//------------------------------// // Where Am I? // Story: Elite // by Flamesinger599 //------------------------------// A/N: Now before I say anything lemme give a shout out to anyone who hasn't read my blogs. You guys are probably all like: "FINALLY he's uploaded something. Now to just- WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!" If you have that mindset, lemme explain. You may have notice the noticeable lack of stuff I've been posting, and that's because whenever I sit down to write JAAT, my inspiration seems to be on the other side of the world. This story is acting like a sort of jump-start, a side project to work on whenever I can't write for JAAT. Hope that clears everything up. And to the first-years, welcome! Hope you don't you think I'm too terrible at this! Also, MAJOR thank-you to munomana for pre-reading this. You're amazing, as usual. Cover art is by komodo26 on deviantART. The first thing upon waking up was the pain. Many people would say that there is nothing useful about pain. It is hindering and unpleasant, one of the bodies not-so-amazing attributes. Nobody likes to feel pain, and he was no exception. In this case though, the pain actually turned out to be quite useful. It told him, in no uncertain terms, which parts of his body were injured. In this case his head and one of his wings. He shifted, his misshapen hooves trying to identify the ground he lay on, and the pain in his wing strengthened. A hiss escaped his lips. A pained wing could only mean one thing: it was broken, and therefore useless until he got the chance to heal it. And he didn't dare use any magic until he found out where he was. Rather than agitate his already-beaten limbs, he attempted to open his eyes. This proved difficult as his eyelids felt like they were attached to bricks. He couldn't remember them ever being this heavy. Heavy eyelids were usually caused by extreme dreariness, but in his case that couldn't be true. Him being tired was rarely due to lack of sleep. After a ridiculous amount of struggling, he managed to force his eyelids into the 'open' position. Pale blues orbs with no pupils or irises peered out, and immediately started relaying information to the brain. It was night. Tall buildings stretched out on either side of him. He was in a city, more specifically an alleyway. He had no idea which city though. Well at least I'm near civilization... Again he tried to get up, and again this proved to be a bad idea. This time his head also decided to make it's presence known, albeit through stabs of burning pain. He groaned and lay back, allowing the pain to reduce itself to a mere headache. Tentatively, he reached up with one hoof. Taking care not to agitate any of his injuries, he felt the back of his head. No wetness. Good. That meant he didn't have to worry about blood loss. Though that might explain why he was so tired. Further exploration revealed something that puzzled him. His head had no cuts. Or bruises. Or gashes, or swellings, or anything else that caused head pain. Physically, his head appeared to perfectly fine. Which must mean that the problem was internal. Lowering his hoof, he instead took stock of his mind. He could think clearly. His mind wasn't dulled due to a concussion, drugs, alcohol, or anything else that caused that sort of thing. He started checking the other parts of his mind, starting with his memories. Cycling through them, he went through his entire life from start to finish. Everything was there. His childhood, teenage years, adult life, and much more recently... … how he had gotten here. … … ... Yes. Yes, he definitely remembered that. He pushed the memory away though. He couldn't afford to dwell on that now. Pulling back from that section of his mind, he turned his back on it and started going through other things. Sense: all working and fully functional. Changing Ability: diminished. He would have to find more love for him to be able to maintain a form for more than a couple of hours. Other than that though, it was fine. Magic Reserves... Completely GONE!?! Wait. No. Not gone. Just very, very, low. A quick scan revealed that he had barely enough magical energy in his systems to perform a simple teleport, which would explain both his headache and his weariness. His body barely had enough energy to run it's basic functions. Of course he felt tired. It was a wonder he was even conscious. He let out a weak groan. Sometimes, such as times like these, it annoyed him that his body required more energy to run at full capacity than ordinary changelings. Of course, magical energy recharged over time. If it didn't, magicians wouldn't even exist. But again, in his case it would be slightly longer than normal. He estimated that it take about a week in his current state to recharge all of his power. Normal bodily functions, however, would return in several hours. Less if he slept. And until then... all he could do was lay there. 