When Tone returned, he was dripping wet and looking mildly disgruntled, but otherwise seemed to be in a good mood. Luster glanced up at him as he stepped into the bathroom, shook himself wildly to get rid of excess water and then stepped back out. She gave an amused snicker as he was revealed to be somewhat fluffier looking than usual. “Do you always go out like that, or is this a special occasion?” she playfully asked him.
“Does rainy as heck count as special?” Tone shot back, earning a shrug from the disguised queen. “Ugh… at any rate, I’m going to need to get some early sleep, just so you know. Recording starts pretty early and there’s a pretty tight deadline for all the needed audio.”
“How does this recording thing of yours even work?” Luster asked, genuinely curious and tilting her head to emphasize.
“I thought you knew?”
“I know it involves talking into a mick, but such information wasn’t ever relevant during my previous endeavors.” she replied with a nonchalant roll of her hoof.
“It’s called a microphone, not a mick. We call them mics for short, but still. Get the pronunciation right.” Tone corrected her with a frown on his face.
“Whatever.”
“As for how it works, what you just described is more or less the extent of what my part consists of. I have a script in front of me a little above a mic on a pole. I read my lines into the mic, trying to get tone and emotion to match the context the line will be used in. A room of monitors and a director are off to the side, listening in to my recording and letting me know if I need to adjust something or redo a line.” Tone explained seamlessly, having memorized the whole setup over a year ago when he started this career.
“Sounds boring.” Luster deadpanned, earning a glare from Tone.
“No, not really. I find it fun, to be honest. And it is rather gratifying and rewarding when I get to hear my voice on the radio, helping to tell a story for all of Equestria to hear and enjoy.”
Luster flinched and leaned back as Tone suddenly hopped up onto her bed, standing next to her and puffing out his chest with simulated pride.
“And besides, it gives me a valid excuse to use voices that would otherwise sound ridiculous!” He declared in one of the most cheesy ‘hero pony’ voices he could manage. And he nailed it.
“Off the bed.” Luster said, pushing one of his hind legs. Tone let out a yelp as he wobbled and toppled off the bed to the floor with a loud thud.
“Oh, you’ve done it now...” came Tone’s pained voice from below. Luster simply rolled her eyes.
“Oh, really?”
“Yup.”
Luster let out a startled squeak as Tone suddenly grabbed her blankets and sheets before jumping up and pulling them over her. With sadistic laughter that sounded way too convincing, he began to wrestle with her, pulling more blanket and sheet around her and thoroughly entangling her in a mass of cotton. Luster managed to poke her head out of the ball of blankets with seething rage on her face. “You will let me out of this undignified position right-”
“Oh, I don’t think so…” Tone said ominously, starting to walk around behind her on the mattress. “You’ve caused me to suffer through a few undignified positions, remember?” A maniacal cackle slipped from his throat, sending a chill down Luster’s spine and the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. She could hear him moving and feel the dips in the mattress as he moved around to her right side.
He came to a stop and breathed long and steadily into her ear. “Oh, this is going to be fun…” He said before an unnatural hiss slipped from his lungs and into her ear. Luster’s eyes widened. She had never heard a pony make that kind of noise before. “Hmmm… I wonder how changeling tastes…”
“S-stop it…” Luster said uneasily, now struggling to break free from the blankets and failing. Tone Shift let out a pleased hum and circled around to look her in the eyes again.
“And why should I? I have to eat too, you know…” His voice went even lower, almost distorting as though two were speaking at the same time. He leaned past her face and dragged his tongue along her cheek, causing her to gasp.
“What the hay happened to you…?!” Luster asked, breathing harder to go with her increasing heart rate, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead.
“Nothing happened... I just woke up.” Tone said again before leaning somewhat farther and growling into her ear. The growl was angry, hungry, animalistic. It was a sound Luster was sure nopony should be able to make. “And I am just… so… hungry…”
He licked her ear before actually biting it. Luster let out a startled yelp and her horn lit up on instinct. Tone Shift’s tail lit up with her magic grabbing it, and she yanked him hard to the other side of the room, sending him to crash into the opposite wall with considerable force. With ‘Tone Shift’ dazed, she quickly began to untangle herself from the mass of sheets and blankets. As she worked, she began to breathe somewhat faster as Tone stirred, starting to pick himself up. Adrenaline kicking in, she finally managed to get out of the blankets and leapt to the floor, her horn charging with magic and a furious scowl on her face.
“Alright, whoever you are…” She snarled, picking up Tone with her magic and hovering him upside down in front of her, a smirk still spread on his face. “Let Tone Shift go right now, and I won’t tear out your throat!”
To make her point clear, green flames whipped around her and she returned to being Queen Chrysalis, fangs bared and ready to plunge into his throat at the first sign of danger. Tone’s smile went from sadistic and evil to nervous and amused.
“Gotcha.”
Boop.
Chrysalis spluttered incoherently as Tone pushed his hoof to her nose, causing her to drop him and shake her head in bewilderment. “What the- pfffp- the heck- I-I don’t, what, who, how…” She mumbled as she tried to figure out what just happened.
“Told ya. It’s fun.” Tone said from his position on the floor before getting back up, smiling humorously at her. “I can’t believe I had you going there, either. I figured you had a lot more practice with acting then me, considering who you are.”
