits.

"It will take time, but I will eventually manifest a new body." She explained simply. Though, something about the way she said it made him feel a bit uneasy.

"What will we do in the meantime?" this was something he was genuinely curious about, or as curious as an 'emotionless' shadow creature could be. No, that wasn't right. He had a body now.

"We will continue the work we have already begun." The answer to his question came almost immediately as if the queen had been waiting for him to ask so that she could give this response.

"We will establish a secure foothold in Equestria. We will explore beyond the walls of the chambers and continue the conquest of the territory. Our troops will continue to search for the changeling pods that we already know exist somewhere in the caves. And we will continue to consolidate our power and resources."

Alyosha blinked. Wait. But. Wait- Conquest?

"Conquering? Conquering Equestria? What about the friendly pony colonies I made? The farms? The Pony Zoo?" Alyosha asked frantically. “You- you remember those? Right? You even made one! You named it!”

The queen was taken aback by the sudden burst of emotion from the changeling. His tone of voice and frantic expression spoke volumes about the state of his composure and emotional state.

Chrysalis thought for a moment before responding to his question.

“They were necessary sacrifices.”

"Sacrifices?" He was stunned. "Chrysalis. Chrysalis what happened? What did you do? What did you do to our town?"

“I made some difficult choices.” the queen responded softly but resolutely. “I had no choice in the matter.”

Chrysalis paused for a moment to let the weight of her words sink in. She could see that Alyosha’s confusion and disorientation had given way to shock and anger.

“You must understand. The lives of those ponies… were a worthy sacrifice for the future of our hive.”

“The future of our hive?” his voice was a hushed whisper, as if he could not believe what he heard. He could feel the rage within himself building up, but he had no choice but to remain still and quiet.

“You killed them. You killed them all. And for what? For our hive?”

Alyosha felt like he could no longer keep his anger restrained.

So. Fuck it. He didn't.

"Did you, or did you not kill MY people! Those weren't just any ponies- those were OUR ponies! My ponies!" He snarled. He spat. He damn near broke a leg in anger. A dent was left in the cushion that went to the chair's solid base.

"I raised those ponies. I tore myself up into pieces over them. You'd better have had a damn good reason for killing off so many or I'll kill myself."

“They were necessary sacrifices,” the queen repeated more sharply this time. But even her tone was no match for his, as he was seething with fury behind the shadow of his hooves.

Chrysalis knew that she had a delicate situation on her hands, one that could only be solved through careful dialogue or outright conflict. She had expected a response like this, but not so early. Not so soon.

“Do not talk of such things.” she said, her tone shifting back to a softer level.

“You will not tell me what I can and cannot speak about.” Alyosha said coldly, the fire burning behind his eyes as he tried even harder to stifle his rage.

“They were MY ponies,” he continued, “and you slaughtered them. So I ask again, was it necessary? Was it really the only option?”

“It was the only reasonable option.” the queen replied in kind, standing her ground in the face of his anger and hostility. She did not appreciate him questioning her judgment or the sacrifices she had made for the survival and prosperity of her people.

“What exactly did you expect me to do? Let them live on the surface, away from the hive, where they would surely perish from the dangers of their new environment?”

“They might have survived.” Alyosha’s eyes narrowed. He was determined to press the queen on the matter. “Or did you even consider that possibility?”

“Perhaps. But I could not take that risk. Not when it came to the survival of our race, the Hive. I had to make the right choice, one that would ensure their safety in the long term.”

She paused for a moment before lowering her voice. “Please understand why I had to make that decision.”

“I will not understand!” The changeling lashed out, nearly knocking over the chair in front of him. He still had not moved from his seat, but that did not mean that he was not seething with rage at this point. “How could you so easily kill the ponies that I raised, the ponies that I loved?!”

“Because I had no choice!” the queen snapped, her anger finally overtaking her. “You are not the only being that felt pain when those ponies died. Every changeling in my hive shed tears for them, for their deaths, and for the sacrifices that they had made. Do you think I did not mourn their passing as well?!”

“No, you have no idea! You think you know what it felt like, but you do not!” Chrysalis glared at the changeling sharply, a bit shaken by her own loss of calm.

“My entire life, I have spent working to improve our hive and provide for your needs and all the other changelings and even your blasted ponies in my care. And when we finally found a way to sustain our population, when we finally found a solution to our dire situation, you… you…”

"YOU. DIED!" She screeched.

The chair creaked, and Alyosha flinched.

"YOU. YOU TRUSTED IN THEM. I TRUSTED IN YOU. AND YOU GOT YOURSELF, KILLED!"

The changeling’s hearts skipped a beat as the queen’s anger overtook her. He could not move, could not even breathe, as he watched her lash out with that same level of rage and fury that he had felt a moment ago.

Chrysalis had never been one for such displays of emotion, the cold stratagem of the table- unmoving pillar, but she now let her anger out in a sudden burst as she screamed at him. The force of her voice was so unexpected that it caught him off guard, though it was clearly more than just her voice that was affecting him. Waves of violent emotion, crushing thoughts.

She panted in ragged breath, split second composure that she feigned within instances of rage and ill-repressed grief.

"I saw the first time you died, Angel. And for everything, I understood. I understood the trust you have in me. But what I cannot understand, is your attachment, your inability- your weakness."

Chrysalis eyes stared him down, as her head remained high and tilted upward.

"How could you have ever trusted in them knowing that they would have killed you again?"

“I…” the changeling stumbled over his words. He wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to what the queen had said.

It was true that he had trusted in those ponies, and that trust might have been misguided. But it was also true that he had grown attached to them, despite everything. He could not deny that he had cared, and still cared, deeply.

“I wanted to believe that they were capable of change,” he finally offered as an answer to her question.

“I thought that maybe they could be redeemed, that they could make amends for their past deeds and become better ponies.”

There was a faint note of sadness in his tone, both because he had been so mistaken and because he knew how far those hopes and beliefs had gotten him.

"I thought maybe. Maybe I was ready this time. I thought the first time was a fluke."

He spoke bitterly. He was a child, if that word still meant anything, somewhere inside of that garbled mess of thousands that was called a brain. He felt a tingle in the eyes, tear ducts never once overstimulated for a higher function burned, nostrils itched and twitched and leaked disgustingly, disgustingly emotional, disgustingly human.

“Perhaps it was foolish of me to continue clinging onto that hope, even after everything that had happened.”

Alyosha’s words were tinged with a bit of self-doubt. He had not intended to make this mistake. But he had held onto his hopes, even when they seemed impossible.

“I thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be different.”

He needed to speak faster. Eye hurts.

"I thought I was ready. Ready to stay out of the tower. I thought I could finally walk free."

He didn't want to cry. He didn't want to let the queen see him cry. He could not allow that, or she might think him weak.

So he swallowed back his tears, trying his best to remain stoic and detached. Even as his breath came out in short, harsh spurts, he resisted the urge to give in to the wave of grief that was consuming him.

Keeping a steady voice, he would try to continue. The mind was crystal clear, cutting through the fog of watery agony and tides of remorse and regret that crashed upon him. But his was voice, was not steady. He could force the words through, but it was broken and choppy like his breath.

The mind detached. Organic again.

"My... my trust was misplaced... and... and I paid for that mistake..."

His voice broke again, as tears streamed down his eyes like rivers and he finally gave into his grief, unable to fight it back anymore. His words were still spoken in a detached way, but even that detached way was itself a sign of detachment from the situation, as the changeling continued to separate himself from the overwhelming wave of emotions running through his heart.

Tears falling down at the party.

Saddest little baby in the room.

Separation failure. His mind was safe and sound with a paragon of unsound logics and codes, calming scriptures and blind eyes. Not a moment, never a moment for wrath.

But the meat, the meat shackled him down to the earth. Corroded the ramshackle irons that he carried around like armor. Break down.

The pain was physical now, as much as it was mental. His whole world was crashing down around him, the grief and the sadness and the anger boiling in his chest like burning tar.

"It's all my fault... I shouldn't have tried... I shouldn't have trusted..."

His words were almost incoherent now, as he struggled to get his thoughts out through the sobs that were shaking his whole body.

Tears streaming down with no parlay. You're the saddest little baby of a boon.

Pain flows out from the body, bindings and twitchings, lungs like waterbound knots. Those aren't meant to bend. Eyes stinging from salted water. What a waste of material. Hearts fluttering like trapped dogs, barking furiously behind the bending bars of a ribcage.

He was not just crying now, he was sobbing. His grief was overwhelming, his heart breaking and shattering into a million pieces, each one of which was piercing his chest with a thousand daggers.

His body heaved with each hiccup that escaped him, his throat burning and stinging as the tears continued to flood from his eyes.

He felt so small right now, like a helpless, wailing infant. He couldn't do anything but cry...

Silence demeaning. Don't just stare, scream, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me it's all in my head. Manufacturer's defects aren't covered by the warranty

Foreign biology operated mismatched connections, malfunctioned operations and smooth functions. He didn't want to be like this, this wailing mewling thing- but it just kept doing it. He just kept doing it, kept crying. Useless. Annoying.

"It's all my fault." the changeling whimpered softly, his voice broken and trembling.

He was a wailing, mewling thing, a pathetic, annoying creature. His heart was pounding in his chest like it did in a nightmare. The changeling looked up at the queen with tear-filled eyes, his cheeks and nose running and dripping with liquid sadness. He was a sight to behold, and that sight would have disgusted the queen had she cared enough to look at him.

The sobs kept coming, and he could not seem to stop them. He knew that he was being pathetic, a whiny little kid that could not control his emotions.

"I tried to change them," the changeling continued in a trembling voice, "I did, I did. But..."

He was trying to justify what he had previously claimed was his fault, but the words just kept flooding out of his mouth like a torrent.

Like paper wasps, needles found their way someone deep in his brain, it's a betrayal of the seceded union. Injections of emotion, of loss and longing of a bygone age and of soot and ash and choking smoke and pleasant campfires and boiling light. Hot flashes of memory and atrocity found its way to the front of his mind.

The changeling’s mind was a raging battlefield, and the memories that surfaced now were the shrapnel wounds that ravaged his heart.

He could still remember the firelight of their campfires, the pleasant smell of their food, and the warmth and comfort of the other lives around him.

But he could also recall the suffering, the struggle and the fear. The heat of the inferno, the smoke and ash. The memories of their pain continued to bombard him, all while the tears streaming down his face only worsened his situation.

Alabaster like baked bones. Was it worth it? Descending from the heavens had a price.

A voice gurgled in his throat and died there. Nothing to speak. Inability to speak. Couldn't speak.

His lips moved, but no words came out. His throat felt like a closed door, his vocal cords refusing to vibrate as he desperately tried to explain himself or make the queen understand.

His emotions were still overwhelming, his breath still short and sharp. He wanted to say something, anything... but it just wasn't coming out.

It was as if an invisible force was constricting his throat and preventing him from speaking, a force that he was powerless to resist.

He wanted to scream, to shout, to somehow find a way to express himself. He wanted to say something, but even the most basic of words were eluding him now.

His lips moved, but no sound came out.

The silence was deafening. Couldn't she just-

TELL ME IM NOT SPEAKING LOUD ENOUGH. TELL ME TO STOP MUMBLING. TELL ME. TELL ME.

-say something anything?

The changeling felt as if his throat had slammed shut altogether. He couldn't speak, but that didn't stop him from screaming inside.

TALK TO ME, DAMN YOU!! TELL ME WHAT I'M DOING WRONG!

His mouth tried to move, but no voice came out. He felt like he was going insane.

WHY AREN’T YOUR LIPS MOVING DAMN IT? SAY SOMETHING!! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST TALK???

The changeling felt like he was going crazy. He felt so angry. He felt so powerless. He felt like he was trapped inside his own body, with no way out. No way of speaking, no way of conveying the sheer magnitude of his feelings and frustration.

Wrath of a silent sea, wailing of a fallen songbird. There's a half dozen words in a half a thousand tongues, but not a single one could he speak that could convey. No matter what word he could speak there was always something- ~~missing~~

Silence.

A roaring, howling, seething, deafening silence that overwhelmed the changeling. The changeling felt as if he was being smothered in it, buried alive by its all-encompassing abyss. All the sounds around him had been stripped away, and the changeling was now nothing more than a voice floating in this desolate emptiness.

All he could hear was his own thoughts, flooding in like a torrent. His anger, his frustration, his sadness. The changeling felt like he was losing his mind.

His emotions were overpowering him, and he felt like he could no longer control them.

In the midst of this emotional breakdown, he felt himself growing angry.

He wanted to talk, to shout, to scream. Feel how the brain plays around. As he fell into a hole he couldn't see.

No way. No words, no mouth, no voice. As he fell inside a hole inside a-

Anger was not an emotion that was common for changelings to feel, but that didn't stop Alyosha from feeling it now. And he fell inside a hole he couldn’t see.

The silence was overwhelming. Someone help me-

Chrysalis watched as the changeling continued to sob. She remained silent as she watched him break down. He had always been one to suppress his emotions and act calm and composed, even when the situation demanded that he feel otherwise.

But this time, the queen did not hold her tongue. She felt her anger rising up within her, and she let it consume her.

"STOP THIS." she commanded. Her tone was stern, but there was also a hint of pain in her voice.

Chrysalis had not meant to let her anger get the best of her, but it had all come out in an explosion at the changeling. She had never yelled at him like that before, but she could not help it. The pain that she had experienced as a result of his death was too much for her to bear, and it had taken over her thoughts.

The changeling flinched as he heard Chrysalis yell at him, but he continued to cry nonetheless. He was beyond the point of reason, and all he could do now was sob and cry like the pathetic creature he was. But now, he was silent. Tears streamed down his white chitin unending like gentle creaks.

She was so beautiful.

She was so strong.

She was so angry.

The anger that had consumed her mind was overwhelming her, and she could no longer contain it. It took over her thoughts, and she spoke out without thinking.

"YOU WILL STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY." Chrysalis ordered. Her voice was loud, but there was a hint of pain in her tone as she continued.

"I know that you have suffered a great loss. I know that your heart has been torn apart. I know that your entire world has been shattered, and that everything that you once knew and held dear has been taken from you."

She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath as she tried to maintain control of herself. "But that is no excuse for this behavior."

Her tone shifted slightly, from anger to something softer, a bit more sympathetic.

"Please. Calm down. It's not worth crying over something that you can't change. It's over. It's all over."

Chrysalis spoke with an almost sympathetic voice as she tried to reason with him, even if it did not change the fact that he was still crying.

"This is not the way to honor their memory." she continued.

"They are gone. They are no longer in this world, and they will never return. Do you understand? There is nothing that you can do to bring them back. You cannot change the past. You have to let them go."

He knew she was right. He knew that there was nothing he could do now. But he could still see the fire, still hear the screaming of the ponies in his head. It was all so real, so fresh and painful, but he knew that none of it was real.

He stared at a descending silver blade aimed for his head, a flash of a battlefield one moment, and the next he was hiding behind wood in the armoury of a family as a soldier searched up and down. And he nodded.

All of what he had seen was real. But what he was seeing now, was not. It was a memory.

His memories had been fragmented and hazy since the day that he had died, but some were clearer than others.

The ponies had all died. His creations had died. He knew this, he had seen them burn. He had been them as they burned. He had felt their terror, their anguish, their fear.

And it all seemed so real, like it had happened only yesterday.

But it had happened years ago. Centuries, even.

Chrysalis's voice finally cut through the haze of his memories, pulling him back to the present moment.

He knew that he could not change the past. He knew that there was no use in crying over it. But it didn't mean he didn't feel any sadness or pain. He did, but he had no choice but to push those feelings aside.

The changeling sighed softly, struggling to calm himself as he felt his sobs start to subside. His throat hurt, and his voice felt raw. He could still taste the tears in his mouth, but at least he could breathe a little easier.

"I... I'm sorry," he finally said, his voice soft and hoarse, "I didn't mean to-"

He had to pause for a moment to catch his breath.

"I didn't mean to break down like that. I didn't mean to get angry at you. I... I should have controlled myself."

His voice was still soft and hoarse, but at least it was steady enough for him to continue speaking. He wiped the tears away from his face, leaving streaks in his chitin where they had rolled down his cheeks.

Chrysalis nodded as he spoke, listening carefully to what he had to say. She did not respond to his apology, as she knew that he meant what he said. She could not hold it against him.

"There is no need for apologies. This is a difficult time for you, and it is only natural to experience such emotions." she finally said.

She was not one to offer comfort, and she would be more than happy to simply let the matter drop. But she also knew that he would never let himself forget the ponies, or his own mistakes.

"You need time to heal. Time to recover." she added.

The changeling nodded a bit, taking another deep breath. The air in the room still felt tense and heavy, and he could sense the queen's unease. He was feeling anxious, but he did his best to conceal his emotions. He did not want the queen to be concerned about him. But that was easier said than done. Nowhere in his fractured brain existed a guide to living as a changeling.

"I... I suppose you are right," he said quietly, "I just... I just feel so lost right now."

The queen was silent as he spoke, listening carefully as she studied his every word.

"I know that I can never bring them back," he continued, "I know that I cannot change what happened. But that doesn't stop me from feeling... sad about it all."

Chrysalis thought for a moment. She knew that he needed time to heal, and she wanted to give that time to him. But she also knew that there was work to be done.

"You are right, but it does not change the fact that you must move on from this tragedy."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "You have to let them go, so that you can move on. They are gone, but their deaths were not in vain. They did not die without reason. Their sacrifice helped us survive, and helped our race prosper. It is because of them that we have been able to advance the hive so far, and it is because of them that our race will one day rule Equestria."

The queen spoke softly, but her voice was full of conviction. She knew that what she was saying was true, and she wanted him to realize this as well.

She paused for another moment, choosing her next words carefully. "You cannot change the past. You have to accept what has happened and move on."

"I don't want you to not cry over the loss of your children, or to mourn their passing. You have earned the right to feel grief over their deaths. But you have to move on from this. It will do you no good to dwell on what happened."

The changeling thought for a moment as he listened to what the queen had to say.

"You're right. I know you're right." he finally replied, "I'm just..."

Futures not in my hands.

Going on and on and on-

Im so scared-

"I'm scared."

The changeling hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should continue. "I don't want to make the same mistakes again."

He was so scared. Scared of repeating the same mistakes. He didn't want to repeat the same errors again, not when his children, wallflowers, lungblossom, friends had suffered the same fate as before.

His mind flashed back to the ponies again, as he saw them burning in his head.

Do they slumber?

So many, many dead.

And what is that?

So much sadness.

"What if I don't want to move on?" he continued, his voice quiet. "What if I don't want to move past it? What if I want to keep dwelling on it? What then?"

"I don't know. I wish that I could tell you," the queen responded honestly, "But I am not a mind reader. You will have to find your own answer to that question."

She paused for a moment before adding: "You are stronger than you know, Angel. If there is anything you are capable of, it is to let go of your past and move forward. But you need to take some time to yourself and decide what you really want. You must think about your future, and what you wish to do with your life."

The queen paused once more. "I am giving you this time, but I do not wish to be cruel. You do not have forever to think about these matters. But I want you to take this time to yourself. You do not have to speak of this to anyone else, but you must figure out how to move on with your life. I understand that this is difficult for you, but you must try to move forward. I know that this will not be easy for you, but I want you to try to put the past behind you."

Alyosha was silent for a long time as the queen spoke. Her words struck him deep in his heart, and he knew that she was right. He didn't want to dwell on the past anymore, and he knew that he couldn't allow himself to.

Doctor I can't tell if I'm not me.

He didn't know what the future held for him, but he was going to try his hardest to put the past behind him. The past had already happened, and there was no going back now.

He needed to move on from his past, to try to make amends and put it all behind him. And he knew that Chrysalis was right. If he didn't do something now, he would never be able to put it behind him.

Joy mirage, your kingdom come.

No one left at stake.

"Thank you."

It took the changeling a few moments to muster up the courage to thank the queen. He wanted to do something to show her his appreciation, but he didn't know what that would be.

Your existence is on the wake.

Let's see what we can make.

Chrysalis nodded as he spoke, giving a small nod of acknowledgement. "I am not doing this for your gratitude. This is for the benefit of both you and the hive."

The queen studied the changeling carefully, searching his eyes for any signs of discontent or confusion. Difficulty clouded any glances she took, magical perception and physical perception troubled by staring at a chaotic yet harmonious blend of systems of emotions entertwined and tangled.

"Now. You must go." Her eyes turned towards the door.

"Rest, for your health is my concern." She said, a small amount of compassion bleeding in. "In the morning you will be moved to another location where you will be able to recuperate."

She looked back towards him. "Do you understand?"

Alyosha's brow- some flexible chitin, twitched slightly, and he gave the queen a slight frown.

"I understand." He replied hesitantly.

His gaze returned to the ground. He wanted to say something, anything.

