//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Brain Cells and Bad Timing // Story: A Time to Think // by The Sonic Mage //------------------------------// Chrysalis groaned. Her head ached something fierce, mostly at the base of her horn. She tried massaging that area, but little relief was found. As she began ignoring the pain, several questions arose. ‘Why are the lights out? That stupid moss can’t have just burned out, can it?’ Chrysalis was certainly annoyed. She began wandering over to the edge of the room to get a better vantage point, but then she noticed something. The room felt smaller. She kept walking, only to quickly bump into the wall. She walked over to the adjacent wall at the same pace. She quickly found her muzzle pressed up against it. The room was smaller. Chrysalis was starting to panic. “Okay Chrysalis, deep breaths. Deep breaths…And I’m talking to myself.” As her eyes adjusted to the newfound darkness, more details became apparent. The floor felt and looked like stone used for floors. The same stone lined the walls. It was cold. Uncharacteristically cold. And a bit damp to. All and all, it was pretty gross, even by her standards. ‘Okay, I am going to find out what’s going on,’ She vowed to herself She walked to reach the door…Only for her hooves to feel something very different. Metal. Cold rods of metal. ‘Bars?!’ Chrysalis’ panic jumped to eleven in a in a medically concerning amount of time. And not without out reason. A dark, dank room made of cold stone and sealed with even colder bars brought only one thing to mind. A cell. A prison cell. Chrysalis began hyperventilating, struggling to speak between breaths, scrambling and shuffling to the back wall. “Wha-How-When-Who?” Chrysalis was not a heavy sleeper, especially when she was anxious. And she had been very much on edge this entire time. “What- What happened?” “Does that really matter right now?” A voice came from down the hall. It was echoed and distorted, yet it sounded familiar. With trepidation, Chrysalis slowly walked back to the bars. A figure walked into view from the left. It was definitely a pony. Based of the build they were definitely a stallion. Smooth coat and height suggested he was middle aged. Oddly despite her amazing night vision, she couldn’t properly make out his face. It was very shadowed, as was most of his body. The oddly familiar stallion too a few steps towards the bars, making a few more of his details clearer. Eyes still couldn’t be made out. Well-trimmed, blue mane. Stocky hooves, snow-white coat- ‘Wait a second-’ Chrysalis started putting all those details through her memory. It quickly settled on one individual. Her eyes widened, pupils shrunk, fear set in. Shining Armor. All those details matched up with Shining Armor. Chrysalis looked up at him, her face a mix of fear and confusion. “Finally have you in a cage, right where you belong.” “But, how did you-?” “You have a lot of enemies. And I’m friend with a lot of those enemies. Do the mat,.” The slightly off Shining Armor said, “The others who aided in your capture couldn’t be here to see you, but I’m sure they’ll be more than willing to attend the carrying out of your sentence.” “S-Sentence?” Chrysalis stuttered, “But I-I’ve been trying to-” Armor slammed his hooves against the bars, silencing her. “Manipulating leaders, infiltrate government?” He accused. “N-No, I-!” “Shut up, bug!” Shining cursed, “I don’t care what evil acts you were trying pull off-!” “I was just trying to make amends!” Chrysalis cried out in desperation to finish a sentence and make him listen. A moment of silence came upon the space. It didn’t last long, however. “Well,” said the figure of Shining Armor, “You can easily do that by being present for your own execution.” Chrysalis froze up, mentally and physically, at the sentence. “Execution…?” She said, almost in a whisper. “Did you really think I’d let you get off without some kind of punishment,” he said, “No slaps on the wrist for you.” Chrysalis was starting to crash. She couldn’t understand what was happening, or why it was happening. More hoof-steps came from down the hall. Shining Armor turned to face the new faces. “What a surprise,” he said with a cruel little smile, “You actually did make it.” “Are you kidding…” said one voice. It was frighteningly familiar. The voice of the young Princess Twilight. Then, all the new ponies in the room simultaneously said, “WE WOULDN’T MISS THIS FOR THE WORLD!” Nothing but overlapping laughter, insults, and just noise rang in Chrysalis’ ears. The sounds of those stupid ponies wouldn’t stop, her own outcries seemingly drowned out by them. And of course, that absolutely useless, annoying, repetitive voice in her head kept spitting out syllables. “Ru…” “Un…” “Ru…” “Un…” ‘Stop it…’ Chrysalis mentally pleaded, her frustration and anger growing. ‘Stop it…’ She felt a boiling in her blood. All the things she wanted began flooding into the forefront of her mind, making her thoughts even