A cacophony of colours and shapes assaulted her. They were unfamiliar, but she felt she ought to know them, bringing pain and anger with them.
Grey climbed high, surrounding her in its various shades. Lighter at the sides, darker underneath her. It was dreadful and dreary, achingly familiar yet easy to hate, hate, hate.
She hated it. She hated it so much; so boring and messy.
Pastel blue, deep purple, and shades of orange and red stood somewhere in the grey sea. They were squat shapes, roughly square, then surrounded by a barrage of rounded edges and straight lines in even more shades and patterns. Like the space, they ought to mean something, and she needed to figure out what.
Something smashed against her cold, hard bed, and she whipped her head around to a trembling lavender shape. It was close enough that she made out white circles and more of that rich colour within them. Eyes that she undoubtedly recognised, having been subject to them time and again on a similar bed elsewhere.
More of that anger, a thirst for... for revenge? Payback? But also some sense of affection.
She pounced on the shape, and her head exploded into a whistling light show. She jerked herself to the side, and the body with her, while the greys turned brown, and the formless distance came into stark focus as lines of colourful rectangles split the brown up.
She'd landed on her back, the lavender shape tossed in another direction. She knew it was there; it was a matter of turning her head and spotting it. It was there. It belonged in this place, where she could find it if ever she lost it.
She kicked out a leg and a metal plate from her back, pushing her into a roll and onto her hooves. Once up, it didn't take a second to see the mare staring at her, eyes wide.
The mare made a noise, some sound that came from its mouth. Sp-spaie...?
"Spike?"
She tilted her head, then looked herself up and down, examining her hooves and back. Her black carapace looked filthy, covered in brown and grey, and each of her plates and limbs was a slightly different shade, though they were all close to black, giving her the impression of charred bones.
"I have no spikes," she said, facing the mare again.
The mare. Straight, dark blue mane, a stripe or pink and purple. Eyes that bore down on her in concentration and thought, tugging at small pieces of her--tugging at large pieces of her. Lifting her, chasing her.
"You didn't have any before, either. It's your name. I'm certain you're Spike." Twilight swallowed, her stature small from her high vantage. "What did she do?"
The name settled in her mind easily. Plenty of voices had said it, and the mare responded most of the time.
"Why do I know you?" Her voice was deep, buzzing, reverberating in her throat and chest, and even making her legs vibrate. It was a good feeling. Not tingly as she thought it would be. Powerful.
"I made you," Twilight answered. "Only... not like this. She's done something to you."
Twilight glanced around at their surroundings for a moment. Surrounding them were grainy walls and brown shelves, books of all colours lining them, machines between them all. There were different noises outside, more voices, more chattering and hoofsteps, muffled by the walls. Dozens of bodies beyond. Dozens of...
What was any of it?
It was a stew in the air, simultaneously light and heavy. A muffled laugh made it lighter and a shout darker.
Putting a hoof to her face, she shut her eyes. All her attention focused on the pressure on the top plate of her face. While the sights around her were muted and shut out, the sounds and feelings from outside grew louder, as if amplified by her lack of vision.
Twilight walked around her. Tracking her procession was simple, between the sound of her hooves and heartbeat and the similar energy she exuded, albeit stronger in proximity. "Remarkable work. You're already standing and have a grasp of language. I haven't a clue why she made the other modifications, but maybe that works to my advantage--"
"Stop." She whirled around on Twilight, her larger stature enabling her to tower over the smaller mare. "Stop talking, or speak plainly."
The buzz in her voice grew deeper, louder. She intended to intimidate, but Twilight merely looked surprised before she set her jaw. Twilight's horn fizzled a brief pink aura surrounding it until it flickered out. Simultaneously, something tugged at her mind. A command. An order. 'Heel'.
She ignored it and bared her teeth at Twilight. "Was that you?" she asked, a note of amusement in her voice. When Twilight blanched, her confident focus melting away to a frightened frown, she chuckled at the mage. "Cute. Don't try it again."
"What--? How is she doing this?" Twilight backpedalled from her, her hoofs sliding across the floor. "She can barely teleport herself, and my signature can't be overwritten--"
She stamped a hoof on the ground, and Twilight's eyes snapped back up to her. Something seemed to dawn in Twilight's mind at that moment, and the hairs on her back raised, fluffing her out.