"Chrysalis, I-"

Silence.

"I..."

No words, no voice.

"Thank you for everything," he said, his voice soft and low, "I mean it. Thank you."

Alyosha looked up at the queen one last time. "I don't know if I'll be able to make it, but I'll try. For you, I'll try."

He hesitated for a moment.

"Goodbye," he finally said, his voice quiet. "For now."

He turned towards the door, then paused and looked back one last time.

"Thank you, Chrysalis."

Chrysalis remained silent for a moment.

"Thank you, Angel."

Silence.

With that, the changeling exited the room and closed the door behind him, leaving the queen alone in the room. But of course, none of that happened.

It was far easier to allow delirium to play out and guide the mind here and there in gentle directions, and so as he moved to open the door- she struck him with a fainting spell. Completely harmless and shot so fast there was hardly even a noticeable flash of light, let alone an impact.

Alyosha staggered as he was suddenly overcome by a wave of dizziness, his vision suddenly fading and blurring around the edges as he fought to maintain his balance.

A small smile played at the edge of his mouth, a smile that showed a hint of both sadness and relief. Some part knew what Chrysalis had done, and he was grateful for it. But it also left him with a strange, conflicting feeling within his chest.

He wasn't sure what he thought of the queen's decision, but he understood why she had done it. She was trying to protect him, and he couldn't blame her for that. She was trying to protect the hive, and he was a part of it.

With a soft sigh, Alyosha leaned against the wall, and slid down to the ragged silken carpet below. He didn't even know where to begin thinking about what had just happened.

He knew that he was safe now, and that Chrysalis cared for him. She cared for all of her people.

Alyosha was there sleeping on the floor. Long flower infested mane spilled out like blood, blues and reds flowing freely, contrasting against worn yet sparkling green beneath. His breaths came out in gentle creaks, but even as they faded they remained audible and perplexing. The weight of his thoughts was not easily moved, but they would be no match for the fainting spell she cast.

Idiot.

She called him that. She thought he was an idiot. A child who did not know any better. Someone who was incapable of learning. Someone who was incompetent. A child. He was a child.

A changeling.

His eyelids fluttered as he stared blankly at the wall, and he closed his eyes again as he let out a sigh of defeat.

What would he be if he wasn't a child?

Nothing.

Just a shadow in the flask again.

Defragmentation, Attempt No. 1

Alyosha wandered the tunnels, his hooves moving on their own as he searched for something, anything.

He didn't know where he was going or what he was looking for, but he kept searching.

There had to be something. Something to hold onto, to keep him grounded, to give him a sense of purpose.

But as he continued to wander, he found nothing. Only emptiness and despair.

As the changeling traversed the labyrinth of tunnels, his mind began to fill with a myriad of thoughts and emotions.

He was angry. Angry at the world. At the ponies. At himself. He felt betrayed. Betrayed by those who had once claimed to care for him, only to cast him aside like trash.

He felt helpless. He felt confused as his head was a whirlwind of mashed up identities and hats and faces and masks. He felt empty. He felt lost. He didn't know who he was anymore, or what he was doing. He felt like a stranger in his own skin, a prisoner trapped in his own mind.

The changeling stopped in his tracks and leaned against the tunnel wall, his legs shaking. His breathing became labored, and he felt a panic attack coming on.

"It's just a mask, just a mask," he mumbled to himself as he struggled to stay calm.

The changeling took a few deep breaths, and tried to steady himself. He wanted to move. To just keep moving and walking and learning- yes, learning. That was something he enjoyed once right? That they enjoyed?

A piece of himself slid into place, and his head hurt a little.

The changeling's mind was a jumbled mess, and he could barely tell which thoughts were his own and which were borrowed. He felt so confused and lost, and he didn't know what to do. But the longer he remained still, the more his anxiety grew.

Finally, he forced himself to continue on.

As he walked, his eyes were drawn to the various carvings on the walls. He recognized them as symbols from his childhood, and his mind was flooded with memories of happier times.

The changeling paused and studied the symbols, tracing his hoof over the intricate designs.

He was surprised at how much they meant to him, and how strongly they evoked emotions within him.

"Home."

A whisper in the dark, the word seemed to echo throughout the tunnel.

They were... Are? Once was. Once upon a time. Too many voices in his head trying to say one thing. But he knew the marks were some type of script. Runes? Scrawl? Sigils?

They were familiar, and yet not. The changeling was filled with a sense of belonging, and yet at the same time, a sense of displacement.

It was a strange feeling, and the changeling found it difficult to describe.

It was as if he was both a stranger and a friend, both welcomed and rejected. He was both a part of something and yet separate from it.

"What's going on?" Angel asked himself. "What's happening to me?"

The changeling's mind was overwhelmed by a storm of conflicting emotions.

"Why can't I just go back to how things were before?"

His voice trembled, and he felt a deep ache in his chest.

"I want to go home.

Angel's words echoed down the dark and silent tunnels. And in the resounding silence, the end of the resonance, he remembered his true name. Not the false name he gave to Starswirl and not the new names he'd given himself, but the one he had been born with. The name of the changeling he had once been, and would always be.

"Angel"

He had whispered his own name. A name he had once treasured and loved, but had since come to despise. A name that had brought him nothing but pain and misery.

"I just want to go home."

Angel stood in silence, his head hung low and his hooves rooted firmly in place.

He wanted to go home, but he had no idea where that was.

He could not remember. That was lost.

So he would have to start again. Start again, said the journeyman in his head. Live again, said the philosopher.

Move again, said the more practical actors in his mind.

The changeling looked around, and saw that the tunnels seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning like a labyrinth.

There was no way to tell which direction would lead him to where he wanted to go.

He could be going in circles for all he knew. But now the destination didn't matter to him. He wanted to learn himself again. Understand his body. What had changed, and what was still the same.

That would have to be his first step.

The changeling slowly made his way down the tunnels, taking his time as he explored.

He examined himself, watching the way his hooves scraped and stepped, feeling the way his chitin

It had been some amount of time since Alyosha had returned to the hive, and subsequently re-existence.

Time... Time.

The very concept made his head spin. His head.

He had a head.

A body.

A vessel.

He could see and hear and feel and speak and taste.

Such ramblings and thoughts were that had consumed him for the day he spent lost in lowest echelon of the hive, having wandered through maintenance tunnels until someone had found and reported his location.

That had been an odd thing, as well.

Having been a ghost, a mere shade of his former self, he had not noticed the passage of time. But, apparently, he had been missing for quite a while, and there had been a massive search party sent to locate him. Said party found him having, by some unknown twist of fate, made his way to the largest pony repository in the hive.

The pony repository was, as far as he could tell, the only place in the entire hive that was remotely pleasant.

It was a massive chamber, with rows upon rows of neatly arranged pods filled with sleeping ponies.

He had stood before the rows, staring up at the thousands upon thousands of slumbering ponies, the air thick with the smell of sweet sap and the buzz of changeling magic.

And though he knew not how or why, he felt...

Comforted.

Safe.

At peace.

And that, more than anything else, was the greatest mystery of them all. He was staring at what at most amounted to factory farming. Caged chickens producing eggs by the hundreds, the total opposite of what he'd tried to introduce to the changelings thousands of years ago. Factory farming, intercept communities, become them-

And yet while most would undoubtedly be horrified staring at the victims of a parasitic race, he could only feel comforted.

He'd spent the remainder of the night in a state of bliss, wandering through the rows and rows of pods, his mind spinning with a thousand thoughts and notices. Everything here had been delicately arranged, with care, not haphazardly thrown together like the other parts of the hive.

There was order. Structure. Design.

He had felt as if he had been looking at a living work of art. A masterful piece, so perfectly crafted that it brought tears to his eyes. And that was before the fact that it was the first time in almost two centuries where he could truly touch something. Feel something.

So he'd explored the repository, walking up and down the rows, examining each and every pod. Some held young, fresh-faced fillies and colts, while others held fully grown mares and stallions. Each and every one had been carefully selected and maintained, their faces calm and peaceful, their breathing slow and steady.

And it wasn't just the ponies that were being cared for. There was an entire row devoted to flowers, with hundreds of carefully tended pots growing an endless variety of colorful blossoms. There were even several large vats filled with some kind of thick amber liquid, the surface covered with a thin layer of green pollen.

He'd spent the next couple of hours examining everything in the chamber, trying to make sense of the strange emotions welling within him. Of a sense of pride and joy and mirth and yet, the deepest pang of a hollow emptiness.

A longing.

For what, he didn't know.

And it wasn't until later that evening, as he stood alone in the central chamber, that he finally realized what was bothering him.

He was lonely. He had always been lonely.

And the idea of spending eternity with no company but his own had frightened him. There, alone in the tower, trapped behind glass.

But now, in the company of thousands upon thousands of sleeping ponies, he felt at ease.

Safe.

At home.

And with those thoughts and emotions had come a wave of guilt.

For he had always prided himself on being a protector, a guardian. A creator, maker of things and thoughts and yet... Yet, here, he was no better than a parasite, feeding off the energy of another.

And, worse, he was not even needed. The changelings could do it all on their own, without his help or interference.

What, then, was his purpose? What was his reason for being here, in this place, among these creatures?

Why was he so different from them?

It was then that the truth hit him, as harsh and unrelenting as the midday sun.

He was alone. He was not like the changelings. He was not like the ponies. He was not like anyone. He was alone.

He was, and would forever remain, alone.

That had been when he started crying.

For the first time in almost two hundred years.

It had started as a trickle, then a stream, then a torrent, until his whole body was shaking with grief. As a thousand pieces of his broken and tattered mind suddenly clicked into place, and started turning.

And as the realization came, and the truth revealed itself, he finally understood.

He was not meant to exist. He was a mistake, a blight, a cancer. A parasite.

He was a monster. He felt alone because he was never meant to exist. A violation of natural laws, a mistake of biology. A freak. An abomination.

A mistake. An impossibility. A nothing.

An it! And not a he or she or they or them or even an us or we, no matter how much a We felt might fit.

Nothing.

And then, and only then, did he understand.

He was not alive. He could not live. He was merely existing. He was not meant to be.

And then, and only then, had the loneliness and grief truly settled in, and he knew that he was not meant to exist.

It had taken him hours to stop crying, and even longer to regain any semblance of composure.

He stared at a pony in a pod for hours, watching her sleep. Watching her breathe. Her face was peaceful, serene. Her expression one of absolute tranquility.

And he wondered if perhaps, she had it easier. If perhaps, she was not alone.

Because she had her herd, her family, her friends. A social unit. She had a purpose. She had a destiny. She was treasured, treasured enough to be here in the repository. The repository of all the friendly ponies that they saw as equals. Not as cattle. Somewhere, most likely somewhere in this great cavern of preserved ponies.

He, on the other hand, had nothing.

He had no one.

He was alone.

Alyosha stared at the sleeping pony, his eyes stinging, his heart breaking.

Then, slowly, he raised his hoof and gently placed it against her pod, closing his eyes and concentrating.

"Sleep, little one," he whispered. "Dream of a better life, one where you are free and happy. One where you can run and play, and laugh and sing. A life where you can dance in the fields and make new friends and find love and live your life to the fullest. Where you can live your life, and not merely exist."

Alyosha let out a deep, shuddering sigh, feeling a single tear slide down his cheek.

"Goodbye, little pony," he murmured. "May you sleep in peace."

And then, and only then, he felt his hoof slip from the pod, and he turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing in the empty chamber.

He wandered aimlessly for hours, through the maze of tunnels and corridors, his mind blank. He didn't know where he was going, nor did he care. All he knew was that he was tired, and lonely, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep.

That was all he remembered that day when he was found. The feeling of loneliness and grief and despair, and the need to rest.

To sleep.

For what was the point of continuing on, when one is not meant to exist? When they were alone, and unloved, and unneeded? Yes, he was free. Free of the tower, of glass, of even the truest restraint. He could- he could run around in the sun and not burn. He would not fear his glass vessel shattering and watch and scream in terror as he would cease to exist.

But he was also freed of purpose. Freed of meaning. Freed of everything.

The world was his to explore, and yet, there was nothing. Nothing.

No home, no family, no friends, no love, no future. Nothing.

He was a ghost, a memory, a shadow. Free of glorious purpose. No light. No sound. No memory.

Only loneliness.

He had wandered the lower levels of the hive for the remainder of the day, before being found.

"Alyosha!"

"Where have you been?!"

"Are you alright?!"

"We were worried about you!"

"We're so glad you're okay!"

"We thought we lost you!"

He had looked up, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

"I am here," he had replied, his voice hollow and empty.

The changelings had exchanged concerned looks, then quickly escorted him back to the tower. They had left him alone, saying that he needed rest.

He didn't.

He had spent the rest of the night and the entirety of the next day in bed, staring up at the ceiling, his thoughts empty and his heart hollow.

And then, slowly, gradually, he had begun to drift off to sleep. His eyes were half-lidded and his breathing slow and steady, his chest rising and falling evenly. His body was relaxed, his limbs limp, his face calm and serene.

And as his mind began to drift, he felt a sense of calmness and contentment wash over him.

He was tired.

Tired and lonely.

But at least, for the moment, he wasn't alone.

As his mind slowly slipped away into the darkness, his last conscious thought was of the changelings, and the way their eyes seemed to glow in the dim light.

"Thank you," he murmured. "For coming for me."

And then, with a soft sigh, he drifted off into the dark.

And for the first time in almost two hundred years, Angel finally slept properly. Without interference, without stress, pain or influence.

Author's Note

Twenty likes? You guys are actually enjoying my story?

Thanks.

:twilightsmile:

No Rest For The Wicked

The morning had come.

The queen, alone and tired, stood before her mirror and stared at herself for a moment, contemplating what she should do. Angel, was asleep, resting in his chambers after what had transpired the previous day. But she knew that they had a long road ahead of them, and that they had much to do if they were to make this work.

She stared at her ghostly form, a mirror image of herself in both appearance and essence, as she contemplated what was to come.

She had to think about the future, but that was a lot easier said than done. Chrysalis was the leader of a race, a queen, a leader, and a mother. And that would be enough to be responsible for on its own, but it was not enough for her to handle the rest of the matters that had arisen recently.

She sighed softly as she continued to stare at her reflection. There wasn't much point in staring. The incorporeal have no need to fuss about vanity.

Still, there was something about staring into her reflection that soothed her, helped her to think more clearly about the situation that she was in.

What will happen now?

The hive was secure, at least for now. And while she had no idea where Angel's mind would be headed after everything that had happened, she felt confident that he would be able to move forward and become the leader that he needed to be.

...Leader was a bit of a stretch. Tool. Yes, the tool he needed to be.

Goodness, they'd spent too much time fused together. She didn't usually talk like this, at least not without the influence of others.

To have her mind be silent without battling an extra nudge here and there without an audience of commentators... It was strange now. She had gotten so used to it, and now the silence was almost deafening.

But she had no time for distractions. Lack of or otherwise. There was a lot of work to be done, and she needed to focus. She had to think about the future, and how to best ensure the safety and prosperity of the hive.

Angel had made a mistake. He had trusted in the wrong ponies, and he had paid for that mistake dearly. But that did not mean that his actions had been without merit.

He had been right to try and trust in the ponies. He had been right to believe in them. He had been right to care about them. And that was something that Chrysalis could not fault him for. That single olive branch to his 'creators' was what had established the most basic premise of a sustainable food source for her hive.

Without his actions, they would not be where they were today.

He was a child, he didn't know any better.

And that was a good thing.

Children were a valuable commodity. Creative geniuses or absolute morons, they could see things no one else could. Without him the concept of love-farming could have taken decades rather than being an immediate and integral method of sustaining the hive and its colonies. It was an even further travesty that his method of rearing the ponies and subsequent culture of pony husbandry- had been all but lost during the Great Purge.

That was a shame.

If not for that loss, the hive would be much larger and more stable. And the following setbacks after that did not help either.

Chrysalis sighed as she turned her thoughts away from the past and towards the present.

There was a lot of work to be done, and she did not have time to dwell on the past. She had to focus on the future, and what was to come.

Chrysalis's attention was caught by the sound of hoofsteps approaching her chamber. She looked over and saw a changeling guard enter the room, and she could sense the apprehension and anxiety coming off of him.

"Yes?" she asked, her voice echoing in the vast chamber.

The guard seemed hesitant, as if he did not want to disturb her.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty," he said, his voice low and respectful. "But there are a few things that require your attention."

Chrysalis sighed, a small part of her relieved that there was some task or problem that would take her mind off of things for a bit.

"Very well," she said. "What is it?"

"It's Angel," the guard replied, his voice wavering. "He's gone missing."

The news struck Chrysalis like a ton of bricks, and she stared at the guard in disbelief.

"He's what?" she asked, her voice laced with both concern and anger.

"He's missing," the guard repeated, his voice trembling slightly.

"When did this happen?" Chrysalis demanded.

"This morning," the guard replied. "He was brought to his quarters last night, and the guards were supposed to be watching him. But when the guards went to check on him this morning, he was gone."

"How could this have happened?" Chrysalis questioned.

"We don't know," the guard admitted. "But we're looking for him. We'll find him."

"You had better," Chrysalis snapped.

The guard flinched, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Yes, Your Majesty," he said, bowing his head.

"Now, get out," Chrysalis ordered. "I will take care of this matter myself."

"As you wish, Your Majesty," the guard replied.

Chrysalis watched as the guard turned and left the chamber. Once he was gone, she let out a frustrated sigh.

Of all the things that could have happened, this was the worst possible scenario. There were a multitude of better ways to go about handling this internally, rationally, collected and strategically.

But without a ready counsel of voices to give her a very immediate response to possibly bad ideas and overthinking, Chrysalis had been forced to act on her own.

And now she was in a bind. She had no idea where Angel was, or how to find him. She didn't even know if he was still alive.

That last part was splitting hairs- the hive was large but not so much for a changeling to get hurt in. And if they were smart, they wouldn't go somewhere dangerous.

But Angel was a lot of things, but he wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box. Not this year.

"Oh, you fool," the changeling queen sighed, "Where could you be?"

Author's Note

Corruption! You art my father!

I'd wanted to consolidate this into the chapter it was supposed to lead into, but I'm not fond of switching point of views. So I'll be trying to keep a single point of view per chapter.

Sol :// Orpheus

Celestia sighed in exhaustion.

She fell to her hooves with a clattering ringing sound of metal falling and the dull thud of tired immortal flesh hitting the ground.

She had been thrown into a cage, and unwittingly cast into the deepest and most unstable echelon of his mind, trapped within the innermost sanctum of Alyosha's mind.

It had been a long, maddeningly peaceful walk through a garden of crystal roses and gemstone flowers. She had spent hours walking through a forest of glittering beauty, and a river of silver water flowing through a valley of amethyst and diamonds, with the most beautiful singing of a chorus of birds echoing around her. It was not too dissimilar to the way Discord had assembled the world during his escapade.

The difference here, being, of course, that Discord had done it with malice in mind.

She didn't get that same feeling from this. This was just... Peaceful, relaxing, soothing.

She had wandered through a forest of emeralds, a meadow of sapphires, and a desert of rubies and pearls. Places made of objects, essentially broken down to definition and concepts. Deserts were made of sand, and sand could be clear and the most stunning pure white- made from glittering white crystal grains.

She had crossed a sea of sapphires and aquamarines, and swam in the waters of the deepest ocean, and she had seen the wonders of the world beneath the waves. But she had seen nothing of him. She had felt the presence of him, and seen his hoof prints, but he had not been present.

All in all, this was a surprisingly pleasant place to be trapped. It was beautiful and peaceful and full of things that she had never seen, and it had been a welcome relief from the constant stress and worry of the past week.

It was so nice that she had almost forgotten that she was a prisoner here.

Almost.

After a while, she came across the edge of a cliff, a sheer drop that disappeared into the abyss below.

She had stood at the edge of the abyss for what seemed like an eternity, and as she looked down into its depths, she felt a sense of dread, of fear. She had the sudden urge to jump, to plunge into the darkness, and to fall, to be swallowed up in the blackness, to be devoured by the void.

But she had resisted the urge, and instead, had decided to explore the edge of the cliff. The wind whispered echoes of things she couldn't understand. Words of the end and of the stars, and monsters before nothing. At the edge of the cliff were cubic crystals, like oversized blocks of perfect salt, and the loose gems would reflect light inside them into images of places far away, and times long gone. They were like windows into the past, showing glimpses of things that had never been, and events that could never have occurred. They were a safe window into the mind of the eternal soul. Broken and shattered and mended improperly.

Alyosha's mind was impossibly vast and yet shallow, like a puddle that stretched to the horizon. A lake. A sea. It was a world of its own. It was a world of endless possibilities, and it was a world of endless nightmares, of endless horrors. In that pit was an impossible, overlapping, infinitely dense and infinite sea of uncontrolled and dangerous creativity. A place of no rules, no form, no logic, and no reason.

