//------------------------------// // Revised-Prologue // Story: Gambler's Respite // by Gypsybard //------------------------------// Shackles dangle from my ankles as I’m dragged across the floor. My body is numb and eyes are blurry, all I can see are spots as I try to fill in the blanks. The ceiling had what I could only register as a Chandelier, yet I’m found staring at the continuous green glow it emits. Of all the things to stare at in the hive on my deathbed it's such an oddity to care about how bugs could make something like that. The buzzing grows louder as something hits the back of my head forcing my head down. Now staring at the paved ground of mucus there were a variety of black webs intersecting underneath it. Suddenly I feel my body thrown into a cage and lifted up, the numbness begins to fade as a throb of pain emits from my arms and legs. Curling my tail around myself I get into a fetal position not knowing what’s happening anymore. “Heal the pitiful creature so the trial may commence.” says one of the bugs, I couldn’t make out all the words from it. The only word that struck me was creature, serving as a painful reminder that I’m no longer human. As I tried to dwell on it feeling how my friends betrayed me to escape I slowly felt a warmth stitch together my wounds. Looking up curious and broken I notice I was surrounded by tall stands with a bug pony seated behind each one. However, my eyes fell upon the center and highest most bug. There was no stand or podium set for it-, her, but a crystalline throne. An air of absolute superiority and boredom shown clearly on her face. The only thought I had was that they weren’t the aliens here, I was. I was currently a cockroach that had seeped in unaware of its own demise. Apparently she had enough of my unblinking stare as spoke with a commanding voice, “How did you find my hive young Abyssinian.” Abyssinian? Is that what I am now? I thought as I looked down at my hands, they were covered in fur but otherwise looked normal. If you disregard the claws that is. As I stared I heard she slammed a hoof hard onto the throne with a resounding bang while yelling, “ANSWER ME YOU INSIGNIFICANT FURBALL!” Shrieking in surprise I backpedaled in the cage slamming against the back of it with my tail in my hands. My throat was dry with sweat careening down my back. Fearing the worst I tried to croak out my answer, “I-I don’t k-know!” “Your kind is halfway across the world...DO NOT LIE TO ME!!!” she yells out further enraged firing a bolt of lightning burning off some fur on my legs. Leaving me to cry out in pain. I couldn’t even bleed as the burned the wounds shut as they opened. “Y-your highness please! Don’t kill it so quickly we can’t extract emotions from something so unstable.” another bug said, all I could hear was how they planned to make my death a slow one. If they plan to kill me anyways why do I cower? They’ll show no mercy! The pain and humiliation began to bubble as anger. I could feel my pupils dilate with red flooding my vision, my hearing laser focused on the surroundings. Like a hazy dream all I could hear was the buzzing insulting laughter of the wretched insects. I could feel and see a spark ignited in the palm of my hand in a surge of force. A pair of flaming dice began to form from the sparks, and the more concentrated they became I could see red flood my vision further. My pupils turning into slits like a cat ready to pounce on a rat leaving my mind hazy. I could almost feel how my face contorted amongst it all. Trying to stay calm in the insanity I crushed it to push it all away, leaving only ashes in the wind. Lost in the haze I had finally noticed that the buzzing seemed to stop as all eyes turned back to me. Finally working up the will I stood up taking steps closer until I stood in front of the bars. With a lump in my throat and a pain in my chest I was left staring at those abominations with a fire in my eyes. The queen of them seemed intrigued by this, akin to a vague fascination to a zoo animal. My only desire as of right now would be to tear off that smug look of hers. “What is your name…?” she asked slowly sounding like she’s repeated it multiple times. It felt like she was blatantly mocking me but I couldn’t rightly tell. Gripping the bars with my ash covered hand I could feel the bars begin to heat up a smidge. “My name is Carrow Elizabeth Coxen.” I hissed out barely containing myself, although it did little to conceal my tone. I could see the queen hum a little in thought intrigued by something. Constantly studying me like a labrat, I could almost feel myself slipping again but I just held tighter. “Do you know what I am. Carrow?” she spoke my name with a slight venom in her