157 years ago: “No.” “My queen, please, if I could just-” “No.” “I know the past few didn't go well, but-” “No.” “This could greatly benefit our nation! If we-” “Calsor?” The changeling scientist stopped talking and adjusted his glasses. “Yes, my queen?” Chrysalis sighed and rubbed her forehead. It had been such a peaceful day. The throne room had been quiet. Sunlight shone through several gaps in the walls. After all, just because she was a changeling didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a little sunlight when she wanted too. She had nothing to attend to, and was fully prepared to spend the whole day lounging around and enjoying the nice day. Maybe she would read a book, go for a fly and stretch her wings, or just be lazy and sleep. She was the queen, after all. It was her right to be lazy when she wanted to. And then he had showed up. Chrysalis studied the scientist before her. He was thin, like most changelings who spent their life indoors, and his natural armor plating reflected that. It was clear that it had evolved on a host who wasn't really a fighter, and was more flexible then it was thick. Of course he preferred it that way. Most changelings did. After all, who liked being in a suit of heavy armor that you could never get off? Another strange thing about him was his glasses. Imported from the griffons, he wore them about wherever he went and refused to take them off for anybody, including the queen (of course, he was much more polite when telling the queen that). He didn't really need them, he just loved the way they felt on his face and how they made him look 'intelligent'. Many people, changelings and other, had tried to convince him otherwise of this. None had succeeded. So the glasses went unchallenged. “Calsor...” she repeated, lifting her face from her hooves and facing him. “... Contrary to what you and the scientific community believe, I am perfectly aware of the benefits we get if this project succeeds. Why do you think I let you experiment on younglings in the first place? I trusted you and your team to take the necessary precautions to ensure nobody got hurt.” He cringed under her gaze. “It appears my trust was misplaced.” “Please... my queen... we know what we did wrong. It's fixed now. I am certain that this next subject-” “There will be no 'next subject' Calsor. I am canceling the project, and that's final.” She settled back in her throne. “You will just have to come to terms with the fact that Project Elite will never become a reality.” “But it will work this time! I promise you! We have double and triple-checked every aspect of the process. There is absolutely nothing that could go wrong!” Internally, Chrysalis groaned. She knew from past experience that when Calsor got fixed on an idea, he wouldn't let it go, even when it involved such a delicate thing as an infant's life. Her stare turned into a glare. “You have already ruined two, TWO, of my subject's lives with your experiments, Calsor. I will not let you ruin another.” He visibly winced at that part. “Yes... yes I know... and that...” Something in his mind seemed to click, and he suddenly raised his head. “... and that is why I offer my own life if this experiment goes wrong.” Okay, all credit to him. She had NOT been expecting that. She eyed him for a moment. “You're that certain it will work.” “Yes.” His head was straight, his eyes forward. She sensed no untruth in his words. He fully believed what he was saying. That had to count for something, right? She sighed once more. “I'm not going to execute you if this goes wrong, but if it does, you will be charged with the outcome. Three crippled younglings count towards a lot in prison.” He nodded, not saying anything. She looked him over again, before nodding back. “Fine, you have my permission.” The change was instantaneous. Calsor grow a huge grin in the matter of seconds and fist-pumped the air, his serious demeanor completely broken. Chrysalis couldn't but smile as she watched the overjoyed scientist do a little victory dance right in front of her before dashing towards the exit. There was one more thing she had to add though. “One more thing Calsor...” He seemed to freeze in midair before remembering where he was and quickly turning, all business once again. “Yes, my queen?” She suppressed a giggle at the sight of the once-ecstatic face that was now dead serious. “I think I would like to view this one for myself.” wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww With her guards on either side of her, Chrysalis studied the laboratory. It was one of the