It was a prison.

It was the perfect prison, designed to keep him contained, to keep him safe. To keep him sane, and to keep him happy and content. And it was a prison that could never be escaped.

And if she wanted out of his head and back to Canterlot, back to her ponies, and her sister... Then she had no choice but to jump.

So, she did.

And then began a series of events wildly beyond her control. Things she was going to regret. She had fallen through a series of endless, ever shifting rooms, each one stranger than the last.

She had fallen through a library filled with books that spoke to her, telling her secrets and whispering truths that were not meant to be known. She had fallen through a room filled with mirrors, and each one reflected a different version of herself. Some were old, some were young, some were beautiful, and some were hideous. Some were happy, and some were sad. Some were angry, and some were frightened. Some were kind, and some were cruel.

She had fallen through a room where the walls were made of glass, and she could see the stars and the planets and the galaxies, and the whole of the universe laid out before her. She had fallen through a room where the walls were made of stone, and she could feel the weight of the world pressing down on her.

And eventually, she landed her fat rump on an iron floor. Slamming into cold steel in a dimly lit hallway, leading out somewhere. Cold artificial lights coming from a room with glass panels.

Celestia raised herself up with a heave. That fall had hurt, but it was better than possibly being trapped in an endless overstimulating freefall for all of eternity.

She took a deep breath, and looked around. There was barely a scent, all overpowered by the strong clinical odor of antiseptic and alchohol. She took careful hoofsteps forward, watching her surroundings. Everything was metallic and bathed in dull blue lights, at least when there were lights. Instruments and gurneys hung from the ceiling and sat on the floor. A hospital, a strange hospital.

Then there was a shout. A male voice. Up ahead in the only brightly lit space. "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!"

"Why am I awake?"

"WHERE DID EVERYONE GO!"

"AM I ALONE?"

"PLEASE!"

"I'M SCARED!"

"ANYONE! HELP ME!"

Celestia paused. She didn't recognize the voice at all. And the low light in the room didnt help her suddenly increasing anxiety either.

"Hello?!" She called out. She proceeded further down the hallway, peering through the glass as she saw something similar to an operating theater. But what drew her attention first, was a biped strapped to a gurney. It's heart exposed as metal struts supported the skin and kept the surgical site open. It was still beating. And the body was still alive.

This was a nightmare.

"PLEASE!" The voice cried out. The creature's head turned, and she saw its eyes were filled with fear. It saw her, or maybe it didn't.

She rushed forward. She didn't know why, but she had to help him. She had to save him. She couldn't bear to see him suffer. She had to do something. Anything. She went into the operating room, the door absent, and the creature's head snapped to look at her.

"Oh thank God. What the.. Are- are you a-a doctor? Please! Please help me!" The male cried, struggling slightly against the metal bindings that kept them to the gurney. "What's going on?"

"I'm not a doctor. What's happened to you? What is this place?" Celestia asked as she approached him, trying to figure out how to help him. The steel cuffs that were keeping his arms and legs bound had no visible way of opening. They had no keyhole, or latch, or even a button. They were just solid bands of metal that were somehow fixed to the gurney. Maybe they retracted somehow, but nothing in the room would react to her magic. She couldn't shatter them, or budge them.

She glanced around, feeling compelled to help the poor creature, as his eyes stared at her in sheer terror.

"I-I was going under for a transplant. Please! Please help me!" He cried, his face contorting in pain. "I can't feel my chest. I can't- Oh God! My heart! What is- What is going on?!" The male cried, a tear running down his face, as he stared at the open chest and the steadily beating organ, and the struts of metal holding it all in place.

She was looking around the room, and she couldn't find any tools or equipment familiar to her. It was all foreign and strange. It looked like some sort of torture chamber, with strange devices and tools that looked more like implements of torture than anything else.

"Please! Help me!" The man cried, his voice filled with terror and desperation.

Celestia turned to look at him, feeling a surge of pity and compassion. She knew this being wasn't real, that it was all just a creation inside a broken mind- but she was still compelled to help. At the very least she'd play along with the scenario going on.

It was hard not to. The screams. They were real.

There was some strange translucent panel made of blue light overlooking the operating theater. Some type of magical interface she guessed.

"I'm trying. I don't know how," Celestia replied, looking around for something, anything that might help her. There was a table with various tools and implements on it, but none of them were familiar to her. Curiously there were lasers pointed to the man's chest. Three, to a tool mounted to some rotating metal on the ceiling. Maybe that was how the bipeds chest was opened. A tissue cutter.

She hoped for the best as she began to tamper with the panel, responding only to gentle touches of her hooves. It was a medical record. A medical record for a male named 'John Doe'. He was thirty years of age, born 2549, and he was having a heart transplant. He was suffering from congestive heart failure, and the surgery was scheduled for today. There was a list of medications that had been prescribed, and a list of procedures that had been performed. With the doctors curiously absent, the only procedure performed so far was cutting open his chest.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" John cried, his voice cracking with fear and desperation.

"I'm trying! I need only one more moment.." Celestia replied, as she found a way to at least stop the procedure. A button labeled "Recall Instrument".

Then it all went to hell. The lights began flickering as something suddenly appeared in the doorway. Flashing lights revealing a torn and contorted face ending in fleshy mandibles, limbs twisted with blades made of bone jutting out of claws, legs twisted into that of minotaur.

It's eyes, sunken and hollow. It was hunched over, and it was wearing a stained white coat. The flesh had fallen off its face in places, revealing the bones underneath. Its mouth was broken open wide, teeth and bone equally exposed.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! HELP! HURRY UP!" The man began screaming and crying, his voice rising in pitch as he started to panic.

Celestia stared at the creature for a moment, before returning to frustrating and hopeless interactions with the interface. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to help him. She didn't know what to do.

The thing was advancing slowly. It was shambling towards the operating theatre, its head lolling from side to side. It was making a sound like a broken clock, ticking and creaking with every step masked by its overpowering growling. The strange surgical tool slowly making it's way to her on a rail.

"I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!" She screamed, trying to get her point across, as she began to panic.

"OH GOD! NO! PLEASE!" The man screamed, as he began to thrash and scream, and cry, his body writhing in agony as his eyes were fixated on the monster.

"JUST GIVE ME A SECOND!" Celestia shouted, desperately trying to find a way to help the man. She was in a state of total confusion, she had no idea what to do or where to go.

The creature was getting closer, its legs and arms dragging along the floor. The spikes on its limbs scraping along the metal loudly as it roared and began to slash wildly at the man, being briefly fended off with a kick. It was undeterred, and the man's screams echoed out as it hacked into him.
"PLEASE!" He shouted, blood beginning to run from his mouth. "HELP ME!"

Celestia continued to try and find a way to help him, her mind racing as she searched the interface desperately.

She was panicking, her mind racing, her heart pounding, the only calm being the strange flat implement approaching her on a small rail of solid steel- now infront of her muzzle as the man's screams were abruptly silenced, his throat cut open with a single slash of a claw. Then, beheaded in one fell swoop.

The monster stared at her, its eyes sunken and hollow, its face broken and bloody, its mouth dripping with gore and blood. It was staring at her with a blank expression, its face devoid of any emotion. It was just a face, a face of a creature that had once been human, but now was something else. It's body forcibly twisted and contorted in ways that respected only barely the limits of its flesh and ignored any logic of what it was once supposed to be.

In desperation she grabbed the flat implement, the surgical tool gripped firmly in her magic as it seemed to open up from a dozen little bits and pieces. Her magic, powering the futuristic tissue cutter tool, bringing three lasers for aiming to life. Metal plates shifted and moved, forming a safety guide around the firing area.

She pumped magic into the device, and with an echoing, energetic and yet cold thundering sound, the tool fired. A bolt of golden plasma ejected at the monster in her sights, and cleaved it's left leg clean off. A smouldering cauterized stump was left in the wake of the bolt.

It was down, and Celestia would not take any chances. She fired again and again at the creature until it was nothing more than a few chunks of flesh and bone. The lasers aiming, and the device firing. It rotated freely in her magic on a mechanical wheel, and she sent bolt after bolt of cutting energy- turning the deformed and twisted creature into a dismembered and butchered thing- and from there, unrecognizable gore and mincemeat.

The power in the room, the facility was flickering. Lights going on and off until it settled into near-darkness and roars came howling in the distance from previously unnoticed vents. Shaft big enough for an equine to crawl through.

Celestia, of course, knew this was a world inside the head of a broken soul. But that didn't stop her from being so deeply afraid. Unnerved to her very core. Because what in all of Equestria could that flask-born soul have seen to create this place? How could anything have ever experienced such horrors and still be able to function? To think? To speak? To breathe? To walk? To imagine these grotesque abominations, the way they shambled with deadly inefficiency and yet elegance as their bladed limbs swung. The way they refused to end, not dying until they were rendered of all their limbs.

The thought raced through her head as she cut down more of the approaching things, they'd burst out from the ventilation ducks and shambled to her frightened form. Scared, but armed.

How on Equus could a soul have seen anything to inspire such things like these and still be a thinking, feeling, living being? What could have happened, that the mind would create such monsters in its deepest recesses?

Celestia didn't want to know. She was afraid of what she might learn.

"Fuck." She whispered, her voice cracking with fear and exhaustion. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally, her magic nearly spent. She was tired and scared, and she didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.

She didn't know how much more of this she could take. She didn't know how much more of this she could endure.

For now the threat was gone. And she began to deeply regret her foolish choice to jump down a pit into the depths of his soul.

Shellshocked, she left the operating theater and wandered to a steel door, blocked by another one of those slashing, twisted things. It's body fortunately trapped as it roared and swung wildly, stuck to a gurney in front of her exit.

She aimed her weapon at the thing and took a deep breath.

This would be the longest night of her life.

Her next thought was that of confusion as everything dissolved into darkness around her, and she was left floating around in infinite nothing. The mind she was trapped in no doubt generating another hell for her.

And it seemed, for now at the very least, the hells would have a consistent theme of horror.

The second her hooves were able to find purchase on something flat in that infinite expanse of nothing, she walked forward. The nothing turned to a dark hallway, the air fetid and damp. She wandered and wandered forward as the nothing under her hooves became metal and echoed gently as the sound heralded her arrival.

And then, a single tentacle of necrotic mass came out and wrapped around her hind legs, suddenly dragging her forward at break neck speeds. The world became a blur of color and movement as she was pulled through a series of rooms, and then thrown forward onto a grated steel platform.

And as her mind caught up to what was going on around her, she realized she was dangling in an open chasm, staring at something made of flesh that had no sense of direction. It could hardly be told to have a shape. It was barely serpentine and the skin did not look lively at all, it was more like a massive lump of meat given unlife. Never dead and ever dying.

All she could utter, was a single thought made voice.

What.. Is that?

And then. It answered. The meat below her, the rotting pestilence- spoke in a deep voice that had a gentle rasp and an impossible age. The voice of wise men and sages and scholars who've seen things long before and after their time.

"I? I, am a monument to all your sins." It spoke, its tone gentle and calm.

And then the mass of flesh moved, rising from the pit below Celestia. It was like a snake made of flesh, its skin mottled and necrotic, its scales were non-existent and were instead folds of cancerous skin and warts. It had no eyes, just a jaw filled with wet and gnashing teeth. Razor sharp and the size of her torso, the only "clean" thing in that pallete of rot. And even the teeth were yellowed.

The head alone, bigger than an ursa major. It's jaw could crush her in one fell swoop.

"What is... What are you?!" Celestia shouted, her voice cracking with fear.

The creature stared at her with its eyeless face as tendrils began to slither up the walls, its body undulating and shifting.

"I am an endless chorus, of suffering. I am the father, of pestilence, and decay. I am the end, and the beginning." The creature replied, its voice echoing and reverberating in the dark, cavernous room.

"End of what?" Celestia shouted as her body trembled and she tried to keep herself from shaking too hard. Then with a rush of wind, even more tendrils came rushing into the great cavern, bringing in her sister Luna, just as bound as Celestia was.

"Luna!" Celestia cried out, seeing her sister bound and held aloft by a tendril wrapped tightly around her sister's body, the same way she was. Her horn flared with burning magic, before Luna called back out to her.

"Celestia! D-don't! Don't interfere!" Luna shouted back to her.

The creature let out a deep and reverberating laugh, the sound of it shaking the very foundations of the cavern as it began to slowly move, its body slithering around them.

Luna continued to struggle, but it was clear that the tendril was not letting her go any time soon, and the creature began to slither closer to them.

Celestia looked up at Luna and shouted back, "Luna, why are you here?!"

"I was pulled here the moment you were! An automatic self protection system- it's an amalgamation of identities projected as whatever it thinks it resembles the closest!"

The massive creature was circling them, its head low to the ground, as it slithered around the room, it's head swiveling slowly.

Luna was trying to free herself, and she was starting to panic.

The massive creature's head was now level with their platform.

Luna shouted at her sister, "It's a projection- it doesn't have to make sense, it only needs to be the strongest it can!"

Celestia looked at her sister and tried to focus on what she was saying. But it was hard, with the creature's massive head so close to them, its maw of teeth opening slowly. She felt sick to her stomach. It's breath, rancid with a hint of the sweet smell of rot. Like the corpse of a long dead creature, left out to rot in the sun.

"Relax! Do not trigger it into a defensive state!"

Celestia couldn't understand why Luna was so scared, or what she meant by a projection. She didn't understand any of it, and it was hard to concentrate on her words when she was so close to the massive creature.

The massive creature's mouth opened even wider, revealing the massive cavern of teeth inside. They were all the size of her, each one a razor-sharp spike of yellow bone. It was hard to imagine such a creature could exist.

"Project-" Celestia murmured, staring into the massive maw of the beast, its cavernous mouth filled with teeth. It was hard to imagine that this thing was just an amalgamation of personalities and ideas. But it made sense. In some way.

"Projection! It doesn't need to make sense! Just-" Luna shouted at Celestia, trying to get her to understand. "Just don't panic!"

The creature's head moved, closer to them, and its breath washed over them.

It was horrible, the smell of death, of decay and rot. Of death and decay, of the foulness of the grave.

The flaps that barely covered its maw moved with a disturbing grace as it slowly spoke. Observing them. Analyzing them.

"I? I am a monument, to all your sins." The massive creature spoke in a raspy voice that carried a tone of deep and profound sadness, as it's body slowly shifted in the dark cavernous space. Its body moving in a way that suggested that it was constantly shifting. As if it could not stand still, even if it tried. The meat was always pulsating under that thin skin.

"Please! Please don't hurt my sister!" Luna cried, her voice breaking with emotion. She struggled to break free of the tendril, and her body was trembling.

The creature was still observing them, its maw slowly opening as it continued to speak.

"Magic or light you must choose, for one you shall keep, and one you shall lose." It's words came out with a heavy weight, as if they were the last thing it would say. As if they were the only thing it had ever known.

And it stared at Celestia with it's blank face, and she could feel it staring into her very soul. She felt exposed, and vulnerable. Like the creature had stripped away her very being and left her completely bare. She felt as though the creature was looking into the very core of her existence, and that she could not hide from it.

"What do you mean? What choice?" She shouted back to it. She felt a pang of anger. This wasn't real. This wasn't fair. She had no say in this, and yet it was happening. It was unfair, and she felt powerless, helpless. Like a puppet.

"Magic or light, the choice you will make." It said in a deep and sonorous voice, echoing off the walls of the cavern.

Celestia looked at her sister, who was bound and yet unafraid. And she looked back to the creature, which was slowly moving towards them.

"What do you mean?" Celestia shouted back to the creature. She couldn't understand, what was this thing talking about?

"Choose, or be chosen for you, and suffer the loss. You, are but flesh and faith, and long since the more deluded." It rumbled, jostling her about in its tendrils.

"And she is machine, and nerve, her mind long since concluded.." It rumbled.

Celestia stared at the creature, as its maw opened and closed slowly. Its massive body undulated as it spoke.

"What? I- what?" She stuttered out, as Luna cried out in desperation.

"I'm so sorry!"

Celestia turned to her sister and stared at her, confusion written on her features. "Why? Why are you apologizing?"

"Because she has already chosen. She has already chosen the fate of the stars and the minds of the ponies and all things that inhabit this universe, and she has given them to me."

"What?" Celestia asked, turning to look at the massive creature, who was slowly slithering towards them. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It couldn't be true.

"She has made right the cruelty we let abide, and let live, for a millennia." The massive creature spoke, its words reverberating off the walls of the cavern, as its body shifted and writhed in the dark.

Celestia turned to Luna and shouted, "Luna, what is it talking about?"

"We exist together now, two corpses in one grave." The creature rumbled. It's massive body undulating, its maw opening and closing slowly. Accentuating each horrible clack of its teeth as it spoke without lips.

She'd swear the bindings around her felt so much tighter. "I don't understand." Celestia murmured, as the creature began to approach them.

"We are not so different, we two, are the same. The same cruelty, the same cowardice." The creature spoke, its maw opening and closing slowly as its body undulated and writhed in the darkness of the cave.

"There has been much talk. And I have long since listened. Through sand and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you will listen." It continued to rumble. "Your magic or your body, both will be mine. By will or through time. But now I offer but one salvation, of that for the mind. Choose, or be chosen for you, and the future be decided."

"What are you?" Celestia whispered, as the creature continued to slither in place, a dancing great mass of rot and life.

"I am the monument of all your sins. The father of pestilence, the mother of disease."

She paused for a moment as she thought of her options. Her sister was bound, and she was being offered a choice between her own life and her magic. And if she refused to make the choice, the creature would make it for her.

The thought was horrible.

"I am the endless infinitude of the grave, and the unity of thousands of sleeping minds. Now I shall talk. Now you shall listen. For one, you will choose."

"What?" Celestia shouted at it, the words barely coming out of her mouth. She couldn't understand why the creature was asking for her to choose, or how she was supposed to decide between her life or her magic. She had spent her life using her magic to rule and to guide, and now that choice was being taken away from her. It was unfair, it was cruel. It was a betrayal of everything that she stood for. She was a ruler, and a leader, and a pony, and a magic user.

But that meant nothing here.

"I'll give you my magic. But I want something else in exchange."

The massive creature's maw opened and closed slowly as its body undulated and writhed. Its voice was deep, sonorous and resonating.

"What would you have me do? For what could you have to trade, when all that you have is mine already?"

"An hour. All of my magic and knowledge of it in an exchange for one hour. One hour of control. Of being at the front of everything." Celestia spoke, trying to keep her voice steady as the creature's massive body slithered and shifted, its maw slowly opening and closing.

The creature was silent for a moment, as if considering the offer. It's head swaying as if in thought.

"An hour whenever i choose. And my self is yours." Celestia added on quickly.

"You would give away your mind and body, and for what?" The creature replied.

"For one hour, to do with what i will." She replied back. "And I shall choose when this time is."

"And what of her?" Celestia asked, gesturing to her sister.

"She will remain with me, as a prisoner, but alive. Her life, in exchange for her freedom." It replied. Its maw opening and closing slowly.

Celestia paused, as her heart pounded and she tried to figure out what to do.

"One hour." The massive creature replied. Its massive body slowly slithered in the air, its maw slowly opening and closing.

"One hour of what I choose."

"Of control over yourself." The massive creature replied, its maw opening and closing slowly. It's voice resonant and echoing in the cavernous space.

"And what will happen to her? To me?" Celestia asked. She was scared, she was terrified, she wanted to scream and shout and run and hide, but she couldn't.

"Now there is eternity, alicorns. And you are disarmed in the dark. The three of us, shall have a long, long talk."

And as the creature finished speaking, everything became a haze. A blur of motion and sound. And Celestia felt her magic being torn from her, like the tearing of flesh. Like the tearing of muscle from bone. Her soul felt like it was being ripped out, like she was being ripped apart. It hurt. It hurt like hell. And she could feel the creature pulling at her, pulling at her magic. Like the pulling of a thread from a cloth, it was pulling at her soul.

And then she was falling, tumbling, spinning, twisting.

But The Depth Is Insincere.

Author's Note

And the minds under the floor
Don't see the life as a chore
Though the bad is gone, and they're no longer sore
They can't feel the light anymore

But The Depth Is Insincere.

Alyosha woke up in the queens chambers with one could only be described as an intense hangover.

His head hurt and his eyes burned with an intense light that was so bright he had to cover his face to protect his sight.

"Ah! What is this?! Why is there so much light in here?! Ugh... My head..." Alyosha complained as he sat up in bed and tried to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. It was minimal, and yet blinding.

He felt like he'd split in two like he split Chrysalis. The only real difference, being the lack of screaming. His head hurt, his body ached, his stomach churned and he wanted nothing more than to curl up and die. It felt like someone was using a jackhammer on his brain. "I'm gonna hurl..."