voice. It was subtle, but it was all I could focus on as I could feel a small burning weight form in my hand once again. Red at the very edges of my vision. “A parasitic bug, I don’t care to learn much else.” I replied with a steely look, yet the queen didn’t seem much surprised by it. How many others have had this exact same conversation, how many did she- She interrupted my thoughts with a quick jab at me, “I can’t say that’s the first time I’ve heard that from a magicless species, a truly pitiful thing.” Hearing the words resounded like a gong inside my head, magicless? Having seen and felt the dice many times I decided to let go, let my instincts run rampant. I’d show her how piteous I truly am! My vision become completely filled with red as I seized the now abruptly fully formed dice in my left hand. Pulling apart the super heated bars with a single tug I threw the dice instinctively towards the hoards of insectoids. A shield suddenly filled my vision with a green tinge exploding the dice right in front of me. Roars of panic erupted as the cage exploded and I fell to the ground. Ethereal claws erupted from my fingertips while I rocketed to the ground in blazes. Speeding fireballs flew across the whole room, hardly recognizable for what they truly were other bugs ignited as well. With reckless abandon I saw the world flash within my eyes not thinking of anything but to put an end to it all. Charging towards that devil leaving her almost stunned having seen it all. When she was only inches away from me things suddenly fell away when I felt my body collide with a wall. A green tinge surrounding it was the last thing I saw before everything went entirely dark. Third-Person(Chrysalis POV) Chrysalis sat in her throne shocked and bewildered by what just happened. She had been prodding the beast with some emotion enhancers, hoping that it would lead her to despair. However, as can be seen with the scorched hall and the shattered remains of the cage things did not go as planned. If anything it opened a new can of worms to crush. Her knowledge of Abyssinians was low considering how far away they live, but of what she did know was that they could not use magic. They made huge technological feats with airships and the like, but that didn’t cure their lack of strength in raw power. Which leads her to wonder now, is this Carrow even an Abyssinian? Then Chrysalis drifted her thoughts to the princess’, maybe they had hidden royalty among the populace? Trying to hide their cards for an uprising, considering how smothered they were it wouldn’t be odd to think so. Walking over to the now unconscious figure Chrysalis watched as drones began to lift her onto a hammock. With a commanding voice she said, “Send her off to the lowest cells, see if you can wipe her memories of this trial. We must instill as much fear as we can or this’ll become a...complicated situation.” The drones simply nodded to the command before flying off with the Abyssinian in question. Having gotten a good look at her, Chrysalis could tell there was something very off about Carrow. For one most of the clothes of the little she wore was covered in stitches and mismatched pieces of cloth. Despite the materials used the craftsmanship was uncanny with stitches done so well they would be unnoticeable if it wasn’t for the variety. She was just full of contradictory traits that nagged at Chrys’s mind. Some of the features were greatly unlike an Abyssinian as well, her paws looked very abnormal and her legs weren’t bent right either. What kind of abomination was this supposed to be? It vaguely reminded her of the Griffin’s experiments and their obsession with military domination. Were they now trying to use other species instead of their own? More importantly if they were how have they not been caught yet considering the amount of trafficking required for this? “Scillia.” Chrysalis called out nonchalantly keeping an air of absolute composure. No sooner than 10 seconds did said Changeling arrive ready to serve her queen, “Set up a scouting team we need to track down all Abyssinians in the area so we don’t have anymore surprises.” “Yes, my queen.” she promptly replied, but before she could fly off Chrysalis formed a dome around them. Giving her an odd look Scillia hesitated to ask with her professionalism, “Is something wrong, my queen?” “If you find any drill them for questions about the Griffin’s latest developments. If you find a Griffin bring them in as well, but don’t speak or interrogate them with the usual methods. Have him speak to another Griffin instead if you know what I mean.” Chrysalis replied laying out her plans clearly so no mistakes can be tolerated. As the dome fell Scillia nodded firmly