"Unless she's not controlling you."
She scoffed at Twilight. "No one is controlling me, sweetling, least of all you."
Turning, Twilight proceeded to pace around once more. "No, no. That can't be right. Golems cannot think for themselves. Even autonomous commands should be limited." It took a few moments to realise that it wasn't a random direction, but rather Twilight was putting herself in front of the door. "You're not an individual. You cannot think for yourself. You're just a sophisticated algorithm that she's put together."
Cackling, Twilight turned to face her again, and her mouth curled into a twisted grin. "She didn't teach you. She couldn't have. She's got some quick-fire programming that she's put into you, and I'm going to find out what it is."
Twilight's horn ignited again. Tools rose around the room. Screwdrivers, saws, hammers.
They wobbled in the air, some swaying, and then Twilight's horn winked out as she collapsed to the floor. Everything she held fell with a clatter, much bouncing onto the floor. Staring at some non-specific point, her eyes rapidly moved from side to side. "What is happening?" she whimpered her voice light and cracking.
From the centre of the room, she glared at Twilight. "You keep saying, 'she.' Who are you talking about?"
When Twilight didn't respond, she walked up to her and nudged her head with a pockmarked hoof beneath her chin. She narrowed her eyes at Twilight's, locking gazes. "Who are you talking about?"
"Sunny something. She modified you, made you much... much bigger."
It was but a fragment, but the fragment that rang familiar. Scant flashes of orange fur and a different table flit past her mind's eye. A stone tower. Others like her, and though smaller and softer than her rugged form, they stood taller than Twilight.
Was that the pony she saw in a scuffle with Twilight before they disappeared to this... library?
"The pony who bloodied your nose?" She chuckled. "Maybe I should speak with her instead of you. So far, she hasn't threatened me or denied my personhood."
"W-wait, you can't!" Twilight reached up, her legs wrapping around a foreleg. "You are mine, not hers. You are supposed to obey me!"
With a hoof on Twilight's face, she pushed her off her leg, like scraping away a clinging insect. With a pathetic flail, Twilight vainly tried reaching for her again, but she put distance between the shaking mare and herself.
Anger. Frustration. There was a sense of grief there, she was sure.
"Ask me nicely."
Thoughts of the first place, the grey room, came back to mind, followed by an urge to stretch. Metal slid across metal, and glancing over her shoulder confirmed that her back had opened, unveiling twin veils of sickly green energy.
Twilight sniffled. "Wh-what?"
"Ask me nicely, and I might stick around with you. You're so pathetic that I feel like pitying you."
More anger, more confusion. She grinned, a segmented metal tongue sliding over her jaw with a series of clicks. The emotions were delicious.
"Please," Twilight begged. "Please stay. We'll work together."
The veils buzzed, vibrating the air around her and lifting her off the ground. Loose papers flew, open books rifling through pages. "I'll think about it," she said. "Tata, sweetling."
The last thing she saw of Twilight was her jaw-dropping, followed by increasingly familiar disorientation. She latched onto some string of reality and rode it along, tiny flashes of the real world flicking by her eyes. Now that she was able to make sense of more of it, she recognised the houses and fields, the forest between them.
She came out above a circular tower, careening head over hoof through the air before her wings steadied her. It didn't take long before she spotted a pair of ponies standing atop a roof, their attention glued to a hatch, as their golden armour twinkled in the sunlight.
A shout sounded from beneath, and she spotted a crowd of similarly garbed ponies surrounding a run-down shack attached to the tower's base. One pointed up at her, and more eyes turned skyward, including the two pegasi. They spread their wings and leapt off the battlements, and with only a few beats, they closed in on her, hooves outstretched.
They didn't seem like they ought to hit as hard as they did, but her chassis rang with the collision. Once more, she tumbled over and over in the air, though the arc was considerably more chaotic as she had latched firmly onto one of her assailants.
The pegasus squirmed in her grip, growling at her. Neither she nor the pegasus had control of their path, and the ground fast approached them. So, she shut her wings and yet again yanked on the wire.
