//------------------------------//
// To The Sins 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Chrysalis wasn't sure if having smacked against the cold stone floor had done more to jolt her out of her shock or worsen it, but either way the adrenaline rushing through her body did enough to get her to stand up again almost immediately. She'd seen the portal open near her, even if it had taken a moment for her to process the information. Going back through it was not an option, not when Twilight and, worse, Twilight's clone were right there on the other side.
Her first instinct was to transform again. Try to hide from whoever was about to follow her, and whatever was already on that side. It backfired. The moment she tried to use her powers, pain once again surged through every part of her, making her scream and almost fall on her knees.
Her second instinct, once she'd recovered from the consequences of the first, was to run. She spotted the only door leading out of the poorly lit room, one she realised to be a largely barren bedroom possibly somewhere underground, and made a dash for it.
The corridor outside was just as poorly lit, slightly cold and oddly humid. The lack of windows and the stone walls again made her guess she was somewhere underground. She looked for any other doors, seeing only one up ahead and to her left before sounds behind her alerted her that someone else had stepped through the portal.
"Chrysalis?" she heard Twilight's voice call, but she was already running to the next door. She couldn't even be sure it was the real Twilight at that point. But maybe, if things went well, she could still get something out of the situation. Maybe. Maybe there was still hope for something. But Chrysalis wasn't thinking as she pushed open the door.
Twilight would try to take her back. And she couldn't go back. Not right then. Maybe in a while, maybe the other would have gone away eventually, but not right then.
The room Chrysalis entered looked like a laboratory of sorts. A table with some kind of machinery hanging over it, a glass wall separating the room from an adjacent one, what looked like magical detectors of some sort on the wall opposite that. In front of her another door, metal instead of wooden like the previous two. She ran towards it. Locked. 
"Chrysalis!" Twilight called, more insistently. "We need to get out of here! You don't understand, this is dangerous!" She stepped past the door Chrysalis had run in through, and her eyes focused on the changeling. Her breath was short, her legs almost shaking. "I don't know what's happening, or why you're here, but we need to get away from this place. Now."
Chrysalis stood with her back pressed to the door, eyes darting around the room, breath heavy as her heart pounded against her chest. She was trapped, with nowhere to go, and an opponent she couldn't hope to do anything against. She couldn't even use her magic in her conditions.
But maybe... Twilight didn't seem to be planning to harm her, right then. Maybe they could just talk, maybe she'd listen, maybe Stella wasn't there anymore and-
"She's right, you know? You really should be leaving this place."
Chrysalis's eyes shrunk to the size of needle holes, and her heart might as well have stopped. The next moment she was running again, as the machines above the table shattered in a shower of black sparks and an alarm blared off. She ran through the cascade of magical discharges, uncaring of how it singed her chitin. She ran past Twilight, shoving her aside as the alicorn covered her eyes to shield them from the explosion in front of her. She ran away from the room, away from that voice, and in her haste didn't even notice the ponies rushing in on the other side of the glass wall.
She ran through the corridor, back into the room, and back through the portal, Twilight running behind her.
And when she emerged, just for a second, she saw Stella again, smiling in front of her. Then the alicorn disappeared from view once more.