before zooming off hesitant to say anymore to the Queen. While said queen watched her go, Chrysalis sent out a signal for the Advisors to gather. Many ideas were rampant in her head and she needed some second opinions to narrow down options. Teleporting into the Conference room Chrysalis walked around it to find her place. There was green mucus forming Cocoons to hold and present various maps of the world. The soft glow from the many splotches of mucus lit the room with an almost eerie lighting with a charcoal black table in the center of the room held up by only a single stem from its center. Finding her place she took out a map that covered the badlands and its neighboring countries. The badlands itself was akin to a desert so no country has yet to take hold here both in fear of Changelings and the severe lack of resources available. As the drones filtered in Chrysalis had formed up different tokens to represent possible routes/transportation available for the Abyssinians and Griffins. Having placed a couple down she lifted her head to ask the newly arrived, “What do you make of this Carrow?” (1)Changeling was quick on the uptake voicing his opinion loudly, “Dangerous! She’s an active volcano that needs to be snuffed out.” A (2)Changeling added with some skeptical looks towards (1), “She’s a well of information as she’s an unknown, I’d say it's worth the risk of keeping her here.” “I find her fascinating, her range of emotions from what I could sense was constantly changing drastically from fear, despair, hope, betrayal, and rage. Even from before we began probing it was like staring into a rainbow of emotions.” a (3)Changeling voiced almost singing praises for the thing that almost killed him. Chrysalis could understand the sentiment despite that considering ponies rarely have this sort of diversity in emotions. Thinking over their answers she began to place more and more points on the map and stated, “Regardless if we should keep her or not from a quick glance it’s obvious it wouldn’t be possible to get here by land. So how would she even get here from across the ocean half-way across the world?” “Could be a slave expedition gone wrong, the Abyssinians do have airships and would explain the various wounds.” (2) stated inquisitively looking and sounding perfectly positive with his answer. Already Chrys found holes in it but waited to hear the others. “We did see her use magic so maybe a teleportation spell gone horribly wrong, it doesn’t look like she has the strongest control of it considering how practically took herself out.” (3) replied adding his own thoughts, which addressed one issue Chrys had with (2)’s idea. Scoffing in disgust (1) replied, “No matter how unstable the magic having such a far distance traveled for a race known with no magic seems impossible. Probably a run away ready to start trouble! You saw what it did, didn’t you?” “Sure, a run away with enough money to buy a private airship, we both know that no airships come close to the badlands because of the weather here. We aren’t even bordering an ocean so you can’t really claim that either even if it was more likely.” (2) refuted rather cleanly, having some pride in his answer. “If it was a private airship why come here, where life is practically desolate save a rare few things. A crash wouldn’t even explain the holes in her body which makes it another dead end.” Chrysalis finally shot out finding the rambling to be unproductive. Their theories were close but always skimped an important detail. A slave expedition would have multiple slaves chained together or at least have some sign of enslavement on them. Carrow didn’t have any of that on her in even the smallest degree. Teleportation gone wrong wouldn’t be possible considering even the strongest magic users in the world couldn’t go across to the other side of the world. Interrupting her thoughts (2) let out a whistle before saying, “A strange find we found ourselves, but it could clue us in on some secrets. Maybe we’ll finally be able to reach our former glory!” “The griffin’s had the same idea yet they became a fractured kingdom that fell apart at the reigns of Minotaurs! Do you plan to doom us?” (1) refutes wishing to hold back the reigns of war. “My queen, what should we do then?” (3) questioned finally turning attention back to Chrysalis instead of the constant debate. Looking away from the lot she let out a low hum trying to come up with a reply. They were all now looking at her expecting a course of action for what would come next. Turning around and stomping on the table she proclaimed, “We must execute her before she becomes a problem, however, we will hold one more trial to extract as much information as we can. Prepare