few places in the hive that had metal in it, along with the armory, and was full of worktables, potions, testing chambers, and other science-y stuff. She would never admit it to anyone, but in truth Chrysalis had no idea what more than half of these things did. Science had never been her strong point. In fact the only reason she was here was so she could help out if anything went wrong, which despite the multiple reassurances, she was sure it would. All the scientist changelings were gathered around a central test chamber, in which rested a young changeling infant. Her heart pinged when she saw it. Come to think of it, if this went wrong, maybe she would kill Calsor. Or at least throw him through a window. The infant appeared happy enough though. It was resting comfortably in small bed, sound asleep. The chamber itself was completely temperature-controlled, and Calsor had assured her that the process, whether it went wrong or not, was completely painless. At most, the baby would feel a small tingle. Calsor himself had positioned himself at the back of the chamber and was waving at her. The experiment was about to begin. The scientists got into position. Five of them stood at regular intervals around the chamber. They each removed some kind of plating from the side of it, revealing five holes big enough to stick a horn through, which is exactly what they did. She remembered something Calsor had told her: the magic in this experiment had to be as focused as possible. Every single little drop of magic that was cast had to find its way to the baby, which was why the experiment was an enclosed one. The rest of the scientist lined up behind the five, ready to provide magical support, which they would have to do at some point according to Calsor. Each and every one of these changelings was trained magicians, and there were about thirty of them in total. Even so, he had estimated that at least seven would faint at some point during the experiment. This was a HUGE influx of power, after all. Chrysalis took a moment to glance at either side of her. There were no other changelings in the room other than the scientists and her. Even her personal guard had been sent out. She had actually been the one to instigate this order, as she definitely didn't want what happened here to become public knowledge, especially if it ended up working. A bright green glow lit the room as each of the five castors activated their magic. Five tiny strands of energy slowly extended from each horn, connecting with the baby, whose response was to just yawn and turn over. It stayed like this for a few minutes. To the casual observer it would seem that very little was actually being accomplished, as the strands of energy never changed. They stayed connected to the oblivious youngling, never becoming thicker or brighter. If Chrysalis herself didn't have a horn, she doubted whether it would seem very exciting, but as it was she could feel the spell's power from twenty feet away where she was standing. It was amazingly complex, with hundreds of different components that each targeted a different part of the body or mind, as well as thousands of mini-incantations to hold the whole thing together. It amazed her that it only took thirty changelings to cast a spell like that. She doubted she herself would be able to handle it on her own. Something that struck her as odd was the fact that none of the scientists were speaking, making hoof-signals, or performing any other kind of communication amongst themselves. Each of them was entirely focused on his or her task, whether it be performing the spell or supplying magical energy to their colleagues. No distractions whatsoever. After five minutes, the first changeling fainted. It didn't scare the queen so much as it startled her. One of the energy-suppliers second in line had simply gone limp and toppled over. The one behind him had quickly rolled him aside and moved up, the supply of energy never breaking. They had anticipated this. They knew what to do. The guy would be perfectly fine when he woke up. Perhaps she had underestimated them a little. Over the next ten minutes, four other changelings fell unconscious, second in line upper right, third in line lower left, second in line upper left, and the fifth in line lower right. Each time the process was the same: Quickly roll him or her over and move up, maintaining the energy flow. They could not afford to be distracted at a time like this. A few minutes after the fifth changeling has fainted, the strands started becoming brighter. The baby, who had not reacted this entire time, smacked his lips and turned over again. The magic continued to strengthen, the light in the chamber becoming too bright to look at full-on. The process was