“What’s happening?” Chrysalis asked in confusion, one of her ears flicking and her eye twitching.
“I told you I was going to mess back, didn’t I?”
Chrysalis’ gaze froze in shock. For several long seconds, she stared at him like a deer would an oncoming train’s headlight. That face then began to gradually change; first to annoyance, than anger and then full-blown murderous rage. She bared her teeth and snarled. “I am going to kill you. I am going to kill you and then kill you again.”
Tone gulped, laughing nervously. “Uh, well- ahem. I don’t think we need to go quite that far, now do we?”
Chrysalis didn’t answer, magical sparks beginning to fly from her horn in all directions. “You want to live?”
“Uh… yes?”
“Run.”
Tone paled, ears flattening against the side of his head before he turned and bolted for the door. He was just able to avoid something pomfing into the wall just behind him, Chrysalis, who had now turned back into Luster, emitting a guttural howl of rage as she chased him, a missile silo of pillows levitating closely behind in her magic.
* * * * * * *
All of Baltimare had to agree wholeheartedly that Tone Shift lost that pillow fight. Luster had chased him across three city blocks before he finally ran out of stamina, at which point she proceeded to pummel him with the pillows for a good ten minutes, making sure to pin him down with her magic as she did so. Finally, after the pillows had been thoroughly shredded and destroyed by the force with which she was using them, she took a very dazed Tone Shift away from the scene of the crime and back to the hotel room, where she then deposited him into the shower and told him to clean himself off. She then locked him in and set herself down on her bed.
She had also stolen some of Tone’s bits to pay for the ruined pillows. The staff had been surprisingly casual about it. Apparently they had dealt with far worse in the past, like a queen-sized bed flying out of a second-story window with a screaming stallion still on it. The mare who did the throwing had refused to pay for the bed and wound up in trouble, an outcome Luster would like to avoid, if possible.
As Luster sat there, though, her mind wandered from that craziness to something else; the glow in the air. Love energy drifted about the room in a subtle haze only changelings could see.
She sat there, pondering her situation and the implications for a long while. Finally, Tone stepped back out of the bathroom, the pillow stuffing having been cleaned from his body. She didn’t look at him, as she was too absorbed in her thoughts. Tone didn’t say anything either, instead opting to simply flop onto his bed and stare up at the ceiling.
“I think I’m going to get some sleep…” He muttered tiredly before slipping beneath his blankets and closing his eyes. Luster absently turned off the lamp, plunging the room into relative darkness. Had her eyes been in their true form, the glow they emitted would have been enough for anypony to see the worry and uncertainty in them.
“Oh, uh, Chrysalis?” Tone piped up, drawing her attention at the use of her real name. He was looking at her with a tired but apologetic frown.
“What is it?” Luster asked, wincing slightly as more energy began to drift off of him.
“I, uh… I’m sorry if I upset you earlier. I took that a bit too far.” he apologized, lowering his gaze slightly and sighing. “You looked like you were actually scared… That wasn’t my intention and I’m sorry...”
“...Don’t worry about it. I’ve been through far worse.” Luster replied with her voice returning to that of Chrysalis. “It was just sudden and seamless. You were pretty convincing.”
“Well, I kinda have to be… It’s my job.” Tone said before rolling over and closing his eyes. “Goodnight, Chrysalis.”
For a few minutes after that, he remained silent before his breaths turned long and rhythmic. Chrysalis sighed slightly and looked away from him. Chrysalis decided she could use some rest herself, sliding under her blankets and looking up at the pink haze that was still in the room and slowly growing thicker.
She blinked, grimaced and opened her mouth, pulling the energy in and consuming it, her hunger diminished to more bearable levels for the time being. She glanced back at him before rolling over to get some sleep herself.
* * * * * * *
“N-no… get away…” Tone mumbled, turning uneasily in his sleep and waking Chrysalis from her slumber. She looked over and saw him jerk slightly before laying still again. “Don’t… don’t… don’t hurt...”
Chrysalis said nothing. She quietly slid from her bed and looked at him as he began to thrash more violently, his breaths coming in panicked gasps. One of his forelegs began to twitch and push out, as though he were trying to keep something away. He was having a nightmare.
“Please, no…. Let… go…”
Chrysalis sat down next to his bed and lit up her horn with her magic, casting calming spell on him in the hopes of dispelling the nightmare and letting him sleep peacefully. For a few moments, the spell worked itself into his mind before he began to calm down. Before he fell back into silence, however, he muttered again, clearer this time.
“Let her go… don’t hurt Chrysalis… please...”
Chrysalis eyes widened as he fell silent, his breathing returning to normal and his posture relaxing. He was having a nightmare... about her? She took a step back and fell to her haunches in disbelief. Her eyes shifted uneasily before she noticed something else. Looking up, her ears fell as she realized she couldn’t even see the faint glow of the bathroom night light from here.
Any light it emitted was smothered and obscured by the pink haze filling the room.
Chrysalis fidgeted for a few moments before standing back up and getting into her bed again. She glanced at Tone again before laying fully back, staring at the ceiling and the churning energy for quite some time.
“Goodnight, Tone Shift…” she whispered before falling back to sleep.