//------------------------------//
// Terror in the Dark 
// Story: Once Bitten 
// by Damaged 
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Twilight Sparkle's head hurt. If it were a normal day, she would reach her hooves up and pull the covers over her head, yell as softly as she could to Spike that she needed to rest, and go back to sleep. But it wasn't a normal day.





Walking back into the huge hall where the wedding would be, I looked at my brother. "I'm sorry, Shining." Using his actual name, rather than his nickname, was a sign of just how much I hurt. "It's just that everything seems so wrong. You aren't acting yourself, and Cadance is… is distant."

"You will be, but don't worry little unicorn," my brother's voice twisted with ugly emotions I had never heard in it before, "you will love your queen, eventually."

Things started to make sense as Shining Armor's horn glowed a sickly green. My heart rate doubled as his power burnt a green circle of fire around me. I looked up in terror to see Shining's eyes flash green, and then the world went dark.





Trying to lift her foreleg up to rub at her eyes, Twilight realized she couldn't move. Her muscles twitched a little, but there was not enough movement to actually get anything done. The cold, crystal and rock floor under her was hard and unforgiving, yet when her eyes finally focused, she could see something small and round in the middle of her vision.

Twilight's peripheral vision revealed more of the small round things, and some of her "acting strange" friends. Lyra, Sweetie Drops, and Minuette were visible, each with one of the round things just in front of their snouts.

"Girls? What's going on?" At least, that is what Twilight tried to say. Her mouth, like the rest of her, wasn't obeying her commands properly and it just came out like a moan. Her mind raced, despite the lethargy of sleep having barely begun to fade. Her brother had been acting really weird, Cadance had been too, and some of her friends (who were now apparently with her) had been really off the wall. 

"Mind control" was Twilight's first thought. The amount of critters, plants, and even rocks that would butter up a pony's mind was as astounding as it was chilling. The orbs that lay before each of them had to be a key, or so she thought, and was examining her own when movement caught her attention.

Rolling her eyes to the side, Twilight could see the orb directly in front of Lyra was wobbling and moving. Gurgling a warning in her throat, Twilight could only watch as a fat, green, slimy worm pulled itself free of Lyra's egg. 

The squirming parasite wriggled around a little, lifting one end of its body up as if testing the air. Twilight could see Lyra's expression turn to horror, and watched her mouth strain to open a fraction. The softest scream Twilight had ever heard (and she knew Fluttershy) came from Lyra's croaky throat, and as if it were a signal to the worm it turned towards her. 

Inching along, the changeling larva reached the screaming unicorn's snout like it was a magnet, and in truth it was. The parasites were attracted to a pony's breath and when closer, body heat. Twilight watched Lyra's eyes snap as wide as the drugs would let her pull them as the worm crawled into her mouth. 

Twilight didn't breathe as she watched Lyra's startled expression turn first to confusion, then the mare slowly closed her eyes. Gasping a breath, Twilight's vision was caught by another bout of movement, and this time it was the egg in front of her own snout. 

Each wobble, each twitch, scared Twilight all the more. She watched the soft egg wobble and roll a little before the grub poked its head out. She held her breath again, clamping down on her teeth and screwing her eyes closed. The moment stretched on. Twilight kept herself as locked down as she could, but finally she let out a puff of breath through her nose. 

When the squirming parasite brushed her snout, Twilight's eyes snapped wide open. She stared right at the thing, and could see the fangs it was about to use to burrow its way into her body. 

"No, you don't. No more of this without a pony's permission."

The words came from above Twilight, and to her relief she watched as green magic wrapped around the worm. The same magic picked up the last—intact—egg as well. Panting furiously, Twilight couldn't quite catch a glimpse of the pony above her.

"This is a problem. Two empty eggs, one free larva, and two full eggs. The numbers don't add up. But I can see three of you are awake and looking terrified, so I think it has to be Miss Aquamarine here who is carrying now." Sadness colored the disembodied voice.

With a little more control back in her muscles, Twilight managed to flop her head a bit further over and looked up at the monster talking to her. The creature was black with a small ruff of cerulean mane and tail atop small fins. From the angle Twilight was looking (the ground), she could see holes in the monster's legs.

"Back to sleep little ones. I don't know who laid you here, but the one to blame is Chrysalis." Thorax's tone turned angry. "When I catch that mare…" She trailed off when she noticed Twilight was moving. "Now, one of my drones described you exactly. Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight's eyes widened. She tested her voice and tried to speak. "Yesh…" 

"Shining Armor, the real Shining Armor, sent me to find you. It seems I have stopped you and two of your friends joining us, but the last…" Thorax looked at Lyra, the mare sleeping under the influence of the parasite now bonded inside her body.

"Lyra Heartstrings." Twilight turned to see her friends' faces, both Minuette and Sweetie were conscious, and the latter was staring at Lyra with terror on her face. "Bon Bon…"

"The wedding will be starting soon." Thorax used her magic to lift Twilight up. The pony seemed so small and light to the growing queen. "If you move the poison will wear off faster."

The message was clear to Twilight, and she started fighting against the fatigue of the poison in her system, forcing her limbs to move as much as she could.

"Lyra will need to be taken care of. She is not going to die, you have my word on that." Thorax didn't need to be a magical empath to see the love from Sweetie Drops to Lyra. "And more, you have my word that if I survive today, I will do everything I can to help you both."