almost complete. Two changelings fainted in quick succession, third in line lower right and last in line lower left. They too were rolled over and replaced. The chamber grew brighter. It was now completely filled with green light, offering no view of the infant inside, and Chrysalis became aware of a very distinct humming that filled the entire room. Changelings began fainting left and right. Their numbers quickly dropped from 23 to 18, then to 13, then to 7. Finally, only the five casters were left, Calsor included, and each was pouring with sweat. It was at this point that several things happened very fast. First, the magic flashed, filling the whole room with light. Second, Calsor and the other four all fainted at once. Third, the chamber exploded. Chrysalis's eyes widened and she reacted instantaneously, throwing a shield right before the shockwave reached her. Green energy pulsed around her, enveloping everything in the room. The noise alone was deafening, the sound of an absolute TON of energy all being released at once. She was sure everyone within a couple of miles felt that blast. Luckily, it only lasted for a few seconds. As the energy escaped the enclosed area, the light died down. As she slowly lowered her shield, her eyes darted about, taking in the damage. Anything made of glass, such as test tubes and the chamber's viewing windows, had been shattered. The metal sides of the chamber itself had been blow apart. The scientists were lucky. They had all been lying on the floor, and so had avoided most of the debris. There were a few scratches here and there and burns all around, but they were all minor and could be easily fixed by any self-respecting healer. Her eyes then turned towards the experiment. There, in the middle of a burned and torn-up chamber, lay the youngling, him and his bed both perfectly unharmed. As she watched him, he yawned. She didn't smile yet. The baby appeared to be fine, but she had to make sure. Only problem was that all the scientists were unconscious. She snorted. Well she could do at least ONE thing to help. Her horn flashed, and a multitude of tiny bolts sped from it to the fallen changelings. Soon the room was full of the groans and grunts of the newly-awoken scientists, as they each sat up and tried to figure out where they were. A small smile graced her lips. She wasn't queen for nothing. She approached the nearest scientist, who just so happened to be a rather-confused Calsor. As he shook his head, she helped by poking it. “My dear Calsor, PLEASE tell me that explosion wasn't part of the plan.” “W-Wha...?” His eyes focused in on her face before beginning to wander about the room. “What are... oh... oh my...” His eyes landed on a certain broken test tube and flashed in recognition. “Is that... NO!” He pushed away from the queen and immediately dived towards it. “Not my glow-in-the-dark grape juice! That had been near the final days of fermentation!” Resisting the urge to murder something small and defenseless (preferably Calsor), Chrysalis calmly followed him. “Calsor.” “Five years worth of research! So many attempts and fails!” “Calsor.” “My lifelong dream, an entire lifetime of ambitions down the drain, a-” “CALSOR!!!” This outburst managed to gain his attention, and upon seeing the look on his queens face Calsor decided to forget about his glow-in-the-dark grape juice. “Yes, my queen?” Not trusting herself to day anything quite yet, she simply pointed towards the torn-up chamber. He looked at it for a few seconds, his eyes slowly growing bigger and bigger. He slowly walked over to the infant, his eyes fixed on it. When he reached it, he just stood there, gazing at it in a kind of trance. The baby yawned again, and a smile spread across the scientist's face. He slowly reached up a hoof, and traced the air around the sleeping infant. “... Perfect...” He muttered. Then his trance was gone. “Forlock! Grem! I need a scan, and I need it NOW!” Two of the other scientists who had been surveying the damage quickly rushed over. Lowering their horns, they shot a kind of mist over the infant. The mist didn't appear to be anything special, but immediately the changeling's eyes began to move about very quickly, as if reading invisible text in the air at about 75 miles an hour. “Heartrate is okay... muscle dexterity is normal...” the one called Grem muttered. “... Breathing is fully functional... mind seems to be completely clear, normal for a sleeping baby... magic capacity is way over the top for a kid his age... no other negative side effects detected.” His eyes stopped vibrating and he gave his head a little shake before beaming at Calsor. “I think... I think it worked.” Calsor was dead silent for approximately twenty seconds before voicing his