Her back slammed against a wall upon their arrival back in the library. That seemed to harm the pony in her grip more than her, judging by the wheeze and slack fluttering. When she let them go, they fell away, encouraged by a shove that sent them stumbling into one of the many stout machines.
Twilight remained where she was left, gobsmacked.
"Think of a name for me. If you really made me, I can give you that."
Twilight opened her mouth.
"And something other than Spike, if you please."
Again, the wire. Again, the tower. The trip was becoming fairly rote and easy to hop to and fro. That time she came in where she left, wings buzzing like a storm and lifted her to the sky toward the other pegasus.
She aimed to miss that time but extended her legs to either side. A crunch and a total shift in her centre of gravity later, she had the other pegasus in her grip. She tossed that one over into the forest before turning her attention toward the crowd.
Four of them were at the door, another four further out. They hadn't struck her yet, and only one there had the ability to meet her in the air, but if she landed, she reckoned it was only a matter of time. The last pegasus was part of the three by the door and was counting down while a unicorn's horn blazed brighter and brighter.
With a quick glance at the tower, she flew over and landed on the wall beside a tall, narrow slit. Despite gravity pulling at her, she found her wings unnecessary to help her stick.
Her eyes quickly adjusted to the light level inside the tower, and she took a few moments to make sense of it.
Metal tables. An old, wooden desk. Stone stairs that wound up and down. A massive machine like those in Twilight's library.
And the three figures within. One was half a pony, blue and quivering, supported by one with an immense, fluffy mane. Another pony stood by the stairs leading down, standing a head shorter than the first two, holding up a hoof and yelling something she only caught fragments of. Judging by her body language, she assumed the mare was keeping the other two ponies from the stairs.
The pony by the door reached zero. As she turned to look, the unicorn's blast didn't go off. Instead, the door flew off its hinges and smacked the poor sod in the face, and a purple pony with a torn-up uniform chased after it. The door settled on top of the unicorn, their horn stuck in the wood, and the counter-attacking one used the door as a springboard to leap behind the group, turning around as she skidded across the dirt.
Well, if they have a common enemy...
She stretched out her forelegs and dove down, ready to catch a unicorn and an earth pony at the preiphery. One turned their head a little too late, their cheek baring the brunt of her weight and speed as she descended upon them, burying them into the ground.
Attached to them, it was easy enough for her to quickly drag them along the wire, depositing them on top of the first pegasus as they were being tended to by Twilight. Scrambling backwards, Twilight looked left and right before picking up a book and tossing it.
She was gone before the book connected, returned to stand in the shallow dirt craters her targets left.
In the few seconds of her absence, the purple pony had gotten two armoured ones piled on top of her and rolled onto her back. She couldn't do much but flail and kick, and even then, they'd done what they could to keep her from getting leverage beneath them.
It did allow her to examine the purple pony and how she differed from those on top of her, from Twilight and that Sunny pony. She had no fur, and her eyes were bright crystals. There was also the seam around her neck, not just a black mark but one with a texture that occasionally opened up to reveal metal within. She slowly ceased flailing and turned to the black beast, eyes widening.
No words needed to be shared. She barrelled towards them, flying only a few inches off the ground, and smacked into the short pony tower. She tore up, one pony's scruff pinched in her fangs and the other held tight in her legs. A second later, she was in the library yet again. She released both bodies as she suddenly stopped, letting their inertia smash them against the ceiling.
A book smacked her in the face, and she whirled around with a hiss on the pony that threw it. Twilight stood on one of the library's upper levels, reared up on her hind legs. She held a stack of books in one foreleg, the other winding up to throw another tome. She wore a defiant scowl, but her eyebrows didn't carry the anger and fury within her, nor the emotions within.
She halted when two ponies' worth of black metal carapace and framing came to a wooshing halt inches from her.
"Is this what you're resorting to? I figured some creature capable of putting me together would have a better idea of taking me out than throwing books." She jabbed a leg at the growing pile of injuries in the middle of the room. "Do you want to join them?"
Twilight's expression faltered, and the book slipped from her hoof.
"That's what I thought." She smirked. "Got a name yet?"
"...Cosette?" Twilight looked and felt unsure.
Tilting her head, she floated an inch closer still, prompting Twilight to gulp, a lump running down her throat from jaw to collar.