more of a mess than they already were. ‘Stop it…’ Her desires. That was all she could think of. She desired answers to all the questions she had, pleaded for a peaceful rest, and longed for those ponies to… ‘Those ponies…’ She longed for those ponies to see all the wrong they had done to her kind for hundreds of years. How they had forced Changelings to live on the edge of the world, surviving off of scraps. How their archaic self-righteousness had caused a species wide famine, as their health deteriorated and societies crumbled. They had made her into a monster. And rather than fix herself and prove them wrong years ago, she made herself into even more of a monster, both to them and to the Changelings she once led. She hated them for labeling her kind as monsters. She hated herself for consciously proving them right, and then some. She longed for those stupid ponies to just- “STOP IT!!!!” Her outcry momentarily drowned out anything she could hear. Her horn began sparking… >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< When Pinkie Pie finally hopped off the staircase, she was slightly disappointed. The twitching she had felt was really strong, and she had expected it to take her somewhere great(at least to a party of some kind). Instead, she found herself in a large hall with big doors on each side. She didn’t know where she was or why all the doors had jewels on them. “Hello!” She called out, “Is there a party down here?” She only got an echo in response. Pinkie giggled at it, saying, “Hey, I’m asking you!” She was going to keep going as if she was talking to a real pony, until her ears started twitching. They were only twitching once with a few seconds between, but they were twitching nonetheless. Pinkie shrugged and turned to start walking back towards the stairs, until she noticed something: When she did turn back to the stairs, her ears twitched less. She turned back to face the hallway, they went back to twitching. “Oooooo!” Pinkie was very much intrigued. She started bouncing down the hall, following the twitching of her ears. As she did so, the twitching became stronger and more frequent. “Oh, I wonder what’s over there,” she asked herself. She continued further down the hall, until, mid-bounce, she was tackled. Both she and the one who grabbed her slammed back onto the ground, rolling across the floor before she finally landed on her back, looking up into the face of a very stressed, and very angry, Changeling General. Of course Pinkie, being Pinkie, a master in art of being completely oblivious at the worst of times, couldn’t put together the reality of her situation. “Oh! Are we playing tag? Am I it? Oh, or are we playing Guard Ponies and Thieves?” Pharynx could only groan in response. ‘How her friends put up with her antics, I may never know.’ The two Changeling guards soon followed. Then came Thorax. “Y-You…,” Thorax tried to catch as much of his own breath as possible, “You got her?” “Yeah, I got her.” Pharynx refused to take his eyes of the pink, party pony out of fear that she might disappear if he wasn’t looking at her. “Oh, good,” Thorax said, on the verge of having a heart attack. “Pinkie Pie!” The sound of Twilight’s voice echoed through the hall. ‘Oh boy…’ Thorax thought, as the sound of many hooves running across the floor filled the space. The mane 6 gathered about the spot where Pharynx had Pinkie pined. “Pinkie Pie, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. “Can I get up and take my eyes off her now?” Pharynx asked. “Yes, we’ve got it from here.” Twilight assured. With that confirmation, Pharynx rolled off of Pinkie Pie and onto his back. His eyes watered as he closed them, to make up for their dryness. “Soooo…No tag?” It was hard for everyone in the room to not groan at the party pony’s question. Twilight walked over to Pinkie Pie, helping her to her hooves. “Pinkie Pie, what were you-?” “Madam Pinkie Pie!” A distinct, angry Prench accent rang out through the hall. “T-Tibia,” Thimble stuttered, “Maybe you should take a moment to calm down?” “To Tartarus with calming down,” Tibia shouted, “I am giving this overgrown, self-centered, arrogant child the verbal thrashing she deserves!” Tibia could stomp holes in the floor, she was so mad. Twilight tried to intercept the Prench Changeling, but was shoved aside. “Oh, hi Tibi-Ow!” Pinkie Pie yelped as she had her ear pulled on. “Madam Pinkie Pie, have you completely forgotten everything I told you earlier about appropriate behavior in the homes of others? Because here you are demonstrating that you have! If this is how you act regularly, then how your friends put up with your outrageous behavior is beyond me-!” “Tibia!” Thorax shouted. He gave Tibia a hard glare, communicating his disapproval. “That’s enough.” Tibia finally took a moment to breathe. Her frustration subsided, and she stepped aside. “While I don’t entirely approve of Tibia’s outburst, I do have to agree with the reasons behind it,” Thorax said gathering himself to act calm, despite the obvious problem. He helped Pharynx up before continuing, “Charging down here, without permission, after being told that it was time to go, was very inconsiderate of you.” Pinkie’s ears drooped. On some level, she knew what she did was rude. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I felt a really strong twitching and-” “WHAT!?” Everypony who knew the what happened when Pinkie Pie twitched reacted very strongly. Some dropped to the floor, others hid behind the others in the room to use them as shields. Pinkie Pie giggled, “No silly, not like that!” Everypony opened their eyes, confused as to what Pinkie meant(and rightfully so). “Wait, what?” Rainbow Dash asked, coming out from behind Thorax. “Well, I was twitching,” Pinkie confirmed, “But it wasn’t a ‘Look Out’ kinda twitch. More of a ‘Ooo, Over Here’ twitch. So I followed it, and it lead me here.” The rest of the Royals joined the crowd in time to hear Pinkie Pie’s explanation. Their pony guards accompanied them. “So what you are saying is that, some strange, unexplainable force compelled you to come down here to this…” Luna paused for a moment, searching for the right word to describe the space, “Containment area?” “These are storage units.” Thorax clarified. “Why didn’t you show us this?” Cadence asked. “Well,” Thorax’s internal panic was beginning to return, this was taking too long, “It’s a pretty generic space, so I didn’t think it was that important.” Pharynx, aided by the two Changeling troopers, managed to get back on his hooves. “Plus, most of these are filled with spare Hive resources, and the personal belongings of our citizens. It would be an invasion of privacy.” Celestia nodded, “That is more than understandable.” Gathering his nerves and suppressing his panic, Thorax once again began ushering his guests out. “Now, let’s get ya home before it gets dark out.” “But what about my twitching?” Pinkie asked, sounding slightly disappointed. “Pinkie Pie, dear,” Rarity said, “We are not going to invade the privacy of a Changeling just because your ‘Pinkie-sense’ is on the fritz today.” “After all,” Applejack added on, “What have they got to hide?” In hindsight, considering the current situation, and her element, Thorax should have known that she would jinx it. A resounding BOOM rang out through the hall. The door of one of the storage units, was blasted into pieces from within the space it kept sealed. Burning bits of debris scattered across the floor. The wall and floor in front of the nonexistent door were burned black, the massive scorch area accompanied by residual green flames on the floor. In the thick dust cloud, there was the vague outline of something, or someone. ‘Oh Faust, please no…’ The high up Changelings present knew exactly what that was. The citizens could easily guess. The ponies had no idea. The dust began to settle… >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< ‘I…I’m…Out…’ The sound of a blast shattering…something, and the lack of anyone speaking, gave Chrysalis the auditory confirmation of her freedom. Finally, she was out of that accursed crystal dungeon. She could escape. She almost hoped that those ponies were still alive so that she could satisfy her burning want to hurt them as much as that spell her her lungs…and her head. Casting high-cost spell after spending so long barely using any magic had a tendency to do that. As the adrenaline rush died down, her senses began functioning properly. ‘Wait, something’s wrong,’ Chrysalis started registering the space around her. The air didn’t smell the same, the ground fell like rock rather than crystal. And amongst the remains of her enclosure, there was no sign of molten or twisted metal. ‘What’s going on?’ As the dust around her began to settle, she noticed the outline of something to her right. She squinted, as if it would help her see through the cloud. Then, all the dust settled. Her eyes registered what was to her right. She seized up. To her right was everybody. Thorax, Pharynx, the Changelings they had introduced her to, and the ponies she was supposed to be hiding from. The crowd looked like they had been frozen in the middle of leaving, as they all stared over to her with looks that ranged from shock to fearful panic. However, there was something more important than the presence of the Royal Sisters, the Princess of Friendship, or the collective Elements of Harmony… The presence of Princess Cadence…and Prince Shining Armor. A million questions ran through her head: What were they all doing there? What that mess with the Crystal dungeon not even two minutes ago? Did she have a nightmare, and had broken out at the worst possible moment. Then, in her head, she heard it. ‘Ru…’ ‘Un…’ That voice in her head… ‘Ru…’ ‘Un…’ The voice that had been so distant, so echo-like… ‘Ru…’ ‘Un…’ The voice that had only spit out broken syllables… ‘Ru…Un…’ That voice, as if it were standing right next to her ear, finally said one, short simple word… “…Run…”