happiness. “IT WORKED!!! IT WORKED!!! YA' HEAR THAT EVERYONE!?! IT FINALLY WORKED!!!” He bounced up and down with a huge grin on his face, doing another little victory dance very similar to the one he did in his queen's throne room not that long ago. His happiness spread to the other scientists, who despite their cuts and burns started to yell and shout and dance. Chrysalis, though, had noticed something. She took a better look at the youngling. All the shouting and loud noises had woken it up, and it was now blinking confusedly about. It yawned again, and this time she saw his fangs. They were tiny, an average size for a baby changeling. In fact, everything about the baby was average. If you put this guy into a group with five other babies and mixed them up, you probably wouldn't be able to find him again. “Calsor?” She waved a hoof in front of the baby's face. It's eyes followed the movement. “Could you come over here for a moment?” Despite the chaos being waged not five feet away, Calsor still managed to hear her. Breaking away from the wealth of hugs and handshakes, he joined her next to the mostly destroyed test site. “Yes, my queen?” Turning towards the infant, he couldn't help but release a tiny 'squee'. “Look at him. Isn't he the most amazing thing you've ever seen?!” “Weeeeell...” No. Not really. “I'll admit that he appears very healthy considering the amount of magic you and your team poured into him, but don't you think he looks... maybe a little... too...” She searched her mind for the correct words. “... normal?” He blinked. When he realized what Chrysalis meant, he just grinned even wider. “But that's the beauty of it all! He has all the physical aspects of a normal changeling. He'll be able to blend in with anyone. But on the inside is what really counts!” He started circling the chamber, keeping his eyes on the infant. “We've... upgraded him, I guess you could say. Increased muscular strength, increased coordination speed, increased brain capacity, and increased magical potential. When this guy grows up, he'll be stronger, faster, smarter...” Calsor stopped moving. “In essence, he will be an evolved changeling. Capable of feats no ordinary hiveling could even dream of.” Chrysalis kept her eyes on the subject. “... a super soldier...” Calsor's demeanor slightly faltered at those words, but he quickly recovered. “Well... yes. He will undoubtedly excel in that field. But if I may, my queen, I would urge you to look beyond just military purposes. He is capable of so much more-” Chrysalis cut him off with a wave. “If I wasn't so intrigued, I'd be insulted right now. You underestimate me Calsor. And don't worry; I'm not going to turn him into some mindless killing machine. You can be rest assured of that.” He breathed a little sigh of relief at these words. Using her magic, she carefully picked up the baby, who stirred and looked up and her with big pale blue eyes. He didn't cry, or burp, or do any of the gross things that Chrysalis usually associated with babies. He just looked. She smiled. Maybe it was time for a formal announcement. “Attention!” This gained the attention of the scientists, who ceased their celebration and gathered around her. She raised the baby for all to see. “Congratulations to all of you! You have successfully performed an act which will help our hive greatly!” An idea formed in her mind, and she raised the baby up even more. “I hereby name this youngling 'Corlo', the first Elite changeling!” The scientists cheered. They had done it. It had taken time, and frankly WAY too much effort, but they had done it. The time for celebration had returned. “To serve wherever he is needed, nothing more!” Present Day: Wherever he was needed. Nothing more. These words echoed through his mind as he awoke, momentarily forgetting where he was. He shifted, and in doing so reminded himself rather painfully that he had a broken wing. As he gritted his teeth, he realized something that pleased him: he was no longer tired. Magic levels were still low, but enough had returned so that his headache was gone and he could move his uninjured limbs without any difficulty. Taking great care not to aggravate his wing, he slowly stood up. He would need to make a makeshift cast for it until he was able to perform a proper healing spell, as doing one now would just make him bone-tired again. Besides, he needed to find out where he was. And the simplest way to do that was ask the locals. With slow, steady steps, he made his way to the end of the alley. While he was at it, maybe he could find a hospital or something. Broken wings weren't exactly a blast to walk around with. Each step caused a small jolt of pain. Not enough to hinder him, but it sure as hell wasn't fun. Stepping out of the