He was cold as ice but he felt like he was burning up. The world felt like it was spinning around him. His stomach was churning and his head was pounding. The only thing he knew was that he felt like shit.

He stumbled out of the bed and fell to the floor with a thud.

He groaned, and tried to push himself to his hooves, only to fail.

He really hoped his dry heaving was only bringing up red resin and not blood. But he didn't care enough to look. He wanted nothing more than to lay down on the cool floor, to curl up into a ball and just die.

Instead he pushed himself to his hooves and tried to focus on what was happening.

He looked around the room and saw nothing but haze, and he could feel his mind was foggy, like someone had poured molasses into it.

"Rise and shine, Alyosha! I've got a... Oh." Chrysalis spoke, and her words were the first thing he'd actually heard that morning. He could feel the sound of her words in his brain, like a drill, piercing the soft tissue. Her words sounded like they were coming through a wall of cotton. And also made of razor blades.

"What? What happened to you?" Chrysalis asked. Her tone was concerned but her face betrayed none of her feelings. Her features were the picture perfect expression of a cold and callous ruler.

Just as he'd remembered.

"Chrysalis I think I'm fucking dying here." Alyosha said. His voice sounded like he was underwater, like his lungs were full of water. His throat hurt and his eyes burned.

"Come here, you." The Queen of the changelings demanded and beckoned him closer with her hoof.

She put a hoof to his forehead and felt him, she frowned a bit, and moved that same hoof down his chest to feel his stomach. The frown grew more intense.

"You don't seem sick, you seem healthy enough." She murmured to herself.

Alyosha rolled his eyes and fell over onto her back, causing her to yelp in surprise.

"Oof, you're a lot heavier than I expected!" She said, pushing him off her with a hoof and turning him onto his side.

She frowned a little, and then began to prod his body with her hoof. "Hmmm..."

"Chrysalis, if you're gonna keep feeling me up like that, I'm gonna need some kind of warning. You have terrible bedside manner." Alyosha grumbled.

She gave him a half smile, her frown turning to a small smile for a moment, before her features hardened once again. "Shush. Your vitals are normal, you aren't running a temperature and you aren't in any pain."

"Chrysalis- you are a ghost right now, how would you know if I am in pain?" He snarked. And that earned him a glare and a light kick in the side.

"Fine, maybe you're in pain, and I can't tell, but your body isn't showing signs of distress, you aren't running a temperature and your vital signs are stable." Chrysalis said.

"Are you sure I'm not dying?" He asked again.

"No, not at all, you seem fine to me." Chrysalis replied. She was still examining him with her hoof.

"I don't know if I'm fine, I don't know what the hell happened to me." He muttered to himself. "I feel like I'm gonna hurl my guts up, I feel like I've been run over by a train, and my head hurts so much I'm pretty sure I'm dying of a brain tumor." He groaned.

"Well, you're not dying, you just have a solid connection of all the things I used to piece you back together. The same thing that is causing all this damage. I'll let you in on a secret though." She murmured to herself.

"Oh, what's that?"

"I think you're going to live. I'm not entirely sure though."

"Thanks, that's very reassuring."

She gave him another half smile, her features softening a bit again.

"I'll let you know for certain once you're done throwing up." She said with a little grin, and gave him another light kick.

Alyosha's confusion lasted only a minute before he was hunched over on his knees, retching his guts out.

Chrysalis was there to hold his mane back and rub circles in his spine with the hoof not occupied. Of course, she was only doing this because none of it could physically splash on her anymore.

"Ugh, I'm gonna die..." Alyosha complained as his heaves brought only red resin and no actual blood.

She gave him a look, her face contorting in an expression of sympathy, before her features returned to neutral.

"You'll be fine, it's not blood. Not really anyway."

"Really? Cause it sure looks like blood. Are you sure it's not blood?"

He continued retching until nothing more would come up. He took a deep breath and wiped the red liquid from his mouth. His body ached from his efforts.

"What you have is a very fine quality rosin, I'm certain it'll be almost crystal clear when it dries. More accurately, you're producing it as a byproduct of having an overload of magical energy in your system."

"Oh. That's good to hear." He muttered to himself. His head was still pounding and his body was sore. "I guess that means I'm not dying."

"No, you're not dying, you're fine." Chrysalis said, giving his mane a little pat. "The chances of you detonating at this stage is very slim. But I'm not entirely sure how you're going to clean this up, since I don't think I'll be of much help." She said with a grin, gesturing to the red resin dripping off her forehoof and simply phasing through it like it was intangible.

Alyosha groaned, his stomach still churning and his head still pounding. "Well, shit. That's not very reassuring, Chrysalis."

"Well, you're not dying, you're not in any danger, you're not in any pain, you're not going to die of cancer, you're not going to get a tumor, you're not going to get cancer, you're not going to get any of the other diseases, you're not going to have a stroke, you're not-"

"I get it! I get it. Im not dying." Alyosha groaned and tried to lift himself up, but like a failure of a newborn foal, he failed. "The heck was with the word vomit, Chrysalis?"

She giggled. "You're fun to mess with."

He looked around, his vision blurry, but he could see the mess of red resin he'd made on the floor, on the bed. He groaned and closed his eyes, resting his head against the cool stone floor, letting his headache fade away. Chrysalis decided to continue with another comment.

"Besides, consider that reparation for stuffing my head with trivia and knowledge about random subjects for the last several centuries. I could go on about a lot of diseases, ailments and such, if you want." She chuckled, before continuing.

"Maybe that will teach you to be a little more selective about the kind of things you stick in my head."

"Like what?"

"Like not stuffing the entirety of your knowledge of mineral deposits the picosecond I look at a wall made of gypsum and feldspar you moron." Chrysalis complained with a snarl, before her face returned to the picture of stoicism.

"I didn't think I could do that. It's not my fault. Besides, it's not like I can read your mind." He retorted, his voice a little strained, as his head continued to throb. His stomach was still churning, and his body still ached. "Besides, how was I supposed to know that I could do that?"

"By, not, filling my mind with a list of minerals every time you think about it!" She shouted, giving him a gentle shove. "You were not supposed to be anything more than an appendage. But now I know all about the world, I know everything about the world. I know about minerals and metals, I know about geography and geology. I know about the composition of the atmosphere and I know the exact chemical makeup of air. I know everything. And I can't get rid of it. And you're the one that gave it to me, you moron."

Alyosha looked at her and gave a weak laugh, his head still pounding. "Well, that's a first."

"That you gave me knowledge and information that I can't forget? Yeah. It is. It's the first time. The first time that you did that. And now I have a lot of useless knowledge in my head and I'm never going to forget any of it. I'm never going to forget that there's 12 elements in the air or that a barium ion has two less electrons than a xenon atom or that the 'Earth' has a core that is mostly made of iron, and that it's liquid. I know that there's a planet called Uranus that is made mostly of hydrogen, helium and methane. You knew all of that, and you couldn't even keep yourself out of trouble and not die."

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You were the organ I always needed, but you weren't the one that I wanted."

Alyosha was quiet for a moment before speaking. His head was still throbbing and his stomach still churning.

"The heck does that mean?"

"It means I always needed a heart to do the thing, you know, pump blood and whatnot." She explained, gesturing to her chest with her hoof. "But you? You were just a nuisance. An accessory."

"Thanks." Alyosha said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"You're welcome." Chrysalis replied with a half smile and a wink.

He just grunted in reply, before his head continued to throb and he clutched at it.

"I think I'm going to vomit." He said, and he proceeded to do just that.

Chrysalis would have laughed, but...

"Wait- No! NOT ON MY CARPET! DO IT ON THE STONE YOU IDIOT!" She screeched, trying to push his head to one side to avoid her priceless carpet from getting stained.

But to no avail.

***

With all of the unpleasant organic events finally, seemingly over; the headaches fading and the sensation of pulsating meat finally going back to its usual unnoticed self- that really only left one thing left to do with his rapid unscheduled recovery of conscious thought.

He wasn't entirely sure if he had gone mad- as it felt as if he had spent his entire life in a state of perpetual, constant delusion- as if he had been in a coma, and then had suddenly awoken to discover the entire world was different. As if he had been born a second time.

As if the world was new, and he was the only one in it.

The sensation was, at least, novel.

And he had a significant amount of resin to clean up. Which he did not enjoy. He was very fortunate that it could be easily wiped up and washed off. Very fortunate that his bodily fluids did not stain the carpet in the room. And he was even more fortunate that Chrysalis had not yet decided to murder him, as he had no idea what she could do to him.

It would not have surprised him to find out that she was capable of murdering him in a variety of ways. She was, for the most part- quite terrifying when they met.

Trapped in that flask.

He had a feeling she might still be quite terrifying, even now. But, he had a feeling she was less inclined to kill him now than when they first met.

And that, of course, was the real question.

Where do we go from here? He asked himself.

The answer, of course, was nowhere.

They were still stuck in the castle, and they were still trapped in this room.

The only real difference was that he was no longer trapped in a glass jar, and he could leave the room if he so desired. And that stupid bit of realization irked him to no end- just a painful and insufferably poetic bit of irony. You did all of that just to swap one cage for another.

He shut that part of himself up quickly. There was no need for a spiral of ants crawling over and under his skin at a time like this. And he could feel Chrysalis staring at him, as he scrubbed away at the carpet with a small brush.

The room smelled of the resin that came from his stomach. He didn't like that, either. It wasn't wholy unpleasant but it was far too strong and concentrated to be something pleasant.

He would rather the room smell like something more normal. Something that didn't remind him of his own stomach. So as he scrubbed in silence he took stock and analyzed himself. Really truly stopped to look at himself while he cleaned.

And he had changed. Physically at least. Mentally, emotionally and psychologically he had been- maybe the same? It was hard to tell. He wasn't a psychology nerd.

So he focused on what he knew, like his physical appearance, which was more or less a given. His flawlessly white chitin only slightly stained from scrubbing up the mess on the carpet. The same chitinous plates that made him feel less than a living being. He still felt like an animated mannequin. A doll.

A puppet.

His wings, however, were more interesting to him. They were a dark and rich red that contrasted with his chitin. The same color as wine under harsh light but far more vivid. And the long hair he could see peeking into the corners of his vision was that same, rich, ruby wine red color. And that, at least, was different.

His eyes, he assumed, were also red. He'd figure that out when he looked in a mirror. The mess he'd made was at last cleaned up. His folly now thoroughly scoured and pushed from the equestrian equivalent to a Persian rug. It wasn't quite Persian but the closest approximation was good enough for him. He didn't care for details.

He looked around. He'd been cleaning the floor and now it was spotless.

He looked over at the queen. She had a small smile on her face, her mandibles spread just slightly as she stared at him.

"So. Now that you've cleaned my carpet, and that little problem you had has passed, we have business to attend to." Chrysalis spoke.

"What business?" He replied, looking at the changeling.

"The kind where I decide your fate." She spoke with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Or, I suppose, we decide."

"And what will you decide?" He asked. He wasn't afraid of her. She wasn't the type to kill without reason, at least not anymore.

"I'll be deciding what I'm going to do with you." She said. Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if she was sizing him up.

"Well, I don't really have much of a say in that do I?"

She smiled a little. A small, sadistic smile. "No. You don't. Not really. I suppose we could discuss it. Or we could fight it out. It's entirely up to you." She spoke.

"Well, I don't want to fight. That's not my thing. Besides, I'm sure we can come to an agreement." He replied.

He didn't really want to fight her. Not in the least.

Not because he thought she'd kill him. She wouldn't. It wasn't in her nature to do that. He'd seen her at her worst and she'd always spared him.

It was more because he didn't know if he could take her on. Not in the least. He wasn't sure how powerful she was. He'd never really had to find out. She was the queen for a reason, and that reason had nothing to do with being weak. He'd always been the accessory, and she the host.

Hm.

He'd have to find a way to piece together some more of his memories.

"So, what do we do now? I.. Goodness it feels like I've been asleep forever and now I'm finally awake. But now what? I'm back, you're here, and the rest of the world has moved on." Alyosha mused, looking around the room. "I suppose I should start by finding out where the bathroom is."

"The bathroom? You're more concerned with finding a bathroom than what I'm going to do to you?"

"Well, it's not like you'd raid Canterlot just to bring me back to kill me again." He said plainly. "You had the opportunity to do so, and didn't take it."

Chrysalis chuckled, and he didn't really have to wonder why.

He'd probably never get used to her laughing. He'd only seen it a handful of times, and each time he found himself questioning her sanity. It wasn't the same laugh she used to have, it was much more human.

"I suppose that is true." She replied, still smiling. "But still. You're a curious one. Most people would be terrified of what I would do to them, and here you are asking for a restroom."

"Well, I've got all these fleshy bits again. Of course I'm gonna ask. It was eternity in there you know?" He paused, before continuing. "Besides, if you wanted to kill me, I'm sure you'd have done so by now."

She laughed, a loud and boisterous one, her laughter echoing through the empty halls. "I suppose you are right."

Alyosha stumbled forward. He wasn't quite thinking as his traditional self, if there ever was one. Flickers of a name long unspoken came to the forefront of his mind as he paused to stand a pace away infront of Chrysalis.

The Queen stared at him. A curious expression on her face. Wondering what he was planning to do no doubt.

He planned on finishing his attempt, the first thing he tried when he was resurrected.

He reached out and hugged the ghost of the queen tightly. It was an alien motion, as arms made no proper parallel to fetlocks and hooves. He reached out, and didn't phase through the apparition. It was as if she was truly there. Though it didn't really have the texture he expected.

But then he remembered she was only an apparition, a ghost of herself. A ghost he could touch, but not a living person. The thought of that, it made his eyes sting.

He rested his head against what he thought would be the sternum, the upper part of her chest. Changeling anatomy was still so foreign. He expected the sound, the sound that haunted his subconscious for an age, the beating of a heart.

There was nothing.

Not the faintest sound of any heartbeat.

"I missed you." He muttered quietly, his eyes watering.

She stared down at him. He was a bit smaller, and so her gaze drifted down, looking at the creature clinging tightly to her chest. She wasn't really sure what to make of it. It was an alien feeling.

He'd always had a penchant for affection. Always being a clingy little parasite.

He was the first of his kind she'd seen, or made. It had been an experiment. The nature of it she was not privy to, even when she'd tried her hoof at forcing them under duress they refused to speak of how they were born. It would have been easy to shatter his flask then.

But the two of them chose to aid each other, curiously enough.

And now they were here, together again.

It was a curious thing, how he clung to her, his body- their body, trembling. His hooves defying her intangibility as they found purchase in her carapace. His eyes were watering and the droplets fell from his face, falling through her body and to the floor, like a ghost in the night. It was a curious sensation to have something so real, so alive, so tangible clinging to you.

She didn't push him away. There was no need. They had been one creature for so long, she had forgotten what it was like to be alone. To be separated.

He clung to her like a scared child to a parent, his eyes closed as he tried to calm his shaking. His eyes opened and looked into her eyes.

She didn't really have much of an opinion of the whole ordeal. He was just a parasite, a useful tool too once upon a time, but still just that. A parasite that had clung to her since she had found him.

She wasn't really sure how she felt. It was an odd feeling.

"I don't think you're going to get much comfort out of that. I'm still dead." Chrysalis spoke calmly.

He let out a chuckle, and he didn't pull away.

"I know." His voice was strained, his eyes wet. "I know, I'm just..."

"You've been in that jar for a very, very, long time. It was very boring for you. You don't know how to function. I understand." She replied. Her words were calm and collected.

He didn't really care for her words. They were hollow, emotionless and cold.

"I just want to be close to someone. I don't know how to feel anymore." He whispered, his voice trembling, tears running down his cheeks, falling from his eyes as he tried to hide his emotions, but failed. He couldn't even speak, the words caught in his throat as he clung tighter.

He didn't want to let go.

She sighed. "I know, it's been hard for you." She said, her voice still calm. She didn't care. She didn't really have any reason to care, not really.

He didn't let go of her. She didn't try to push him away, not that she really could have.

They stayed like that for a long time. She was still as he held her, her eyes closed and her expression calm.

He eventually let go, and he pulled away, looking up at her with his eyes full of tears, and a weak smile. He was a mess. He'd been crying. She wasn't even sure he was fully sane anymore. He was probably still stuck in his head. He probably didn't even remember who he was anymore. She was sure he'd been insane long before they had met.

She prayed not. They didn't need a cheap knock-off of Discord prancing about.

"I missed you, Chrysalis. Even if you don't miss me." He spoke, his voice hoarse.

She didn't reply. She didn't know how to reply. She had never missed him. He was an annoying pest, and he always had been. She had never really liked him. She had always tolerated him. That's all she had ever done.

She had tolerated him because she had to, she didn't really care if he missed her, not at all.

And besides, it wasn't like he was going anywhere.

She didn't really care about his tears or his sadness.

She had bigger things to deal with. Her hive needed to be rebuilt. Her empire had to be restored. She needed to take back what had been stolen from her.

She didn't have time to waste on him, on a broken tool that was only a nuisance to her.

But she couldn't bring herself to say that.

She was silent. And the silence lingered between them as she thought about how to respond to his words.

"...I suppose I missed you too. Things have been... Difficult, without some of your input." She said eventually, after a few minutes of thinking.

He let out a chuckle. "Yeah. Yeah, they probably have." He replied. He wasn't sure what else to say. He wasn't even sure what he was saying. He wasn't sure if he even believed her. He wasn't even sure if she really meant what she was saying. "Do you have any plans?"

"One. Getting you a bath." She spoke with a chuckle. It wasn't her normal laugh, not her usual cackle. But it was a laugh, a genuine laugh.

Finally something familiar. Something he knew.

***

The bath had been a long and arduous process of scrubbing off layers of dried resin, dried blood, and all manner of other things that clung to his carapace and chitin, his mane, his coat. For though it had never been mentioned, tearing free of a Chrysalis is a messy process. Follow that up with running through a window, falling several stories with a grievous impalement- his delirium from his rebirth was the only thing that stopped him from collapsing on the spot. Changelings are sturdy, but they are not invincible.

Chrysalis herself was aware of this, and yet seemed more intent on waterboarding her former companion with the water that poured forth from the faucet in the tub. She'd taken to getting deeply personal with her hooves, water just going right through her phantasmal form and splashing on the hard floor below. It seemed more like she was trying to drown her companion in the warm water of the tub than clean him- which was not something he would put past the queen. If only because she seemed to be taking some sort of enjoyment out of his sputtering.

"Good enough, I think." Chrysalis spoke as she withdrew from her scrubbing.

"What? I think I've still got some dried gunk on me-"

"Oh hush, you're clean enough." The queen spoke, before gently nudging Alyosha.

A nudge was enough, and Alyosha fell backwards into the water of the tub, sending a wave of water cascading out of the basin. It soaked Chrysalis, and then continued through her to the tile floor of the room.

With a choking gasp, Alyosha said one thing. "Was that for tearing you open?"

"Partially. It was mostly for trying to touch me." Chrysalis responded with a snarky smile, before reaching down to offer a hoof to Alyosha, who was pulling himself from the water. He ignored the offered assistance, and simply rose out of the bath himself, his mane clinging tightly to his face and neck.

Note to self, don't try hugging Chrysalis. Not a hugging person. Changeling.

"Hey, I was just trying to-"

"Well, don't try to." The queen of the hive interrupted.

"Alright alright... Well, now what? You're a ghost, I'm... Alive? Ish?" Alyosha asked as he moved to dry his face, mane and hair off. There was an odd lack of towels but insects and insect adjacent chitin always had a waxy layer over them. Like chemical suits, they were waterproof and it would eventually just slide off him.

His hair wasn't hydrophobic like his shell though, and he toyed with it slightly as he unsuccessfully tried to shake himself dry like a dog. Chitin wasn't exactly a great conductor of heat or electricity. His mane would be dry when it was damn well good and ready, he figured.

"I suppose that's the question of the hour. We're alive- to whatever extent we both count- but I don't think either of us are going to have the easiest of times." Chrysalis mused.

"Yeah. You have a hive to lead, I'm not even sure where to go from here." Alyosha spoke as he dried his face, and then looked back to Chrysalis. "Are you going to be alright? Being a ghost?"

"A ghost... I don't think that's exactly right." She murmured, before she was suddenly standing behind Alyosha. It had been instant- and he felt her hooves on his back, sliding upwards. "You see, you and I both know I've still got my tricks." She whispered softly into his ear.

"I see... That would have been nice earlier..." He mumbled, and the queen gave him a light smack to the head with the back of her hoof. It was gentle, and yet firm.

"Ghost powers work on ghosts, idiot." The changeling monarch spoke in a huff.

Alyosha paused, and turned his head to the queen.

"I suppose that makes sense." He admitted, before the queen spoke.

"Regardless. It's about time for dinner, and you are a changeling now, even if not by birth. I'll take you down, proper this time, to the lower levels of the hive so you may feed. And after that, we can talk about what we are going to do from here."

