12 - 'Pillow' Talk and Homecoming
When Tone Shift left the hotel to go to the studio, Luster had yet to awaken. He decided not to wake her, leaving quietly so she could get in some likely still needed rest. When she did awake, he had been gone for almost two hours. She opened her eyes and let out a long, wary sigh. She had dreamt of the hive again… about her drones.
She slowly sat up and blinked the remaining sleep away from her eyelids before stepping into the bathroom to bathe herself. She didn’t normally shower or bathe; she didn’t normally need to. Changing her form often eliminated most of the grime or dirt on her body. Cleaning that way never really allowed her to relax or ease her mind, and she felt she could use something to clear her head and get her thoughts in order.
Still in her disguise as Wildwood Luster, Chrysalis turned on the warm water and then just stood there, letting it wash over her. She didn’t bother with shampoo or soap, opting instead to just let her mind wander.
The love in the air is so… thick… she thought to herself as she looked around. Sure enough, residue love energy hung in the air like a thick fog. She was somewhat glad that she could slightly adjust her vision on the fly to filter out the haze; usually useful when infiltrating someplace and needing to have absolutely no distractions.
Now, she basically needed to filter it out just to see in the bathroom. She grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut as the full weight of her situation hit her like a tsunami. “...No more.” Luster breathed quietly to herself as the water kept running over her, steam rising into the air. “I’ll return with him to Ponyville… but that’s where our paths must separate.”
With slow movements, she turned off the shower and stood. She didn’t move for the towels or anything, simply letting herself dry naturally while she got her plan worked out in her mind. Finally, when she was fully dry, she opened her eyes and left the bathroom, sitting down on her bed. She refocused her vision to see the love energy in the air before opening her mouth and pulling all of it in. It was incredibly dense and filling; more than enough to keep her going for a few days. She could find more in that time easily.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of being alone with her thoughts, she looked up to see Tone Shift return. He closed the door and pumped his forehoof in the air with a giddy ‘boo-yah!’
“Mission accomplished?” Luster asked curiously, slipping from the bed and looking at him more closely. He seemed quite energetic and happy.
“Yes ma’am! They’ve already written up my check and I have it in my saddlebags. A pretty substantial payoff this time, I must say! Should give me a nice buffer zone and cushion in case more work takes a while to find.” Tone said happily, doing a little ‘happy dance’ that earned an amused smirk from Luster.
“Do you know how stupid that dance looks?” She quipped with a playful hoof gesture.
“Do you know how much I care?” Tone shot back with a playful grin of his own.
“Not enough, clearly.” Luster was suddenly surrounded in green flames as she abruptly transformed into a perfect mimic of Tone Shift before doing the exact dance he had just done; except she kept it going so it’s ridiculousness could really sink in. She returned to being Luster and halted the dance when Tone hurled a rolled up cloth that was supposed to be in the bathroom at her face. She ducked.
“Hardy har.” Tone stuck his tongue out at her before quickly sucking it back in. “At any rate, I think now would be a good time to start getting our things together, checking out of the hotel and getting back to the train. Bills are in Ponyville and I’d like to get them dealt with before anything else.”
“When is the next train, anyway?” Luster asked, glancing towards the clock.
“In a little over an hour.” Tone replied, heading over to his belongings, which were casually deposited in their suit-case in one corner of the room and getting them more firmly placed inside the container. “If we start now, we should get there with time to spare.”
Luster nodded silently as he went about getting everything in order. Staring at the back of his head as he went about all of this, she felt a slight pang of guilt. She had given him no end of crap since they had met, and any and all jabs he had gotten at her were swiftly countered or rendered null by her own ruthlessness.
With a small nod to herself, green flames whipped around her again and she lost the horn, turning into an earth-pony variant of Luster. With a small smile trying to force down the frown she was wearing, she picked up one of the pillows on her bed and promptly used it to smack Tone Shift right on the butt. He let out a startle yip and looked at her to see a predatory gleam in her eye as she held the pillow in her teeth.
With a forehoof, she hefted up one of the other pillows and chucked it at him. He caught it and glanced at her in confusion. She took the pillow from her own mouth long enough to give him a challenging, open-mouthed smirk. “Even though I clearly won all of our other little tussles or jabs on this trip, I offer you the chance to win them all back.”