"Too cute sounding," 'Cosette' said. "And too floral."
"What about Crackle?" Even less sure. Was Twilight grasping at straws?
'Crackle' scoffed and shook her head. "One more, then I'm giving up on you."
Another gulp and Twilight's eyes flicked around the room. That meant the name likely wouldn't mean all too much, but that might also be in her favour. It would distance her and Twilight enough that it ought to snuff out any familiarity between them. Twilight would have to build it all up again--or her, if she wanted to exert her will instead.
Then Twilight looked at the book at the top of the stack she held, one with a caterpillar and a butterfly, with some long, soggy-looking creature between them. "Chrysalis," Twilight finally blurted out.
It was a gross name for a gross creature, and Chrysalis loved it.
"I'm glad you think I can be beautiful one day," Chrysalis said. "But I'm quite happy being ugly for now. I'll leave the being cute to you." Chuckling, she punched the books from Twilight's other leg and sent the mare sprawling on the floor. "I'll be back with a few more. Once I'm done, don't expect me back for a while."
Chrysalis zipped off again, skidding in the dirt beside the purple pony. With her head down and jaw clenched, Chrysalis could imagine her hackles raised had she any fur. Two other ponies mirrored her, and all three were ready to rush at one another. Chrysalis couldn't tell who would be the first to charge, as the two ahead exuded fear, and the one beside her gave off no emotion whatsoever.
The one beside her started first, and the other two kicked off with a shout. Chrysalis joined, adding her wings for the same hovering trick and aiming for the one on the left. Despite Chrysalis bringing all her weight and inertia into the strike, trying to knock the wind out of her target and lift them off the ground, all she got was a grunt as the world stopped, like she collided with a solid wall. Except her momentum didn't stop there, as she flipped flank-over-teakettle before crashing face-first into the dirt and sod.
Upside down, she stared at the pony she held onto. Their back hooves were buried in the dirt, not having skid through it. They'd bent back with Chrysalis, certainly, but they'd controlled how the two landed, making sure Chrysalis came out worse.
Curious, Chrysalis rolled onto her side and pulled the pony with her. Though, rather than moving sideways, she rolled on the spot. The red-coated stallion that held her smirked, satisfaction and confidence replacing the fear and hatred that oozed out of him.
Chrysalis snapped the two of them to a point above the melee, the entire clearing looking quite small from the air. His bravado melted away to pure fright as he kicked and bicycled his legs in the air.
"Clever trick," she said, her voice low enough she sounded all the world like a cloud of flies that learned to speak. "Want to see mine?"
The stallion screamed as she drove him down into the dirt, and when he went silent, she deposited him with his comrades in the library.
The second she reappeared by the tower, they were in a two vs two. The yellow-coated pegasus and the facsimile of a mare were in a brawl, him using his flight and agility to wind around her, landing lucky jabs to her chest and head.
The other remaining contender had shaken the door off themselves at some point during the melee, and despite the bloodied nose, his eyes were crystal clear.
Chrysalis met his gaze and winked. He let loose a flurry of green, translucent missiles her way. Dodging them was easy enough, looping around them in a long, winding arc that she used to close the distance.
However, a translucent green bubble shoved her back as she came within grasping distance. She toppled in the air while the unicorn slid in the dirt, retaining his posture. She shook her head and frowned before teleporting around behind the pony.
Another bubble tossed her through one of the shack's windows, taking some of the wall with her and entirely collapsing the bed that softened her fall. Chrysalis kicked and flailed as she tried to stand, her limbs and body tangling up in the sheets and drapes. She tried taking a step forward, but the fabric was wound so tight that she couldn't do more than hop. They even snugly trapped her wing plates, keeping her from flying away.
The mage stepped into the doorway, flanked by a halo of emerald missiles that coalesced into a trio of small blades.
Chrysalis tried reaching for the wire again but was beaten to the punch by a blade striking her in the chest. She shut her eyes as it slid over the metal chassis, and a looseness around her front legs followed. It broke her concentration enough that she couldn't pull herself along that string of reality to safety, leaving her at the mercy of the other two blades as they sliced at her sides and back.
The smugness dissipated to confusion, then fear. When Chrysalis opened her eyes again, she revelled in the opened-mouth expression, the pinpricked eyes.