Alyosha had followed the Queen, the two making occasional smalltalk as they descended deeper into the hive. Though he had wandered into the bowels of the Hive, it had never really sunk in how deep the hive truly went- and even then, it wasn't much.

At least, in comparison to how deep the hives used to go.

Every "bottom" was just when the hive stopped growing for a while before expansion began anew, and he was brought closer and closer to the true base of the basin. As he walked with Chrysalis through the winding passageways that made up the hive, he couldn't help but think about his old life. He had spent his entire time here as an outsider, and yet now it felt like home.

Or, he thought, as if a new life was starting for him.

The passageways began narrow, and slowly widened. There was hardly a transition, one moment you're in a tunnel and the next you're in a massive cavern, one that could easily fit the largest city of man devised with ease. Likely with more room to spare.

And there was light.

Faint and dim, the bio-luminescent crystals that imitated stars on that distant ceiling, produced just enough light for the natural dark vision of the changelings to make use of. Any normal being would see this land as dark and gloomy, but here to its inhabitants it was perfectly lighted with some mood in the lighting.

One would feel insignificant in the face of that vast labyrinth. The streets would wind and wind forever and ever wherever they wanted and the buildings- real buildings, constructed with shape and elegance and form and function by the bright mind behind its design, could spire upwards in blocks taller than one could feasibly see. The air was cool and fresh, the humidity kept in check and there was just a general ambiance that made one feel welcome.

Alyosha had seen cities. This place felt less like a city, and more like a world in of itself.

"Impressive." Alyosha muttered, as he stared in awe at the vast, alien landscape of the cavernous city, its lights and its life.

"Yes. We are an impressive race, are we not?" The queen replied with a smile.

"It's a beautiful sight." He spoke as the two began to make their way through the city. The streets were not crowded, and there was little activity. It was a city at rest. "But, it is a bit..."

"A bit what?" Chrysalis replied as they moved down the main road of the city, the street leading into the center of the city.

"Quiet. I mean, you can hear the hustle and bustle, but there's so much of a gap..." Alyosha muttered.

"Yes. The population down here has... Dwindled, somewhat. But after our successful siege on Canterlot during your resurrection we expect the noise down here to increase somewhat."

"Wait what? I'm sorry- Siege?" Alyosha stopped, turning to the Queen. Chrysalis turned as well.

"Oh yes, it's quite the tale. We staged an assault on the city, you know how that goes, the works." The Queen replied with a smile.

"...I don't know enough of warfare to know how it goes." He spoke with some hesitation, but the Queen didn't falter.

"Either way. We were successful in our raid." The queen continued with pride. "Now focus on something better. Like... That foal. Right over there."

She pointed to a small, young, filly that was running through the streets. It looked to be around 4-5 years old, and was wearing a bright blue scarf held in place with two large blunt needles. The child looked to be happy, and carefree, running and laughing as she ran in circles. It looked like she was chasing after something, or someone.

Alyosha stared at the child for a few moments. Sure, it was a foal. Foal underground. With changelings. Gears turning. Going click- click- click.

The gears turned, and he came to the conclusion, but he wasn't happy with it. It didn't feel like something that would ever be normal.

"You stole that kid." He spoke plainly. "She's not yours. Changeling's don't make ponies." Continued a logical half of his head.

"Incorrect. We didn't steal that foal." Chrysalis corrected. "She's ours."

"Ours." He repeated, looking back at her. "What do you mean, ours?"

"She's part of the hive." Chrysalis said, her voice a mix of pride and authority. "Thanks to your original idea which sadly went up in literal fire, we were able to continue with the concept of gentle indoctrination with a fresh batch of ponies. Two-hundred years later, and we are finally seeing the fruits of your original labor, and my adjustment of that labor." She continued to explain as they moved away from the child. "She's ours. She was born here, she grew up here, she learned here, she was fed here. Her family is here, her life is here, she knows no other home, and she never will."

Alyosha frowned, staring at the foal as she ran away. It seemed like a strange and cruel thing, but, at least it wasn't murder.

"It's a lot more peaceful, and far better to indoctrinate a young child than to shatter the life of a fully developed adult. Not to mention the fact that there are no shortage of children, especially in these trying times. What's a missing foal to the ponies on the surface? It happens every year, all across Equestria." The Queen continued to explain as they moved through the streets, the child's laughter echoing through the air.

"It's not nearly as cruel as your original idea. The existence of orphanages has long since eliminated the need for any kind of foul play. The children that are brought here, well... It's better than whatever they had up there." Chrysalis said as they passed by more children. It wasn't hard to spot the foals, their colors standing out amongst the darkened, insect-like features of the changelings. Beacons of light in an endless sea of umbre tones.

"But it's not ethical." Alyosha mumbled.

"What do we care for ethics? We are changelings." Chrysalis said. "If we didn't feed, we wouldn't survive. These are the means we have to live by. We are the hunters, and they are our prey."

They were passing by another pair of children. It looked like the pair were playing some sort of game of chase, or hide and seek. The pony foals were running, and chasing one another. Their happy laughter echoed through the cavernous city, their joyful cries and squeals of delight and glee echoed through the air. It was a happy place. A place where children were free, where children were allowed to be themselves, and where children could be safe. He couldn't fault that.

Even if he disagreed with how they were brought to that place.

"Look, Chrysalis. I can kind of... Remember what I said then. But this is stepping on a few boundaries that can bite us later. So just promise me, you've only been sourcing them from orphanages. Like you said. Promise me this all started from foals nobody were ever going to notice." He spoke with some hesitation in his voice.

Chrysalis turned her gaze on him.

"I swear on the life of every single one of my children." She said with a smile. "Not one foal we have taken was not already lost or unwanted. We take only the unwanted, and we give them love and acceptance." Her tone was sincere. Her eyes were not. They were cold and hard. There was no love there. Only hunger and greed. Alyosha sighed, but did not say anything more.

Someone in his head knew that look.

He wouldn't push it.

"Well... That's fine. As fine as it could be, anyway." He mumbled. His mind was elsewhere, his gaze was elsewhere. His thoughts were on other things. He was distracted, and the Queen was not paying him any mind.

They were moving, moving, and they reached their destination.

It looked to be a communal dining hall. There was no sign of a door, and the inside was lit by a number of lights. It was a simple room. There was a large table, and there were a few smaller ones, but that was it.

"We're here." Chrysalis said as she gestured to the room.

"And here is...?" He asked, as he looked at the room.

"Our dining hall." Chrysalis said, and stepped inside. "Come inside. Take a seat, get something to eat, drink. You likely have... Equine tastes. So I won't deny you access to physical food seeing as you've already been denied such pleasures for millenia." She explained.

Alyosha didn't know if he was supposed to laugh at that or not, but he stepped inside. The smell of the place was familiar. It was warm and welcoming.

It reminded him of home. His old home.

"I'll be back in a little while, I've got something I have to go attend to. I trust you won't go exploring again while I am gone, will you?" The queen asked as Alyosha sat down at the table.

"Of course not, my Queen." He enthused sarcastically, before he rested his head in his hooves.

With that, the queen left him alone with the rest of the hive. And there, he waited. Just gathering his thoughts while his face was firmly planted to the table.

There were so many thoughts he had. Thoughts that were new and old. Things that had happened, things that had been, and things that were going to be. He couldn't even think about how he was going to handle all of it.

He wasn't even sure if he was going to handle any of it. I mean seriously, this was all literally far too much brain fitting in too small of a brain. Too much life for one lifetime. And to sum it all up- there wasn't even a single exciting emotion flaring through his body. What do you do when you're there? Alone? At the edge of a universe? Hum a tune?

No.

He just sat, his head in his hooves.

Because it all just turned boring. So much noise that it stopped being interesting and became a cacophony. A buzzing, in the back of his head.

Alyosha wasn't sure if it was his mind trying to protect him, or him giving in. He just stopped trying to think. He stopped caring, stopped feeling. But in all of that endless wave of nonsense there survived the voice of individuality.

And the first thing to do was...

You find Something tasty to eat.

The most visually interesting thing I saw. Was bread.

In front of me. On a platter made of silver metal. Stuck together, i'd have to pull it apart. The backseat drivers said to use my magic. But i've barely been in control of myself so far to even think.

So i think not. I'll be physical. I want to touch it. It looks soft and airy, and it looks like someone hit it with butter. Which, buttered bread. I'm not really one to turn down, you know?

I think.

I think therefore... It is probably true. But theres something I don't know how to do. Grab bread with your hooves. I don't know how.

Why should you be able to grip something with an entirely smooth surface? It's not possible, I think, as a torrent of voices collectively groan at my denial of obvious fact. It's possible. Its possible to grip. I think. It's not.

It's not, it's not, it's not, i'm not going to eat, i'm going to sit here, I'm going to sit here. It's a stupid idea anyway. Bread doesn't look tasty anyway, I think.

But although I can't smell it very well, I know that's a lie. It does actually look quite tasty.

Magic is too complicated for me to care to learn right now. And yet by that logic, suddenly turning your front hooves in a burst of little flame to have claws is entirely simple. After all, all I did was wish really really hard I had hands. So now i've got them.

That is so weird to think.

And yet here I am, an insect. With claws. Made of chitin. With no problem at all.

It's not even like, a big deal.

And then I remember I don't have a plate. Gotta find one. There's a few to the side, stacked neatly at the far end of the long table. As the plate-focused tunnel vision subsides, I notice there's more than just bread and plates. There's meats, vegetables- a small combination of fruits. Mushrooms, cooked and unknown. Very lumpy, like they grew on a wall. Shelf mushroom.

I grip my plate, and go back to the bread to finally put something on it. To grab a piece of bread you must first have a plate, and to get a plate you must be born. And have hands. Two bread rolls adorn the silver saucer in my claws. This feels awkward in my... shoulder? Anatomy no good. Changelings are confusing.

I'll have to ask someone for a crash course on the anatomy of the changeling. At some point.

Bread. Tasty bread. Now, what to bring with the bread?? Mushrooms look tasty, maybe that'd go well with the meat? Bread and meat, bread and mushroom, it sounds like a nice combination. Bread, bread, bread... bread. Bread.

Bread. Bread bread bread bread.

There's something wrong. There's a lot of words going on, a lot of things going on. But I really, really don't want to care too much. Care too much. The root of all evil.

Bread. Vegetable. And flesh. Two fluffy rolls, some stripes of sliced meat that he was not going to clarify on whether or not he served himself properly with a utensil instead of dirty hoof-claws, or vice versa.

The vegetables looked nice too. Baked. Maybe. A nice combination of soft exterior and spices and seasons that tantalized the senses. He didn't know if that's how they would actually taste but they smelled delicious.

He put the dish together, put the claws away and sat down. He'd forgotten the utensil for eating the meal, he realized, and so had to go back and retrieve the silverware. In the end he sat his flank down in a far corner devoid of the few prying eyes that watched him. Most didn't. And the few that did quickly went on their way, food was just more interesting.

The bread was the first target for consumption. It had been the first target he'd seen after all, and the buttery and fresh taste of it was enough to send his brain on a roller coaster ride, a roller coaster of thought and emotion. But it was less of a spiral and more of a dozen electric shocks at the first hint of taste. The flavor was overpowering, the sensations of the tongue being assaulted by a million little explosions of flavor and sensation, all of which were delicious.

He'd forgotten how much he liked bread.

It had been so long since he'd eaten anything, he'd forgotten how delicious food could be. Always taunted by the meals he made, unable to eat them and waiting for the day company, any company that would indulge in it would arrive.

The mangled and ruined bread roll fell limply from his mouth with a single tear.

Nobody ever came.

Nobody was coming, not anymore. The company, any company he could have had- was all gone.

The taste in his mouth was stale and the sensation of chewing became a dull and repetitive motion. No matter what he did, he couldn't get that thought out of his head. He couldn't get the image of himself sitting at the dinner table alone out of his mind, and as he continued to chew the food, his mouth became numb to the flavor and he simply chewed because he was supposed to.

Happy tears that would have flowed from the sheer revitalizing effect on the mind of a single good meal in centuries turned to cold tears of anger. Now he couldn't even enjoy his food.

But then, a small spark in his heart. He'd been left alone. Left behind.

But not abandoned. She had returned, in the end. The one he'd grown closest to.

He couldn't help but feel happy about that, even if the situation he was in was still...

He swallowed a lump of tasty mush. He was at least a little happy to be, even if the situation he was in was still... For lack of a better word, utter bullshit.

And that's when she showed up.

"Hello there." Chrysalis said as he looked over at the figure of his former host, her form translucent, as she was a ghost, as he looked up from his food. "Enjoying your meal?" The queen asked. She looked to be in a much better mood, as she seemed to have a spring in her step, a grin on her face, and her eyes were full of mischief.

I couldn't tell why she was so happy, and I didn't really care at the moment.

The bread was still tasty. I hate this mood.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's great." Alyosha replied with a half hearted grin, looking back at the food in front of him. He wasn't really hungry anymore. Just tired, and sad. "How'd you find me?"

"I've been here the whole time, I just decided to show myself now that you've had a moment to yourself." Chrysalis said, her eyes filled with that familiar mischievous glint. "I'm surprised you didn't notice."

"Too busy thinking about how much my life sucks right now." He replied, staring down at his food.

"I see." Chrysalis said, as she walked over to him, sitting down next to him at the table. "How's the food?"

"It's... Fine."

"Good. I'm glad you like it." She said, as she took a piece of bread off his plate, and popped it into her mouth.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Alyosha yelled. That was his bread! His tasty, delicious, buttery, warm, and fresh bread!

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She said with a bastards smug grin. Shit eater. Shit eating grin!

"You can't even eat! Give that back!" He yelled, reaching out to grab the bread from her, only to watch it pass through her body and land on the ground. She laughed, as he stared at the bread that lay on the floor, his face twisted in a mixture of anger and sadness.

My fucking bread. I'm gonna kill you, you smug piece of shit.

"That's not fair!" Alyosha yelled, as he stared at the bread that had fallen to the ground. He was going to eat that! He was going to eat that, and now he couldn't!

'But we will' said the distant voice of a scavenger. Eat it. Eat the bread off the floor. Five hour rule or something. It was just bread on the floor- it was earth spice. Earth spice is good for you. Eat it- eat it to spite that bastard.

No.

"Life isn't fair, little parasite." She said, as she smiled down at him, that same smug, shit-eating grin on her face. "You of all people should know that."

"Fuck you." He said, staring at the floor, where his bread lay.

"Now, that's no way to speak to your queen." She said with a smirk.

"I'm not a part of the hive." He said with a huff, as he sat down, and stared at the floor, where his bread lay. "I'm not a changeling. I'm not even a pony. I'm human."

"Human, huh?" She said with a smirk. "And what exactly is that?"

By definition, a featherless biped. No- that's a philosiphical- philosophy- philosphi- philosophical and archaic definition of a man. A man is a miserable bundle of secrets.

My head. I can feel it go blank, oh so wonderfully blank. Not blank. Whole. Unified. We are "Us."

"...I see."

There was a pause, as she looked away from him, her eyes wandering around the room. She didn't say anything, and neither did he. They just sat there, in silence.

"I suppose I'm a bit of an asshole, aren't I?" She said after a while, looking back at me. But you know what? Talk to the shoulder. My damned food. Wasted. Wasted food. Hate it. Hate it so much, so so much.

"A bit of an asshole, indeed. I suppose I owe you an apology, for being such a bitch." She said with a small smile. "I'm sorry for being such a bitch." She said with a chuckle.

But I just continue to stare at the bread on the floor, i can feel something tickling my face. Involuntary muscle twitches as I stuffed the floor-tainted bread into my face. It wasn't much. It was barely even a taste. But it was bread, and it was mine.

"Alright. I get it. You're angry at me. But I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry for being a bitch. And I'm not sorry for taking your bread." She intoned. Some tone I can't name but I just know, know in my bones that she's aggravating.

"...I hate you so much right now."

"Well, I don't hate you. I just find you amusing." She said with a small chuckle. Smiling trashbag.

I sigh.

"Bread thief aside. Did you actually have a reason for bothering me?" He asked, turning to her.

"Yes. I have a question for you." She said, her voice a little more serious than before. "What do you plan to do, now that you are alive again?"

"Go home, I guess." I said reflexively. Home. I think I'd like that a lot really. Just home. Somewhere to get away from everything. Forever.

"...Home? Where is that, exactly?" She asked, looking at me with a curious gaze. "Home is gone. The world has changed. You are a stranger in a strange land."

"I'll figure something out." I said, looking down at my hooves, as if they held the secrets of the universe within them. They did not, and the universe was still a mystery. I didn't know a thing. I don't know how to 'get started'. But plans were stupid. Chaos reigns and life is disorder.

"And how exactly do you plan to do that? You have no money. You have no connections. You have no friends. You have no family. You have nothing." Chrysalis said. You could hear the smile in her voice. Makes my spine just tingle in the wrong way. Not fear- but it's a very, very close cousin to it.

"I can get you started. All you need is to just follow a few orders for me as we settle into a new age of society for Equestria. And I will make sure that you have a place in this world." She intoned.

"...I'm not sure that's a good idea." A bad feeling about this. It was like he was being led into a trap. Like he was being set up for a fall. Something screamed it into my mind. It was a warning. It was a warning that he should not listen to her. Something bad would happen if he did.

"Of course it is. It's the best idea." She said with a smile. Meant to disarm I think. "All the world at your command, and all I need is for you to-"

-and then there was just a whiff of smoke, just a scent just a faint amount. Less than a few hundred parts per million. So minute you wouldn't even notice it, but the dread it instilled in me was so, so, so inexplicably terrifying. Like a creeping shadow. Like a memory long forgotten, and then it came rushing back to you. A memory of a terrible event, of a terrible person, of a terrible time. And then you feel that fear. That fear that you had not felt in years. And it's all coming back to you, and you can't stop it. And you can't stop it, and it's coming back, and you can't stop it. And you can't stop it, and it's coming back, and it's coming back, and it's coming back-

-SHE'S COMING BACK AROUND, GET DOWN! GET DOWN!

There was a sound. A sound like a scream. A scream of a thousand voices, all screaming at once. Screaming in terror, in pain, in anger, in rage. Screaming at the injustice of it all. Screaming at the injustice of the universe. The sound of burning, rippling and roiling flames being choked under fire as a roll of fabric suddenly dropped to the sleek table. And then the screaming stopped. The sound of the world- the old world where monsters made of fire and wings flew in the sky the devil was in the air and the moon was a traitor to all who prayed to her kin- was gone, and the silence was deafening.

You blink. And it's all gone and suddenly you're jarringly back in the present.

I had really, really hoped that- that I wouldn't see that again. I was hoping I would never have to think about it, or that I would have to remember. That I would not have to be reminded of that day. Of that night. Of the night when everything was destroyed. When everything was taken away from us. When we lost everything.

I'm not quite whole yet.

But that's a paper. That's a roll of paper that just- just appeared from nowhere and clearly Chrysalis sees it too judging from that expression. It's fear. Fear that's quickly swallowed by the iron will of a monarch that doesn't know the meaning of the word surrender. She doesn't know the word quit. She doesn't know the word defeat. She knows only victory, and she will not rest until she gets it.

She has to have victory, or she will not be content.

"...What's that?" Alyosha said, as he looked at the rolled up piece of paper that had just appeared on the table in front of him. It was a scroll, and it was sealed with a wax seal. The seal was broken, and the paper was unrolled. There was a letter inside, and he took it out and read it.

The letter was simple, and to the point.

"Chrysalis.

If you're reading this. We've found you. And I'm bringing the princesses back."

The letter was signed by someone named "Twilight Sparkle." And I have no idea who that was. I only know the rage that gracing her face. She'd have broken a tooth if she were corporeal with how much she clamped down on her own jaw. She took a breath and then spoke.

"Damn it. I knew it was only a matter of time." Chrysalis said. "Alyosha, we've got trouble."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" He asked, as he put the letter down. "Who is this 'Twilight Sparkle'?"

"She is the Element of Magic. The most powerful of the six. She is a purple unicorn. She is the student of Celestia. She is the one who defeated me the first time I tried to conquer Canterlot. We need to get you out of the lower levels immediately. They cannot know this area exists." She explained, her voice calm, but her face was contorted in rage. "We have no time to waste. Come with me, now. We have to leave immediately."

So Listen To This. He Shot And He Missed!

Alyosha followed the Queen, her hooves tapping against the floor of the throne room. She was in a hurry, and she was not stopping for anything. He was struggling to keep up with her, his legs still weak from lack of use.

She'd stopped, stopped only once to rally a few guards to spread the word. Spread the word to proceed to muster stations and to prepare for an attack. An attack sometime within the next five minutes. It turns out this Twilight Sparkle works fast, judging by what she told me.

It wasn't much. Just that she was a clever mare and a bane of this hive's existence.