She set her pillow down, picked up the cloth he had thrown at her and then threw it onto the ground at his feet with a grin. “I challenge you to a duel. One on one, winner takes all.” She picked back up the pillow and got into a dodging stance. Tone glanced at the cloth before giving a smirk of his own.
“Did you just throw down the gauntlet with a washcloth?” he asked, doing a pretty good impersonation of Chrysalis while he was at it. Luster simply rolled her eyes before smiling wider as he picked up the pillow she had thrown him. “Very well, then, lady Luster. I accept your challenge. Just don’t think I’ll go easy on you because you’re a lady of high status.” His ‘medieval noble-pony’ voice was impeccable.
Chrysalis waggled her eyebrows. “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you because you’re a pony.”
“Touche.”
And with that, they lunged at each other. It was an epic struggle of wits and cunning, strength and reflexes, speed and determination, as well as just seeing how out-of-control they both allowed the other to get. Neither seemed to have any limit, though. Luster, for her part, seemed more than happy to stay as an earth pony to let Tone actually have a chance in this little struggle of theirs.
Finally, in a bold move, she shot forward, using her pillow almost as a shield ad tackled Tone in the belly, as he had been rearing back to use all of his body weight to crash the pillow in his hooves onto her head. Tone let out a loud ‘oomph’ as Luster ploughed into his gut and set him sprawling onto his back on the bed, Luster now looming over him with her own pillow reared over her head with one hoof, while the other rested on his chest.
“Do you yield?” She asked sharply, applying some pressure with her hoof and tensing up as though she were about to smack him with the pillow again. When she got no answer, she focused on his face and went still and silent.
He was looking at her as though in awe. His eyes had widened somewhat and a slight pink tint had come to his cheeks. His mouth was slightly agape as well. The two stayed motionless for several seconds. Tone noticed how on hi her attention was and, while maintaining his transfixed expression, managed to subtly grab the spare pillow on the bed and slam it into the side of Luster’s face.
Combining the force of the blow with his own body weight and momentum, he swiftly turned the tables with Luster pinned beneath him and, a victorious grin on his face as he swat away her pillow and kept her down. “Do you yield?” he asked, somewhat short of breath after the exertion. Luster looked up at him before smiling softly, a faint shimmer coming to her eyes. It left as quickly as it had appeared.
“Yes. I yield. You have bested me quite expertly, sir.” The two relaxed as the end of their battle was concluded. Tone dropped his pillow and looked down at Luster with a tender, gentle gaze.
He swallowed hard before Luster noticed the tint returning to his cheeks. She looked at his eyes and, by how rapidly they were shifting in very subtle ways, she had a good idea of what he was about to try. “Um… Luster, I-”
“Totally forgot what time it was?” Luster interrupted, putting a hoof on his face and turning his head to look at the clock.
“Oh, buck me...” He groaned before getting off of her and running for his suitcase.
“I could say so much to that, but, well, it would just be too easy.” Luster said as she turned back into a unicorn and slid off of the bed.
“Hush, you!”
As Tone Shift went about getting everything ready, Luster refocused her vision to see the pink haze in the room. With a sorrowful expression coming over her, she began to pull in and eat the energy, making sure to savor it on it’s way in.
* * * * * * *
It was the middle of the afternoon the next day when they finally arrived in Ponyville. Tone Shift saw to it that they got the luggage back to his house before he went galloping off to get his bills finally paid off, leaving Luster in his house to look around. A few of the books he had borrowed for her still rested on the couch. She had finished reading them already. Any she hadn’t finished were ones she simply wouldn’t.
She took a moment to breathe, calm and ready herself. This was going to be so hard for her… for both of them, but she had no choice.
She jumped in surprise somewhat when Tone closed the door behind him on his return, the sound knocking Luster from her thoughts. His saddlebags were jingling quite nicely with the sounds of plenty of bits. “Alright! Now I can relax a bit.” he said happily, setting down the bits and heading for the couch. “Hey, Chrysalis, do you want to-”
“Tone Shift.” She said suddenly, interrupting him. The way it came out immediately caught his attention. Luster was looking down at the ground, ears flat against her head. “There’s… something I have to tell you.”