She then glanced down at herself, at the shorn-away fabric. She had taken damage, but it was slight, just a few gouges and grazes in her outer armour.
"Fascinating." Chrysalis chuckled. "I suppose that didn't go quite as you expected." She concentrated on the blades floating around her, their bright emerald glow turning a shade of sickly green as they whirled on their owner.
They launched forward, and the unicorn closed his eyes tight, whimpering like a foal. None of them connected, however, and instead disappeared into the forest. A few dull thunks sounded where they buried themselves in the trees, and Chrysalis let go of them.
When the unicorn opened his eyes again, Chrysalis pointed with a hoof. "Go fetch."
He whimpered while stumbling over himself as he galloped into the tree line.
Chrysalis tutted. "That's two for two. Are all these horned ones this pathetic?"
Emerging from the shack, Chrysalis looked to where she last saw the other two combatants. Unfortunately for her, the purple pony's head was in the dirt again, only with no weight atop her. The pegasus stood over her body, panting heavily. His helmet had been knocked free, his sweat-soaked blue man stuck to the side of his head, while the rest of his armour was dented and scuffed.
"That's a shame," said Chrysalis. The pegasus snapped his attention to her, his wings flaring out, ready to take off. "All that showing off, and all she manages is one and a half bodies? Pah." Chrysalis mirrored the pegasus, her translucent, energetic wings buzzing loudly. "I'll finish her work, but I don't think you'll be that satis--"
The hoof connected with her face, and she somersaulted through the air before rolling across the dirt. She slid to a stop, her legs pointed to the sky, and she blinked at the passing clouds. "I change my mind," she said, grinning.
Pushing herself forward, she used her wing plates to shove herself up and take off skyward. The pegasus quickly filled the space Chrysalis just left, then rose after her just as fast.
He rapidly gained on her. In seconds, he could grasp a leg or continue onward and punch her in the jaw. Chrysalis could take it, but she'd be off balance and disadvantaged no matter how mild it might be.
Thinking quickly, Chrysalis jumped backwards, like an unseen bungee cord yanked her through the space without colliding with the stallion. He continued for a few moments, slowing as his head whipped around, only to catch sight of Chrysalis the moment she smacked into him.
That ought to nullify his speed but also left them in an uncontrolled tumble in the air. They wrestled in their long arc, carrying them off to some unknown spot in the forest. She kicked, he punched, as limbs wrapped around limbs. Eventually, her fangs bit into the base of a wing and pulled.
A crack, a cry, and they fell through branches and landed in the dirt, tumbling in the underbrush. Chrysalis came to a sudden stop in the exposed roots of a tree, a loud creak matched with the loss of momentum, while the pegasus rolled to a halt yards ahead.
Buzzing her wings again, Chrysalis found herself stuck in the roots, gripping her torso and wing plates tightly. It took a little kicking and twisting before she was free again, but rather than flying up, she fell crumpled in the dirt.
She wasted no time hopping back to her hooves and glanced over her back. A badly dented wing plate trapped one of her wings beneath it, and save for some shuffling and sliding, it was in no position to give her any lift.
Tutting again, she slid her other wing-back. No sense in exposing both of them.
A laugh ahead of Chrysalis caught her attention, and when she turned back to the stallion, he was on his hooves again, albeit a little uneven. Despite the deep gouges, growing bruises, and the fact that he must know he was at a severe disadvantage even with Chrysalis' damage, fear and shame weren't his dominant emotions. Instead, she found... humour, bravery. There was even a little affection.
Chrysalis shuddered. She wasn't sure she wanted any sort of affection from him.
"Stay down, insect," she barked.
"I don't think I will." He laughed again, then winced as he roused his wings. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or horrified that you just bested my squad. At least I proved you're not quite that indestructible."
"And you're very destructible." Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "You've got one chance to leave, or I'm burying you like the worm you are."
Another laugh, and he rolled his shoulders. Another wince, this time with a hiss. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm gonna take you up on that, depending."
Chrysalis snorted. "Depending on what? You're not exactly in the right place to bargain or make threats."
He cleared his throat and held his head high. "Did you hurt Twilight?"
Taking one step forward, Chrysalis growled but stopped before she took another. "No. She's in some library somewhere."