"We have no time to waste. Come with me, now."

"Alright, alright. I'm coming, I'm coming." I wheezed as I stumbled after her, my legs feeling like jelly. I'd never run so much in my life.

"We don't have time for your excuses, we're going to be overrun if we don't act now!" She snapped at him, her eyes narrowing in anger. I could see the fury in her eyes, and it made me shiver.

"Alright, alright." I muttered as I followed her through the winding corridors of the hive. We'd passed a few guards, who had given me strange looks, but I ignored them. Maybe they expected me to fight. Maybe I could. Maybe if I let the voices in my head take control, I could do something. But I didn't want to. Not yet. Not now. Not here. Not with the way I was. Not with this body. Not with the memories of a life I'd lived and not with the fear of the unknown. I'd just finally raised myself out of that sea- that sea of people. I just got my head above the waves- I didn't want to drown in that ocean again. Not again. Never again.

But we're all here. And you know we'll always be here. Because we are you, and you are us.

No. Go back. Go back I don't need you right now.

We're always with you. We're always a part of you. We're always a part of each other. We're all a part of you, and you're a part of us. We're all a part of the same thing. We're all a part of the same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The same thing. The auditorium here will be a good staging ground. Sentinels, report." Her voice almost blended in with the others. But it cuts, it just cuts through the noise. She's asking some changeling in rather jagged looking armor.

"Your majesty, we've been preparing to harden the lower levels as requested. All inoculated equines have been secured, perimeter guards have reported a contingent of the solar guard on the outskirts. They've teleported. We've got minutes, if that." The changeling reported, his voice as cool and emotionless as the deep blue ice that formed his eyes.

The Queen's eyes narrowed, and she nodded. "Very well. Continue to harden the lower levels and ensure the exits are secured. I want all of the drones that are not ready to fight to retreat into the lower levels. I want the tunnels collapsed behind them."

"My Queen, what about the rest of us?" The changeling asked, his voice still as cold as ice.

"Those that are ready to fight will stay and defend the upper levels. I don't want a single soldier down here. I want the lower levels to be a fortress. I want the upper levels to be a deathtrap." Chrysalis said, her voice cold and calculating.

"Understood. I'll make sure it's done." The changeling replied.

"Good. Now go. We don't have much time." She ordered.

"As you wish, my Queen." He replied, before turning and walking away, his armor clanking against the ground.

I watched him go off into that winding maze. Somewhere. I think I spaced out. Gotta keep my head clear. "What's the plan?" I asked, turning back to the queen. She'd turned to me, and was giving me a look that was somewhere between amusement and contempt.

"You're not going to be a part of it." She said simply, her voice dripping with venom. I could feel the hatred in her voice... And yet, it felt like there was also a hint of fear in her eyes. A hint of fear, and a hint of desperation. Like she was trying to push me away. Like she was trying to keep me safe.

"Excuse me?" What? It makes sense, but after all of that talk, like i'm the next messiah and I get told to buzz off. You can't expect me to just sit by and watch this.

"You heard me." She said, her voice still dripping with venom. "You're not going to be a part of this. You're going to stay here, and you're going to stay safe."

"No way! I'm not going to sit by and watch this happen!" I said, my voice rising. "I'm not going to let you fight this alone!"

"You don't have a choice." Chrysalis said, her voice as cold as ice. "You're not a fighter, Alyosha. You're not a soldier. You're not even a changeling." She said, her eyes narrowing. "You're just a lost soul that's running on fumes. You're a broken mess of a soul that's barely clinging to what little sanity he has left. You're not fit to fight. You're not fit to lead. You're not even fit to stand in the same room as me. So no, you're not going to be a part of this."

"I'm not asking to lead." I said, my voice shaking. "I'm not even asking to fight. I'm just asking to help. To do something." My voice was shaking, and I was scared. I was scared of what was going to happen. I'm split between the fear, the fear of burning- of a voice crying out and being silenced and the split second of agony as solar plasma connects with flesh and flash-boils before incinerating, And the other half- the other half wants to be there and fight.

But honestly, I don't want either of these options. I want to run. I want to run and hide. I want to run and hide and never come back. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of running. I'm tired of being afraid. I'm tired of being a coward. I'm tired of being weak. I'm tired of being a victim.

"I'm tired of being a victim." I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"And I'm tired of you." Chrysalis said, her voice still filled with venom. "I'm tired of you, and your pathetic thin veneer of a personality. I'm tired of you, and your incessant need to cling to the past. I'm tired of you, and your constant need for validation. I'm tired of you, and your constant need for attention. I'm tired of you, and your constant need to prove yourself. I'm tired of you, and your constant need to be a martyr."

"Then what do you want from me!?" I shouted, my voice cracking. "What do you want from me!?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"I want you to be useful. You like being useful, so make yourself useful and stay." She said, her voice still filled with venom. "You like being used, don't you?"

I looked at her, my eyes wide. I didn't know how to respond to that. I didn't know what to say to that.

She just looked at me, her eyes narrowed. "Don't look at me like that. You know it's true."

I didn't know how to respond to that. I didn't know what to say to that. But that's not true- I can survive without her. So I didn't say anything.

She sighed, and turned away from me. "Just stay here. Stay safe. Stay out of the way. Stay out of my way."

"Fine." I grumbled. No. I spat. Venomous. One word with all the faux hatred I could muster. "Fine." I said, my voice cold and flat. "I'll stay here."

"Good." Chrysalis said, turning back to me. She gave me one last look, her eyes narrowed, before she walked away, leaving me standing there alone. I stood there, staring at her as she left. I watched her walk away, her hooves clicking against the stone floor.

And then, she was gone.

And I was alone.

And I was alone again.

And I was alone. Again.

I stood there, alone. Alone. In that dark, room. Reminded of the flask. Reminded of those painful seconds right before the end. My friggin mind is splintering at the seams and I was barely even in control. I could feel the voices, the memories, the pain, the rage, the hate, the fear, the regret. I could feel them all, clawing at the edges of my mind. I could barely even explain it. Barely even understand. Understand what's going on inside my mind? Doctor- I can't even tell if i'm not me!

I took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. Tried to calm down, to focus on something, anything else. Tried to focus on the sounds of the room. The sounds of my own breathing. The sounds of my own heart. The sounds of my own thoughts- TERRIBLE IDEA. I was alone, alone, alone in that dark, room. Alone. With the voices. And the memories. And the pain. And the rage. And the hate. And the fear. And the regret.

The regret. The regret. The regret. The regret.

Deep breath. You are whole. You are made whole. Rehearse. Identify. Compel and reclaim. I am One. I am Me. I am... I am- My name is- My name is.. We are called Alyosha. And my name is... Alyosha. And that's not exactly correct but I'll have to roll with it. The point is to not sink back down to the bottom of the ocean. You're not drowning. You're just being pulled. You just need to resist the current. Fight the tide. You're not going to sink again. You're not going to drown again.

And yet...

I felt the pull. Think of these thoughts as limitless. Limitless, exposing, closing, circuitry of fright.

Solemnly swear to follow your truth, so help you child now raise your right hoof.

Right hoof. Left hoof. Step forward. Now pace. Pace in circles. There's nobody down here. I'm alone. I can work with that right? Just work it out. You'll be fine. Just work it out.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, my voice echoing in the empty room. My voice echoed in the empty room. My voice echoed in the empty room.

My voice echoed in the empty room. It even reminded me of hers. Like someone down pitched it and then did a thing to make it sound young- but not like a... Like. Damn it. This is hard. This is really hard.

One step at a time. Figure out your magic. Can't be too hard right? It isn't like there's some mystery raid in progress. You're not in the front lines, just... Just be ready. Be prepared. If you can't help, you might as well try and be useful, right?

Right.

"Okay." I said, my voice echoing in the empty room. "Magic. Can't have too many rules right? How did we figure that out last time?" I asked myself.

"You figured it out by doing." Said the voice in my head. I thought that was me. Maybe I was just talking. But maybe not. It's not like it's easy to think straight. But everyone hears voices in their head, that's normal, it's called an in-ter-nal mono-logue. I know because the doctor said it was normal.

"Okay. Magic. Magic." I said, my voice echoing in the empty room. I looked at my hoof. "Magic. Magic." I said, my voice echoing in the empty room.

"Come on. I had little grippy claws with only a thought, let me levitate some crap at least!" I hissed, my voice echoing in the empty room.

Why are you even trying to escape? You're not even supposed to be here. You're supposed to be dead. That's what this is all about, right? That's why you're doing this. That's why you're trying so hard. That's why you're trying so hard to not be dead.

Chrysalis ran off somewhere, and as much as I want to just stay here where it's safe I can feel it in my bones. Some dread at the walls around me. Cornered. Trapped. Claustrophobic. The skies. Need to watch the skies. Watch the skies for the fires that burn. Experiences unknown to me, the child, but known to a father who fought for a place that was no longer his home. A place that was no longer his. A place that was no longer his, but still his to protect.

I have to go. I have to get out. My heart feels dead inside. Cold and hard and petrified. Lock the doors. Close the blinds. We're going for a ride. I'm going to get the fuck out of here.

It's just magic, it's just the same as before.

I'm just not trying hard enough.

A deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Let the emotions flow. Let the thoughts flow. Let the fear, the rage, the hate, the regret. Let it all flow. Let it all flow. Let it all flow. Let it all flow. Flow like rushing water and the sound of silence and the echo of nothing- the never was and the never will and the words that were left unspoken and the knowledge that must never be spoken.

My horn felt painfully cold and hot, like bad carpet burn but caused by ice. Like sandpaper, like being slid around on ice and freezing cold sandpaper. I was on my knees, on the floor of the auditorium when there was a sound like a screech. Something screaming, wailing so quietly yet so loud. A high pitched wail of a banshee almost imperceptible as a flow of glowing mana punched through the ceiling. A tiny dot in the roof going who knows how far.

That's good enough in terms of magic I guess. We're only cramming six lifetimes into six minutes, can't reach for the stars yet but we can reach for the closest branch. I'm going to call that success. I'm not defenseless anymore. Got something at range. Three moves. Kick. Bite. And a high pressure stream of kinetic energy.

That spell is NOT non-lethal in anyway. It'll cut through whatever, it's like a... pressure cutter. Steel cutter. Water-jet cutting. High pressure water jet cutting. I need to practice, practice my words and practice not falling back into the sea. But we'll get better.

Let's break this down into steps. Chrysalis doesn't want us to be seen. Not her words exactly but I don't want to be seen by her either. This might feel like betrayal. I like the changelings. They've been good to me. But leader, even pretending to be leader of a new world order is far- far above what I want. Too much. This battle. I'll escape it.

Step one. Start walking. Get moving, start thinking. We'll get out of here, but it'll take some work. It'll take a lot of luck. It'll take a lot of magic. But if we're lucky, we won't need to use magic. If we're lucky, we can slip away unnoticed. Should be easy since everyone who can fight has already left to more important places, right?

The first obstacle is obvious. This is a hive. There are no doors. There are no windows. There are no doors or windows. There's just tunnels, and tunnels are a maze. I don't know how to navigate this maze. So, how do we get out of here? Keep walking. Just think about it while we walk.

Every passage has a purpose even if you don't think it, and a hive is just a big house right? A big house with smaller houses and smaller passages as needed. Logically I don't want anything that takes me sideways or down, so anything that goes straight up will be how I get out of here. I've managed to find a way deeper down without trying.

Now I just gotta try find a way out of the hole I've dug.

My hooves clack against the floor. Like I'm on my tip hooves, walking on them. It's a weird feeling. The floor is cold, and the air is colder. There's a chill in the air. It's like a breeze. Gonna follow any wind I can feel. I think if I had something more sensitive like a fire, it'd dance in that breeze. I could follow the fire.

Don't know how to start one. Maybe it's just cold because there isn't much alive in this floor. All those wings buzzing, movement everywhere every day- generates heat. No more movement. No more heat. Like a cooling corpse.

That was morbid. But that's life. Life is morbid. And that's what I've got left. Life. It's what I've got left. It's what I've got. It's what I've got to do. I can't stop. I can't stop.

"Can't stop the A-AAAHA!" Flop. My hooves tripped over something and I just stumbled and flopped over like a dead fish. My head smacked the floor and I was staring at the ceiling. It's not a particularly interesting ceiling. Just rock, with little holes where the light comes through.

The heck did I even trip on? It was so smooth and easy to walk on the floor. Nothing to trip on. It's all flat and- oh. That's my tail. Right. I've got that. That's new. That's a new thing I have to deal with. But I didn't fall on that.

It's something metal. Twisted and with sharp points jutting out here and there, but there's parts that are flat and smooth, and some type of strap. Armor. Protective equipment probably belonging to the sentinels. They're the only ones ive seen with armor, but what's it doing on the ground?

...

Nope. Don't wanna know. I don't want to know what happened to the guy that was wearing it. I don't want to know why it's here. I don't want to know. I just want to know how to put it on and where.

The armor itself was like a shell, made up of overlapping plates. The plates were held together with a series of buckles and straps. The whole thing was a deep blue, almost black color. It was a lot heavier than it looked. The plates were thick and sturdy, but flexible at the edges where they thinned. I think this is supposed to guard the neck and heart? It's almost V shaped. I've got it on the wrong way round. The pointy end needs to point at my chest, not my tail. Turn it round. Put it on like a vest. It's not too bad a fit, but it's loose. Needs to be tightened. The straps are a little bit of a problem. I can't see what I'm doing. But I'll figure it out. I've got time. I've got plenty of time. I've got all the time in the world.

I'll figure it out. Eventually. It's a little loose and that's okay, I've got more important things than armor that'll fly off in the first two good strikes. Still need to find a way up.

While I'm running through hallways and stairwells, well I might as well think about danger. The guards- the royal guards. The name makes Us shudder. Puts a strange pep in my step.

Soldiers are soldiers, dime a dozen. But what with the focus on Twilight Sparkle? Who is that? Never heard of them. Rings zero bells. Not a single bell. What's a Twilight Sparkle?

What did that note say again? If you're reading this. We've found you. And I'm bringing the princesses back. She must be important to know where they are and how to get them back. Or maybe she's important enough that she's worth bluffing with. If you can't tell, it's not a bluff.

And I'm wondering why I was told to stay put and hide. It's not like I'm either of the princesses, so what makes me valuable? Either she's afraid I'll be captured, which is solvable. Or she's afraid ill...

Die.

Die. She's afraid I'll die.

And I'm afraid I'll die too. I'm afraid I'll die. I don't want to die I want to live forever but I don't want to live forever but I don't want them to die either and I don't want to go away there's nothing there when you-

-calm down.

Calm.

Calm down.

Just keep moving. They'll be here before too long. Just keep moving. Just keep moving. Just keep moving.

It's not too far. I'm not far from the surface. I can feel it in the air. It's not far. I can smell it in the air. I can feel it in my hooves. I don't know why I can feel it, it's like I just had a warm shower and I can still feel the steam. I've just been through a sauna and the air feels cool. The air feels crisp. The air feels fresh.

The air just feels good. And someone's telling me we're almost there.

I think I've reached a crossroads. It's a big cavernous location with dozens of holes in every surface- tunnels like arteries and this is the heart. The nexus of many, many other places in the hive.

And the only ways were to go up, go up and choose a new life. Or go back down.

Either way is selfish. But that's- that's not right. Why would it be selfish to choose something for myself? Im finally free! Free to know!

And free to catch my breath. I know there's got to be a way to maneuver these tunnels right? Maybe some writing or markings they can see. Unless they rely on perfect memory- in which case im out of luck.

I need to objectivize thngs. All I really know is-

THIS IS NOT YOUR HOME.

YOU CAN NOT STAY HERE.

I can't stick around in one spot for very long. Maybe If I get caught I can act stupid. That's a good strategy.

I can see a tunnel directly upward. It goes inward maybe a few paces and then has a sharp turn somewhere, making it looks like it leads nowhere, but there's something off about the shadows that makes it stand out if you look at it right. Maybe that'll take me higher.

...But it's too high up. I don't know how to use these wings completely. I did try. But that was... not great.

Deep breath. Relax. Let's think this through. How do I get up there? How do I get up there? How do I get up there? Maybe I could use magic. But what kind of magic? Levitate myself? Can I do that? Is that possible? But that's what we do with our wings.

Hm.

No better time to try something like that. The imagination of power flowing through you, squeezing your eyes shut to feign focus on something you don't really have a clue to operate. Blindly grabbing at any concepts you can.

And then, as I felt something trickle up my horns, I felt a great static in the air and the smell- the strange smell. Of dust after rain. Ozone. Petrichor. Thick and pungent- my eyes snapped open in time to barely register a faint electric dance in the air as purple light arced and played.

And then. The snap. A great popping sound, a displacement of air as something came into being. A shockwave of force, a pressure in my ears and a great burst of hot air. A figure fell from nowhere. It fell, and it fell, and it landed with a thump.

There was a sound from it. A groaning. It didn't sound happy.

Naturally, i hid wherever i could. Behind an arch of the tunnel to be specific.

Alyosha was certain the creature was real. He was not certain, however, that it wasn't dangerous. There was a faint rustling sound from the creature, and a low, soft moan. The creature slowly rose, its head turning from side to side as it surveyed the area. A purple thing. A purple equine. A mare. With wings. And a horn. Alicorn, as the brief description of Twilight Sparkle that Chrysalis had given formed in his mind.

This was Twilight Sparkle. This was Twilight Sparkle. The Element of Magic. This was her. The creature that had defeated Chrysalis in her last invasion of Canterlot.

Something disgustingly traitorous bloomed in my heart. Some sort of pride I couldn't place. I know I didn't make it.

What to do now? That's Twilight Sparkle. She's here. She's here to free the princesses. Should I stay hidden? Should I approach? Should I attack?

I felt my body move, and I was not the one to move it.

The mare in question stood with her back to me. Her wings were folded at her sides and her head was lowered, her eyes scanning the area. She was tall, and her body was lean and muscular. Her hair was a dark violet, and her mane and tail were a mixture of violet and lavender and her cutie mark was a purple star. Many stars.

Intent. Those eyes had a goal.

I'm so screwed. I can't possibly bargain with her to a ticket to the surface. It's a loss no matter what. Either I help her and deal with Chrysalis, or I fight her- lose, and deal with the fallout of that.

My heart aches.

I need to choose the winning side here.

Stupidly I step out of cover. My red hair does nothing to blend into the natural stone around us, but she was just too engrossed in her surroundings. She was searching for something, and she didn't even notice me.

She was distracted. That's my chance. If I'm fast, I can take her by surprise. I can take her out of the fight. I can stop this before it begins. She'll never see it coming.

And then I can run away, and I'll never have to deal with this again.

but my only spell will- could kill her. I don't have anything against her to want to kill her. Need to throw her. Fill the horn with intent to not hurt her.

Throw. Launch. Hit. Strike. To concuss. To frighten..

To Stupify!

My horn lit up. And the spell shot out. A bright spiraling stream of yellow light. A spell of pure force and light. A spell of magic.

It struck her square in the chest, and the force of the impact knocked her off her hooves, and sent her tumbling across the room.

She got to her hooves, and turned to face me, her eyes narrowed in anger.

Ah. Poop.

I'm so fucked.

"YOU!" She screamed, her voice echoing in the chamber. Clearly, now is the best to get help. There's only one technique to pull off here when outclassed.

RUN AWAY!

My hooves clatter against the ground as I run, feeling like punches to the ground. I can hear her hooves behind me, and I can feel her breath on my neck. I can feel her rage.

I can't outrun her. I can't outrun her. She's faster than me. She's stronger than me. She's smarter than me. She's more powerful than me.

"CHRYALIS! HELP!" I scream, my voice echoing in the chamber. I can hear the sound of wings, and I can hear the sound of a horn. I can feel her magic, and I can feel her anger.

She's going to kill me.

I've made it to the stairs. Spiral staircase. Rampcase. Tired. Not much to maneuver. I wish I could use my wings. They feel so heavy. They're in the way.

"STOP RUNNING!" She screamed, her voice echoing in the chamber. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE!" She screamed, her voice echoing in the chamber.

"I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU! I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU!"

I'm not going to let you hurt me. I think, as I continue to run. It's just noise, so much noise around me. Anything that isn't another route to run away gets tuned out. Except that cacophony of hooves getting closer, and closer.

"Away!" I yell, throwing my head around as a bolt of magic launched from my horn. I feel colder now. Like a pit in my stomach. Like something inside me is gone.

And I'm not looking back, but I'm hoping that bought me a little more time. But then I feel the wave- the pressure in my ear that's building, and the strange sensation in the air is rising again. A great static in my mane. And then, she teleported in front of me, a great shockwave of light forcing me to stumble as I scramble to turn around. I screamed, of course. Because why wouldn't I? This isn't fun, and this isn't what I signed up for when Chrysalis gave me the new life spiel. But if I just-.