the battalions to paralyze her the second she tries anything. With that we can do a proper interrogation.” Her subjects looked up at her with a sense of awe, a sight she was very much used to. With a flash the map and tokens disappeared back into their cocoons as she walked out, “Don’t disappoint me with another reject.” With a resounding slam of the door Chrysalis disappeared leaving the three advisors lost to the confusion of that Abyssinian’s appearance, and of what they’ll risk with another trial. (First-Person(Carrow POV) Waking up on a cold damp floor I could practically hear my own heartbeat. Stretching out my arms I had a pounding headache leaving my mind hazy. I couldn’t remember where I was or how I’d gotten here. With the sound of meowing in one corner of the room I snapped my head to the figure lying down with his back to the ground in the corner. Some large cat-human thing from what I could tell about it. Walking closer to investigate I had a hard time seeing with the dim lighting, but I couldn’t help but feel a little odd about this. Getting on my knees I was finally close enough to get a good look at him. I initially thought it was some kook in a costume, until I noticed that his legs were bent oddly and those ears atop his head kept flickering. Still skeptical I reached out wondering if I could feel the wiring under the ears. As I reached out a single eye popped open, with the pupils of a cat staring right at me. Opening his mouth he said, “A Lady really shouldn’t go around touching people in their sleep.” Letting out a silent scream the wind was blown out of me I fell backwards terrified. I couldn’t explain why those green eyes scared me so and I was breathing heavily for what felt like an hour, even though it was more like 10 seconds. Clearing my throat I stammered out, “S-sorry about that, hehe I was just nervous there was a...corpse…” That got an eyebrow raised from the feline creature, it seemed familiar yet alien to me. I couldn’t recall much and the more I dwelled on what it could be the greater the headache I got. Breaking my thoughts I heard the feline speak, “Are you alright? How long have you been here?” “Oh...I can’t seem to remember, I just woke up here...everything seems to be a haze.” I replied with the headache faded away completely. I stood up and moved to sit beside him before asking, “Is it alright if I just rest here?” “We cats gotta stick don’t we? Name’s Chummer, what about you?” he replied introducing himself, he had a strange air about him. I couldn’t place it but I didn’t care, I just needed something to ground me in the chaos. “I’m Carrow, it’s nice to have someone to talk too.” I say quietly while closing my eyes and letting out a sigh. “You know I came from a place called Klugetown which isn't too far from here, but where’d you come from? It’s quite a ways away from Abyssinia don’t you know.” Chum asked commenting on some place called Abyss. I couldn’t even feel any sort of familiarity with the name, it felt alien. He looked expectant on my answer, but the more I dwelled on it the greater the headache I had. Why can’t I even remember where I’m from? I began to tense up as I kept digging fighting through the growing pains. Folding in I stopped trying to pry and replied, "I can't remember...sorry." "What's there to be sorry about? Can't help when little miss princess was locked away from the world." he replied with the slightest bit of offense in his tone. What did he expect me to say? He's my only companion here and I can't be starting off on the wrong foot! Pressing further into my jumbled thoughts I could feel the headache start roaring again. It got to the point where I couldn't feel or hear anything else except the pounding of my skull. Shutting my eyes shut I felt things go numb and fade away. Psychedelic lights and landscapes filled my visions amongst the dark expanse where the ceiling seemed endlessly tall. Vague Silhouettes dancing on the horizon with a multicolored sun constantly contorting shapes trying to resemble a familiar form. Tunnels sprouted from the ground with gaping holes in the sky each with their own endless Abyss. Almost like I was flying through the air I reached into a hole reflexively peering over inside it. Before I could truly see what was there I felt a pain surge across from the cheek breaking me out of it and bringing me back to reality. Numb to the pain I was in a daze as I looked up at Chum who was backed away on his feet, claws out and bloodied. The look in his eyes was full of terror staring right at me unblinking. Reaching up and touching my face I felt the blood run cold as I collapsed. The last thing I could feel was the soft ashes laying out a bed for me as I bled.