"Made of wood? Like the inside of a tree?"
"Yes."
The pegasus nodded, then turned. "Good. I think I'd have gotten myself killed if you answered differently." He grunted as she began his walk into the underbrush. "Adios. Next time, I'll try harder to kick your ass."
Chrysalis waited until the forest swallowed him, only the disgusting taste of his arrogance and a few loose feathers indicating he was there.
By Chrysalis' count, that ought to be everypony in armour bar one. If they weren't already asleep in the dirt, it would be easy to assume they had the sense to retreat as their presumed leader did.
Rather than teleport back, Chrysalis walked her way to the tower. She and the pegasus hadn't landed far away, and she could spot the battlements poking above the trees.
Things were quiet when she arrived, save for one mare in gold extricating herself from the dirt. With one glance at Chrysalis, she gasped and galloped off into the treeline in the same direction the unicorn did.
"I reckon I made quite a showing." Chrysalis chuckled and made her way to the tower proper, though she stopped when she stepped on something soft and lumpy. Glancing down, the purple pony lay in the dirt, her head separated from the rest of her body.
"Can you gloat somewhere that's not on top of me?" said the head.
Raising an eyebrow, Chrysalis reached down and picked the head up. Part of it was still attached to the body, dragging it along a little until something broke inside, and a chunk of articulated metal slipped out with it. "I did most of your work. I think I'm allowed to gloat."
The head rolled her eyes; though flat as they were, it was more of a rotational tilting.
Chrysalis hiked the head into the air, pointing it toward the shack--or the remains of it, anyway. It had totally collapsed on one side, and the other was well on its way to falling apart. It meant the trio of ponies climbing down the stairs had nowhere to hide, and the most forward of them clambered over the debris. Only she had any feelings coming from her, a cocktail that was hard to parse, though relief was perhaps the strongest emotion. She fixed Chrysalis with bright blue eyes, but it didn't feel like she was trying to intimidate. To study her, maybe?
"I believe this one might need your help, Sunny." Chrysalis tossed the head over, the rest of the bracing and a rounded, glowing, multi-ringed structure coming along with it. Sunny awkwardly caught it, bouncing the head between her hooves while she fell on her butt.
"Don't say it," said the head.
"That was stupid," said Sunny. "But at least your core is intact. We can work with that."
She looked up at Chrysalis, then deeply breathed in and out as she tucked the head under one foreleg. "Is anypony dead?"
Blinking, Chrysalis glanced around. No corpses, but why should it matter? She'd taken care of the problem either way. "Not that I'm aware of," she said after a pause.
"Good. Thank you." Sunny passed on the head to the blue pony behind her, whose look of concern grew into glee as she held it up.
"Alas, poor Aria, she couldn't quite get ahead." The mare giggled while the head growled.
"This wasn't quite how I hoped you'd turn on, but--"
"Turned on?" Chrysalis burst out laughing. "It was certainly exciting, but that's hardly how I'd describe it."
Sunny's face twisted in confusion for a second, then red tinted her cheeks beneath her fur, and she shook her head and raised a waving leg. "No! No, I meant when you activated. When you woke up. I'd have expected you to take some time to orient yourself for me to explain the situation, even if I had to do that while ponies bust our door in."
"Well, we got halfway there," said the head. "Or a quarter. The door was my fault."
Sunny shot a glare over her shoulder, and the head grinned. "Anyway," the mare continued, "at least you got your bearings quickly."
The orange pony behind Sunny stepped forward. "As much as I'd like to stand around and thank our little-big sister, I think we need to start planning on getting out of here. I don't want to have to go through all that stress again."
Sunny nodded. "Yeah. I doubt they'll give up because--"She blinked and looked up to Chrysalis. "What do I call you?"
Chrysalis pointed to herself and tried to flutter her eyes at Sunny. "Chrysalis," she answered.
With another blink, Sunny shared a few looks with the mare beside her, then craned her neck up at Chrysalis again. "I doubt they'll give up because you caught them by surprise. They know what they're dealing with, so they'll return in force."
Sunny glanced over her shoulder. "Sonata, Aria, do you remember where that old castle is?"
The head grinned, and its holder nodded enthusiastically.