A flash of purple. Her horn glowed with that purple aura, and my whole body went rigid, the hairs standing up on my neck. Paralysis? Fear. Fear. Terror.

She walked forward, her hooves clicking against the floor. My vision began to spin, and my knees wanted to buckle. I fell to the floor, my body still locked up tight. The paralysis lasted maybe just ten seconds at best. An arbitary number made by assumption to give myself a morale bonus. But I still couldn't move. Couldn't move. Couldn't run.

Couldn't escape.

"Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't have you running off to bring in reinforcements." Twilight said, as her eyes scanned me. Her eyes were cold and calculating, and I could tell that she was trying to figure out what to do with me. She stepped towards me, and I tried to crawl away from her. Of course, not being able to move put a major dent in thar plan.

"What's your name?" She asked. Her voice was softer than it had been before. A little calmer.

She was speaking, and I couldn't reply. Not now. My mouth wasn't working properly, my lips felt numb. I don't even think it's a part of the spell- just my body reacting.

I give off a gurgle. Can't speak. Not now. Just need to rest. Just need to relax.

"Okay, you can't speak yet, I guess." She said, and I could hear the frustration in her voice. "I'm sorry, but you brought it on yourself. You can't just run off and get help. It's better for both of us if we do this calmly. No one else has to get hurt."

I think she's trying to comfort me. Probably doesn't help I attacked first.

"I'm not going to hurt you." She said, and I could tell that she meant it. At least she meant it in the moment, and that was enough to ease a lot of the panic.

I still can't respond. Can barely move. Maybe just- give me five seconds. I could see the wheels turning in her head.

She sighed, and closed her eyes for a moment. Face looked. Focused. Bothered. Glum. A grimace. A grimace?

She opened her eyes and stared at me with a frown. Something she doesn't like.

"You... You have two, no. Three. Three different magical signatures inside you. How is that even possible?"

Three?

"Who- what are you?" She asked, her voice more confused than accusatory.

A groan escapes. Something inside of me hurts. My heart. It hurts. It hurts. My heart. My mind. My body. I think the spell is beginning to wear off. Starting with the chest.

"Right. The stun spell is still in effect..." She seemed worried. Kept eyeing my hooves and my horn. Why would that worry her?

Answer. She doesn't have a way to stop me if I try to run. But why? She should be able to Magick something up right?

Unless. She can't. Unless she's running out of energy to keep slinging spells around.

"Your existence. It's running interference on my locator spells. All they point me to is you and I have it keyed to their signatures. Celestia's. Luna's." She explained, walking in front of me now.

I think I should have paid better attention to the things Chrysalis was saying. I certainly don't remember her mentioning anything that would cause that. Just.

Just a strange dream.

"But your own... It's almost nonexistent. You're some sort of blank, a strange void I don't have words to describe." She continued, her voice soft.

"Which makes no sense with what's in front of me. And your wings are like- just a solid block of magic. No, wait. Most of you is! If I were to scan you I could estimate that less than a third of everything I am seeing in front of me is-"

"Matter." I said, finally finding words to speak. Her rambling was helpful to distract me. It made me forget my own situation. I hated that I was following along here, but seeing as how at least one of my problems is solving itself I can at least give her my full attention and figure out why I am being called a blank.

"Ah. It seems like you can talk. Who are you?" She asked. The voice wasn't friendly. The tone was hard, accusatory.

"My name's... My name is..." Alyosha paused for a moment, trying to remember. My name is alyosha, is what I wanted to say, but that wasn't right. "You can call me, Angel."

Something felt like it clicked in my head. It made me feel good. Happy to say it. My real name.

No, the one who's speaking right now. I am not a real person. I don't exist. I'm a figment of your imagination, a memory, and a personality you're creating. You know this isn't you talking.

... But it sounds right.

"Hello, Angel." She said with a sigh. Not trust. She knows it's not a real name- but we'll accept it. This was more than she hoped to get. "Where are they, Angel?"

"You're looking for Celestia and Luna, correct?" I ask, finally having regained control of myself. I sit up, my limbs moving once more. I feel like. Water. I feel boneless. My muscles finally relaxed and put to proper use instead of imitating rigor mortis.

"I have no idea where they are." I deadpan.

She's incredulous, looking down at me in a state of utter confusion. Like I just grew a second head. "You don't?" She's clearly surprised.

"No."

"...Do you even know where you are right now?"

"Hive."

"Do you know where in the hive?"

"Not at all." I shrug, and that causes a scowl on her face.

"Hm. Scan spell. Hold still." She commands, and with her horn glowing she scans me. It's invasive, but there's nothing I could do. I can feel it. Something crawling, worming it's way around every crevice of my being, some strange combination of a hot rush and cold icy chill and some electric sensation in places I knew no name for. I had felt like for split second I was going to explode.

And then it all stops. The scanning spell is over.

I feel... Violated.

"What are you, Angel?" She asks, staring at me with a look of confusion. "What did Chrysalis do?"

" ." I reply. It's a little easier to breathe. She didn't do anything. She's done nothing wrong. We do what we must, because we can. For the good of all of us.

Except the ones who are dead~

The jingle leaves my head as I blink in confusion.

"What? Repeat that, I didn't hear you."

I didn't hear me either. What the heck was that? I don't even remember thinking it.

She was supposed to be my savior.

"I don't know. I don't know anything." I say. I think I feel something in my rear-hind legs. Maybe I can run in the next few turns of conversation.

"Okay, so." She sits on the ground, and her horn glows. The aura spreads to a few rocks and dust motes. They float in the air in front of us, forming a three dimensional map. "The hive. This is us. You are in the center. I have been trying to teleport to Celestia, but it always goes wrong. It sends me somewhere in this direction, and I end up in the same chamber every single time. It's like... Your very presence is like an anchor."

"I am running out of time. I've got Shining and his guards working to buy me time while I'm down here. For whatever reason, a direct teleport to her will send me to you. A direct teleport to Luna, sends me to you."

She looks me in the eyes. There's no malice, no hatred. Just a sense of purpose. "I'm not sure if you're a part of Chrysalis's plans, but I'm not going to let her keep the sisters of the sun and moon in her hive." Her face scrunches up. She looks like she wants to vomit. "She's doing something to them, I know it."

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be bait for my spells."

And I can feel my hooves again.

I think. I think to move and run away and force these tired bones to take me as far as they can. But I stop. I hesitate. There's a flare of pride. A great big solar flare of warmth from somewhere in my mind.

Twilight, We're here! We're in-

Drown. To the sea. To the depths of the sea with you. Go down. Go very very down. Down to the vents where the light does not shine. Where the salt pools in lakes of brine.

In real-space, outside of our mind-brain, we have a brief muscle twitch. A flinch. Nothing more. Twilight's face twists into something else. A frown of pity.

"I'm sorry, I know that was a lot to ask for. I'll get you out of this, I promise." And then her eyes open wide in a strange realization. "How long have you even been alive? Are you some sort of changeling experiment?"

"No!" I cry. That hurts. That's wrong. I'm not some sort of freak, some sort of science experiment. I'm not a changeling. I'm not a changeling.

"You have to be. Three signatures. Barely even organic- scholars would classify you closer to a golem! Three layers of magic, and you exist, torn from Chrysalis' body right after the disappearance of the princesses. I don't know what she was planning, or how you came about- or how long ago you even were born. But you have to understand, there's only two reasons you'd ever exist in that time frame. You were intended as a distraction for us. Or you're a product of the invasion. The prison cell."

"Are you in there?" She asked, leaning closer. Her eyes searching me for any hint that her words are getting through.

I can feel the fear building up. That's wrong. I'm me. I'm my own person. I'm not letting you go you stay down leave me alone!

And the fear becomes anger. It's like a wildfire. Burning hot. I can feel it. My face is hot, my eyes are watering up. "Stop it." I hiss.

"But if I can reach them. I can save you. If you were forced to do this-" She began to speak before a great pressure filled my head. Something building and building. Like steam in a kettle.

"STOP IT!" And that pressure popped. Like a bubble, a shockwave of sound escaped, and she fell on her rear, blinking in surprise and covering her ears with her hooves. Recognition flashes in both of us. And horror, in a third observing power.

The Canterlot Voice.

It was the Canterlot Voice, but it was also my voice. It wasn't some copy. It was the same exact pitch. The same timbre. It was a perfect replica. But it's not possible. There is no magic that can copy the Royal Canterlot Voice.

I stagger and force my way back to my hooves. It would feel more dramatic if i weren't so pathetically weak. So much for being a new person. So much for being my own self. But at the very least I can be honest about what I want. I want to live.

"Please let me live. I don't want to die." I whimper.

I don't fully believe any of us can walk away from this. Prisons exist to house the evil and the wicked. More importantly, they only exist as containers.

If the prison is useless, what happens to it? Where does a prison go with no prisoners?

Her magic. Touching it makes me feel like I'll burst. I'm at capacity. Any more of her poking and prodding will kill me. I can feel it. I can fear it.

And I think. I think she knows that. She knows she can't use any more spells. She doesn't have anything non-lethal left.

We've backed each other in a corner.

"Okay." She finally says. It takes a while. There's a great big pause and she's thinking of what to say next. "Listen. If you're a prison, you can't just stay that way forever. You have two beings of monumental power inside you, you can't possibly expect to be able to contain all that power for very long." She says.

"Prison." I spit the word. "What do you even mean?"

"Chrysalis, Celestia and Luna." Twilight says. "I think I'm starting to see the whole picture. Chrysalis knows she can't possibly defeat the sun and moon, but if she could trap them. If she could somehow separate them from their power. Then, she could win."

"The missing phoenix. Philomena. They claim phoenix tears could revive the recently deceased and feathers could revitalize the ailing. They're creatures that are contemporarily linked to the concept of life itself. She put together a ritual with herself, the phoenix and the princesses together in the throne room and the product is-

You." She says, pointing at me. "The princesses, and their power are contained in your being. The ritual took Chrysalis' own form and recreated a vessel in the shape of her. But it has to have been rushed. You'll break under your own pressure. My magic detects several hundreds more unique signatures inside you. It's like you have a whole lineage of thaumic history inside you. If you don't let them out soon, you're going to die."

I don't know what's going on anymore. I'm scared, I'm afraid, I'm tired.

"Let me help you." She says.

I want to believe her. But I don't know what she means by that. I don't even know if I want her help. I don't want to help her. I don't want to help Celestia and Luna escape either. They deserve this.

I can still hear it. The Sun. In my mind. I want it to drown. Please, please just die and become part of me. I want to hate you, I want to kill you and snuff you out- WHY CANT I HATE YOU!?!

But then. She moves. And she's coming towards me. I flinch and fall backwards. She reaches out to me.

I don't know if she wants to save me. She's looking at me like I'm a bomb that needs defusing. She's going to try and pull something out of me, but I know I'm not strong enough. I know that's going to kill us. I know that I don't have a choice. We're not getting out of here.

"Stop!" I scream. "Stay away from me! I don't know if you're lying, or telling the truth. I don't know what you want! But I know you're wrong! I don't need to be fixed!"

Force. Fus. Press. Throw. Throw her far away. With a motion. Throw. Row. Ro. A motion unrelenting. With even more force. Force, unrelenting, force.

The Voice is pushed to its limits. To my limits, as it forces the chords of a violin to play the sonorous war cry of a drum. The air shakes and cracks as Twilight flies away. Tumbling. Crashing and smashing against the ground. The stairs, the walls and ceiling, all cracked and chipped away at. The room shakes and shudders, dust falls from the roof, and I feel so, so very cold. So very cold and empty. My throat feels ragged and torn. I'm bleeding somewhere, I know it.

She lays on the ground, her wings bent and crooked, and she coughs and sputters and she's covered in dust. I have no knowledge of if she has been gravely wounded internally or not. A commanding voice in my head says she is still a threat. An empathetic voice says to have mercy.

Logic says we must focus on our injuries. The deepening gnawing hunger and the warmth running down our throat and the subtle taste of metal blooming in our mouth.

I don't care what they say, we need to move. I can barely breathe. But we need to move. We need to get out of here. I don't have anything to keep us safe. We can't defend ourselves if she recovers, and she will recover.

And so, I ran. I staggered to my hooves and I tried to make my way out of here, and away from her. But it's hard. I can't breathe, I can barely move. And there's something wrong. I can feel it. Dread.

I'm on the stairwell. I'm not running, just stumbling my way down. One hoof at a time, trying to stay balanced, but I feel so heavy. So tired.

And I can hear her groans of pain and agony from down below me.

i think im shutting down.

there's blood in my mouth.

My knees hurt. They hurt. Why?

Oh. I'm kneeling.

I can feel something. It's a pressure in my head, it's a pain in my chest. It hurts. It's like a thousand tiny knives, stabbing and twisting and pulling. I've pushed myself to my limit, and im giving out here and now.

I'm scared.

And it all becomes clear.

Changelings need love. We, are a changeling. We were brought to learn how to feed when Chrysalis brought us down under the hive.

We haven't fed on love.

It's why I'm so hungry. So drained after everything.

You. Idiot. We never. Thought. Of that. We're. Going. To. Starve.

I need to catch my breath. I'm on my knees, but my legs are failing me.

My legs give out and I fall to the floor. It feels like a great big pit of darkness is forming inside me. It's like a yawning pit of darkness, and I'm being dragged down. The cold ground is brief relief from growing agony. I've never starved to death before.

Mom please. Please help me. I don't want this. This isn't what I wanted. Please.

My body is growing numb. My heart feels like it's being squeezed.

Please. I beg, and then the pain becomes unbearable, and then the pain fades, and I'm left in a cold dark place. A place where there's no pain, and no suffering, and no hope, and no future.

A place where my stupid head connects with the stun spell and I'm paralyzed on the floor. I can't move.

Twilight is in the room. I can see her in front of me, she's still covered in dust. Her legs look broken and she's clearly exhausted but she's crawling to me, pulling herself up to her hooves. There's something in her eyes. Determination. Fear. Worry.

She's talking. Her mouth is moving, and she's talking, but I can't hear her.

My hearing is shot.

There's a great buzzing in the air. A hum and a drone that fills the air, like the sound of a thousand buzzing wings.

Chrysalis is here.

I can hear it. The beating of wings. A swarm, descending. They're coming. The sound is deafening.

But Twilight is faster. In the time it takes to register the glow of her horn and her tightly shut eyes, the world goes white.

Author's Note

discord did a thing yell at me

Imprisonment was all that he earned

The world is dark and quiet. I can feel a faint tugging, and it feels like the entire world is spinning. Like I'm in the eye of a hurricane. It all eventually just stops though. I can make out the details of the world as the spinning slows down.

Stone bricks. Iron bars. Cold floors. One word. Dungeon. We're in a dungeon. There's no one here. We're alone.

This is wrong.

I should have died there.

But I didn't. And now I'm in a prison. And I'm alone.

And then I hear footsteps. Hoof steps. They're soft, and slow. I think someone is coming.

Twilight appears, and she looks like a wreck. She's bruised. She's tired, her eye's sunken with crow feet. And she looks at me. I'm in a cage. She's outside. She's the warden.

"Why didn't you kill me?" I ask. My voice is weak. My body is weak. My soul is weak.

She sighs and slumps down to the ground, her body slumped and limp. Her eyes are tired, but her face shows concern. She speaks, and I can barely make out the words.

"I'm not sure why you think I want to kill you. I think I can trust you, and I think that's why we're still here." She sighs, her voice heavy "But I know that Chrysalis is going to be looking for you. So I need you to stay here for a little while, just until I can get Celestia and Luna back."

There's a lull in the 'conversation'.

"...Do you think you'll regret it?" I ask. I'm not sure if she'll understand. But she's the smart one. I hope she can figure it out. She's supposed to be the good guy.

"I'm not sure." She sighs. Her face shows a flash of sadness, and she looks down, away from me.

I think she knows what I mean. We sit in silence for a few seconds, her head in her hooves, and my body aching from starvation and exhaustion. Eventually she gets back up.

I can hear her whispering. I can barely hear it. "You should probably sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

She turns around to walk away.

"Twilight." She pauses, turning around, listening. She's not leaving. Not just yet. She's waiting for me. "...Thank you for saving me. I'm sorry I tried to kill you." I say.

"I know. And I'm sorry too. But we have to stop her." Twilight said. Her voice was tired, and she didn't look happy.

"I'll see you later." She says. And then she walks away, her hoofsteps echoing away in the dark.

And I am left in the cold.

I don't want to think about the cold, or the dark, or the hunger. It's become a nuisance. A very painful nuisance. But it's still there. I can feel it gnawing at my bones. It's all a burden that weighs me down, and it's only going to get worse.

Just to add to that, I can actually feel my stomach. Not just that hollow feeling I have from a lack of love- but actual, physical hunger.

I wish it went away. Aside from that, I wonder what would have happened if I'd stayed. Just sat there. Did what Chrysalis said. I'd have been safe, and sound. Maybe a little bored, but safe and sound. Twilight might have never found me, and Chrysalis might have been content with whatever she's done to Celestia and Luna. But I ran.

I ran because I thought that was what I wanted. But then Twilight showed up, and she's here to rescue them. And now I'm stuck in a cell.

and i really wish i chose better.

more importantly, i wish i wasn't so hungry.

"I wish I had a doughtnut." I whisper. There's a faint glow, and it appears. A doughtnut, floating in mid air. A delicious looking doughnut, just begging to be eaten. It has a hole, and it's covered in sugar. The icing is a bright, beautiful pink, and the glazing is perfect and smooth. Impossibly perfect. Devilishly so.

"Did some magic based lifeform just say..."

My ears twitch, the faint sound of someone speaking reaches them. I don't recognize that voice.

"... Doughnut?" The voice is. Scratchy. Male. Not quite irritating. But could get there.

"No, I said 'donut'" I correct, before taking the donut into my hooves and staring at it.

"Did he just correct me? No one has ever corrected me." The voice sounds surprised, and annoyed. A bit taken aback by the correction, and not liking the implication of being wrong. A random sheaf of papers is stuffed into my face as the voice loudly proclaims- "You clearly stated here, doughtnut. Not donut, nor doughnut. Dought. Nut. Which, I could have easily given if I weren't feeling so nice today to someone in this predicament."

I stare at the floating sheet of papers in my hooves, and I blink at the floating donut before my head whips to look around in the cell for the source of the voice.

Nothing.

"Up here." It calls. I look up.

"Hi there."

I blink. And then I blink again.

There, in my cell, floating in mid air is a pink frosted doughnut. With sprinkles and the words 'Hi I'm Discord! Nice to meet me!' written on it in pink icing. A slightly redder shade of pink.

"See, it's actually called Dutch Yellow, but it's pink! A delightful salmon pink, if we want to get into specifics, but that's not the point. We, are Discord!" He said with a flourish. "Spirit Of Chaos, at your service!"

"...Discord." I mutter. The name feels wrong. A bad feeling.

"Now, your handsome guardian angel here has arrived to save the day after you've soft-locked yourself into this here mess." The voice said with a chuckle, as if the situation was funny.

"And what situation would that be?" I ask, my voice heavy. It's hard to think. The hunger is distracting. I want to eat something.

"Well, you've gotten yourself locked in a prison, for starters." I really wish the spirit of chaos wasn't a donut. "And the next three dialogue choices from here on out railroad you into a bad end purely for you, with a hidden fourth one immediately drowning Equestria in eternal pandemonium-"

The words just melt away.

I. Really. Want. A. Donut.

"-Hello? Discord to Angel. Discord to Angel here~ you still there? Did your server crash? What's with the hungry look? Are you even paying attention to me?"

"I want a donut. A real donut."

"Oh. Well. Uh... I guess that means it's working." It mumbles. "Well, alright, you're not supposed to know the name of the game but-"

"Wait. I still look like a donut dont I? Whoops! Technical Difficulties! Give us a moment, we're working through a slight malfunction." It says, as it floats to the ground and shatters, a cloud of dust and crumbs exploding in the cell. It takes a few seconds, before the donut rises from the cloud of crumbs, only now- "Huzzah! It is me! The one, the only- Discord!" It said, the voice matching the visage.

In the donuts place was now an amalgamation of various animal parts. A grey coat of fur, with-

"We're Discord. No need to narrate us, we're already well known. Here. Have a real donut."

The creature's hands glowed a bright red and pink, a doughnut appearing in his hand, and a few other various items, ranging from an anchor, a snake, a rubber ducky, and some other various items. The anchor was placed down with a heavy thump, as it handed me the donut.

"Take it. Come on." He urged, the snake wrapping itself around my neck.

I slowly reached out for the doughnut and took it in my mouth. It was soft, and warm. It tasted sweet, and the icing was a delightful, delightful flavor. A strawberry flavor. I wasn't too fond of the chocolate... undertones. But it was food, and it was sugar! Sugar! I can feel my brain lighting up! A bit of energy! Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!