The raw emotion, no matter how well she controlled it, was plainly evident in her voice. She slowly looked up, her disguise peeling away to reveal the chitin-clad Queen Chrysalis once more. Her eyes looked into Tone’s, immediately pulling him in.
“Is something wrong?” Tone Shift asked carefully, stepping forward and resting a hoof on her shoulder. She seemed to lean into the touch, relaxing somewhat.
“I… Tone Shift, you… not only did you save my life twice, but you took me into your home and… you have shown me more acceptance than anything, pony or otherwise, I have ever met. After everything that I’ve been through, everything I’ve done… you gave me someplace I feel like I can call home.
“But I haven’t said what I need to say… you’ve done more for me than anyone I have ever met, and you didn’t even ask for much, if anything, in return… you helped me because you wanted to…” Chrysalis closed her eyes and sat on her haunches, bringing her more to his eye level. “I can never, ever, in my entire life hope to repay that…”
“You don’t have to repay anything.” Tone whispered, giving her shoulder a comforting pat. “Like you said, I did this because I want to help you. If I succeed, that will be reward enough for me.”
Chrysalis choked down a sob as he said this before leaning past him and drawing him into a tight hug, squeezing him so close that he could feel how horribly she was starting to tremble.
Chrysalis sniffled. “Th-thank you… thank you so much. Thank you for saving me, for giving me a home… thank you for everything…”
Tone’s eyes suddenly widened as a green flash erupted from Chrysalis’ horn, a haze coming over his vision. Tone could feel his limbs and body going weak and his eyes closing on their own. Sleep reached for him almost instantly, dragging him swiftly away from the waking world. “Chrysalis… what’s… happening?” he mumbled, losing strength before, finally, falling into a silent, dreamless sleep.
Chrysalis clutched at his unconscious body, still as a statue save for the uncontrollable shakes rattling her system. “I’m so… so sorry…” she uttered in barely even a whisper. She sobbed again before letting out a long, miserable cry of regret. She pulled him tighter, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I would ask you to forgive me… but you can’t forgive what you don’t remember…”
Hey, so, things are happening on my end and I may be able to use my old laptop again soon-ish! Hard to say, though. For anyone who doesn't know, my main laptop kinda became ded a few days back. We're seeing if it can be fixed and will probably know for sure on Monday. Until then, updates will be slower than usual.
But, either way, plot twist! 
Sad, sad plot twist... 
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why you do this?
8051124 *points at the sad tag* cause it is a sad story?
8051316 I don't think I am... think I'm trying to make sure there is a lot of cuteness so that the stories more emotional and dramatic moments break my readers even more than they would otherwise.
Chryssie, you're making a mistake.
hey wait a second...
8051124 We know Luna can patch the memory back up to some degree. Hopefully they get back together in the end, since it's tagged with sad but not tragedy.
8051348 Maybe, maybe not. I am a sadistic little shit, so who knows... I might just throw in a tragedy at the end of a story and update the tag at the same time just to be an asshole to my readers!
68.media.tumblr.com/9bf2ba5b83f9ba581c2703e8a38ab1d2/tumblr_o0jz558kp81ucfwmno1_500.gif
...
Nah, I'm just f*cking with you. XD I'm evil, but not that evil.
Yet.
EDIT: Is it bad that I was ACTUALLY, Legitimately tempted to follow through with this idea?
I will keep my comment short so I am not tempted to give out a possible spoiler.
this is a vary good chapter and I love the cliffhanger.
I see one way this can work out and at the same time give a hole hew story ark but as stated I am stopping hear...
Nuuuuuuu, don't do that, Chryssie!
Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Chryssi, you fool!
I wonder how much of a person's voice and skill with vocals has to do with the tongue. I mean, Shifty is apparently very good with his vocals.....
8083957
oh, you made me think of a line in that online comic Freefall: one of the main characters is a genetically-engineered wolf, and there's a scene where she tells how her owner/brother studied Ventriloquism to help her learn to talk better..."YOU try saying "peter piper" without any lips!"
But again, the heart knows...
on him
Nooooooo D:
Most people would be upset at this plot twist.
I am not most people. In fact, I am rather delighted that the author was brave enough to add this element to the story, and am eagerly looking forward to seeing how this dilemma might be solved.