alley, he breathed in the night air. A guess told him it would be dawn in a couple of hours, maybe less. He hated to wake up people while they were sleeping. An all-night diner maybe? Looking around, he saw that he had just entered what appeared to be a town square. He didn't recognize it, which he found strange. He had an exceptionally good memory, so he figured he would at least recognize the style of the houses and from there discern which species it was home to. But the style wasn't familiar to him. Two figures began to emerge from the darkness to his left. They were stumbling about and cursing, the darkness hampering their vision. He himself could see perfectly, but he knew he was special in that regard. Not many other species could see in the dark. He was just about to call out to them before his ears picked up one of the sentences. “... can't see a damn THING in this stuff! Why did you have to turn off the light?!” “My magic had to recharge. Just gimme a sec and I'll turn it back on.” “Good. I can't patrol when I can't see my own hoof in front of my face.” Hoof? A few seconds later, one the figures began to admit a blue glow, revealing the speakers. Two white ponies, one unicorn, one earth pony. And they were both wearing golden armor. Quick as lighting, he darted back into the alley and pressed himself against the wall, much to the displeasure of his wing. His mind raced. He was in a pony city. Not Gryphondale, or Diamopia, or someplace where the locals at least knew about him, A PONY city. This situation had just gotten very bad. A quick peak confirmed how bad it was. He recognized the golden armor as that of the Royal Guard, which meant that he was in one of their main cities. Royal Guards weren't stationed anywhere else. In fact, as far as he knew, they were only in Canterlot or Manehatten. Everywhere else had normal soldiers. Where he was didn't really matter anymore though. He had to get out. And he needed to do it before sunrise. Sprinting silently back down the alley, he fervently wished for his magic. A simple invisibility spell would've solved this whole problem. As it was, he had no magic, no flying, and no shape-shifting. And of course the alley had to be a dead end. The guards didn't know he was there though. That was something. He couldn't go back. He couldn't go forward. The only way he could go without getting noticed and making the whole situation all the more difficult, was up. But how could he do that without wings? Backing away from the wall of the alley, he looked around. The walls were bare, except for what seemed to be a water pipe running up the side. His eyes traveled upward, tracing a path from the pipe, to a windowsill, to another pipe, to an out-standing brick, and finally, to the top of the building. He gritted his teeth. This was going to hurt. Taking a small running start, he leaped and grabbed the end of the pipe. It held his weight. His wing, on the other hand, sobbed in protest. He did his best to ignore it and was not entirely successful. The ascent began. It was slow going, with him having to rest every couple of feet and let his wing stabilize, but it was a hell of a lot better than outrunning the guards. At least this way he got rests and didn't have the whole city alerted to his presence. After about fifteen minutes, he reached the windowsill and started scooting himself along. He thought he had been doing pretty well until he heard an ominous noise. Crack. Without thinking, he jumped to the side and caught the end of the second pipe. This was almost too much for his wing, which felt like it was about split in two. He let out a hiss as he watched the windowsill fall, landing with a audible 'thump'. He froze, his eyes turning towards the alley. A minute passed. No guards. Continuing up the pipe, he repeated the process of going up, then resting. This one took about twenty minutes, and by the time he reached the top he was sweating. His wing had gone numb with pain. Stumbling onto the roof, he sat for a few minutes and panted. His wing settled from a constant white-hot to a slow throb. He took this opportunity to survey the city in front of him. He didn't recognize anything. Not surprising, it wasn't every day that he visited an anti-changeling community. Something blurred at the edge of his vision, and he turned his head to look at it. What he saw put him in a bad mood. Towers. White, golden, spiraling, pointed, towers. And a huge mountain. He groaned. He recognized that. He had hoped that he had been sent to Manehatten, but no. He knew exactly where he was. Canterlot. That damned queen had teleported him to Canterlot. -End of Chapter 1- A/N: Soooooooooo... would'ya think? Not what I usually write, but it's not too bad, right? Right? ... right?