It wasn't love. It wasn't anything remotely similar. But it was a start.

"So. Now that you've gotten that out of the way." He says. His eyes squint, and I can feel him probing my mind. Something, something important. I didn't want to think about it. So, of course he does.

"Alright. So, you're a changeling, and your brain is a soup." He states. It's matter-of-factly. It's not a judgement, or a comment on my character, just a fact.

"So. Big thing is, you've got two beings inside your mind right now, each of which has some degree of control over your body, and all three of you have no clue what's going on. One of them, you've managed to shove into the basement, but you can still hear it screaming from downstairs." The spirit of chaos explained. His tone was casual, and he didn't seem bothered by my predicament. "The other two, well. You've managed to get the two to the point of being a couple. Which, if we want to look at this optimistically is actually a pretty great idea. It means you and the ol' moon-butt won't be fighting for control. But you also have a big chunk of your head dedicated to just keeping her happy and stimulated. That's resource heavy kiddo!"

"-by the way, the third game in the series is a good one. But I think it's a little on the nose with where it'll be going isn't it?" The spirit of chaos said, with a shrug. It was like a joke, but there was no humor in his voice.

"...Game?" I ask. It felt like the right word to focus on.

"Oh! Yeah! You've played it. A game. Wacky woohoo pizza man?" With a snap of his fingers, his body is graced with a red leather jacket and black pants. There's something that flashes some recognition in me though. A sword. A sword I can at best describe as really, really cool.

All metal, shiny gunmetal. With bones as the guard and skull and ribs as the crossguard, and a wickedly spikey pommel.

The Rebellion. A name pops in our head, and the spirit of chaos is now holding the weapon in his hands, and a smile on his face as he twirls it and plays with it. He seems like he's enjoying himself, and the attention he's getting.

To be honest, I also want to be doing really cool spins and tricks with the sword too. I mean seriously. It's a cool sword.

"Yeah! That one. You played that one." He said, his voice a cheerful one.

I shake my head, trying to clear it of the sudden desire to wield that sword. No, no. No, no.

"No, I didn't play that game." I mumble with confusion.

Discord looks disappointed. "Starts with a 'D'? Featuring 'D' from the...?" He asks, trailing off in a vain attempt for me to finish his statement.

"Dante?" I answer, my brow furrowed. This was getting nowhere fast. I wanted to know what was going on. I didn't want to be stuck here, in this prison, talking about some game.

"Close, but not close enough!" He says with a laugh, then a sigh as the laugh dies down. "Seriously, you branch out with new material and the new guy can't even remember the references you're making."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "You're talking about something important aren't you? This is some sort of clue to figure out what's happening with me right?"

Discord shakes his head, and he's looking down at me with pity. "Foolishness, Dante. Foolishness."

...

"What, nothing?" Discord gawks. "Well, let it be said that Discord is anything but a liar, because you absolutely have soup for brains. So! Let's get back to the point!" He says, his voice taking on a chipper tone once again. "What's in your head. Your head is a soup of three different beings, all of which are warring for control over your body. You can't have one in control without the other two interfering, and you've managed to keep the two of them relatively calm by distracting them with each other. Which, by the way, congratulations!"

The spirit of chaos pauses, giving me time to take in the information. "And, well, if you think about it that's the only real way to keep them under wraps. But, well, you can't keep doing that forever. And the longer you go without feeding, the more they'll start to break out of the little box you've shoved them in. Luna will start to regain her power and awareness, and you'll lose the only thing keeping her happy, and Celestia will start to get agitated. And eventually, one of them is going to take over, and then the other, and then you'll have two people fighting over a singular body. And then, well. We both know what happens when that happens."

"But wait, there's more! You also have an absurd number of extra, smaller others aside from Celestia, Luna and you of course. Which means you need to keep them all happy and content while you do whatever it is you're going to do next!" Discord says, a frown on his face as he takes a moment to think about something. "... I really should have told you about that bit before we got to this part. Well, too late now. That was probably a lot to take in, so how about a donut?"

I blink. Then, I shake my head. The donut in front of me has appeared once more, and Discord is smiling. "No, no. I'm good."

Discord shrugs, and snaps the doughnut out of existence. "Suit yourself."

I blink.

I'm sure I'll remember all of that.

"Good! Because we're moving on with the plot! So! Here's the thing, kiddo."

"Chrysalis needs to die."

His voice was firm. A statement, not a question. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and I believe him.

"Why?" I ask, trying to understand. Why does he want her dead? What did she do to him?

"Because if Chrysalis wins, the world ends. Simple as that."

I blink. "I don't understand."

"Okay. So, here's the timeline right now in your little roguelike. Chrysalis decides to go for round two against Canterlot, succeeds and uses Luna and Celestia to make you. Two weeks later, Twilight begs me for some help, I cave, you get captured and now we're all caught up. See? It's a pretty simple narrative to follow."

Discord snaps his fingers, and a board appears behind him. A timeline, with several points on it. "So, you're going to stay in your cell for a little bit, Twilight is going to get her ass kicked by Chrysalis, and then she's going to realize that she has no idea what she's doing and ask me for help again. Then, I'll send you to save her, and you'll all try to stop Chrysalis again, this time using a new method. And then, Celestia and Luna will be able to take over their bodies again and defeat Chrysalis. You'll be fine, Twilight will be fine. Everybody wins, happy ending! The End."

He pauses for a moment. "Of course, that's not how it's going to play out. But let's pretend like it will be." He says with a grin. "You're still going to be trapped here until you can figure out what to do with all the other little ones in your head, but trust me! We're on the same page here. You just need to keep the soup in your brain from boiling over while I find the right way to fix things."

"Wait, how long am I going to be in here?" I ask, my voice worried. I don't want to stay in a cage forever.

"Eh... Not very long." He said with a shrug. "Twilight doesn't know what she's doing. I'd give it a week before Chrysalis sieges Canterlot. She'll come back and get you then. Probably."

"Probably?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, probably." Discord said, as if that was a completely normal sentence.

"...Okay." I say, trying to process it all. "So. You apparently know what's supposed to logically come next, and none of what you said sounds like anything I really want to happen."

Discord nods. "Yep."

"...But you're not telling me what I should do."

"Nope."

"Why?" I ask. I don't understand.

"Because there's no point in telling you what you should do." Discord said, his voice a sigh. "You need to figure out what you want to do."

"But you don't want me to do what I want to do, do you?" I ask. There's something in my gut that tells me I'm right.

"Well, wheres the fun in telling someone else how to play the game? You're a new player, this is a fresh run, and you're going in blind. Now, new player aside, you're also really bad at this. I think this is your worst run yet." He says, his tone amused. "But that's the fun part! You learn as you go, and sometimes things end up working out anyway!"

"Okay. Well, what if I want a good ending?" I ask, hoping for some sort of hint. "Is that even possible?"

"Good question! Well, the answer is yes, but not for this particular run. At least, not yet. We need to work on that soup brain of yours, first." The spirit of chaos explained with a nod.

I sigh. I don't have any clue what he's talking about. I just want to know what's happening. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Simple. We need to add a new ingredient to the soup." Discord said, snapping his fingers. A chef's hat appeared on his head, and a giant bowl appeared in front of him. He looked down at it and sighed. "Unfortunately, you don't have enough ingredients for a new dish. You're going to have to settle for a different flavor profile."

"...I don't think I have a major in philosophy to help me understand what you're saying, Discord."

"See! Just like that, you're using all of those fancy words but you have no clue what they mean!" Discord said with a laugh. "You're just making it up as you go, and you don't even know it!"

He stops laughing, and snaps his fingers again. The empty bowl is just suddenly shifted an arbitary number of inches to the right as he leans forward. "To put it bluntly, your mind is made of two things. A blank slate, and a bunch of random leftovers from other ponies who were here before you. And since we're not really going to be doing any actual brain surgery today, I'm going to have to give you some of mine."

He reaches into the soup bowl and pulls out a chunk of meat. "Here. Eat this." He says, holding out the meat. "And while you're at it, stop thinking about your life in terms of what you've been told it's supposed to be."

I hesitantly reach out for the meat, and take it in my hoof. It feels like beef jerky. I look at it for a second, then back at Discord. "What?"

"You heard me. You're thinking in terms of what you've been told about yourself. It's time to start thinking about what you want to be." Discord explains. "Now, eat up. It'll do wonders for that soup brain of yours."

I bring the jerky up to my mouth and take a bite. It tastes... Pretty good, actually. I'm not sure what flavor it is, but it's good. I take a few more bites. "...So, what's this going to do for me? Is this supposed to help me come up with a plan to save us all?" I ask, before finishing off the last of the jerky.

"Probably. Maybe. You're the one who's supposed to do that. I'm just here to give you a few tips." Discord said with a shrug. "You've got a lot of work ahead of you, but I think you can manage it. And remember, don't focus on what you've been told, focus on what you want."

"Wait, so this was all just to teach me a lesson?" I asked incredulously.

Discord paused. "Yes. Well, no, not exactly."

"...Then why are you doing all this?" I asked, my voice a whisper.

"Because someone has to. And because I'm bored. I need some entertainment in my life!" He says with a grin.

I look down at my hooves. I feel so, very tired.

"Listen. You don't have to worry about this now. Just focus on getting better for now." Discord says.

He places a hand on my shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. "Chin up, champ. Everything's going to be alright."

"...Why can't you just fix everything? You're Discord, you're the spirit of chaos." I ask. I'm too tired to be angry. I'm too tired to be anything. I just want to rest.

Discord lets out a laugh. "That's not my job, kid. I'm just here to make sure things go right. This isn't my world. It's yours."

"So. Go on. Do what you want. Be whatever you want. But don't forget, you still have work to do." Discord says. His voice is sad. He sounds like he wants to say something else, but he doesn't. Instead, he disappears, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

...It was food for thought.

what a clever joke, im dying already.

But seriously, I hate being alone. I don't think I've ever really been alone like this. Not in a very long time.

The silence is deafening.

But I at least feel awake. Aware. Lucid and sentient and conscious and all other uselessly redundant terms one could say in place of the word "thinking".

There is not much in the cell, a bathroom- more accurate is the word a latrine, and a bed. A simple mattress suspended from the floor, and a single blanket. The only other feature is the bars. And the ceiling.

Maybe I could call for Discord? But if I do, what would I even talk about with him? What would I even ask him?

No, I'm supposed to think on my own. I have to think. I have to try to figure something out.

But what can I possibly think of?

What do I want to do?

What do I want to be?

I want to be, free. I think that's my main goal. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Uh... I know that's supposed to mean something but I don't know what, actually. Discord was probably right.

It's likely related to freedom?

Still, don't know how to get out. Though, here's another tangentially related thought- how do they stop prisoners from using magic? I don't exactly have anything on my horn that looks like it'll stop me from casting magic.

Unless there's some sort of dampening field around me?

I mean, there's nothing on my horn, and Discord is probably magical so if there was one wouldn't that hinder him a little?

And the walls don't look like they'd hold anything back. They're just stone bricks. Maybe something's embedded inside the mortar? But how would they get away with that?

There's probably some kind of enchantment that prevents magic from escaping this room. But that's assuming that there's anything blocking magic in the room.

Maybe that's why Discord didn't tell me about this. If he could cast spells then I'd probably be able to too, right?

...Okay, let's assume that this is true.

So I can cast magic. But I don't know if I can do anything useful. I can in fact, cut the bars. But also anything behind those walls, and frankly I still don't want to hurt anyone.

And I also don't want to attract attention. I'm not supposed to be out of this cell until Twilight comes to get me, and if I'm out of this cell, that's going to make things hard for her.

What else do I want?

Life? Already have it, though maybe not for long. Freedom? Has consequences, and I'd use it to sleep forever. Friendship? Tried. Died.

I do feel really... incomplete. Like I'm missing something important. Something that's supposed to make me whole.

Love? I do need love. But I can't see myself getting any. I'm not exactly a nice person. And I doubt anyone would want to give love to a changeling. And it's not the same feeling as being hungry for love.

It's like reaching for something you know should be there, and it's not, and you can't even remember what was supposed to be there, only that there's something missing. Like when you know someone's been through your things, but you can't tell who.

It's maddening. I don't know what it is, but I know I need it.

Whole. Make. Us. Whole. We. Are. Not. Whole.

I don't like this feeling. I don't like this feeling at all. It's like someone took a part of me and hid it, and now I have to find it.

But I don't know what that means.

it's time to call for luigi.

"Discord!" I yell. "Discord, get over here! Discord!"

I shout and scream until I'm out of breath, and then I keep shouting. I shout until my voice is hoarse. I shout until I feel like my throat is bleeding. (Dehydration, as I'd figure out soon enough)

The only response I get is the sound of hooves rushing towards me, and the sight of a familiar purple unicorn appearing in front of my cell.

"What? What is it?" She asks, looking around with concern. "What's wrong?"

"...water." I wheeze.

She pauses, staring at me, before nodding and walking away, returning a moment later with a large pitcher of water. "Here." She says, her voice soft.

I reach through the bars and take the pitcher into my hooves, drinking greedily from it. I barely register that I've actually held something properly in my hooves- in regular unmodified hooves. It feels so natural to have a pitcher in my 'hands', and I feel a small sense of relief as the cold liquid passes over my lips, soothing my raw throat.

I drink for a moment, before placing the pitcher down and looking up at Twilight.

"Thank you." I say. My voice sounds like I just ate a few dozen nails.

Twilight nods. "No problem."

We sit in silence for a moment, neither of us wanting to speak.

"...How are you feeling?" Twilight asked after a while.

i plant my face onto the stone below. It is admittedly melodramatic, but I have no better idea of expression at this current time.

"Not well then." Twilight concludes.

I sigh and push myself up onto my hooves, and make my way over to the bars separating me from Twilight. I lean against them, letting my head rest against them, and closing my eyes. I feel tired, but not tired enough to sleep. Just tired. Tired and empty. So, so empty.

"...What happened? What did you do to yourself?" Twilight asked.

"Screamed." I say. It's a simple answer.

"I know that much, but why did you do that?"

I pause. I don't know how to explain this feeling to her. But something tells me I should keep my mouth shut.

Not in an aggressive way, I know, that's just how in voicing- thinking it. Shut up and get out of my head.

"...Bored." I lied. "...Lonely." That, was truthful. I miss people. I miss having people around. The voices were quiet, for once. It was a relief, but it was also a bit like stepping out of a steaming hot tub after spending hours in it. You're cold, and you're muscles are all weak and relaxed and your skin is pruned like no tommorow.

Twilight sighs. She's looking at me with pity in her eyes, and I think she believes me. I hope she does. "You know, I could always get you some books to read if you'd like. I'm sure there are some in the library that aren't being used right now." She offers. She seems sincere, but I can't really tell. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell if she was lying or not.

I think. I think I liked books. "...Sure." I say.

And then she left.

I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I know that it's better than nothing.

...

She came back with books.

A lot of books. A lot of different books. She came back with an entire cart of books. Not exactly a cart, but she did wheel in a small library. I estimate twenty to twenty four. It's probably an even number of books, they're all together snugly, not a single book leaning in any particular direction.

"How many books are there?" I ask.

"Thirty." She answers.

"Ah. Thank you."

"No problem." Twilight says, pushing the cart towards the bars. "I figured you'd want to read some things. I'm not sure what you'd like, but I've brought a little bit of everything."

"How much is nonfiction?" I ask, as I look over the books. I don't really recognize any of them. It's a bit hard to tell, but there are some that stand out more than others.

"The first five are nonfiction. They're about various topics, including magic, history, geography, and other things." Twilight says, pointing to a row of books on the cart.

"Thank you." I say again, and this time I mean it.

She shrugs. "It's no problem." She says. "I'm sorry I'm not very good company."

"No no, it's fine." I say, and I'm being honest. It's probably better that she isn't very good company. I'm not sure I could handle being around someone who's too friendly.

"Well, I should go." Twilight says, and she does.

"It's alright." I say. I'm not sure what else to say.

"I'll be back in a few hours to see how you're doing." Twilight says. "If you need anything, just shout."

"Okay." I say. I'm not going to shout. I'm surprised I didn't somehow tap into the voice last time shouting for Discord. Maybe it's intent based but I'd rather not drag my recovering throat through any more than it has already. I have no idea how I didn't completely destroy my voice.

Twilight walks away. She leaves the cart of books there, and I'm alone again.

I pick up the first book on the cart and start to read.

The next hour or so passes slowly.

You Are (Not) Allowed To Die

Blood stains the steps.

If there were ever a word to describe changeling anatomy, it would be stubborn.

Durable would be the second best word to describe a changeling body. Their three hearts could run off of just a few milliliters of their blood, continuing to try to beat steadily as the brain and body would continue to be active on what little oxygen they could receive from spiracles and diffusion- though fogged and numbed in a huge cocktail of natural preservatives. Cryptobiosis. That word was so unfamiliar to her, but it came to the front of her mind anyway. Changelings could survive being chronically starved, and hacked into pieces- so long as there was some of it left, chances are that it was alive.

The downside of course was the fragility and stubbornness of a changelings health. Once on the decline, it typically stayed as such unless outside help was given. Chitin did not mend itself without the use of adhesive, and a changelings ability to stay alive even in near death- only truly made for a longer, excruciating death. A longer death that she was so far appreciating.

Alyosha was a mess. Alive, but barely, even by changeling standards. Only lucid in a nightmare guaranteed to send him back to his first death no doubt. Chrysalis inspected what was previously her body quickly and efficiently. Her old and now hollow horn had been enough to pierce his delicate exoskeleton and straight into the left lung, collapsing the structure before scrambling the organ from his various impacts with hard objects and living projectiles. A large amount of head trauma was also put on top of it, along with a healthy dash of severe blood loss. His flight had tried to push too hard the little fluid he had, and as a result, knocked him down.

Not her fault in any way, of course. He was supposed to be the... Competent, one. But alas, now she had to pick up the pieces. She separated both her old shell and Alyosha's current body. Chrysalis appreciated the sentiment- but it was just that, feelings. Feelings that could wait for when they could both get out of this alive. The corpse would have to stay behind. It wasn't needed.

She had magic, not enough, but she could help. With a blast of her horn, a venom green flare shot up in a wicked streak before it erupted in the sky like a second sun, and attracted swathes of changelings in droves.

Neither of them would fall again this day.

In an instant, dozens of drones were upon them, and Chrysalis' ghost stepped aside to let the drones work. Healthcare in the hive was heavily reserved. Wounds were not uncommon, but heavily discouraged. Every injury would occupy not just yourself but the many needed to save you, but with so many hooves at work, even the crudest field treatment could suffice. She heard them chitter among themselves as they built off of their experience and prior work, working with each other to save them.

Green spit flew, and magic spells worked and glowed as the body was mended. Time would still be needed for their injuries, but with them in less of a critical state, they could now focus on the next step of the plan. It would have to be improvised.

"DRONES! FALL BACK! TAKE TREASURES IF YOU WANT, TAKE PONIES PRISONER, IT MATTERS NOT, WE ARE LEAVING!" Chrysalis' ghost commanded, and the clouds of drones began to organize, the ones that were already in the air were the first to begin their departure as they fled with the winds.

The last was a nightmarish scene to any on the ground who had avoided being picked up. Like a cloud of locusts, the ones on the ground and the ones that were simply close enough descended and grabbed anything they could. Ponies of all ages were simply bound and lifted away, the elderly being left behind. They were not worth the resources to maintain, and they held a much higher chance of dying on the trip back. What would have been a triumphant shout as the changelings were 'routed' turned into screams of terror, cries for help echoing across the sky as they were taken.

"You twelve. Assist me. Take as many others as you need and commandeer any remaining trains. Take us, -him" She paused to point to the Alyosha. "to Apploosa, and send out any others as a distraction. This one must survive. Your Queen demands it."

The snow-white changeling was airlifted, and with that part of the plan done, she could at least feign to rest easy for a second as the powerful magics harvested were clearly safe. They were doing their best to keep their new host alive, but it was unwilling, and if he died, so much planning would have gone to waste.

Chrysalis' tongue clicked, as she watched the streets become clear, either from being taken or going into hiding. The changeling swarm was not beaten back today, and for the first time a true victory had been achieved.

With a loud laugh, she ran through the empty and winding streets, and the silence that followed behind her rang out in Equestria. The horns of defeat. The carnage of the changeling swarm, the silence of a bustling city, as if drained of all of its life, its soul.

Suddenly, a sound caught her ear.

It was the faintest of whimpers… Someone was hiding from her. Childish squeals of terror from behind a broken in door. With a grin she let off another magical flare into the sky, and with the remaining changelings evacuating the city in waves, one would certainly come and scoop the foal up and take them away.

It would be an invaluable resource. Conditioned. Repurposed. Useful.

She had more important things to do than take them herself. So she walked, walked to the closest train station.

A train station, to Apploosa.