Sweetie's eyes looked up and locked on Thorax's. To her absolute surprise she saw a solidness in the changeling queen's gaze that raised her out of the "monster" category and into "maybe trusted." She gave what nod she could, and turned her attention back to Lyra.

Thorax's heart hardened a little more at the looks on the ponies' faces. Tucking the two intact eggs and the sleeping larva into a saddlebag, she gently set Twilight onto her hooves. "Can you walk yet?"

"I will." Twilight surprised herself with the vehemence in her words. "What were those… things?" She was wobbly, but each step she took became easier.

"Those are changeling larva. Your friend is going to become one of us, and she is going to get a new sister." At Twilight's confused look, Thorax rolled her eyes. "It's complicated. Long story short: one of them gets inside you and you turn into a changeling. The larva itself grows into a second changeling and gets all of your memories. We are parasites on a macro level, we require love energy to feed off, and ponies are the best source."

"You didn't do this." Twilight fought to keep her mind from rushing off on tangents—something she was never the best at. Nonetheless, she kept up with the conversation. "You said, 'Real Shining Armor,' so what is happening?"

"We are shapechangers, and the queen of our hive planned all of this and took the form of your brother. I… I am fighting to take over, to make things right." Thorax reached a hoof out to steady Twilight. "You have to believe me when I say that all the changelings involved aren't actually guilty. Chrysalis uses mind control on them, bullying them to do what she wants."

Twilight couldn't stop a rueful smile at needing the help Thorax was giving. "If she is the queen, what are you? And for that matter, who are you?"

"I am a new queen. If Chrysalis had found me in her hive, she would have killed me. My name is Thorax, and you might know my sister, or at least her history." Thorax led Twilight to stairs leading out of the old crystal mines. 

"Where is Shining now? What can I do to help stop all… all of this." Twilight gestured at the castle itself to indicate the wedding and combined invasion. 

"Shining Armor is disguised as Princess Celestia. She is going to be working with my twin, Sunset Shimmer," Thorax paused at the name, looking for a response from Twilight, "who is disguised as Princess Luna. The real princesses are both okay and guarded by loyal ponies and my drones."

"Twily!." Vinyl waved at her little sister, not realizing how shocking it would be for her to see Shining's alter ego's form. Snapping her eyes to Thorax, Vinyl gave her queen an annoyed look and then rushed forward.

"Wait!" Twilight held a hoof up, worried that her "brother" was another disguised changeling. "Who are you? Thorax just said that my brother is disguised as Princess Celestia."

"Thorax didn't tell you about how the twins thing works?" Vinyl looked at her queen with a bit of annoyance, only to see Thorax rolling her eyes. "I am your brother… sister… it's complicated."

"What army did Shining always play in InvasionMallet?" Twilight knew how this worked, personal questions were the answer.

"Twily…" Vinyl tilted her head in exasperation. "Royal Guard, of course."

Twilight's eyes narrowed to slits. "And where was the first time Shining met Cadance." 

"You don't know that one, Twily. I first met Cady at the gala. I was serving as a guard and she was Princess Celestia's ward." Vinyl smiled at the memory. "But the first time you probably remember is when you caught us kissing."

Staring at Vinyl, Twilight's lips pulled up into a smile and she rushed forward to hug the mare her brother sometimes was. "What's going on, for real?"

"I am the copy of Shining. She is saving the day, as usual, and we are going there right now to help." Vinyl felt Twilight stiffen when she mentioned she was a copy.

"So you are the…" Twilight struggled not to say thing. "… changeling… that grew inside Shining?" She drew back far enough to look into Vinyl's eyes. "What… how do I even respond to that?"

"Shining is always going to be Shining. She is the most amazing pony I know, and I should know. I have all of her memories from before she was infected with me. I remember lifting you up in my forelegs for the first time when Mom and Dad brought you home." Vinyl hated how it felt to see the confusion on Twilight's face. "We decided it would be easier if I am called Vinyl, and she gets to be Shining. Although I think she is going to need some time to unwind after all this…" 

Twilight had to smile, she had enjoyed having a big sister when growing up, and Vinyl was every bit the personality that her Vinyl had had. The first glimmer of acceptance snuck in while she wasn't looking, and before she knew it Twilight hugged Vinyl a little tighter. Then something hit her. "Wait, 'she'?"

"More complications. All changelings are mares. Doesn't matter what you started as." Vinyl squeezed Twilight once more and started following after Thorax, not having noticed her queen had moved up the hall to give them privacy.

Following along, Twilight felt her spirits rise, but she couldn't stop the first hint of a giggle. "So now I have two big sisters?"

"Yes and no. Changelings are… well… we can become stallions or mares." Vinyl shrugged and used her magic to become a male version of Vinyl Scratch. "Like this? Now you can have a big brother again."

"But aren't you technically younger than me?" Twilight's eyes danced with delight at her own reasoning. "You are my little brother!"

Ahead, all three could hear Princess Celestia's voice raised, welcoming everypony to Shining and Cadance's wedding. "We need to move fast. Shining will be wrecking this wedding whether we are there or not, and I don't think she will do so well on her own."

Vinyl stuck out her tongue. "Guess I need to get in character." Flashing with fire again, she took on one of the only two forms that felt truly "right" on her. "Time to stop this once and for all." Shining's deep voice came from Vinyl's mouth, and he took the lead.